One of the most insidious lies currently being spread is that America is broke, too poor to afford police, teachers, and firefighters, and Medicare, Social Security and other important programs. Van Jones explains in detail just how much of a lie that is and fills us in on what actually is “broke” in America.
VIDEO: Lie #1, “America is broke.”
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The government being broke does not mean that the government will have to stop providing infrustructure miltiary police fire or a whole list of other functions of government. it will have to stop paying poor people to have kids, stop paying poor people to buy drugs, and a whole host of other programs the federal government should not be involved in. when they threaten to shut down the government they say only non essential jobs will be effected. if they are non essential the federal government should not be doing them.
in most cases the state and local government should not be doing them either, this includes but not limited to medicaid.
social security and medicare are paid for with tax dollars from yor check and should be paid back in full to the payee.
VAN JONES is able to articulate with such brilliance, that even the political non-follower can grasp the “Big Picture”.
I wish this talk was being aired on PBS.
We, as citizens, must become much more engaged in gathering together to confront the ‘system’ that has evolved and take back CONTROL through our collective voices and action ! REBUILD THE DREAM DESERVES FULL SUPPORT AND PARTICIPATION.
Positive Change will NOT come without ACTION !
We could dissolve The Department of Homeland Security (a domestic spy agency) which at last count 800,000+ employees
and high tech spy equipment. If this ten year old agency
were dissolved, does anyone know what dollar amount our country would save. I think Social Security recepients should receive a 6% increase. All Government bureaus should
have their budgets cut by 25%. I am sure this would solve our budget problems.
I did not grow up rich, but I have been fortunate enough to have some rich friends and worked for an entertainment company which catered to the upper class. I have seen first-hand the amount of money this nation has. Not only that, but quite a few people have a lot of money. When they make more money off from their rent houses or stock deals, they don’t share it, they buy bigger houses and another refrigerator for the garage.
All this while our roads and bridges and rail infrastructure is degrading at an alarming and embarrassing rate. Our sewer system needs to be repaired and even our schools are old. America needs an infrastructure face lift instead of more McMansions. Tax the super-rich and rebuild this nation!
I’ve yet to come across the details for any social contract with America. What seems to really operating in our system is businesses’ desire for a bigger economy for them to draw more profits from.
Money is ultimately only a management tool that is suppose to represent a very flexible reward for generating a beneficial result. Part of the problem with money is that it is so flexible that it does not guarantee that what it is used for is also beneficial; generating the potential for it ‘power’ to be abused by those obtaining a superior advantage over the general masses not so endowed with such a unified ability to organize and express its will. This is where government tries to put in some checks. It is not impossible that some of those rich folk are receiving a tax break for putting their funds into particular endeavors deemed beneficial to the general public. Where this is not the case then it may not being wisely checked.
What is generating our indebtedness is our inability to compete with the foreign products produced with low wage labor and polluting factories. Our free trade agreement is also far too flexible in its rewarding process to such conditions. I personally believe we need to have a friendly and helpful way to project our standards into this ‘sub-standard’ situation. I would call it a ‘Charitable Tariff’ system where the funds obtained are returned to the communities of low wage foreign labor and used to upgrade polluting factories or be lost to them by using it to address the impacts.
One significant concern that comes to mind in such an endeavor is the potential to introduce too much disposable income into area struggling with drug trafficking or other corrupting influences. Having the people vote on infrastructure projects and cultural endeavors such as education, medical and conflict resolution and prevention may be the best way to go. Such cultural endeavors are possible in even a resource limited situation, and may be the best way for the people to get a better handle on having a happier balance with their sustaining environments. Notable, skills are often the defining factor in generating a better situation, not the ‘old social security’ endeavor of having a bigger family.
If we continue to fail in this ‘social responsibility’ to those we employee, ever to remotely and hidden to our eyes; we will only come to see it appear as being our own situation. 21% of children in poverty may be something like near to heaven to them now.
Well, I am pretty sure military spending takes top priority in American affairs. Now that we’ve shaken a few too many hornets’ nests on the international scene (The funding of the Israel police state in the Middle East, bad relations with China in the Vietnam War, hypocritical human rights related sanctions on governments world wide, etc.), the American government want to enclose us in an impenetrable bunker of military force. We spend on our military as much as the rest of the world combined, literally! If you cut military spending by as much as 20%, you could end this deficit within a decade, fully funding national social benefits like medicare and social security.
One thing you got wrong, though, is that we ever had anything like a “social contract” in America. That was a purely philosophical concept coined by Rousseau and adopted by John Locke and many other European liberal philosophers. It never actually took place. In fact, just a century after they wrote those things, the entire western world erupted into a revolutionary frenzy against their governments as new economic sources of power took charge (capitalism). But all the thinkers of the day were socialist or communist, and most of those nations adopted experimental socialistic policies for better or worse. While some of those policies failed, and amendments were made to constitutions, many of them still hold up today. The United States is now operating under many of the same basic socialist structures that European nations operate under: public education, free healthcare (even for uninsured in America through the ER), massive public services like road construction, economic control via the banking systems. All of this is the work of socialism. To say we ever really fulfilled the task of enlightenment philosophy is simply naive. But for your purposes, it makes for good rhetoric.
lots of big numbers… tax wall street at 100%, add in the bush (now Obama) wars (divided by 10 or so years), and cut all tax breaks for corporations and we’d save about 25% of this year’s budget deficit.
saying “we’re not broke” over and over again won’t make it true, even when you put up a fancy graphic with completely out of context and unrelated numbers.
