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Edited on Tue Dec-02-03 05:29 PM by AP
necessary to ensure that wealth flows to the majority of Americans in a downward and outward fashion. The essence of conservativis, to me, is that you believe that wealth should flow up the wealth ladder, and should become more concentrated.
In the last thirty years the tool that Republicans use most effectively to flow wealth in the wrong direction is regressive taxation. Someone at DU wrote about attending a Dean fundraiser at a Philadelphia law firm at which someone asked Dean why he simply wouldn't let the "middle class" have their tax breaks, and take back the breaks for the rich only. Dean said that he couldn't give a benefit to the "upper middle class" or he'd be accused of not being a Democrat.
To me, that's the essence of what's wrong with Dean. Democrats shouldn't be trying to conflate the interests of the middle class with the super rich class and then pretending that they all have to make a sacrifice for the sake of balanced budgets. A democrat should be talking about how the middle class and working class have been getting the short end of the stick for the last 30 years, for the sake of outrageous wealth for the super wealthy, and he should be talking like he's going to do something about that.
Also, a democrat shouldn't have an education plan that just encourages even more student debt. He should have plan which reduces the amount that students have to take out in loans. Dean's education plan, in other words, is another transfer of wealth in the wrong direction, from students and the taxpayers who subsidize their loan payments to the banks making student loans.
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