ALPERN AT LARGE - Considering that 2012 ended, and 2013 begun, with the improbable duo of Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell coming up with a compromise that infuriated both extreme wings of the American People but which kept our economy (and foreign investors’ portfolios) solid, it’s safe to say that there will be a few improbable surprises for us all to look forward to.
Some will say Republicans caved, while others are screaming that Obama caved, so it was probably a pretty darn good compromise. Most Americans got spared big income tax increases, and the bigshot CEO’s, the Hollywood Elite, Warren Buffett and George Soros get to look forward to the income tax hikes they’ve been pleading for.
… And considering that most middle-class, and even most higher-earning income earners (professionals who strove for years in school, as well small business owners who’ve work their tails off for years) got spared a big hike in income taxes, it’s safe to conclude that while it seems that everyone hates former President George W. Bush, his tax cuts for those who “work for a living” are still pretty popular and beneficial for our country.
… And considering that 77 percent of American households will still pay higher taxes, in large part because both political parties felt that the Social Security payroll tax holiday needed ending, perhaps the conversation about what it REALLY takes to keep that program alive needs to be renewed.
… And considering that the rhetoric became pretty heated and fiery at the very top of the political food chain, it’s not that far of a stretch to presume that the rest of the nation will have some serious internal debates, in their homes and in their communities, over how to proceed with our economic (and related cultural) future paradigms in a 21st Century America.
Partisans of both political parties will probably not be too happy to confront the notion that the GOP, despite a hypocritical approach to debt and deficit reductions in the past, are now desperate enough to come up with ideas such as those promulgated by Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, and that the Democrats (particularly from the Senate and White House) so far have sailed to re-election and power by not coming up with any “tough love” plan or budget at all.
Washington therefore has done only the “easy” part of preventing new taxes during a sour economy. It hasn’t yet resolved the much more difficult battles to come—the debt ceiling, budget cuts and all the things that America needs to confront—in a nation that has proven itself a pathetic successor to the Greatest Generation of the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Unfortunately, President Obama may reference former Presidents Lincoln and President Reagan, but his post-election approach of being President of the Democratic Party and not the entire nation is neither good for his own political future (you really want to quickly burn through your political capital like your predecessor, Mr. President?) nor for that of the nation.
We need a President—particularly a second-term President—to tell us all what we NEED to hear, not just what we WANT to hear.
Rather than emulate the miserable, painful second term of George W. Bush, it would behoove our President to emulate instead the second term of Bill Clinton, who worked with a Republican Congress to balance the budget and shore up the economy. There were, and are, not one but two very necessary political parties in Washington.
After all, if the GOP lost the White House and the Senate to the Democratic Party in 2012, then it should be considered that the Democratic Party lost the House to the GOP as well, so that true leadership should be focused not on the outcome of the 2014 elections but the economic and cultural future of this nation.
The citizens of this nation now want leadership. And yet the citizens of this nation also need to exercise its own personal leadership.
Discarding the Constitution out of convenience may please some (LINK: , but it’ll infuriate the nation as a whole—we elected a President, not a King. Our last King was George III of England, and I doubt we want a new one.
It’s time for the grassroots to lead—lead by rejecting both the presumptions that all government spending is bad, and that all government spending is good.
Inasmuch as the right wing of this nation needs to rethink the Grover Norquist approach of never raising taxes (look at what we just did with the Social Security payroll tax to ensure that program’s existence), the left wing of this nation needs to rethink how President Barack Obama allowed unemployment and deficit spending to reach levels that President Bill Clinton would NEVER have allowed.
Former President Clinton told the rich to pay more in income taxes, but both worked with Republicans to balance the budget and encouraged corporate growth and employment…so most got wealthier under his watch. Can President Obama say the same, or is he still milking the theme of slapping around the wealthier Americans (most who have worked very hard to achieve prosperity, and who are now freaked out about Obamacare at a time when we need them to HIRE)?
--Isn’t it time for Americans to stop slapping around the hard-working successfuland stop the class envy obsession, while working more to fight for their own self-earned success as well?
--Isn’t it time for Americans to consider raising Social Security payroll taxes if that really is the only way to preserve that program, and if that tax is the only way the majority of Americans contribute to ur public sector budget?
--Isn’t it time for Americans to cut the lard from BOTH Defense and the Public Sector benefits/pensions that are bankrupting us, while fighting both corporate and personal welfare programs that encourage all the wrong behaviors in our society?
--Isn’t it time that Americans demanded legislation to encourage corporate equity for all levels of workers, with the effect of preventing the overreach of either bad corporate management or bad union policy, and with the effect of encouraging hard work, success and profits for everyone in a corporation?
--Isn’t it time for Americans of all political persuasions to demand the public sector live with the same health care and pension plans that most Americans get to look forward to?
In a post-civil rights, post-Cold War era we need a President and a Congress to free us from our own slavery, a self-imposed slavery of not encouraging opportunity-building while discouraging economic growth, hiring and the living within our means.
President Obama and Congress have nothing to lose (but our debt) if they’ve got the guts to collectively stop playing politician and start playing statesman.
And the American People have nothing to lose (but our debt and our misery) if we compromise with each other (both the winners and loser of this last election)…and we gain a golden opportunity to get over our partisan, narcissistic selves and demand our leaders really pull this nation out of our economic doldrums and avoid a second Great Depression.
(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected] This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 3
Pub: Jan 8, 2013