Response: To Michael Medved's USA Today Opinion Piece dated 7/25/2011
Mr Medved's take on the current political and economic situation is fanciful at best. The major factors contributing to our current economic quagmire were 9/11, which precipitated 2 unfunded wars; 2 economic bubbles, TARP funds meant to shore up banks and increase lending that never materialized, special interest groups, tax cuts for the wealthy and a deep recession. As is all too typical, the Right is loath to acknowledge these trifles. Instead, the fallback position is to blame all our woes on the poor. It is acknowledged that there is waste, corruption, inefficiencies and duplication in all our social agencies. These are serious threats to our fiscal well being that must be addressed. But their collective cost pale in comparison to the crisis' of the last decade. Within that same timeframe, massive wealth has been created. Wealth that even the Robber Barons of the previous century could never have imagined. One reads of 40,000 or 50,000 households controlling 30% or more of the nations wealth. Hedge Fund managers making hundreds of millions or even billions, yet paying taxes at rates lower than their most menial employees. Mr. Medved states that the "...underclass needs to learn middle-class habits, and leave behind the dysfunctional values that characterize persistent pockets of poverty."
From his position, it is easy and facile to look with disdain upon the struggles of those not so blessed. In the minds of the Right, the poor are often viewed as shiftless and lazy. The reality is more like waiting for the bus at 5:30 AM and multiple jobs to keep their families above water. Welfare Queens are a fantasy from another era and have little basis in reality. There will always be those who try to game the system. But they are the exception rather than the rule. Given the choice between welfare and a job, most working folk would gladly chose the dignity and pride of providing for their family and contributing to society, rather than the humiliation of welfare and the dole. Within this context, Democrats that state that those who benefited the most financially in the last 10 years should pay a modest tax increase, are accused of inciting class warfare. The average hard working middle class family could hardly imagine what their lives would be like if they were burdened with the trauma of having to pay taxes on a $250,000 income. If they were magically vaulted into this rarified income bracket and the Bush tax cuts were allowed to expire, how would they view the addition $100 a week they would have to pay on their $5,000 a week incomes? Most surveys indicate that the more affluent members of our society would willingly give some back to the country that gave them so much. But the Republican Congress is held captive to the Tea Party that swept so many of them into office and to mean spirited and worthless pledges made to agents of the rich and powerful. The wealthy do not need more help.
Ron Freeland