Restoration of Faith in Government: In the Gut of Party Ideologies

The party divisions can largely be explained on the subtle emphasis of what we champion as our strongest value. Work hard and reap the rewards, has been our mantra for generations and the definition of what the American Dream and success means to us individually. We wrongly assume that our culture is flush with opportunity when much of this is directly related to where you are born, and the status you were born into. This perception narrows our view when our lack of knowledge, beyond our own sphere of reality, is skewed by our own personal and individual experience.

An important note is to differentiate the ‘New Modern Conservative Party’(NMCP) that has hijacked the Republican Party from what we have historically known as the conservative wing of our political system. The NMCP is the extremist minority now driving the Republican’s platform. Republicans frequently verbalize their disdain for the ‘freeloaders’ or the ‘entitlement-recipients’. Most Republicans support seniors and those in the depths of despair with no other options. Republicans, as a good friend has told me, are not heartless. But the wide net of “welfare” naturally captures all of the above. Democrats are aware of, and frown upon, the same “freeloaders” but tend to look at the broader group and picture as a whole. They do not put on the front burner the “freeloader”. Democrats recognize first those who have fallen on hard times or have been trapped in the cycle of poverty. They are far more willing to invest in solutions to break the cycle of poverty and give greater opportunity to those willing to seize it. They are willing to separate out entitlements for seniors, disabled or the truly needy, rather than throw away the baby with the bath water screaming ‘we must cut government!’.

The term ‘glass ceiling’ was coined late in the 20^th century and in 1964 Affirmative Action was a response to the entrenched inequity in the much touted land of opportunity. It was expected to be a temporary measure to help break the cycle of oppression. Affirmative Action has been controversial and is itself discriminatory in its effort to reconcile racial and gender oppression. Over 50 years later it is grossly naive to believe that discrimination has been cleansed from the fabric of our culture. The current attack on women’s issues and denial of equal pay for equal work is but one indicator. I was taught ‘walk a mile in my shoes’ before making a judgment. I have not lived the life of one who has dealt with the care of an elderly parent,  lost my job with no relief in sight, suffered a loss of my home, had no health insurance, reached the limit of health insurance for a sick child, or have personally felt the pains of discrimination. I can empathize, but it is not what I am living. My life goes on largely unaffected by those whose lives have been dealt a hard blow.

Unfortunately, the attempts to equalize opportunity have left us with the consequences of ethnic divisions and have polarized our country when unqualified participants are given opportunity over more qualified applicants. The integration we sought has at times realized a backfire because we are failing to hit the roots of oppression or address the American psyche of expectation. We can argue whether these laws are fair and just, and wring our hands in turmoil, but there is no justice until we reach the highest level of enlightenment, justice for all.

In our healthcare system, we really don’t have to be the ‘do everything’ society when it does not change the outcome. However, most healthcare providers feel compelled to do just that. If we stopped financially reimbursing poor outcomes, the behavior will change. If Medicaid fraud is punished in a more personal way, with penalties and jail time for all involved, it would go a long way to discourage the inclination to do so. In Massachusetts, alone, fourteen pharmaceutical companies within a five year period defrauded Medicaid of $240 million. If we demanded they pay it back in total restitution rather than slap them on the wrist, admit no wrong doing and pay a 10% fine, perhaps we could alter this successful business model that rewards the top with salary and bonus incentives to rob us blind. Our capacity to reign in government waste and abuse requires us to not to just look down, but also up. Rewarding Wall Street with taxpayer bailouts accomplished only one thing…reward for bad behavior. It is not just the individual. It is corporations. We fail to look up because we perpetuate the delusion that they alone create jobs.  We should be grateful. We can ignore the outrageous salaries and bonuses because they ‘earned’ it. With all our productivity gains, no financial rewards as our median incomes fall, we should just be ‘lucky we have a job’ and understand we made a choice in our career options and somehow deserve not to be rewarded for excellent performance because we did not earn it. Apparently hard work should only be rewarded if you chose the right career or position of power. This concept kills the American standard of work hard and you will be rewarded.   

Everyone holds their own belief system regarding different the entitlement cultures in America. Some look down and frown upon the government employee who has a retirement pension system that does not comes close to their retirement option expectations of financial security. Or the disabled ‘freeloader’ we are certain could work doing something or anything other than ‘us’ paying for him to do nothing. Or those that abuse our system by those who carrying multiple identities to de-fraud us of our taxpayer dollars. Or even those who have inheritances that allow them to buy $300,000 dollar cars and never have to work a day in their lives. It is the majority of Americans that embodies the value system in which we believe we are the ones who work hard for our success. This is amplified when one witnesses the struggles of family or friends who work hard to achieve success and the visible physical and mental wear and tear is evidence of it.

