If the Government Represented the Peoples Wishes the Country Would be on the Right Track
By Kevin Zeese
Elections no longer work. Lobbying no longer works. Email and telephone campaigns no longer work. Symbolic protests no longer work. Americans need to get organized and mobilized to demand what we want.
The occupation begins on October 6, 2011 when thousands of Americans enter Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC and refuse to leave. We are calling the occupation Stop the Machine: Create a New World. The new world we seek is already supported by super-majorities of the American people. A large majority of Americans consistently support the following agenda:
- Tax the rich and corporations
- End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending
- Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and improved Medicare for all
- End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests
- Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation
- Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages
- Get money out of politics
The government, dominated by elite economic interests, is going in the opposite direction from what the people want. The American people’s agenda is our agenda.
We are occupying Freedom Plaza to shift power from concentrated corporate power to the people. October2011.org’s agenda is an evidence-based one, not based on polling. However, polling shows the American people support transformative change. These polling results show the people know how to save the country but the government is too corrupt to do what is necessary.
These solutions are part of transformative we begin to describe in “Fifteen Core Issues the Country Must Face.” Each of these 15 issues will have a detailed policy description linked to it once participants discuss them on the October2011.org website. You can join the discussion by signing up with the October2011.org movement.
Tax the rich and corporations
How government funds itself adequately to meet the needs of the people of the United States is one of the key budget questions not being adequately addressed in Washington. Americans know there are significant disparities of wealth, between small numbers of extremely wealthy Americans and the rest of us – the 99% who do not have extreme wealth. The 400 wealthiest Americans have wealth equal to 150 million Americans. This richest 400, whose average income was $270.5 million, paid a tax rate of 18%; yet someone who earns $60,000 finds themselves in the 25% tax bracket. It was not always this way; in 1955 the top 400 paid 51.2% of their total income in tax. In the past there was many more tax brackets, with top incomes taxed as high as 91% in the late 1950s.
The American people support taxing wealthy Americans more than they are currently taxed. A 2011 ABC/Washington Post survey finds 72% of the country supports increasing taxes on those earning more than 250,000. McClatchy News reports that U.S. voters by a margin of 2-to-1 support raising taxes on incomes above $250,000, with 64% in favor and 33% opposed. These are not the first polls to show a strong majority of Americans favor raising taxes on the rich. Polls have been showing that since before the 2010 election. Here’s one from September, 2010. Here’s one from December. Here’s one from January. And here’s another.
Regarding the lack of corporate taxes in the recent debt ceiling deal, 60% of U.S. voters disapproved of the fact that the deal did not include tax hikes for businesses or wealthy Americans compared to 40% who approved of that outcome. A Quinnipiac University poll indicates that two-thirds of the public say an agreement to raise the debt limit should include tax hikes for wealthy Americans and corporations.
Americans know where the money is, realize wealth has been funneled to the top because of federal policies and they want to see the wealthy taxed more heavily. No doubt if the income tax were truly progressive so those earning $1 million, $10 million or $100 million paid even more there would be even broader support.
End the Wars, Bring the Troops Home, Cut Military Spending
Military spending is one of the most propagandized areas of policy in the United States. Some media, like NBC (along with MSNBC and related outlets) are owned by a major military contractor, General Electric, and they have fired on air personalities, like Phil Donohue, because they were critical of war. The Pentagon has a massive multi-hundred million dollar military propaganda budget that gets information into the media and does a great deal to control media coverage by having retired military officers as the primary commentators on the air. Rarely is opposition to war included in the media or before Congress. Before every war there is a massive propaganda effort to support the war effort resulting in a spike of war support followed six months or so later with disenchantment and opposition to the war. All of this is re-enforced by events on Veterans Day and Memorial Day that herald the U.S. military more than mourn the loss of lives in war. Americans almost never hear discussed on the air the reality that we are the largest empire in world history – a massive empire that is a secret to most Americans. This makes public opinion hard to measure, but even in this environment the military budget is not popular with Americans.
The Pentagon has a very effective propaganda program to protect its budget, so polls find Americans greatly underestimate how much we spend. According to a Rasmussen poll, only 25% of voters believe the United States should always spend at least three times as much on defense as any other nation. Forty percent (40%) do not think the country needs to spend this much, while 35% are not sure. Interestingly, if the government was to actually spend only three times as much as any other nation, it would result in a significant cut in military spending since in fact, the U.S. spends as much as the whole world combined on weapons and war. Earlier polling showed that just 58% recognize that the United States spends more on defense than any other nation in the world. I could not find any corporate media outlet that asked Americans if the U.S. should spend as much as the whole world combined on the military.
TheProgram on International Policy Attitudesat theUniversity of Maryland did a detailed examination of public opinion on military spending that was published in 2005. They provided Americans with the overall federal budget and asked them to modify it. They report: “Defense spending received the deepest cut, being cut on average 31%—equivalent to $133.8 billion—with 65% of respondents cutting. The second largest area to be cut was the supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan, which suffered an average cut of $29.6 billion or 35%, with two out of three respondents cutting.” Further “clear majorities favored increases (education 57%, job training 67%, medical research 57%, veteran’s benefits 63%), though only 43% of respondents favored increases for housing.”
