Working Life

No one is going to be surprised by this news. It was pretty evident by the facts on the ground: The Justice Department has not been telling the truth about its mortgage fraud investigations and prosecutions. This pretty serious allegation has considerable weight given that it comes not from some blogger or analyst but directly from the Department’s own Inspector General.

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It’s sort of a tiring exercise. Each time some so-called “free trade” deal comes up, the president at the time (read: Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama) trots out a whole series of phony arguments to make the case for a very bad agreement–bad if you are anything but a corporation. You have to willfully ignore past evidence to swallow the same old tired arguments used to ram through these crappy agreements. But, let’s celebrate an anniversary here to trumpet the collapse of any plausible argument being used to sell the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

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With one hand, he giveth a few dollars to the people, and with the other hand, he showers huge corporations with a tax gift that is astounding in its…audacity? That’s how I suggest you can look at the president’s executive order to pay more workers overtime (a good thing) versus his budget proposal to…pay attention now..CUT corporate tax rates.

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Why does Apple avoid paying taxes? Because it can.

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I know, you are shocked, shocked, shocked that the proposal from Congressman Dave Camp, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is awful. But, good to have the facts on exactly why.

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Tom Daschle wasn’t the worst Democrat you could have in the Senate–yes, a back-handed compliment. Kind of populist on some issues. But, since he was defeated for re-election, he’s turned into a real corporate hack mouthpiece. Especially on trade.

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You take for granted that the malevolent Koch Brother billionaires and FOX will go all out to keep robbing workers. That’s just what they do. But, a much more pernicious danger undercutting workers is the inaccurate way in which the traditional “liberal” media and a whole raft of politicians describe what has happened to wages. It’s typically referred to as “wage stagnation”. That is false: it’s wage robbery.

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I don’t mind disagreeing with opponents on the merits of one proposal versus another. But, I have very little tolerance for just lying about the facts or, at best, muddling the truth about the reality. And, so, it is with healthcare: the continuing myth, promoted by both the political and media jabbering low-minds, that the president and his former Secretary of State both made the same mistake on health care–they opted for something too “complex” “inflexible”, “secretive” or “socialistic”, or a combination of all of the aforementioned descriptions.

It’s utter nonsense. They did make the same mistake–but it had nothing to do with complexity. It was entirely their immoral unwillingness to confront two powerful industries that have relentlessly killed hundreds of thousands of people, either by bankrupting those people or literally denying them care.

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It’s new data but not a new revelation because this bit of news is nothing we haven’t already become accustomed to. Corporations are robbing the country, robbing because corporations pocket profits made possible from all the investments in human and physical capital made thanks to taxes regular people pay but the same corporations do squat when it comes to paying a fair share.

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C’mon, seriously, has it gotten to the point of such desperation to pass middle-class crushing, poverty-enhancing trade deals that drive inequality that the White House treats its allies, members of Congress and activists as if they are idiots? That’s a rhetorical question.

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