Grassroots revolt at the polls
After 30 years of bait and switch by candidates who promise voters one thing on the campaign trail and then use the power of their elective offices to enact legislation harmful to their constituents, national polls show that American voters are fed up with their representatives' chronic betrayal of their constitutionally-designated mandate to promote the general welfare.
The most egregious example of this betrayal may well be the $2 trillion bad debt to the American people that Congress has wracked up by spending Social Security Trust Funds, a debt that a growing number of Congressional representatives are moving to write off by sharply reducing Social Security benefits and Medicare coverage in the future.
Given this track record, it is not surprising that the Pew survey found that a large majority of Americans have come to the astounding conclusion that their elected officials do not care what their constituents think and government in the U.S. is not run for the benefit of all the people.
As demonstrated by the writing on the wall provided by the 2006 Congressional midterm elections, voter resentment of status quo politicians is feeding a grassroots revolt at the polls that is likely to become a tidal wave in coming years. Upset victories by insurgent progressive candidates who ran against party-backed candidates transferred control of Congress to Democrats and ended 12 years of Republican rule.
With this looming threat of a popular upsurge on the horizon, it behooves the current crop of '08 candidates to start getting behind the preferences of their constituents so they can avoid creating track records that defeat them and their parties in future elections. Below are examples of shifting political attitudes and policy preferences held by a majority of American voters taken from recent Pew polls that '08 candidates must emphasize in their platforms if they want to get elected.
Where the Voters are Headed
First of all, a head-on collision appears to be in the works between American voters and giant corporations who employ cut-throat tactics to inflate their bottom lines.
This collision will be channelled through an equally dramatic collision between American voters and elected representatives who support these predatory corporations, aimed at ending the cozy relationship that has developed between lawmakers and corporations over the past 30 years at the expense of the American people.
Candidates who finance their campaigns through corporate contributions and lend unqualified support to America's large corporations whose businesses practices have compromised the financial well-being of the American people need to take note of the fact that the traditional pro-business stance of American voters has soured, just as voter trust in their elected representatives has soured.
According to the Pew poll conducted last March, the large majority of Americans think that too much power is concentrated in the hands of a few big companies and that corporations make too much profit.
Moreover, an increasing number of working Americans are connecting the dots between soaring corporate profits and the deterioration of their family's financial status.
In a 2006 Pew poll, two-thirds of all Americans stated that they can not find "good jobs" where they live.
This disillusioning experience has become a pervasive fact of life in America, attributable in large part to corporate outsourcing of jobs abroad to minimize labor costs. These self-serving, socially-irresponsible practices have resulted not only in the loss of 2 million jobs since 2000 but also in the transfer abroad of most of the manufacturing and related capabilities that had once made the U.S. economy the strongest in the world. A huge trade deficit has opened up because America no longer has much to export to balance its huge volume of imports.
In addition, nearly half of all Americans who do have jobs complain that they "don't have enough money to make ends meet" and nearly three-quarters of all Americans agree that "today it's really true that the rich just get richer while the poor get poorer". This perception is supported by statistics showing that 10% of the nation's households now controls two-thirds of the nation's wealth.
Working Americans are caught in a squeeze between their stagnating real incomes and their rising costs of living while corporate executive pay continues to rise dramatically, in some cases to nearly 400 times that of their average employee, a disparity unique among industrialized nations.
Statistics show that since the Bush administration took office, the corporate share of national income, as measured by the GDP, has been rising significantly while the share going to employees' wages and salaries continues to drop, a decline that is unprecedented in the post-World War II period.
Corporate profits are rising because the giant corporations that dominate the U.S. economy are forcing consumers to pay steadily increasing prices for the goods and services they sell.
Growing numbers of working Americans recognize that their rising costs of living are caused by incessant, substantial increases in the prices that large corporations charge them for the products and services they have no choice but to buy from them in consolidated, monopolistic industries that have cornered their markets by stomping out their competitors. These include the gas and oil industry, health insurance and health care (especially pharmaceuticals) and financial services where transaction fees and credit card interest rates have reached usurious levels.
With elected representatives refusing to enforce U.S. laws prohibiting windfall and excess profits, there is virtually no limit to the prices that U.S. corporations can charge U.S. consumers and the profits they can reap.
