A SPECTER is haunting America. Or at least haunting the fevered brains of John McCain and his fellow Republicans.
It's the specter of "socialism," in the form of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and his alleged determination to "spread the wealth around."
It comes as a little bit of a surprise to us here at SocialistWorker.org that Barack Obama is one of us, because we haven't seen him at any of the meetings.
But Michelle Malkin is certain about it. "There's no question," the right-wing commentator declared, "that Barack Obama has been steeped in and marinated with the socialist ethos." Talk radio host Glenn Beck fumed, "I believe there's a socialist agenda there for America."
Adds one-time contender for the Republican presidential nomination Mike Huckabee: "When you punish people for making more money, and you reward them for nothing, that is socialism. And that's a terrible, terrible way for this country to move."
So what is this national tragedy in the making? The McCain campaign (including its new national mascot, Joe the Plumber) is irate about Obama's proposal to rescind tax cuts enacted under George Bush for households with an adjusted gross income of $250,000 and over--the richest 2.3 percent of U.S. taxpayers, according to Citizens for Tax Justice.
The income tax rate for the very top rung of the ladder would rise (as it was scheduled to anyway in 2010 when the Bush cuts expire) from 35 percent to 39.6 percent, where it stood under the Clinton administration. "This is a very modest--you might even say, timid--response to what has, in the last 15 years, been a redistribution of wealth from the bottom up to the top," Rick MacArthur of Harper's magazine said in an interview on Democracy Now!
This is what's so "terrible, terrible"? Restoring tax rates for the very richest Americans to the levels of the 1990s--during which time, incidentally, the U.S. economy underwent the longest sustained expansion since the Second World War, so the wealthy couldn't have been that bad off?
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THE DESPERATE McCain campaign is betting on a piece of conventional wisdom that both main parties cling to: That ordinary people will rebel against any form of tax increase--in fact, they'll probably vote for whichever candidate promises the bigger tax cut. [...] But that's not accurate. There is support for taxes among ordinary people, even higher taxes--but only if they think something worthwhile will be done with the money. For example, opinion surveys show a majority of people in favor of more government spending on education and health care, even if that means higher taxes. Among adults under 30, the sentiment is even stronger--upwards of 90 percent in favor.
Of course, the government never does seem to spend money on those priorities, or anything else worthwhile. Instead, the political system operates beyond the control of working people. Case in point: The U.S. government is set to match the $1 trillion-plus price tag for a war on Iraq that a majority of people oppose, with a bailout of Wall Street and the banks that will cost at least as much, and that is also opposed by the majority.
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The other side of the conservative argument is that the rich not only pay more, but they get less--the implication being that most government services go to the poor. Thus, John McCain claimed that "Barack Obama's tax plan would convert the IRS into a giant welfare agency."
But this is also false. To start with, just look at the summary of the federal budget and see how a program like food stamps stacks up against, for example, the Pentagon's purchases from military contractors.
Beyond that, ask yourself this question: Do you think the government would build a new expressway on-ramp to make it more convenient for you to get to work? Certainly not. But the executives and shareholders of corporations like UPS demand this kind of infrastructure project when they plan for new facilities.
The biggest drug companies make use of federally funded research in developing new products. And, of course, the oil giants can count on the U.S. military--whichever party occupies the White House--to ensure a steady flow of Middle East oil, no matter what the toll in human misery.
In reality, the mantra that "big government is bad"--shared by most Republicans and Democrats for the past several decades--applies only to certain kinds of big government. [...] According to the Guardian, salaries and bonuses for top executives and employees at major banks and investment firms will add up to $70 billion this year. So 10 percent of the $700 billion that Congress committed to "rescue" Wall Street will end up "rescuing" the bank accounts of some of Wall Street's richest players.
Now that's redistributing the wealth.
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But this controversy does raise the question: What would be so terrible about a society organized around such a principle?
The standard answer is that without the promise of profit and riches, no one would do any work.
But is that true? Does that square with the reality of most people's lives? Think about the jobs that people you know have chosen, or the activities they volunteer to be part of, or the interests they pursue in the time they have to themselves--and ask if it's true that they wouldn't do anything useful for society but for the reward of big bucks or the threat of poverty?
[Columbia U] Mahmoud Khalil/Joseph Massad's "bibol" of 'balestine'
