Congress and Its Class War Structural Press On The Poor

[ancianita]

It's about the deep wrong of corporate captured government's "guidelines" on poverty assistance.

AOC's response is heartfelt but inadequate. She calls this woman's testimony a "story."

It's not. It's reality. For over 40 million.

[pansypoo53219]

1. GOVT poverty rate is a joke. minimum wage is a joke. both need to be indexed.

as if inflation does not exist. AND welfare is a trap to KEEP the poor poor.

[lonely bird]

5. Well, yes...and no

Capitalism, indeed virtually any financialized political economy, by nature results in two-tiered societies. There are the wealthy and there are everyone else. What made capitalism acceptable after the Great Depression was the locked in social mobility. Unfortunately the entire post-war structure rested on Bretton Woods which was driven to destruction by the Eurobonds and the instability of the gold peg.

Either way, it is irrelevant. Two-tier is inevitable unless strongly regulated political economies are put in place. Expect strong resistance from wealth. Wealth is now stateless. Capital moves freely ignoring borders and getting regulations changed as needed to keep free flow while avoiding taxes.

[yuiyoshida]

2. Republicans don't care..

They suggested the Democrats would have death panels on who lives and who dies.. they have already made their choice. Kill off the poor and middle class...so REPUBLICANS can LIVE LIFE BETTER...on the backs of the down trodden.

The VERY same Republicans who crave a dictator in office they can kowtow to, so they can receive more favors. Fuck them!

[Hulk]

3. I gross $43K a year.....

...and we couldn't make it in the Pacific Northwest any longer. Every dime I have each month went out the window to afford the rent, the utilities, a car and insurance. Sure, we could cut cable tv...which we did. Sure, we could grow a lot of our own food, which we did. But by the time you add in food, prescriptions and paying taxes to Uncle Sam, it just comes out to dust in the coin purse. Each year the rent goes up another $100 a month, and so do the groceries and many other expenses.

This woman obviously has it worse....much worse. I can't imagine living a life like that, with no hope for tomorrow...in fact fear that things are going to get even worse. I was stunned at how every time I went grocery shopping I would step back when I saw another 30 cent price increase here, or a dollar there. My social security check certainly hasn't grown that fast.

These are damned tough times. I've got it good. $43K before taxes is living the high life compared to this woman and her neighbors. This country has lost it's soul. The federal government throws around those phrases of "pulling yourself up by the bootstraps" and "a great economy and low unemployment", but that's all bull shit. As this woman said, she's pulled herself up by the bootstraps so many times, they've broken off. I believe her. Yet we give HUGE tax breaks to the wealthy, spend 60% of the federal budget on bombs and missiles, we let huge corporations pay ZERO in taxes, and this is the country we live in today. I think we need a damn good dose of "socialism". I think we need a damn good tax raise on the high earners and the wealthy. They have been allowed to skate past the dying society with a smile on their faces and kick sand in the face of the rest of what was once "the American dream". It's dead. Died a long time ago for half the country, and dying for millions more the further down this road we go.

It's time for a change. It's time for a country that cares for it's citizens. It's time for a society that respects each other and lends a hand to get us ALL on the rope to climb out of this poverty and struggle to keep our own self respect.

I'm ashamed of what has happened to my country. I fought and bled for this country, believing it was special. I'm beginning to wonder.

[ancianita]

4. It's time for a woman nominee to scare the crap out of IF45, lobbyists, bankers and Wall St.

You say:

Yet we give HUGE tax breaks to the wealthy, spend 60% of the federal budget on bombs and missiles, we let huge corporations pay ZERO in taxes, and this is the country we live in today. I think we need a damn good dose of "socialism". I think we need a damn good tax raise on the high earners and the wealthy. They have been allowed to skate past the dying society with a smile on their faces and kick sand in the face of the rest of what was once "the American dream". It's dead. Died a long time ago for half the country, and dying for millions more the further down this road we go.

I suggest you take a good, long look at Elizabeth Warren. Her position aligns with yours.

In Virginia, she said: “A video just came out yesterday in which Michael Bloomberg is saying, in effect, that the 2008 financial crash was caused because the banks weren’t permitted to discriminate against black and brown people ... That crisis would not have been averted if the banks had been able to be bigger racists. And anyone who thinks that should not be the leader of our party.”

Warren wants to restructure how the economy works. She's become known in the Democratic field for her long list of policy plans, including
-- creating a wealth tax,
-- canceling student loan debt for most borrowers and
-- breaking up big technology companies.

She's a bankruptcy expert, constitutional expert, and a Harvard professor. Kamala Harris and Katie Porter are her former students.

She is also a proponent of “Medicare for all,” and rolled out proposals to transition to and pay for such a system.

She has stood out from many of her opponents by swearing off fund-raisers with wealthy donors, and she spends hours taking pictures with voters who wait in a “selfie line” at the end of her town halls.

[jaxexpat]

6. And she is absolutely electable!!!