In the recent deficit debate, polls show a majority of Americans preferred cutting military spending to reduce the federal deficit rather than taking money from public retirement and health programs. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released in March 2011 found 51% of Americans support reducing “defense” spending, and only 28% want to cut Medicare and Medicaid health programs for the elderly and poor and only 18% back cuts in Social Security. A July 2011 Rasmussen poll found that a plurality of Americans believe the United States can make major cuts in military spending without sacrificing security and nearly 80% said the U.S. spends too much protecting allies.
A January 2011 CNN poll found that more than six in ten Americans oppose the U.S. war in Afghanistan, according to a new national poll. A February 2011 USA Today/Gallup poll found Americans favored more rapid withdrawal from Afghanistan by 75% to 25%.
The majority of Americans, regardless of their political party affiliations, do not approve of the U.S. war in Libya, a CBS News poll from June 2011 shows that six out of 10 Americans believe the US should not be involved in the war on Libya.
Regarding Iraq Angus Reid Public Opinion reports in 2011 that half of Americans (52%) believe their government made a mistake in launching military action against Iraq in 2003. Large majorities of respondents in the U.S. (63%) and Britain (70%) believe that the Iraq War negatively affected the position and image of their respective countries in the world.
Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security, expand and improve Medicare for all
In this section we spend a lot of time on polls showing the U.S. public supports – by large majorities over many years – a single payer health care system, improved Medicare for all. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, President Obama and the Democratic Party leadership kept single payer out of the discussion of health care reform. The corporate media, with the help of the wealth-funded Tea Party (which includes many Americans who are legitimately angry at the way the economy treats them, but which has also been manipulated by wealthy business donors), has put out the false impression that the people trust the market to handle health care when the opposite is true. Corrupted non-profits, under the name Health Care for America Now (who not coincidentally took a name very similar to the long-term single payer advocacy group, Health Care Now), supported re-enforcement of the insurance industry under ObamaCare thanks to massive funding from Democratic Party donors. All of this added up to a major misinformation campaign to mislead the country. Over the next two years, the Democrats plan to run on the Obama health reform as if it were a real reform when in reality it is an entrenchment of the status quo, especially health insurance domination. Polls show the people know better than the elites on the critically important issue of health care.
By Kevin Zeese
Elections no longer work. Lobbying no longer works. Email and telephone campaigns no longer work. Symbolic protests no longer work. Americans need to get organized and mobilized to demand what we want.
The occupation begins on October 6, 2011 when thousands of Americans enter Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC and refuse to leave. We are calling the occupation Stop the Machine: Create a New World. The new world we seek is already supported by super-majorities of the American people. A large majority of Americans consistently support the following agenda:
- Tax the rich and corporations
- End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending
- Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and improved Medicare for all
- End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests
- Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation
- Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages
- Get money out of politics
The government, dominated by elite economic interests, is going in the opposite direction from what the people want. The American people’s agenda is our agenda.
We are occupying Freedom Plaza to shift power from concentrated corporate power to the people. October2011.org’s agenda is an evidence-based one, not based on polling. However, polling shows the American people support transformative change. These polling results show the people know how to save the country but the government is too corrupt to do what is necessary.
These solutions are part of transformative we begin to describe in “Fifteen Core Issues the Country Must Face.” Each of these 15 issues will have a detailed policy description linked to it once participants discuss them on the October2011.org website. You can join the discussion by signing up with the October2011.org movement.
Tax the rich and corporations
How government funds itself adequately to meet the needs of the people of the United States is one of the key budget questions not being adequately addressed in Washington. Americans know there are significant disparities of wealth, between small numbers of extremely wealthy Americans and the rest of us – the 99% who do not have extreme wealth. The 400 wealthiest Americans have wealth equal to 150 million Americans. This richest 400, whose average income was $270.5 million, paid a tax rate of 18%; yet someone who earns $60,000 finds themselves in the 25% tax bracket. It was not always this way; in 1955 the top 400 paid 51.2% of their total income in tax. In the past there was many more tax brackets, with top incomes taxed as high as 91% in the late 1950s.
The American people support taxing wealthy Americans more than they are currently taxed. A 2011 ABC/Washington Post survey finds 72% of the country supports increasing taxes on those earning more than 250,000. McClatchy News reports that U.S. voters by a margin of 2-to-1 support raising taxes on incomes above $250,000, with 64% in favor and 33% opposed. These are not the first polls to show a strong majority of Americans favor raising taxes on the rich. Polls have been showing that since before the 2010 election. Here’s one from September, 2010. Here’s one from December. Here’s one from January. And here’s another.
