Raw Economic Populism would win every election for the Dems yet

[kratos12]

they don't seem to have the will to even suggest it.

Reich suggested a perfect antidote to both the economic malaise that the middle class finds itself in AND a way to dismantle the nutbag Republican coalition wich exploits middle class dissatisfaction.

Simply remove payroll taxes from the first 20% of what everybody earns and reinstate payroll taxes on income over 250K (it currently stops at 103K? I think).

It's a perfect plan.

It takes the Republican mantra of of "Low taxes + Reduce Deficit" and turns it on it's ear by actually lowering taxes on people who would actually spend thiose savings while placing a heavier burden on those who have thrived in this economy.

So why haven't I heard ANY Democrat in either house second this proposal?

Why?

[msongs]

1. ya can't be a democrat populist and appease republicans at the same time nt

[kratos12]

2. All too true

What shocks me is why they seem to persist in trying to not offend Repukes when they KNOW the gameplan is to attack everything and anything no matter how mundane that any Democrat does.

Why try to mollify an opponent who has no interest at all in playing fair.

[ipaint]

4. There are no opponents.

There are no sides. Heads they win, tails we lose.

[pinto]

3. Federal Tax Brackets (via Moneychimp.com)

http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm

[DURHAM D]

5. The idea of removing the tax on first 20% sounds good until you think about it.

You get out what you put in. It would cause the program to be subject to simple political tinkering and eventually kill SS all together.

Just take the cap off - currently $106,800 is the cap for SS collection.

[kratos12]

7. I disagree

I'm fine with just removing the cap, but the only way to get the people to support this would be to give them something of substance in return.

Otherwise the Repukes will simply attack it as a tax hike on "the middle class".

No, Reich's suggestion works politically by shattering the central Repuklican argument of the last 30 years.

[DURHAM D]

8. Sorry - can't follow your logic.

Also, just imagine how an employer is supposed to know when an employee hits 21% of earned wages for the year. A Ouija Board? A fortune teller? A fortune cookie?

And, the people who have a brain already support SS and have for 75 years. Frankly, I have not heard any Republican opposition to SS -just Obama and his Cat Food Commission. Obama has been pushing the SS crisis since the primary. It is a lie. Get it - a lie. That is why Obama is having trouble with support from seniors and pre-seniors. They know he has lied and continues to do so. They know the solution is to simply remove the cap. Period.

Not sure what your point is - perhaps you have just realized the whole Obama set-up is bogus.

[kratos12]

12. Not 21%, the first 20K of earnings

I'm not as cynical about Obama as you are.

I don't attribute any malicious intent by the Dems regarding the "cat food commision" instead I see, yet again, the Dems responding to Repuke ideas instead of simply embracing their own.

Heres a link to Reich's op-ed: http://www.truth-out.org/robert-reich-tax-jujitsu-why-democrats-should-propose-a-peoples-tax-cut62665

[DURHAM D]

13. Your OP say 20%.

The congress voted not to set up the Deficit Commission. Obama then did it by Executive Order and stacked it with Conservatives.

You can not blame Democrats for this - you can only blame Obama and I am not certain he is a Democrat.

[datasuspect]

6. because it is not in the best interests of the ownership class who use both mainstream political

parties as wedge issue driven corruption machines.

[Larry Ogg]

10. You've just about hit the nail on the head,

and I have no doubt that the content of your description has volumes of truth to back it up, but I think the term "Ownership Class" is being way to kind... Sadly great civilizations of the past have fallen into ruin despite the genius of great philosophers and problem solvers who didn't understand the psychology, and were erroneously way too kind as they spoke of the fraudulent scum that rose to the top of human society. So justice would be better served and the class that does all the hard work more enlightened if a more objective description were applied to those who prey on their own species, because they are free from conscience, imbued with insatiable greed, wrought with deceit, the spawn of evil, the cause of untold suffering and the harbingers of war and death...

Let's call successful psychopaths what they are... The antithesis of what is fare and just...

...They are The Predator Class...

[KittyWampus]

9. the Democrats HAVE consistently lowered taxes of middle/lower incomes and raised taxes on wealthy>

the problem is the rightwing has the Media to trumpet "Democrats raise taxes" despite it's only on a tiny fraction of the very wealthy.

[OHdem10]

11. Conservadems (DLC Blue Dogs Third Way) will go into fits of

teeth-gnashing after all their Masters on Wall Street
hate the very thought populism. Geithner hates populism

[Larry Ogg]

14. Every conceivable economic or political system is doomed to failure

because of abnormalities in the psyche of a small human minority, psychopathy appears in 6% of the human population and most of these individuals end up in the prison system, but enough of them end up in positions of great power, economically and politically; the difference between a psychopath in a prison uniform and a psychopath in a three piece suit, can be as simple as whether one is heir to a fortune or an heir to poverty, and if it's hard to imagine what happens when they group together and take over political parties and governments, take a good look at the Republican Party, take a good look at the unelected Bush Regime, and ask your self this question. Why didn't the Democratic Party bring the infamous ghouls to justice when they had a chance, and why are they acquiescing to the status-quo, aka the predator class? If the majority of citizens who have a conscience, ever dreamed of a better world for all, and thought that a political or economic system could be created that would bring it about, without first understand and usurping the power of the predator class, they are dreaming a dream that (like the American dream)is doomed to fail...