By John Kubinski
The sequester has gone into effect. Both political parties have spent the last few weeks pointing fingers at each other and trying to convince the public that the other is to blame. The public will be hard hit. Many citizens will lose services they rely on. Some services they count on for their very survival. Our seniors, our children and The Middle Class will all lose but there is a winner.
The corporate elite, the bankers, the politicians and the very wealthy will all do fine when the grand bargain is finally reached. The great compromise that is eventually reached will claim to bring an end to the awfulness of the sequester and will be sold to the public as a winning solution to the country’s financial woes. The Democrats will claim victory because social programs will be restored ( but greatly reduced ). In a very similar way one responds to gas price gouging,( when oil companies jack up the price of gasoline from 2 dollars per gallon to 5 dollars per gallon…..then lower it down to 4 dollars per gallon and watch the people celebrate the dropping of gas prices) the people will be pacified.
The Republicans will claim victory because there will be restoration of the funding for “defense”. The military complex will be back in full swing , turning a huge profit for “contractors” and preparing for the next war. As part of the Grand Illusion , some tax loopholes may be closed on the very wealthy. This of course will only lead to new ones. Social Security will of course have to be put on the table. Even though it has absolutely no bearing on the deficit, the government and their rich backers have absolutely no intention of repaying the fund they have been pilfering for years. Wall street will rebound ( even though it will have hardly been effected ) and corporations will continue to rake in record profits. The “job creators” will win big.
The Middle Class will continue to be broken. For all the politician talk about saving and strengthening the workers of this country, all the advantages will continue to go to big business. The worse the economy becomes the more desperate the work force will become. Wages and benefits will decrease because people will believe that they have to take whatever the company offers. Unions will be weakened because the promise of a “right to work” will be dangled in front of workers desperate for a job.
Education, the rebuilding of our infra-structure, bringing jobs back to America will all fall by the wayside as more and more social issues begin to take top priority. This way as the country battles over things like who you can marry, who can vote, how many bullets your uzi can hold and how many immigrants can stay or leave, the power brokers can keep their money and figure out new ways to separate you from yours. The continued war between left and right will rage on. The tea party will continue to drag views so far right that the moderate middle will be viewed as the far left. Liberalism will be crushed even though the Right Wing will say they were victorious.
The truth will continue to be blurred. The premise of compromise will continue to be waved before our eyes even though any compromise only results in a loss for the middle class. Everyone will say that less regulations and paying less “entitlements” will rebuild the strong economy and return America to greatness. The only things those great compromises will result in are an increase in the amount of working poor and another reckless gambling spree by banks that are too big to fail.
The problem of income inequality will continue to grow as the rich get richer, the middle class gets poorer and the poor get left behind. It is time for the middle class workers of this country to WAKE UP. We are being played by the financial elite and the plutocrats that govern this country. We need to stand together. We need to organize and unionize. We need to put petty differences aside and realize what unites us. We need to understand that WE make this country strong. WE create the profits for the corporations and big businesses. WE built this country and WE finance this country. WE the workers, WE the middle class, WE the people are what made this country great and can make it great once again.
The Middle Class Action Project 