I've been busy and away from Open Salon a long time, but I just had to find a place to get this off my chest and this is the place, so here goes.

There is an easy way to begin to balance our national budget.  Would someone please explain to me why it is simply not on the table to make corporations pay their fair share of taxes, stop sending all our jobs overseas (those workers pay no U.S. taxes, no Social Security taxes, no Medicare taxes) and stop giving huge executive salaries and bonuses...what person actually needs millions of dollars of pay, bonuses and perqs every year, year after year?!  Now that is  immorality for you...and, of course, those high bracket "rich" people are the ones whom we can't ask to pay their fair share of taxes??  Really? WHY NOT?

It's called greed, folks.  When did this become something to be admired?  When did it become more important to our national values to protect the rich at all costs.  Think about it...literally at all costs, like the well being and security of all the rest of us?  And this has been coming a long time.  Remember, it was always the Social Security trust fund that was hit up for loans to balance budgets the easy way (without taxing everyone fairly) and is anyone really surprised that somehow once the trust fund was emptied it was somehow never possible to repay those loans?  

The rich and the corporations need protection because supposedly they will be the source of jobs for everyone?  Oh really?  Where?  In Pakistan, in Indonesia?  India?  But meanwhile it is on the table to destroy Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and every program that benefits women, children, the elderly, the sick and our most vulnerable and impoverished citizens.  Programs like the WIC food programs for Women, Infants and Children; Planned Parenthood which already does NOT use our tax dollars to provide abortions but DOES offer free or affordable health services to women; programs like the health care reform; programs like Head Start. And when, for example, any possibly viable national health plan is destroyed, the idea is then to give senior citizens vouchers to go out and purchase their own health insurance rather than continue funding Medicare and Medicaid...in a run amok open market (remember, repealing "ObamaCare" with its cost reforms and guarantees that no one can be denied due to pre-existing conditions is also a big agenda item) where no one can afford self insurance?  Sound like a good idea to you?  When there scarcely a senior citizen on the planet, not to mention in this country, that does NOT have pre-existing conditions?

We could reform and improve and make these long-established programs more cost efficient, but no one wants to talk about how to do that.  Really?  I thought American ingenuity could accomplish anything, but apparently not anymore.  Who believes that?  I don't, because I have more faith in our traditional American values and national character strengths than that!  But apparently,  elected legislators don't have that faith.  All they can imagine is to keep sticking it to the poor and middle class and protect the rich and corporations.  We can clearly see now who they would require to make all the sacrifices.  And that's okay, is it?  Really? 

When are we going to recognize we are fast becoming a people subjugated to corporate dictatorship?  When did we become so stupid as to sit idly by while the political landscape changed to the point where activist Supreme Court justices could declare incorporated legal entities to be "Persons" who can make huge and undisclosed campaign contributions and buy almost any election?  

Well, gee, if corporations are "PERSONS" then shouldn't they be taxed like "PERSONS?"  But wait, I forgot.  NO, because they are rich "PERSONS."  And we have to protect all the tax cuts and breaks for the rich and corporations.  (Well, the politicians have to protect them, because after all, the rich and corporations are the ones who fill up their re-election coffers.)

Let's all try to remember what we see happening right now in Washington, and in our state capitals, the next time we go to the voting booth, shall we?  For pity's sake, remember how crucial every vote can be and don't expend yours foolishly or on a whim just to make a quick and angry statement.  Find out who and what you are really voting for before you cast your vote.  Learn to see past all the lies, absurdities and disinformation...and the lies (birthers, REALLY???!)  Look for statesmen and stateswomen to vote for, not self-interested power brokers.  Look for people willing to truly compromise for the sake of the common good, for the greater good, for all of us, in other words for We, the People.