You’re right but it WILL begin to give people hope again if we keep saying, “American Isn’t Broke.” If you tell a lie enough times people will believe it. Since Wall Street has obviously gotten away with robbing us blind, let’s begin righting wrongs by taxing their bonuses @ a significantly much higher rate. Immediately stop ALL oil/gas/ethanol/subsidies and any elected official who votes against doing so, petitions to have them recalled, no matter their party. If Wisconsinites can do it, so can the rest of the nation. Close ALL tax loopholes for corporations who move their business out of the USA. Bring all troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan right now and leave special forces only in Afghanistan. Stop nation building Afghanistan and instead use the 2 billion a week to put Americans back to work to literally rebuild America. Make infrastructure rebuilding a National Security issue, which it is, so that no Governor can refuse funds for political reasons. Immediately dismantle the Prescription Drug Scam Act and return to the government negotiating for drugs as we once did. Immediately return to tax rates to what they were during the Clinton Administration. Close tax loopholes so that corporations pay their fair share of taxes, instead of nothing as many of the most profitable corporations in the world are currently paying, as in ZERO $$$$!. Also close offshore tax loopholes for wealthy individuals as well as corporations hiding much of their profits to avoid paying their fair share of taxes on their profits. Retrofit every building to make them 90% Green and new ALL new construction, 100% Green. Make community gardens compost centers as well as all foods grown in them legal be sold to any private business. Build mass transit, trains, speed rails to phase out freeway congestion and significantly decrease air pollution. These actions would not only put millions back to work but it would also begin to level the playing field that has disappeared thanks to greed driven corporations and the politicians they have bought and paid for, as well as the wealthiest greedy, individuals experiencing incredible profits due to unfair, low taxes. These actions would significantly increase revenue, as well as begin to significantly address the debt in the long run while putting millions back to work to rebuild our nation, immediately. These actions are not radical and can be implemented if we, the people demand they be. We, the people, hired our elected officials to implement the people’s agenda, not corporations or the wealthiest among us. Remember we also have the power to fire them as well. If we, the people unite and remain united, we can, not only revive the American Dream but make it sustainable, if we take these actions immediately, as within months. Not pie-in-the-sky actions. These are very realistic, doable actions.
Thank you for your stating the obvious! social security is fully funded: the government has borrowed excessively from the fund to promote defense operations, etc, and bail out Wall street–whose mismanagement (understatement) is the reason for the derivitave market ripoff of the entire world economy…its value is greater than the entire gdp of the world. Why is it that there are so many folks in middle and lower classes who buy the right wing agenda? It is because the word is not getting out there! Both the left and the right are culpable for the wholesale ripoff of the American people. It’s time to withhold the congressional pay until we start taking care of the vulnerable in our country—waiting for a thousand points of light is pretty ridiculous.
Withhold Congressional pay ?? And exactly how to propose that be accomplished? Kick them all out of office and elect new members? Everyone kicked out of office would get full salary and benefits for life. Sounds like a great solution. Any other ideas? Or are you just a simpleton.
Social security is broke the SSI administration sends out letters just before your BDay every year. This year when I got my letter it said. By 2016 they will pay out more than they receive. The letter also said that by 2037 you can expect to receive 78 cents out of every dollar you paid in. if the money is mine and in a lock box just for me where is the 22 percent going.
We can start to fix the issues of America being broke by forcing the 47 percent of the tax payers who pay nothing start paying something. Also we need to make it so that tax payers no longer receive back more than they pay in to the system. Third we need to cut spending by eliminating all none constitutional programs. It should go some thing like this.
Welfare gets 0 dollars. Department of homeland security gets 0 dollars, department of education get 0 dollars, Department of agriculture get 0 dollars, Department of the interior gets 0 dollars, This cutting would continue until all jobs not listed in article one section 8 are defunded. Everything not listed in the constitution should be turned back over to the states. All current retires continue to get their checks. Everyone under the age of 50 gets all of their money back in the form of tax breaks until they are fully refunded. All young people just joining the work force are never offered the program.
I think you just described a solid third world dictatorship….. No education…Duh! No security of our ports of entry…Duh!Go back to your Libertarian friends and ask for help the next time you need security, clean safe water and food,moron!
what makes you so dependant on the government for everything you do? What makes you think that the government is the only entity that can do anything of value. He government is not the only answer to education. Even the cities in California have been turning their schools to private companies.
Port security is the responsibility of the coast guard, fbi maybe, and the local police. The department of homeland security is a complete and total waste of time and money. All the agencies I said should be cut should be cut because they either have state equivalence that are much better at the job than the federal government.
how much food does the department of agriculture produce? how much energy does the department of energy produce? the answer to both questions is zero
As far as clean water do you drink bottled water? I hope not cause that comes from a private company not the government..
Hey, I thought we were to have a July 5th Ideas session?