New Year new beginnings. Happy New Year to all.
Never in my almost 80 years have I felt such foreboding about the future of my life and my country. Today Republicans tried to gut the Ethics Panel, but they got caught and backed off. But only until they get a chance to do it on the QT.
I fear for my Social Security and Medicare. The US is the only industrialized nation on the planet that does not provide comprehensive medical care for all its citizens. Mitch McConnell wants to cut Social Security and Medicare because they are contributing to the national debt. I guess Mitch flunked Civics in school or he would know that those two programs are funded from a separate account and do not contribute to the debt.
The Defense Department lost $6.5 trillion. That is trillion with a T. I can’t even imagine what a trillion dollars is. If that money were put to good use like rebuilding infrastructure and social welfare programs it would be an enormous stimulus to the economy.
When Eisenhower was president the top income tax on the very wealthy was 91%. Today it is 15% if the billionaires can’t figure out how to avoid paying it altogether, like our president-elect.
The Conservatives call Social Security an “entitlement.” I worked from the time I was 14 until I was 70, sometimes two or three jobs at a time. I paid SS tax on all those jobs all those years. That is my money not some government largess.
OK, I got that off my chest. I don’t feel any better, but it is out there.