Is Democracy Too Expensive and Ultimately Unaffordable?

The members of the Republican Tea Party Congress are doing any and everything that they possibly can to inhibit and dismantle the Federal government. They spin reality and the truth, and they utilize every possible procedural and legal loophole to stall and defund the Federal government. They rationalize and justify what they are doing by stating that the deficit must be resolved immediately, and that America can no longer afford to make investments in it's citizens at the current level. They believe that the quality of life, freedoms and economic opportunities that Americans have known for almost a century cannot be sustained.

Republican Tea Party controlled states feature the suppression of voting rights, extreme religious intolerance, suppression of a woman's constitutional right to an abortion, and extreme economic and social injustice. These almost feudal plutocracies make Putin's Russia look like a progressive wonderland. These freedom lands, ironically, partially are funded by the efforts, human energy, and taxes of the progressive states.

The real makers in America are the educators and educational institutions, the innovators and the inventors, the tradesmen, soldiers, and the American workers. The real takers are the New Derivative Thinkers on Wall Street, the raiders like Mitt Romney, who break-up and sell companies, move jobs overseas, destroy the lives of hard working Americans, and make the American taxpayers partially fund their obscene profits. The real takers are also the Private Sector Vampires epitomized by Rick Scott whose company committed Medicare and Medicaid fraud, while making him a multimillionaire. The real takers are also men like Rick Perry who conspired with UBS, to use the Texas teachers' pension fund in an attempt to profit from a gamble on how long teachers would live. The real takers are the leaders in the Red states that cause and enable all this to go on.

America: A Tale of Two Cities

President Obama and the Progressives have stated that their number one goal for the remainder of Obama's term is to address the issue of wage disparity and income inequality. The presence of income inequality during the last three decades is indisputable and is not being challenged by anyone. Those on the far right, including Rand Paul and Eric Cantor, acknowledge that income inequality exists.

The real problem for our country is that those on the far right do not view this as a bad thing. However, they do view government measures designed to intercede, mediate, and reverse this, as a bad thing. When the government "spies" on people to thwart terrorism, protect intellectual property, or prosecute fraud and theft, it is evil. When Google does it, it is good business.

The far right ostensively is focused on deficit spending. However, they are not against deficit spending per say, when it benefits their constituency or serves their ends. They oppose deficit spending only when it is aimed at interceding, mediating and reversing income inequality. If it enriches the top 2%, which it has done for decades, it is a necessary evil. If it allows a minimum wage worker to feed his family, it is an unholy abomination.

Obama and the Progressives are pushing for a minimum wage hike. If accomplished, this will be a temporary fix. Initially it will provide a stimulus to the economy and provide benefits to the working poor and middle class. Inflation will follow. For a small minority of this sector, for the prudent, student loans and mortgages will be paid with "cheaper" dollars. For the majority of this segment of America it will be even harder then it is now. The cost of rents, food, and healthcare for the 99% will rise accordingly. And America will be one step closer to a Third World country.

As I have stated over and over again, the solution lies in a very progressive tax code and Keynesian economics. The presidencies of Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower attest to this truth. God save the middle class. Certainly the Tea Party won't. As a man in the "winter" of his life, I am able to manager a wry smile.