Time for another American revolution

The middle class in America is under siege. It's in retreat, while Fortress Washington continues to pull the wool over the nation's eyes. So far, it's gotten away with it. The time has come to turn the tables on those who no longer represent us.

The threat posed by Fortress Washington goes far beyond the escalating national debt or the fact that the president and Congress can't agree on anything. In fact, the threat we face is one that puts at risk the foundation of the American experiment in democracy — individual freedom, liberty, economic prosperity and national security.

Not convinced? Ponder this:

The nation's debt is more than $16 trillion and rising rapidly. Left unchecked, it's only a matter of time before we encounter a punishing debt crisis worse than what has happened in Europe. Washington refuses to address it.

The federal income tax code and its regulations are an impenetrable jungle of tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations that inhibit economic growth. The code is more than 16,800 pages! Washington won't reform it.

The nation's entitlement programs are out of control. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are projected by their trustees to be on a trajectory to insolvency. Washington's fear of voter retribution has paralyzed it.

Unscrupulous behavior on Wall Street, by the insurance industry and by federal housing regulators precipitated a catastrophic recession that wiped out more than $14 trillion of national wealth, triggered a massive contraction of the national economy and produced record unemployment and underemployment. Fortress Washington responded by passing a financial regulation bill largely written by the Wall Street banks that created the crisis.

The price of college education is now out of reach for millions of American families. Student debt is more than $1 trillion and can't be forgiven, even by bankruptcy. About a third of the nation's children do not graduate from high school, and many who do can't read, write or think coherently. The nation's system of public education is ill equipped to meet the demands of the 21st century global economy. Washington hides behind the canard that it's a state and local issue.

The nation's infrastructure is falling apart. The most recent report by the American Society of Civil Engineers has just given the nation's infrastructure a grade of D+, meaning its condition and capacity are at strong risk of failure. Fixing it would cost $3.6 trillion by 2020. But Fortress Washington dithers.

The nation has $37 trillion in oil and gas royalty payments right beneath its feet, enough to make America energy independent, and Washington won't approve the Keystone pipeline.

The military is hollowed out and Congress continues to appropriate money for weapons systems that the Pentagon says it doesn't need. The nation has long been weary of two wars that have not been and will not be won. Washington pretends it's not a problem.

We need another American Revolution — now. We need to throw off the yoke of a government that represses its people by serving itself. For openers, we'll need a band of revolutionaries who will define the content of what must be done and educate the American people so they demand that those ideas be turned into reality.

I hope such a group will be convened and led by Tom Brokaw. I hope he will seek the help and assistance of Michael Bloomberg (after he leaves office), David Brooks, Mitch Daniels, Bob Gates, Michael Gerson, Newt Gingrich, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Richard Haass, Jon Huntsman, Paul Kirk, Peggy Noonan, Paul O'Neill, T. Boone Pickens, Colin Powell, Ed Rendell, Michelle Rhee, Tom Ridge, Olympia Snowe, Joseph Stiglitz and Arthur Travers. Let's call it the American Renaissance Board (ARB).

They should initially seek funding from several foundations such as the Carnegie Corporation, the Commonwealth Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the purpose of preparing the substantive content, context and structure of what needs to be done.

Think of the effort as the preparation of a series of Bowles-Simpson reports on everything essential that needs to be done to restore America — foreign and domestic. Once completed, it will be the blueprint for an American renaissance.

The implementation of this blueprint will require a lean, innovative and independent structure. The prototype for such a structure is the Federal Reserve System (the Fed), a unique blend of public and private elements that has existed for a century and that implements national monetary policy. The Fed is independent. Its board of governors does not receive funding from Congress and the terms of its governors span multiple presidential and congressional terms. This is the model, with appropriate modifications, that the ARB should emulate.

Of course, the most important and difficult task facing the ARB will be translating its ideas into action, into national policy.

Some will say an effort like this can never succeed. They are wrong because an enormous majority of the American people know their government doesn't work and isn't going to reform itself.

If the ARB is smart, creative and disciplined, it will ignite and unify most Americans in support of its agenda, an agenda to reverse America's decline and restore its greatness.

I wonder if this column will activate the goons in the Department of Justice and the thugs in the Internal Revenue System. I'll keep you apprised.

