Who Pays for Taking Risks?

Common Sense

THE twelve members of the Congressional Debt Super Committee have basically one question to answer: who will pay for the excessive risk taking that only profited a few? Those who benefited from the risk taking, and dismantling of regulation that almost crushed our economy, the one percent with high priced lobbyists who are even now writing large checks to determine the outcome of the committee,? Or the vast majority of Americans who got no benefit from sub-prime loans or unregulated derivatives,?

INCOME rose for all Americans between 1947 and 1979. A generation in which the middle fifth (quintile) of Americans saw their real family income (adjusted for inflation) more than double, growing by 114%. The income of the top quintile saw their income grow by 99 percent (the top 5 percent "only" saw their income grow by 80 percent.) The income of the lowest quintile grew by 116 percent, removing millions of people from poverty, cutting the costs of welfare, and proving the value of education, even at the bottom.[1]

BETWEEN 1979 and 2005 elections moved from in-person speeches to high priced campaigns of slogans and tv ads. When Sen. John Stennis (D-MS) ran for election in 1976, he raised no more than $5,000 in campaign funds. In 1982 Republicans saw a chance to replace him with Haley Barbor, someone who could likely raise $2 million for a campaign that would wash Stennis away. Stennis was forced to raise $2 million to compete, and he raised much of that from giant corporations that received millions in Department of Defense contracts. Stennis won, but as Bob Dole told the Wall Street Journal that summer, corporations that donate large sums "expect something in return other than good government. Elections are now being paid for by the top 1 percent, and they don't expect to see the middle class to be getting the benefits.

REAL family income between 1979 and 2005 saw the lowest quintile lose 1 percent in income, the middle quintile gain 15 percent but all of that from more wives going to work (only rich women would now be able to stay at home and instill "family values in their children). The real income of the top 5 percent of Americans, those with family incomes of more than $180,000, had been increased by 81 percent.[1]

THE top one percent of Americans take home half the total increases in income each year, and yet their taxes have been cut by more than 75% since Ronald Reagan took office. The answer to who will pay for the lack of regulation that allowed so much gambling with the future of this country should be easy, but the majority of American citizens do not have lobbyists on Capital Hill, so the issue is in doubt.T

TheHill.COM: The Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, meets today for the first time. Americans are rightly concerned that business-as-usual will dominate, including the outsized and damaging influence of special interests and wealthy campaign contributors. Committee members Reps. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) both held fund-raisers yesterday. At least nine of the 12 members have fund-raisers scheduled over the coming months. Lobbyists have called the super committee a "lobbying bonanza".One even said his plan to prepare for the committee was to "write 12 really large checks." [2]

STAND UP to "business-as-usual", join with others in supporting real solutions to obvious problems, like ending the bribery of congress. Ask yourself, why your representative has not been as upset as you or most Americans and why he or she has not proposed a solution hat costs you less than bailing out the banks (a process that never ends). John Kennedy once said that if average Americans will not support representatives who share their values, the few rich who are concerned about the middle class will not be enough. Fair elections would cost you 7¢, a day. Ending the bribery of Congress costs much less than bailing out banks.

Harrison Picot

Independent candidate for Congress in Virginia's 10th district
http://standupvirginia.org/ and http://virginia10th.blogspot.com/2011/7-solution.html

[1] [http://standupvirginia.org/
2] http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/campaign/180335-supercommittee-members-must-give-up-fundraising