Regarding the lack of corporate taxes in the recent debt ceiling deal, 60% of U.S. voters disapproved of the fact that the deal did not include tax hikes for businesses or wealthy Americans compared to 40% who approved of that outcome. A Quinnipiac University poll indicates that two-thirds of the public say an agreement to raise the debt limit should include tax hikes for wealthy Americans and corporations.
Americans know where the money is, realize wealth has been funneled to the top because of federal policies and they want to see the wealthy taxed more heavily. No doubt if the income tax were truly progressive so those earning $1 million, $10 million or $100 million paid even more there would be even broader support.
End the Wars, Bring the Troops Home, Cut Military Spending
Military spending is one of the most propagandized areas of policy in the United States. Some media, like NBC (along with MSNBC and related outlets) are owned by a major military contractor, General Electric, and they have fired on air personalities, like Phil Donohue, because they were critical of war. The Pentagon has a massive multi-hundred million dollar military propaganda budget that gets information into the media and does a great deal to control media coverage by having retired military officers as the primary commentators on the air. Rarely is opposition to war included in the media or before Congress. Before every war there is a massive propaganda effort to support the war effort resulting in a spike of war support followed six months or so later with disenchantment and opposition to the war. All of this is re-enforced by events on Veterans Day and Memorial Day that herald the U.S. military more than mourn the loss of lives in war. Americans almost never hear discussed on the air the reality that we are the largest empire in world history – a massive empire that is a secret to most Americans. This makes public opinion hard to measure, but even in this environment the military budget is not popular with Americans.
The Pentagon has a very effective propaganda program to protect its budget, so polls find Americans greatly underestimate how much we spend. According to a Rasmussen poll, only 25% of voters believe the United States should always spend at least three times as much on defense as any other nation. Forty percent (40%) do not think the country needs to spend this much, while 35% are not sure. Interestingly, if the government was to actually spend only three times as much as any other nation, it would result in a significant cut in military spending since in fact, the U.S. spends as much as the whole world combined on weapons and war. Earlier polling showed that just 58% recognize that the United States spends more on defense than any other nation in the world. I could not find any corporate media outlet that asked Americans if the U.S. should spend as much as the whole world combined on the military.
TheProgram on International Policy Attitudesat theUniversity of Maryland did a detailed examination of public opinion on military spending that was published in 2005. They provided Americans with the overall federal budget and asked them to modify it. They report: “Defense spending received the deepest cut, being cut on average 31%—equivalent to $133.8 billion—with 65% of respondents cutting. The second largest area to be cut was the supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan, which suffered an average cut of $29.6 billion or 35%, with two out of three respondents cutting.” Further “clear majorities favored increases (education 57%, job training 67%, medical research 57%, veteran’s benefits 63%), though only 43% of respondents favored increases for housing.”
In the recent deficit debate, polls show a majority of Americans preferred cutting military spending to reduce the federal deficit rather than taking money from public retirement and health programs. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released in March 2011 found 51% of Americans support reducing “defense” spending, and only 28% want to cut Medicare and Medicaid health programs for the elderly and poor and only 18% back cuts in Social Security. A July 2011 Rasmussen poll found that a plurality of Americans believe the United States can make major cuts in military spending without sacrificing security and nearly 80% said the U.S. spends too much protecting allies.
A January 2011 CNN poll found that more than six in ten Americans oppose the U.S. war in Afghanistan, according to a new national poll. A February 2011 USA Today/Gallup poll found Americans favored more rapid withdrawal from Afghanistan by 75% to 25%.
The majority of Americans, regardless of their political party affiliations, do not approve of the U.S. war in Libya, a CBS News poll from June 2011 shows that six out of 10 Americans believe the US should not be involved in the war on Libya.
Regarding Iraq Angus Reid Public Opinion reports in 2011 that half of Americans (52%) believe their government made a mistake in launching military action against Iraq in 2003. Large majorities of respondents in the U.S. (63%) and Britain (70%) believe that the Iraq War negatively affected the position and image of their respective countries in the world.
Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security, expand and improve Medicare for all
In this section we spend a lot of time on polls showing the U.S. public supports – by large majorities over many years – a single payer health care system, improved Medicare for all. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, President Obama and the Democratic Party leadership kept single payer out of the discussion of health care reform. The corporate media, with the help of the wealth-funded Tea Party (which includes many Americans who are legitimately angry at the way the economy treats them, but which has also been manipulated by wealthy business donors), has put out the false impression that the people trust the market to handle health care when the opposite is true. Corrupted non-profits, under the name Health Care for America Now (who not coincidentally took a name very similar to the long-term single payer advocacy group, Health Care Now), supported re-enforcement of the insurance industry under ObamaCare thanks to massive funding from Democratic Party donors. All of this added up to a major misinformation campaign to mislead the country. Over the next two years, the Democrats plan to run on the Obama health reform as if it were a real reform when in reality it is an entrenchment of the status quo, especially health insurance domination. Polls show the people know better than the elites on the critically important issue of health care.
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