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Manhattan Diary by Cahir O'Doherty

The GOP's contract on America

Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 10:18 AM

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I'm not sure how long it will take or when the American public will decide to admit it, but the country has changed for the worse in the last 25 years.

It's the conversation the GOP doesn't want us to have.

I'm talking about the massive and growing gap between the haves and the have-nots here. In the past decade the richest percentile saw its income grow by a remarkable 17 percent, while in contrast the middle class saw their real income fall.

Thank our tax rates. The richest Americans saw their effective tax rates fall from 30 percent in 1995 to just 17 percent in 2007.

The top one percent of Americans now take home nearly a quarter of all income and own more than 40 percent of the countries wealth (which, ironically enough, is roughly the same amount as the bottom 90 percent).

Who would suggest that's fair? Who would try to tell you the super wealthy are somehow now worth more to the United States than at any point in our history?

For the rich it's really the best of times. In fact, it's an unprecedented gilded age. They're clearly enjoying a record bonanza, but where are all the trickle down jobs that we've been promised?

Did you know that the majority of Americans now support raising taxes on the rich as well as cutting spending to reduce the nation's deficit? Did you know they support a restructuring of America's tax systems to ensure a much more equitable society where each citizen pays their fair share and where high priced accountants can't get you out of your responsibility?

America now ranks below every nation in Europe in terms of income equality. Read that again. Our collapsing infrastructure, our run down highways, the soaring costs of our education and our health care are all symptomatic of much wider crisis: there's an elite class in America that has retreated to its gated communities and need never concern itself with the struggles of the citizens or the nation beyond their well guarded electric fences.

At some point, unintentionally, the contract with America became the contract on America. There's still plenty of profit around, but it's being hoarded, and not invested, as the nation falters.

Why does the GOP not want to talk about this? Surely it's their patriotic duty?

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eiriamach | Jul 12, 2011, 02:56 PM EDT

This is an object lesson in why we should regulate corporations, banks, & investment companies and just ignore the outcries of "socialism" that arise when anyone suggests closing corporate tax loopholes or ending taxpayers' subsidies of big oil or agricultural industries. Corporate welfare, medical-establishment welfare, pharmaceutical welfare, etc.-- a billion here and a trillion there and before ya' know it, it adds up to real money! The problem is not only the "owners" (huge stockholders) of the corporations at the top of the income scale. It's also the managers and business professionals who are still in upper-middle-income brackets but who aspire to millionaire status under the patronage of the super-wealthy. They turn a blind eye to abuses and risk-taking with pension fund money and retirement savings and aggregated mortgage funds. The mega-wealthy and the managers who help keep their wealth in private bank accounts rather than the US Treasury are the problem. Democrats must stop compromising with these raiders of our national wealth.

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CarolMaske | Jul 12, 2011, 02:14 PM EDT

There is a solution to this. It is called the Democratic Party. Why people in this country still vote for the Republican candidates, especially after enduring G.W. Bush, simply eludes me.

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hancock | Jul 12, 2011, 02:08 PM EDT

Whiner liberal nation. No wonder Ireland is sinking under the waves.

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JBRAFTREE | Jul 12, 2011, 01:41 PM EDT

PatriciaMarya, Painful to read, but well put. Hang in there, we Irish-Americans will continue to carry the ball, as our Immigrant relatives did before us.

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PatriciaMarya | Jul 12, 2011, 01:09 PM EDT

Thank you so much for putting in writing what we citizens have been agonizing about for too, too long. Why oh why, however, will no one listen to U.S.? Is it because Congress considers itself Landed Gentry or Nouveau Royalty? Those of U.S. on Social Security and Medicare did nothing but work all of our lives and contribute with our payroll taxes and FICA, but instead of going after the investor-owned and driven for-profit Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industries, they want to blame U.S. for imposing by living. I can't deduct vitamins from my Plan D carrier and only use one Rx, but I pay the same amount as people who don't take responsibility for their health. Why do we have money to prop up countries all over the world when the leaders of these countries only deposit the cash in their own personal Swiss bank accounts. All the countries of the world demand standards and caps from Big Pharma and then these Big Pharma greed heads go before Congress and demand tax breaks and then make up their supposedly profit-shortfalls off of U.S. and no one comes to our defense. Is there a Country out there that would like a healthy, college educated, well-experienced 71 year old? I see the doctor twice a year for preventive care, floss every day and am an ex-Physical Education teacher so I know how to carry my own baggage. Is a high-IQ a deficit they way it is thought of in the U.S. or would you respect it? Any country? I wish it could be Ireland since that is my heritage, but my heart breaks for your struggles as well. It is more than bewildering, it is chilling. How has this come about for all of the good people of the World.

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joanxis | Jul 12, 2011, 12:36 PM EDT

I agree wholeheartedly with all of you, except maloney and colkelley.

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Hillwalker | Jul 12, 2011, 11:39 AM EDT

Good man and all Cahir. But I believe it was a "contract ON America" from the get-go.

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seagreen | Jul 12, 2011, 10:55 AM EDT

colkelley tell about your pension and your free medical care, because if you are a colonel (bird I assume) you were in for at least twenty years, which means that you lived in a socialist system most of your adult life ! I assume you are working on another pension as a GS something. Would you like to trade places with the so called 40 per cent that are living in trailers and eating macaroni and cheese. Of course that would not bother you, you have done it all. Do you realize that you are destroying the very buffer that has allowed guys like you to survive all of these years, because there is no more money to produce the lower middle class kids that that have defended you and your ilk all of these years. The next crowd that takes over this country will have little concern for people like you. So keep eating, keep gobbling up profits, and hope that the offspring of this new wave of $12.00 an hr Republicans will be watching over you in the future.

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Searlit | Jul 12, 2011, 10:50 AM EDT

Way to go Cahir! Great stuff! You did your research! Thanks for the article. I wonder if it bothers the poster who referenced your articles as "socialist/communist rants") that we pay so many billions to subsidize mega-corporations.

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joan1954 | Jul 12, 2011, 10:03 AM EDT

Now how to get this information to congressmen and senators.

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colkelley | Jul 12, 2011, 09:59 AM EDT

Thanks for ignoring that the top income groups already pay the vast majority of the taxes and that 40% of Americans not only pay no taxes at all, but many get "earned income credit" in which they get take rebates for taxes they never paid. Once again Cahir ignores the facts because they get in the way of his mindless socialist/communist rants.

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llyndsey | Jul 12, 2011, 09:56 AM EDT

Thanks for telling it like it is.

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