Please, enough twisting of the facts by Don Roberts and Joseph Reisert. They continue the buzz words of the right: “income redistribution” and “class warfare,” as if they were targeted toward the wealthy. How absurd!

The fact is that income redistribution has been occurring all right, but the transfer has been from the poor and middle incomes to the wealthy. And the class warfare? Yup, that’s right, but billionaire Warren Buffett said it best several years ago: “Of course there is class warfare, and we are winning.”

What is interesting is that Mike Harmon had it right when he noted that the situation had gotten worse under Barack Obama. But is that supposed to make us feel better? This is not about Obama or George W. Bush or Bill Clinton. This is about an economic structure dominated by greed.

Roberts and Reisert can trot out all the tax tables they like, but after the loopholes and exemptions and shelters, the tax bills of the wealthy look like Mitt Romney’s: somewhere around 12 percent. After all, who makes the rules? Who hires the lobbyists to turn things in their favor? Who dumps millions into political campaigns at state and federal and even local levels?

It’s the golden rule: “He who has the gold makes the rules.”

The next time they write about this subject, I expect the word “leftist” or “communist” applied to anyone opposed to the current financial arrangement. Trickle down economics works all right — for the rich and the powerful.

From top to bottom, from state capitals to Washington, the game is rigged and the middle class is being driven into the even widening ravine of poverty. Income redistribution and class warfare is real but it is the reverse of what the political right would have us believe.

Stephen AucoinWaterville

Copy the Story Link