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You asked the wrong question, Mr. Todd. It's okay, though. It's not your fault. You're clueless, living in the same protected bubble as your colleagues and most of the people you "interview."
The question should have been:
"Mr. President, there have been many calls for the American people to sacrifice in times of national need and crisis. We've seen the sacrifices of our brave men and women serving their country in Iraq and Afghanistan and we know what their sacrifices are. Not only in terms of their physical lives and bodies but their emotional trauma and that of the families they've left behind. We know that many Americans have lost their jobs, and while this may not technically be a "sacrifice" on their parts, they certainly are having to alter their lifestyles and give up many things that they would not have given up if they had been able to maintain their income level. We've also seen many families lose their homes, for a variety of reasons. In some cases, they were the victims of predatory lenders who lured them into homes and mortgages they they couldn't afford, but the end result was that they lost everything they owned. In other cases, they lost their jobs and couldn't continue to make otherwise affordable mortgage payments. And in truth there are those who simply went overboard on their use of credit and put themselves into bankruptcy. But there are others who through no fault of their own were broken by outrageous medical bills. And Mr. President, these are the working people, the middle-class people who make up the vast majority of Americans.
"Mr. President, these are the people who have seen their incomes stagnate or even decline over the past 20 to 30 years in terms of real inflation-adjusted buying power. They've watched their pensions and 401k investments evaporate. They've seen the value of their homes rise and then fall. They've watched as the safety net they counted on for two or more generations -- everything from unemployment compensation to OSHA to FDA to Social Security to EPA to public education -- dissolved into a tattered rag that more fell through than were caught.
"Mr. President, these are the people who overwhelmingly voted for you because they believed in your promise of change. They placed in you their hope that their sacrifices would not have been in vain.
"But what they saw, Mr. President, was that in the very first days after your election, before you were even sworn in as their new leader, you immediately chose advisers who seemed to represent an old order, one dedicated not to change at all but to the preservation of a status quo that had been established by the sacrifices of those working people.
"And what they have seen since then, Mr. President, is the formulation and the implementation of policies that seem equally directed not at the promised change but at the maintenance of the old regime. And yes, Mr. President, I use that particular phrase intentionally.
"The fact is, Mr. President, the income disparity in the United State of America in the year 2009 approaches not only that of the Roaring 20s prior to the market crash and the Great Depression, but also that of France in 1789. Some economists have put the wealth distribution in 21st Century America as roughly on a par with some third world dictatorships and failed states.
"And this is why, Mr. President, that the outrage of the AIG bonuses resonated with the American people: It was blatant evidence, thrown in their collective faces, that they don't matter. That only the rich matter. UAW members were threatened until they 'sacrificed' pay and benefits in order for their companies to receive loans to keep them in business, but AIG executives' bonuses were sacrosanct. UAW members had not pushed the auto makers into bankruptcy. UAW members sacrificed even though they had not gambled with trillions of dollars they didn't have. UAW members didn't resist change. They just went to work every day, went home every night, bought the cars that they made and stood in solidarity with their fellow workers. And in 2008 they stood in solidarity with you, Mr. President. They expected you to stand in solidarity with them.
"Instead, Mr. President, you sided with the AIG executives, some of whom are not Americans. In light of your promises not to raise taxes on the middle class, on those families who make $250,000 a year or less, what about those 'Americans' who are living in London, who are receiving multi-million taxpayer dollar bonuses, and who pay little or no tax on that income? Where is their sacrifice, Mr. Obama? Where is the sacrifice by any of the 5%ers, the 1%ers, or the .01%ers? When are you going to call for sacrifice on the part of the wealthy who have acquired so much of the wealth produced by the working people of this country? When, Citizen Obama?"
Ask that one, Chuckie.
Tansy Gold
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