In recent years, U.S. oil and gas companies have been reaping windfall returns on invested capital of more than 30%, whereas comparable capital intensive industries achieve returns lower than 10%.
These windfall oil and gas profits amounted to $63 billion in 2005 and, with Congressional inaction, $100 billion in 2006. By mid-2007, Congress has yet to do anything to prevent continued annual increases in profits of this magnitude, and the gas and oil price increases that make them possible. The same can be said for the health insurance, pharmaceutical and credit card industries, to name just a few of the corporate predators stalking American consumers.
Few of the world's economies and even fewer consumers have the reserves to withstand having so much money in corporate price increases sucked out of them every year, and the U.S. is no exception. Corporations that cannot be prevented from raising their prices to these levels will eventually destroy the economies in which they operate by pushing into insolvency the consumers who have no alternative but to pay the prices they demand.
By inflicting incessant, unwarranted and unreasonable price increases on American consumers and holding down the wages and salaries of their employees while opposing legislative increases in the minimum wage, these corporations are driving American workers deeper and deeper into debt. By squeezing consumers between rising costs of living and stagnant real incomes, these economic predators will ultimately destroy their customers' buying power and the U.S. economy with it, since consumers will not have enough disposal income to buy the products and services these corporations sell in the U.S. economy.
In addition, these corporate predators will also ultimately bring down the governments that permit them to wreak this financial havoc on their citizens because they will ultimately revolt at the polls and throw out of office the governments responsible for their financial distress.
Polls and recent election upsets show that American voters recognize that the time has come to take a stand not only on their own behalf but on behalf of the country's traditional underdogs. It is quite noteworthy that the 2007 Pew poll found that a large majority of Americans express their support for labor unions, despite the fact that overall union membership continues to plummet into the low teens as the result of anti-labor public policies like the Taft-Hartley Act and private practices of corporations that obstruct unionization.
As the coming showdown between the American people and predatory corporations approaches, elected representatives who have supported the extreme deregulation of the nation's economy that is feeding the growing wealth gap in America must change course if they want to get re-elected and embrace the progressive policies that the large majority of Americans want enacted into law.
Policies that Bridge the Gap
Thirty years of unkept promises by laissez-faire free market ideologues and the political parties and elected officials who embraced their ideologies have demonstrated that unfettered free markets create self-destructive economies that are incapable of providing working Americans the livelihoods, incomes and financial security they require.
This system -- and the predatory unregulated corporations reaping windfall profits from it -- has proved itself to be demonstrably incapable of providing all Americans affordable medical care, gas and oil, housing, water, electricity or interest rates on credit, to name just a few of its spectacular failures.
Now that the American people have recognized through their own experience that these laissez-faire free market promises were hollow, they are going to vote only for candidates who pledge to enact policies that protect and enhance their financial status.
Every candidate for office will be obliged to see to it that there is a majority of voters in every electoral district where they are running for office whose livelihoods are secure and whose costs of living do not exceed their income -- or face defeat at the polls. They will be obliged to enact public policies that:
- Directly or indirectly increase their constituents' real incomes
- Hold down and roll back unjustifiable increases in their constituents' cost of living
- Staunch the loss of jobs in their electoral districts by enacting policies that spark the creation of sustainable businesses and livelihoods.
In short, the time has come when American voters demand that their elected representatives remove the rough edges and self-destructive tendencies of the unregulated free enterprise system that has been allowed to take over the U.S. economy.
Accordingly, voters will defeat candidates for office and elected representatives who put their financial solvency at risk by allowing corporations to reap windfall and excess profits by imposing exorbitant prices on them while simultaneously holding down their salaries and wages. They will defeat those who act as accomplices of their corporate campaign financiers in forcing American consumers into such dire financial straits that they have to borrow money and go deeply into debt in order to pay for basic necessities.
A tidal wave of angry voters is in the making that will force their representatives to make their constituents' livelihoods and the conditions that spawn sustainable livelihoods the central focus of their tenure in office.
Here is a list of concrete policies and legislation that '08 candidates can pledge to enact to bridge the gap between their current platforms and the core policies their constituents want enacted:
- Mandate that all businesses pay their employees living wages and salaries adequate to meet their basic costs of living.