The Shadow's singing the Simon and Garfunkel lyrics "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you," but Goldman can be reached at:  EmailMe

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Sucker-punched by government

Last Sunday's column chronicled the gathering darkness enveloping the nation's middle class. Today's column reveals the extent to which the federal government has knowingly contributed to its growing desperation. Next Sunday's column will suggest a fix — a radical fix.

The American middle class has been central to the nation's well-being and economic prosperity for more than a century. Consumer spending, most of it by the middle class, constitutes about 70 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP).

When the middle class is employed, confident and secure, there is no stopping the American engine of democracy and prosperity. When it isn't, bad things happen — and happen quickly.

The nation's economic meltdown that began five years ago is a blistering example of things going south in a hurry. America's economic implosion and its dispirited middle class are nothing short of a national security crisis.

Americans have figured out that their government in Washington doesn't work. But they have no clue with respect to how profoundly and fundamentally broken it is. And more importantly, they don't understand that Washington is content with the way it is because it works for itself. Disillusioning as it is to comprehend, the hard fact of the matter is that Washington works for Washington, and it doesn't care that it doesn't work for us.

What it relies upon is our continued belief in a fiction that is killing the nation. The fiction is that most Democrats believe the problems are the fault of the Republicans and most Republicans believe the fault rests with the Democrats. As long as most Americans buy that false propaganda, we will remain pawns on Washington's chessboard.

Washington's corrupt system depends upon ignorance by millions of folks like you and me. And we play right into their hands. Look, for example, at a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll. It reveals that 42 percent of us don't know that Obamacare is law — 42 percent! Twelve percent of the nation believe Congress repealed it, 7 percent believe the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional, and another 23 percent simply didn't know whether it's law or not. Is it any wonder Washington gets away with murder?

In case you've forgotten, health care costs account for about 18 percent of the nation's GDP. Annual health care expenditures are about $2.6 trillion. At least one-third of those expenditures are wasted. That waste would fund the Department of Defense. And the uncontrolled expansion of the Medicare and Medicaid entitlements will soon swallow the entire federal budget.

Although Obamacare does little to deal with these problems, Democrats love it, which is goofy, while Republicans would replace it with the current system, also goofy. And nearly half of us don't know whether it's a law or not. Ignorance isn't bliss. It's a prison.

So you want to fix a broken Senate? Start by getting rid of the leaders, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell. They are small-minded partisans who have proven beyond a doubt that they won't grapple with our most pressing problems. The Senate must also amend its rules to eliminate the filibuster and the 60-vote supermajority that is currently required to pass a bill. That's called the "nuclear option," and it's desperately needed.

In the House, start by ousting John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi, both partisan slugs. Then abolish the House Rules Committee, which prohibits members from offering amendments to bills when they reach the House floor. Finally, it's necessary to revise in most states the partisan process that state legislatures use to gerrymander House districts. This process has created hundreds of hyper-partisan districts represented by wingnuts of the right or the left. The New York Times political maven, Nate Silver, has reported there are only 35 swing districts remaining in the House — out of 435.

But worse than the Senate or the House is the executive branch. Including the Postal Service, it has about 2.7 million full- and part-time employees. I don't call them workers because an enormous number of them don't do productive work. Washington's best kept secret is that the executive branch is an immense welfare system that stands in the way of good government.

If the federal employees who have no real jobs and those who are incapable or unwilling to perform the jobs they hold were eliminated, the efficiency and effectiveness of those who remained would skyrocket.

But the system, as presently structured, won't permit that to happen. Any effort to remove bad apples or people employed in sinecures triggers complaints of discrimination and harassment that then paralyzes the effort in equal opportunity employment red-tape proceedings that drag on for years.

In fact, the culture of the executive branch has become so stifling and self-serving that Cabinet secretaries, the White House and the president either turn a blind eye to its perverse existence or praise it. Last month, at the ceremony for John Berry, the outgoing director of the Office of Personnel Management, President Barack Obama said, "John has been a champion for federal workers — men and women who devote their lives to vital tasks." A few days ago, Michelle Obama continued her federal agency thank you tour at the Agriculture Department where she said, "I'm here just to thank you for the terrific work."

