What Mitt Romney and Kim Kardashian Have in Common

You all know I'm a fan of Kardashian reality TV, but I understand that some people don't get it.  Why is she famous? they ask me.  I say something about a sex tape, but really we all know she benefited from that elusive and magical Hollywood equation, famous for being famous.  How one achieves that status is difficult to know, and yet stars with no discernible talent at all continue to abound. 

But Hollywood is not the only mythical land (the land of all people beautiful) with such magical powers.  Wall Street (the land of all people wealthy) has some tricks up its sleeve too.  While Hollywood creates people who are famous for being famous, Wall Street manufactures people who are rich for being rich.  Because we've all heard that old saying that you have to have money to make money.  But then what about all of us who aren't already famous, or don't already have money?  Well, we are doomed to be destitute and ugly forever. 

Mitt Romney, and his super-rich peers are rich for being rich.  Let's be clear, I am NOT saying that all rich people came from money or that no rich people worked hard for their money.  But once they had it, the money started doing some of the work for them.  And unlike Hollywood's hocus pocus we know exactly why that is.  It's because the tax code, determined by legislators, favors money made from money rather than money made from work. 

And I don't even need study upon study that shows such a preference doesn't in fact stimulate the economy, entrepreneurship, or job creation to know that that just. isn't. fair.

*Thank you to US Weekly for this fabulous photo since I don't myself have Photoshop

Attacks on Elizabeth Warren, Intellectualism

It doesn't pay to be smart in politics.  We all saw what happened to Al Gore and John Kerry - don't vote for that guy in the ivory tower, vote for this guy in a cowboy hat who chops wood, he's way more like you.  Ultimately it's insulting to the voter; it says "these people are so smart, they're so different from you," and even more insulting in the assumption that you're too dumb even to realize you're being insulted. 

Here, they make sure to label her "Professor" Elizabeth Warren so you'll know she's a really hoity-toity know it all.  And we all know we need fewer people like that running the country.  I mean, come on, we don't need intellectual theories here, except the intellecutal theory of "trickle down economics" (which is fine because if it has never been proven or had any evidence to back it up then it doesn't count as intellectual).   

Instead we need solutions people.  Solutions!  But not solutions like using a .7% tax surcharge on million dollar incomes to put people to work on infrastructure projects.  No, that's a "radical redistribution of wealth" unlike the deregulation of markets and a shifting tax policy that has led to a 400% growth in the income of the top .1%.  If you want to talk about crime and the radical redistribution of wealth look at Wall Street, not those protesting it. 

Frankly, I'm surprised this ad didn't end with a photoshopped picture of Warren in a Subcomandante Marcos mask.  It just doesn't pay to be smart, and it definitely doesn't pay to be nuanced.  Most people forget that the average Tea Party member is better educated than the average American.  And you know how I know they're so smart?  Becuase they're smart enought to play dumb.

Congressional Republicans Hate Jobs, Love Millionaires

Republicans have been shouting "class warfare" for some time now and to be honest, I was mostly wishing it would be true.  I wish we would rise up and say, THIS JUST ISN'T FAIR.  Inequality in the United States has gotten out of control and the decisions we make about taxes, banks, and debt are not just finanical decisions, but also moral ones. 

A worker with a college education is less likely to have employer health insurance today than a worker with a high school education was in 1979.  Between 1979 and 2005 the top .1% of Americans saw their incomes grow 400%.

And even though we now have Occupy Wall Street, the truth is that class warfare isn't coming from below - it's coming from above.  It's coming from millionaires and billionaires and their Republican allies in Congress who are fighting tooth and nail to hold on to their bags and bags of money.  And don't for a second believe they're going to back down anytime soon. 

Every single Republican candidate for President said they would have rejected a debt deal that included $10 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases.  Not a single Republican was willing to break a filibuster on an infrastructure spending bill that would be paid in full by a .7% tax surcharge on incomes over $1,000,000. 

The result?  A reduced credit rating.  No new roads.  No new jobs.  Gobs and gobs of money for the top 1%. 

You want to talk about partisanship in government?  Democrats are tripping over themselves to compromise away all the things their base cares about, while Republicans will die fighting a one cent tax increase.  I want to pull my hair out just thinking about it. 

And the worst part is that after killing every job creation idea that comes across the table, Republicans will cry about how Obama hasn't fixed the economy come election time.  I am here to tell you do not believe the lies.

The Job Hunt Pt. VI: The End

This will be the last entry in the "job hunt" series.  Today I got two job offers.  I accepted a job as a Development Officer at the National Network of Abortion Funds.  I am very happy.  It is a nice bump in salary and responsibility.  I finally feel like Jake and I are both moving forward, rather than me just tagging along.  I was worried that I would have to settle and take a step back or stagnate and now that's not the case.  I'm excited and nervous, as anyone probably is before a new job.  But it puts my move to Boston in a whole new light.  I feel like I can finally be excited without worry, without holding back.  It is a great feeling. 

And I am feeling very lucky.  Today the stock market took its biggest dip since 2008 when the bottom fell out before graduation making my first job hunt so much more difficult.  So many of our fellow recent graduates are unemployed or underemployed.  We were taught that if we go to school and work hard everything would be alright, and for a lot of us, this economy is a real slap in the face. 

It really makes me sad.  The Tea Party made increasing the debt ceiling, something the United States had done 74 times since the creation of the ceiling (including many times under Reagan and Bush), into a national charade.  As a result, for the first time in history our debt rating has been downgraded and confidence in the American economy has been shaken.  I remember learning in my Economics class in college that people and countries will always lend to the United States because we always pay our debts.  Now just a few years later, that was put in doubt. 

People all over the country are struggling to find employment and working class and middle class Americans are being asked to bear the brunt of a downturn caused by financial markets and greed run amok.   I will never understand how it is okay to balance the budget by laying off government workers and slashing services that the most vulnerable rely on (usually costing us more in real dollars and economic stability in the long run) but it is blasphemous to ask millionaires and billionaires to pay any more in taxes.  It the general scheme of fairness it seems more moral to ask someone to give up their yacht before we ask someone to give up their kids' braces. 

I will continue to vote and work with my conscience, to support equality, opportunity, and justice.  Today I am grateful.  It is not really the end; it is the beginning.