Create mechanisms to hold down and roll back unwarranted and unreasonable increases in their constituents' cost of living as they occur.
All businesses must be legislatively mandated to pay living wages and salaries to all employees, including part-time as well as full-time employees. This compensation must enable them to pay the basic costs of living in the area where they reside.
Since the minimum wage that the federal government requires employers to pay to their workers is too low to enable them to pay their basic costs of living, a parent with one child who works full time at minimum wage actually falls below the federal poverty line. Federal and state laws must be changed to mandate that all businesses pay living wages to their employees that enable them to pay their basic costs of living.
Elected representatives must simultaneously enact policies that hold down their constituents' costs of living to manageable levels, principally with respect to the prices they pay for essential goods and services.
While there is widespread agreement that government-imposed price controls are counter-productive in most circumstances, there is also equally widespread recognition that the enforcement and extension of existing U.S. laws that prohibit windfall and excess profits is a legitimate and effective tool of government.
Elected officials must see to it that windfall and excess profits are taxed at levels that provide adequate financial incentives to offending corporations to induce them to bring down the prices that engender these profits. In particular, gas and oil prices, health care costs, interest rates on credit cards and loans, especially for higher education, must be dramatically reduced.
- Create a universal publicly-funded health insurance system.
The huge bite that the U.S. system of privatized, market-driven medical care is taking out of working Americans' household budgets is pushing tens of millions of them over the edge financially, while the health insurance companies and health care providers who have raised policy-holders premiums by more than 60% in recent years are reaping windfall profits of more than 100%.
Nearly two million Americans are being driven into bankruptcy by medical bills every year. Forth-seven million Americans cannot afford health insurance at all.
Elected representatives who refuse to enforce windfall and excess profits laws against these corporations while proposing to expand their role in American health care will understandably be seen as defending the financial interests of these corporations at the expense of the health and well-being of their constituents.
Instead, elected representatives who are truly dedicated to promoting the general welfare of the American people must enact a single-payer, government-funded health care insurance system that covers all Americans from the cradle to the grave. The providers of the health care services can be privately as well as publicly owned.
This system should cover catastrophic medical illness and basic necessities, including dental care and long-term care. There should be no premiums or supplementary insurance required. Private insurers can be permitted to provide specialized care outside this system to those who are willing to pay for it.
The system must have effective mechanisms for controlling the costs of public and private health care providers and overseeing their practices to protect the insured from unscrupulous practices and the government from having to pay unreasonable costs.
- Re-invent the free enterprise system in the U.S. on a level playing field so that it spawns sustainable businesses and jobs in the U.S. that can not be outsourced.
Elected representatives must take legislative action to counteract the tendency of the giant corporations that dominate the U.S. economy to undermine indigenous local economies and entrepreneurial businesses, destroy jobs through outsourcing and push worker compensation below the cost of living by moving jobs to low wage areas and obstructing labor unions.
They must enact laws that spur the creation of partnerships between the public and private sectors that create small and medium-sized businesses that remain in the U.S. and spawn jobs that pay living wages. It is in the national interest to stem the erosion of the U.S. domestic economy by making sure that the U.S. retains its entrepreneurial capacity to create and operate viable businesses within its geographical boundaries.
While it may appear that the U.S. economy, like the global economy, has been irreversibly taken over by giant multinational corporations, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) throughout the world are demonstrating the wealth and job creation capacity of locally and regionally-based small businesses and entrepreneurs. SMEs are creating a large and growing number of sustainable jobs that pay living wages and provide healthy working environments.
In particular, elected representatives must enact legislation to help states and localities apply the know-how developed by the community-based asset building movement to the electoral districts they represent so that the free enterprise system can use public and private capital to bring sustainable businesses, jobs and wealth to all their constituents. Such legislation is the best strategy for reducing the wealth gap and curbing the influence of predatory corporations that outsource jobs and destroy local economies.
With the coming exhaustion of fossil fuels, the cost of transporting products and services over large distances is going to make more profitable and competitive the local industries that do not have to pay for these costs to get their products and services to nearby local and regional domestic markets.
