The faux political fight in Washington is mostly focused on if we can afford enacting legislation that will be broadly helpful to the unwashed masses and not more tightly beneficial to the wealthy and corporate.
Do we have the money to do this? The pared-down progressive proposal landed at 3.5 trillion dollars. This number is half the original number sought by progressives. This reduction in money and progressive aspiration was agreed to by timid progressives who are so cowed by the corporate-run Democratic establishment they pull back their reasonable, decent proposals as a kind of self-censorship deferral to the establishment--read, corporate overlords.
So, do we have the money? I do not have the understanding normal to the deep-dive economics used to justify any position that roughly maintains the status quo supporting the empowerment of the few over the rest of us. Having said that, we know the the GDP of this nation over a ten-year period is about 300 trillion dollars. Hence, the 3.5 trillion number represents little over one percent of that--OMG, 1%.
Further, military expenditures for the US runs 8 trillion over ten years. Think about this: we spend ten times more on our military than China or Russia--ten times! We absolutely do not need a military more than one-fourth its current size (still two and a half times bigger than Russia or China) to defend ourselves. The only invasive forces we need fear are Canadians and Mexicans. A pared-down military would easily crush either of these unlikely and insignificant foes. If the big boys (China or Russia) were to attack, our nuclear submarines, not a big military, would thwart that threat and likely end life on earth as we know it. Coincidentally, this smaller military would accrue 6 trillion dollars every ten years to create clean energy in five or ten years.
Therefore, the answer is hell yes, we have lots and lots of money to help rather than continue suffering for the most of us .And, I have yet to speak to the corporate and wealthy paying their fair share of taxes or any at all. And, we need to investigate the hyper-wealthy dynasty families and bring then back into the family of normal humanity and have them release much of their ill-gotten gains back into those places from which they extracted them. Really serious and grossly excessive amounts of money siphoned out of our economy--trillions.
More narrowly, regarding the passing of legislation helpful to the most of us, I guess you have noticed the two obligatory impediments establishment Dems require in place before fronting legislation meaningfully helpful to most of us--Sinema and Manchin in this instance. Clearly, I believe, the more meaningful legislation was never intended to pass. If it did pass we would 'know' there is really is no valid rationale for so many suffering such economic distress and so few drowning in their billions. Once experienced, fairness, justice and decency would not be readily relinquished so it must not be experienced. Once we 'got it' that, if shared, abundance can be experienced as a normalcy of our existence, then our rulers, our controllers, would have a problem on their hands
Not to worry; this is the why of so many lobbyists per politician. Trust me, it is not just Manchin and Sinema who are toadies of corporate interests. Our political system is fully owned and rigged--other Manchins and Sinemas are available to be tapped.
However, in this cycle, strangely, there are so many progressive souls in the House of Representatives who actually act and speak with the same voice committed to us all they are a pain to Pelosi and Schumer and, and, and. Still a minor annoyance. At the end of the day the few will prevail and we will have to see what 'we' got out of this--like looking in a box of cracker jacks-don't expect much.
Don Scotten
scotten6@gmail.com