Perhaps we should finger print all those receiving government benefits, including children to prevent abuse of our system or at least create some sort of iron clad identification system. The ACLU may argue that it is discrimination. I would say it seems more like common sense to me. That would eliminate the three social security numbers for one individual or children being claimed by multiple parents. It would also help with Medicare and Medicaid fraud from healthcare providers. I believe this would be opposed not just by the individual, but big companies as well because many are engaging in fraudulent abuse of our taxpayer dollars. Perhaps we could incentivize voluntary sterilization programs or expand access to birth control instead of hampering access in order to temper unwanted pregnancies and the unwanted children that Republicans and Democrats alike believe are problematic to the straining the government systems.

America is the perceived land of endless opportunity. We all send our children on searches for the ‘one in a million’ shot at hitting it big in a professional sport. We sacrifice old standards of all eating dinner together to run from town to town and state to state to embrace the concept of ‘he/she could be the future star of his/her particular sport. The reality is it is one in a million. What do we do with the other 999,999 kids who don’t make it? We champion that one in a million to hold everyone else accountable. The bar is there and we are conveniently lulled into denying that barriers exist. Do we really believe that the town’s school system does not matter? Or that parental involvement is essential and what do we do when the parents are working two jobs, or are disabled or otherwise absent? What do we do then? Create a throw away child and perpetuate what we most despise in our culture? Are we then complicit in creating it?

Our fear of redistribution of wealth is the boogeyman to signify stealing from the rich to give to the freeloaders, but yet no government can exist without it, not even a capitalistic society. It is the measure of redistribution that creates a public school system that generates educated work forces, or develops necessary roads, rail and bridges to deliver goods or a responsive government that does not allow its citizenry to starve. Redistribution does not require an equal share to everyone regardless of one’s efforts, but it is the only means to get to anything that may resemble an equal opportunity. Otherwise, why do we ask about the status of the school system when we are relocating? It is a shared view between Republicans and Democrats to provide the tools to do better or to make a life for yourself. It is not expected to create a lifelong dependence on government. We are a nation with a majority of centrists whether Democrat, Old Republican or Independent. We believe in and value hard work and being rewarded for those efforts whether we are at the bottom or at the top. There is nothing more disenchanting as when your benefits are cut and your CEO gets a large bonus.

We all have our ‘to do lists’. It may be “I have to clean up the leaves”. It may be “I need to find a good contractor to build my million dollar room”. It may be “I need to find food or shelter for my kids”. We all experience life in different ways, but let us not be blinded to the reality that not everyone is sharing the same experience. That working hard is no longer a guarantee of what we believe to be our emblems of success and financial reward and each struggle is defined differently by those whose unique experience is their individual reality.

Redistribution of Tax Liability: A Message from the American Working Class

   Over the last 30 years we have been indoctrinated into believing that redistribution of wealth was a black mark against the American Dream, capitalism and the world of free markets. It caters to the notion that “taxation is a form of punishment for success” and that we tax the wealthy for the sole benefit of ‘freeloaders”. The wealthy are the “job creators” has been bellowed from the highest mountain as if it should alarm us to impending doom. The reality is that there has been a redistribution of tax liability from the wealthiest to the bottom 95% and our revenues have plummeted to unsustainable levels. 
   Americans are the most productive workers in the world. Our productivity has realized a steady rise over the last couple of decades and yet our median income has remained flat and is now on its decline. All of the benefits and profits of our increased productivity have benefitted the top. Apparently we have not “earned” it and they did. We are not in control of the levers that give or deny us a raise even for consistent excellent performance. The business model of ‘pay for performance’ is largely a ruse. Those that have benefitted the most are the ones in control of this distribution of wealth. 
   They are the same people in control of the redistribution of tax liability via our tax policy. Our country’s ‘progressive’ tax code has realized a flattening of the tax structure because of a tax code that most Americans do not have access to. Different laws for the different classes. The tax cuts for the wealthiest on the federal level have resulted in the shifting of tax liability to the states and then on to localities as federal dollars dry up. I can remember Lowell Weicker falsely reassuring us that our new state tax was only a ‘temporary’ measure. That was twenty one years ago. 
   Simple math now escapes our congressmen. If we cannot tax the bulk of American wealth, who will pay for a necessary government? One can easily make the argument that we are on a slippery slope to fascism. Corporate power is palpable in all facets of our government and our law making process. 
   Let me say this out loud. I am a job creator. The 95% are the job creators. We collectively create the demand that generates production of goods and services. Starving us is what is starving our economy. The only mechanism to retrieve our fair share of the productivity advances is to tax the top at an appropriate tax rate. If those in control feel our excellent performance does not warrant financial reward, then we should at least compel them to help adequately fund our government and lessen our burden of taxation. When it becomes acceptable that an hourly wage worker should pay a higher effective tax rate than a multi-millionaire, something has gone wrong with the system.
   America needs to redirect the conversation from the misappropriated and inaccurate catch phrase of redistribution of wealth and focus our attention to the distribution of wealth and redistribution of tax liability. These are the true killers of the American Dream.