Some federal workers do devote their lives to vital tasks, but hundreds of thousands don't. I know. I worked for the federal government for more than 35 years.

The Shadow's writing "How To Cure Ignorance For Dummies," but Goldman can be reached at:  EmailMe

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For middle class, hopelessness reigns

LeRoy Goldman
The Shadow Knows

Published: Sunday, May 5, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.

For middle class, hopelessness reigns

I've never ceased to be amazed at how frequently solutions to problems, even complex and controversial problems, remain out of reach even though those solutions hide in plain sight. Let's see if we can find a solution staring us in the face.

My sister and I grew up in a lower-middle-class family back in the '40s and '50s. Our family was not special. There were millions of families like ours. Our father was a high school graduate. Our mother was not. Neither of them attended college.

But both of them were passionate believers in the American Dream. They believed hard work coupled with determination and education would lead to a better life. And that is what they wanted for their children. They promised us a college education so long as we did our part every day in school. The sacrifices they willingly made stretched painfully over more than two decades. And their sacrifices and their confidence paid off for us in ways that went far beyond money.

But today that American Dream has become illusory for millions. The dream's promise lives on, but its reality has become nothing more than a gossamer for millions of Americans.

The Allstate-National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll, released 10 days ago, paints a grim picture of the middle class. Only 32 percent of Americans believe the nation is headed in the right direction. And they place the blame on Congress, President Barack Obama and the CEOs of major corporations and financial institutions.

Sixty-four percent of the middle class believe Congress is actually making things worse. Forty-five percent believe President Obama is making things worse, while only 36 percent believe he's making things better. Fifty-five percent believe the titans of major corporations and Wall Street are making things worse.

Fifty-nine percent of those polled expressed concern about falling out of the middle class. For them, middle class has now been redefined to mean not falling behind rather than getting ahead. Their biggest fear is losing their job.

Only 43 percent of the middle class believe they have the opportunity for financial and professional growth, buying a home, or saving and investing for the future. Most of them believe paying for a child's education is now out of reach. Up to a third of them believe affording quality health care, job security and yearly vacations is only attainable by the upper class, the top 2 percent of the population.

The middle class want policymakers in Washington and the private sector to increase economic growth and job creation. They want pathways that will enable them to attain higher education, which they now believe is affordable only for the upper class.

Writing about this in The New York Times on April 26, Charles Blow cited data from two recent Pew Research Center studies that found that since 2000 the middle class has grown smaller and fallen backward in income and wealth. The most recent study, released just last week, found that during the first two years of the nation's recovery from the current recession the mean net worth of households in the upper 7 percent of the nation rose by 28 percent, while the net worth of the other 93 percent of the population declined.

Blow concludes by saying, "In his State of the Union speech in February, President Obama said that the ‘true engine of America's economic growth is a rising, thriving middle class.' It certainly looks as if that engine has stalled."

Maybe I'm missing something, but it's clear to me that the obvious way out of this mess is for either or both of our political parties to jettison what they have been doing and embark on a wholly new set of ideas designed to re-energize and rescue the middle class. Whichever political party does that will inherit a governing mandate for a very long time.

For very different reasons, neither party has been up to the task. Obama has proven that he's not able to successfully govern and cope with the magnitude of the problems that beset the nation. His legislative landmarks are a joke.

There was the stimulus that didn't, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that does neither, and the Financial Regulation Act that was written by Wall Street. But we're stuck with Obama because he wins by default.

The Republicans, in an act of self-destruction, have removed themselves from the national political field of play. Their race to the right and to oblivion, led by the tea party, has been genuinely bizarre — something that not even a mother could love.

What will likely prevent the Democrats from thinking boldly enough to design a strategy that will appeal to the despondent middle class is the fact that they are held hostage by the female activists, African-Americans and Hispanics who use political correctness as a club to get their way.

The Republicans are hamstrung by the religious right, the tea party and too many angry whites who believe they've got a corner on truth.

The Shadow could write the new deal for the middle class in a couple of weeks. Until he's finished, let's sequester Congress and the president in a jumbo jet on the tarmac with plenty of food and drink and only one bathroom. That'll do the trick.

The Shadow's holed up writing, but Goldman can be reached at:  EmailMe

Please Visit:  Citizens Against Politics As Usual

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