Ketner on the Economy and Class Warfare

Last Saturday night the Dorchester County Democrats had their . The keynote speaker was Linda Ketner, a strong Charleston Community Activist who ran a gallant race against incumbent Henry Brown in 2008 for the 1^st Congressional District. 

Everybody in Summerville and Dorchester County needs to hear what this very smart and insightful woman had to say. I asked Linda if I could reprint parts of her speech. You will notice that she deals in facts, not ideologue rhetoric. You may want to change how you vote in the future after reading this. Enjoy!

Linda Ketner:

The Conservatives have been making the circuit shouting “Obama is trying to start a Class War.”

And that’s a hoot. THEY’VE been waging a class war since Bush … AND they’ve been winning! 

It’s a war alright. A war against greed, corruption and plutocracy (which is a fancy word for rule by the wealthy).

So!  Money, greed and corruption … a good title for a reality show starring Congress.

Most likely, you grew up as I did: working people earned a living wage with which they could educate their children in very good public schools, take a vacation and with some sacrifice - send their kids to college. We had enough money for good health care and many of us had a pension plan for retirement.

That America is fading into the rearview mirror. Today:

- With the exception of right before the Great Depression … the gap between rich and poor has never in the history of this country been greater . 

-  The typical American household made less money last year than they did a full DECADE ago?  (adjusted for inflation). That hasn’t happened in 80 years.   

-  Over 46.2 million of us live in poverty today --- the highest number in the 52 years of the Census Bureau

While at the SAME time, the richest 1% of us (those making $380,00 or more), have seen incomes grow 33%.  So!  Given that, who in this room think the Middle Class should pay taxes over twice the amount of those living off of the stock market? 

-  Well 7 of the 8 people who represent us in Washington disagree. All but one vigorously supports a feudalistic system of the most wealthy retaining their stupefying levels of wealth and the power it brings.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t our Founders fight a war AGAINST that very thing?

- And haven’t great thinkers since Aristotle warned us that a healthy Middle Class is a necessity to maintaining a Democracy?

Things are bad, bad, bad for the Middle Class and The Poor, but I know that you’ll be happy to learn that our poor cousins Wall Street and Corporate America – the ones WE had to bail out?  Well, they’re doing fine.  Very, VERY fine:
-Corporations are earning record profits and sitting on more than $2 TRILLION in cash reserves … which could be used for creating jobs.

- Corporate taxes in 2011 are expected to be about 1/3 of what they were in the 1950’s!

- Now the Conservatives say that global competitiveness demands that we reduce the corporate tax rate.  Guess what? American Corporations currently pay less tax than any of the member nations of the OECD, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Our RATES are higher, but between the loopholes and deductions, our effective rate (the amount you actually pay) is the lowest.

- In fact, last year, 25 of the largest and most profitable corporations paid their CEO’s more money than their entire corporations paid in taxes.

- And if you aren’t mad already, between 2^nd quarter of ’09 and 4^th quarter of ’10, our nation’s income grew $528 billion - 88% of that went to corporate profits … while 1% went to wages and salaries.  88% to corporations and 1% to working America. In contrast, when we were recovering from a downturn in the ‘90’s, 50% went to wages and salaries.     

Yet another fabrication, is that “taxing the wealthy will hurt the economy and job growth.”

-   Under Clinton, the Capital Gains rate on profits from stocks and on dividends was 28%, then 20%. During that time, we saw the highest job growth rates, greatest reduction in poverty, and businesses and wealthy people did exceptionally well.

I don’t know about you, but to me … this all just seems to be blatant greed disguised as pseudo economics … And 7 of our 8 SC representatives to Congress are all for it.

How did we get here?

- Of course the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, but in some ways they are just the tip of the iceberg.

- The deregulation of the Financial Industry which led to our meltdown has been a major contributor.  And I hope that you all know that not one piece of protective legislation has been put back into place since the Meltdown.  Not one.
-  Why? Well it may have something to do with the second part of my promised topics … corruption of our government.
-  The still unregulated Financial Industry donated almost $600 MILLIION dollars ($599,143,342) in the 2 years between 2008 when they ruined the economy, and last year. 

You may also ask why the Government Accountability Office found 70 BILLION DOLLARS of waste in the Pentagon?    

- The military industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about has made political contributions of over $1.5 BILLION since we went to war with Iraq. 
- And you can be darned sure with corporations making trillions from war, they want to keep us in wars. 

We’re rapidly moving from a government by the people, for the people and of the people … to a government by the rich, for the rich and of the rich.

We’re in a fight for our country folks … and the opponent doesn’t believe in compromise on behalf of the American people.  

I know it’s daunting. I know it’s exhausting -- Especially in South Carolina. 

But as Churchill said:  “Never give in.  Never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.  Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”