Here are some numbers to consider:
Total US Debt: $26 Trillion
Wealth of top 1%: $42 Trillion
Total Wealth of bottom 50%: $3 Trillion
We could pay the ENTIRE national debt by simply taxing the top 1%, the amount we should have been taxing them to create an economy that made them rich.
Here's what that would look like: Total US Debt: $0
Total Wealth of Top 1%: $16 Trillion
Total Wealth of Bottom 50%: $3 Trillion
And when we are done, the US has NO debt, and the top 1% still have 5x what the bottom 50% has combined. We have plenty of money. It's time for the rich to pay their fair share.
If
these numbers are anywhere near accurate, the present Congressional impasse is just more evidence of the lock the 1% have on our two parties. It is just another silly pissing contest between the unity-challenged Demos and
their monolithic greed and power unified rivals.. The Repubs are entangling a 10 year plan to revamp our pitiful social support structure and one that also engages in the critically necessary infrastructure rebuild to confront the Climate Crisis with the ongoing budget Deficit that they helped create. By refusing to raise the debt limit at this critical juncture is typical of these PR manipulative assholes. And then there is the struggle between the Progressive Demos vs Moderate Demos or more exactly Demos vs the Repubs in their midst, further evidence of the hold the biggies have on all of this.
Today the NY Times In-House conservative
columnist, Bret Stephens, weighed in supporting Senators
Manchin's and Sinema's unconscionable stranglehold on Biden's agenda
(see Bret
Stephens 9/29/21 NY Times column ). Stephens argues for the Demos tossing in the
towel and passing the climate-crisis-ignoring first tier minimalist $1.5B
infrastructure bill only and walking away from the rest. This would be interpreted by the public (who basically support the entire
package) and re-enforced by the media as a resounding defeat for Biden and the Democrats. Game over! In the
over 1700 comments to Stephens' BS-orama, Michael Collins of Benicia CA provided the above numbers.
