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This is why you need to pay careful attention when you hear about John McCain claiming that he's going to "look at entitlement program" waste as a means of solving the budget crisis, or when you tune into the debate about the "death tax." We are in the midst of a political movement to concentrate private wealth into fewer and fewer hands while at the same time placing more and more of the burden for public expenditures on working people. If that sounds like half-baked Marxian analysis... well, shit, what can I say? That's what's happening. Repealing the estate tax (the proposal to phase it out by the year 2010 would save the Walton family alone $30 billion) and targeting "entitlement" programs for cuts while continually funneling an ever-expanding treasure trove of military appropriations down the befouled anus of pointless war profiteering, government waste and North Virginia McMansions — this is all part of a conversation we should be having about who gets what share of the national pie. But we're not going to have that conversation, because we're going to spend this fall mesmerized by the typical media-generated distractions, yammering about whether or not Michelle Obama's voice is too annoying, about flag lapel pins, about Jeremiah Wright and other such idiotic bullshit.
Just a touch on the sensationalistic side, and certainly a biased, albeit accurate, essay, this kind of critique will most certainly be ignored by anyone who has influence necessary to correct the outlined problems. The bit about our country's insolvency is particularly urgent, in my opinion, but is currently either ignored or completely unknown to the public in general. It's entirely possible that within my lifetime we'll have a significant number of American economic refugees to other countries as the government moves well into the realm of a working capital deficit (based on the GDP). Seriously! Our GDP is about $13.86 trillion and our current national debt is about $9.53 trillion. Our current debt is damn near 70% of our GDP. That's some scary shit. Meanwhile, people cast votes for national office based on trivialities like stem cell research.
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