It's not a stimulus bill only...

[Bread and Circus]

It's also a Robin Hood bill.

It's this simple:

Our whole financial, corporate, and military-industrial system is geared, gamed, and abused in order to funnel wealth created by human labor and the consumption of fossil fuel from the people toward the rich, powerful, and well connected. This became especially so with 8 years of George Bush.

The Bill before us is a big pile of money borrowed (from God knows where) against our future to redistribute wealth back to the populace.

Luckily, we have a progressive tax structure (which needs to be more progressive) and the lion share of absolute tax dollars is paid by the rich so if this loan ever gets paid off, it will mainly be the rich paying it. Thank the denizens of Sherwood Forest for that.

This, in effect, makes the bill a redistribution of wealth from the rich back to the average and poor. It's a Robin Hood Bill. That's why the Republicans hate it and that's why Joe and Jane Average should look upon it a little more fondly.

Frames people, frames.

Now, there's a certain hazard in it because in some ways it's robbing Peter to pay Paul and we are borrowing against our future. Massive debt partly got us into this trouble, so how is more debt going to help us out? We need to be cognizant of that.

However, if the Bill passes and is coupled with A LOT of other smart reform that stems some of the overwhelming tide that punishes the working class and by bits and measures transfers their wealth to rich, we might actually pull out of this tailspin.

After the bill, several big things need to happen in my opinion if we are to ever right our course and start to reverse our worsening debt, and save our stature for our children:

1.) Get in control of our energy supply which means electric cars and amplifying all clean(ish - LOL)sources of domestic electricity while modernizing and democratizing a bi-directional grid. Every land owner should be able to as easily contribute to the grid as take from it.

2.) Make our industries competitive abroad by establishing national health care. Period.

3.) Actually do what is necessary to replace all the manufacturing jobs we lost. The gov't has to partner w/ the captains of industry to truly bring us the high tech manufacturing that was promised when ink was put to paper to outsource our blue collar Joe Jobs.

4.) Get the fuck out of the "occupational war business" and have a light and lethal footprint abroad to destabilize and disrupt terrorist activity. Couple this with a more balanced foreign policy that makes more allies than enemies.

5.) Right our moral wrongs (discrimination against gays, institutional sexism and racism, torture, etc.)to be a beacon of light in the world again.

6.) Make the tax structure more progressive and off-burden the poor, working, and middle class. In other words, do what Obama promised - raise taxes on the rich and effectively lower them for everyone else.

[panader0]

1. Good post. Rec'd

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. The Republicans are King Richards