Elected representatives must pass legislation to nurture these new industries and the enterprises they spawn through pro-livelihood public/private partnerships at the state level. They must act quickly to take advantage of the opportunities that are mushrooming in a growing number of progressive states. These are states that are already taking the lead in developing locally-based enterprises that spawn sustainable jobs and curb corporate influence, especially those that are experimenting with different mixes of tax policies, minimum wage and labor standards and alternative health insurance systems.
Elected representatives must also take action to ensure that these local industries have access to the capital they need to get started and expand as they become profitable. They should restore the funds that the Bush administration has cut from the U.S. Small Business Administration (nearly $500 million) and increase the funding of all government programs that provide capital and resources to SMEs. In addition, they should enforce and expand existing laws to ensure that nascent businesses are protected from unfair corporate practices designed to stomp out their competitors.
All representatives should rescind legislation that provides multi-million dollar tax breaks and other financial incentives to already profitable large corporations to induce them to bring jobs to their areas.
One industry that is especially promising as the source of sustainable enterprises and jobs is that which produces locally grown agricultural products, which are likely to be the primary beneficiaries of the sea change in the financial economics of global trade and the importation of agricultural products. Global warming will also stimulate the growth of sustainable state and locally-based SMEs as the shift to green businesses and green economies accelerates.
- Progressively redistribute the tax burden and eliminate costly and wasteful government spending and outsourcing that wastes taxpayers' money.
American workers pay a substantial portion of their income in taxes, much of it wasted when these taxes are used to pay private contractors exorbitant amounts of money to provide government services they often fail to provide.
People of modest means and even those considered to be the "working poor" pay a higher percentage of their income in personal taxes than do the wealthy in some states. Elected representatives must reduce the tax burden of middle class and working Americans and increase that of the wealthy individuals and households whose incomes exceed their needs and are most able to pay. They must rescind the Bush "tax cuts for the rich".
They must also see to it that the government spends all taxpayers' dollars efficiently and effectively, which is not now the case. Taxpayers are paying through the nose for unnecessary outsourcing of government services to incompetent and corrupt private contractors. Congressional oversight agencies have found that nearly $1 trillion has been wasted through private contracts negotiated by the Bush administration since 2000, a sum ample enough to fund universal health insurance.
Legislators must enact laws mandating government agencies that outsource government services to private contractors do so only through competitive bidding and fixed-price performance-based contracts that are professionally audited in a timely manner, unlike the contracts that have been awarded to defense contractors such as Halliburton. When mismanagement, fraud, waste and abuse are discovered and documented, the perpetrators must be held fully accountable and required to reimburse the government in full. Ideally, the refunds should be returned to U.S. taxpayers or used for programs that directly benefit taxpayers.
- Maintain and retain publicly-owned assets and infrastructure, provide affordable public services and administer effective emergency relief during natural and manmade disasters.
The wrath of American voters who have recently realized that government agencies have not adequately maintained the nation's infrastructure and are incapable of protecting them during natural or manmade emergencies will long be felt in voting booths throughout the country. This is especially true for those who observed the loss of life after hurricane Katrina that needlessly occurred because of the incompetence of public authorities and agencies in maintaining the levees and providing effective emergency relief and recovery services.
As 9/11 victims and Katrina's victims can attest, local, state and federal agencies are ill-prepared to protect the U.S. mainland and maintain the nation's infrastructure, whether levees, bridges, roads, railroads, ports or airports.
The primary obligation of elected representatives is the protection of the lives of their constituents, and the preservation of public as well as private property. Officeholders who are found to have failed to take action to forestall preventable disasters or provide effective emergency relief and recovery assistance after disasters have occurred should be held accountable in civil and criminal proceedings.
Elected officials must cease selling off public assets or subcontracting with private contractors to manage these assets when they could be more efficiently and cost-effectively managed by public sector agencies, as well as generate net revenues that are paid into government coffers rather than corporate bank accounts.
Elected officials should prohibit the selling of publicly-owned water and electricity resources, gas and oil, roads, etc., or their long-term leasing to private contractors who charge exorbitant fees to American consumers to use assets that belong to the public.
They should also prohibit the subcontracting of the management of sensitive installations such as ports and airports to private contractors, especially foreign contractors.
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