President Clinton and Congresswoman Giffords

Tucson, Arizona. Equity has many meanings depending on context. As the middle name of this blog, its semantics imply a sense of fairness, a level playing field where life can live. Equity is NOT equality. We are not born equal. My intellect far exceeds that of our president. I’m not bragging. The average aardvark has an intellect exceeding that of our president. The blog first explores equity at The Class with No Cake. At that post I referred to Robert Reich, and his wisdom persists.

Prior to 1980, growth in worker productivity translated to growth in compensation. At that time, a CEO typically made about 45 times the average wage of his workers. Since 1980, our government started serving corporations, not citizens. As worker productivity climbed, CEO’s and top executives kept all of the gains for themselves. Executive compensation spiraled while the median wage for the average worker stagnated. CEO's now make almost 500 times what their workers average. The rich got obscenely rich, and they bought the Republican Party (shameless corporate whores) and maybe (God help us) the Democratic Party as well. Time will tell.

Our economy is bifurcating into good jobs and terrible jobs with no middle ground. The abundance of lousy positions can’t be filled (attracting whom to Russell Pearce’s chagrin?) while the high paying jobs are increasingly rare and difficult to obtain. We have unemployed people with doctorates and master’s degrees while every restaurant, retail store, car wash, and janitorial service has slave wage positions they cannot fill. Over one in four adults struggle to live in terrible positions with no health insurance, no pension, no sick leave, no flexibility, no opportunity for training or advancement. I encourage interested readers to consider The Mobility Agenda’s 24 page report with deeper material.

The Republican Party has abandoned 99% of the population to transfer wealth from taxpaying citizens to the robber barons of war (Halliburton, Blackwater), oil (ExxonMobil, Hunt, Shell), pharmaceuticals (Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline), insurance (Pacificare, Cigna, Kaiser), and agriculture (ADM, Tyson, Hormel).

The next President of the United States has figured this out, and she has built a strong base with roots penetrating deep into reality. Against this reality, the rhetoric on her negatives and divisiveness will shatter like brittle, overused props on a parched western movie set. Who is Hillary dividing? Those who know the descent from Dillards to Target to Walmart to used goods Thrift shops and the food bank?

I once had the privilege of helping families walk the other direction. A beaming father introduced me to his son, and shared that the son was wearing clothes bought new (not used) for the first time because of my math class. I cried that night. I promise the reader that I am real blood, bone, balls, success, failure, and that "life is messy." You bet I’ve cried, and tears have a taste. Sweet tears, bitter tears, profoundly moved tears, sad tears, and those hot razor blade scalding tears that carve acidic red streaks down cheeks under swollen, bloodshot eyes.

My bike ride to school each day takes me through the Tucson no Republican understands. A mile to my south lies more of the same. Take a walk a few blocks north of Columbus and 22nd. While thinking about the economic holocaust the country has become, I got a flyer from Congresswoman Giffords yesterday. My Sunday post was to be about Hillary. Surf the news sites and it's there. Let’s talk about Giffords flyer, which hits the nail on the head.

In 2001 and 2003 our country gave away hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to those making over $330,000 a year. It’s time we had a tax policy that helps middle class families, small businesses, and our men and women in combat. Smart tax policy also looks to the future by encouraging investment in renewable energy.
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords

The graph speaks directly to my rage and comes straight from her flyer. Bills she has created, introduced, sponsored, or supports include:

HR 2592 The Safe and Effective Drug Development Act (Her first bill signed into law)
HR 743 Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (In Committee)
HR 3388 College Affordability Tax Relief Act (In Committee)
HR 3648 Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act (Passed 386-27)
HR 3808 Combat Troops Tax Relief Act (In Committee – she introduced)
HR 976 Small Business Tax Relief Act (Passed 360 - 45)
HR 3807 Renewable Energy Assistance Act (In Committee – she introduced)

Some other bills are also mentioned.

What Hillary Clinton and Gabrielle Giffords understand that George Bush couldn’t see to save his life is that people stop caring about much else when they can’t pay their bills. King George has never paid a bill in his life. I don’t know if the man could enter a store and know how to buy something.

In 2008, Cheney's bitches (incumbent Republicans) defending their seats face tough elections. The instant they talk about helping the middle class, fiscal responsibility, intelligent foreign policy, health care, the war, education, the environment, global warming, they look like hypocritical idiots. The smart will resign. Bush’s rating is in the toilet, and the horrible rating of Congress reflects disgust with its inability to stop the war.

2008, like 1992, will revolve around the economy, except 2008 will have the added kick of a quagmire created with malicious deception and a boomer population starting to retire with the realization that their pensions will be stolen by the companies they served and their social security hangs by a thread corporate whores wouldn’t think twice about cutting.