Written by C Gardner Wilson   

This is serious, so listen up youngsters, 30 somethings, 40 somethings, 50 somethings, and you sleepy old folks. Listen and you will hear radical members of Congress and our own "middle-of-the-road" President say the things they must say as they lay the groundwork for the assassination of Social Security, medical care, and the rest of our social safety nets.

Already, each desperate group of Americans has been primed for the looming debate. Our young Americans have been told that Social Security and medical care will not be there for them in the same way these programs have been there for their parents and their grandparents. So, why should the young and the 30 somethings and the 40 somethings support a Social Security and medical care system that will not be there when they want to retire? Already, the 50 somethings have been told that Social Security and medical care "may" be there for them, but it will be a Social Security and a medical care "on the decline," a Social Security and a medical care that probably will not be there for their children and their grandchildren. So, all our middle-aged Americans are just hoping that they will not become dependent on their children and their grandchildren. And, the sleepy old folks are just praying that old age will take them before the money runs out.

But, we all are wondering where it all went wrong, in the first place. No one can say that the financial crisis was the fault of the American people. It was spawned in the dark minds of depraved and greedy men still found walking the floors of Wall Street. No one, whose job it was to prevent these things, did their job. Those who failed to do their jobs and prevent that financial meltdown have not been fired or even humiliated for that failure; and, except for those who stole those trillions of dollars from all of us, the rest of us have paid for it, and we continue to pay for it. Once, before the Greatest Theft in History, older Americans had planned for their savings to support them for the rest of their lives. But, now, older Americans, whose assets have been crippled by the thieves we have yet to see brought to justice, have been forced to live off their rapidly dwindling savings. This means that, with every passing year, more, and more, older Americans will run out of savings and be forced to turn to our government for food assistance, medical assistance, housing assistance, as well as assistance in paying other household bills. But, these are just some of our social safety net programs that have been cut and continue to be cut in the name of the national debt. So, who will support these, largely blameless, older Americans as our social safety nets are destroyed?

We know that this burden will fall to the communities and to the working families. We also know that many communities cannot or will not carry this burden, so the responsibility to support their older members, their youngest members, and any other members who may need support will fall, primarily, to the workers within each family. This is precisely what the younger workers do not see. They do not see that this burden will fall onto them. What happens if the young workers do not want to support their parents and their grandparents? What happens if the young worker cannot support both their own children and their parents and grandparents, as well? If this Congressional Budget Super Committee places the noose around the necks of Social Security and medical care, then what will today's young people tell their aging parents, tomorrow?

Yet, today, the elderly and most other Americans are protected by Social Security, Medicare, and our other social safety nets. So long as these social safety nets remain, no elderly person must turn to their families for support, no young families must suffer the torture of choosing between the well being of their young children and the well being of a parent, no children must be hungry or sick or cold, no child must be uneducated, and no communities must suffer the pain of seeing the elderly and the infirm sleeping under bridges, hungry, sick, and dying.

Social Security and Medicare and our other social safety nets do not need to suffer this slow strangulation. If the wealthy had paid Social Security and Medicare taxes on all of their incomes (like most of the rest of us did), then we would be rolling in money. But, they did not. In order to save Social Security and Medicare, for all time and for all generations, and, in order to restore them to the fully inflation-protected programs that they were intended to be, the wealthiest would have to pay these taxes plus a little bit more to make up for all those years they did not pay these taxes. But, today, we, as a people, are acting more like animals. Our young and strong Americans are snarling at our old and weak Americans, as each is trying to keep what each has, and the devil is taking the hindmost.

This is a politician's dream. We have become a divided people, an angry people, a people ready to eschew each other and be damned. Still, we listen to the same politicians who have so carefully crafted this crisis. A crisis designed to destroy hope. A crisis designed to impoverish us and ours, while it enriches them and theirs. A crisis started by fighting an unnecessary Iraqi war that was paid for by increasing our national debt. A crisis compounded by the long and drawn out punishment of Afghanistan that has been and is being paid for by increasing our national debt. A crisis made exponentially worse by the theft of trillions of dollars from all of us by the fraud and outright criminality of an entire class of bankers, brokers, and their elite clients. A crisis continued throughout this recession, a recession caused by these same unrepentant and unpunished criminals. A crisis created to justify the upcoming report from the Congressional Budget Super Committee.

We already know that this report will call for the strangulation of Social Security by adopting an inflation-protection that does not protect against inflation. We already know that this report will call for the strangulation of food assistant programs, subsidized medical care programs, and subsidized education programs. We already know that this report will not call for a substantial tax increase on the wealthy in order to pay for our tattered social safety nets. And, yes, we already know that this report will lay the foundation for dismantling our way of life. Yet, there is a way forward that does not destroy our social safety nets.

We should remember that, toward the end of World War II, FDR taxed the wealthy at a rate of 94%, a rate that continued during the post war economic boom. We also should recall that, after World War II, England placed an additional 10% net assets tax on all of its wealthiest citizens. If we did the same things to our wealthiest citizens, then our 17 trillion dollar national debt would be wiped out in just a few years. Social Security, Medicare, and the bulk of our social safety nets would be on a solid foundation for as far as the eye can see. And, we should remember that there is nothing new about this level of taxation, it has been done before and an economic boom happened, nonetheless.

We should make it clear that we are ready to do this. Just as the crazies in the radical Republican caucus have made it clear that they are ready to destroy this country in order to bring us to our knees before the billionaire bandits and their international corporations, so we should make it clear that we are ready to tax those same billionaires and their international corporations. Next, we should make it clear that we will use that tax money to pay off our national debt, a national debt we incurred as the wealthiest among us profited from the special earmarks and the huge war contracts paid for by increasing that same national debt.

There is a great injustice that will be done by the Congressional Budget Super Committee, if they fail to see the irony in this situation. Our national social safety nets are being shredded, because the wealthiest among us, who have made their fortunes by running up our national debt, now want the rest of us to give up the social safety nets that we have created over the last 100 years, so they, the wealthiest, can continue their opulent lifestyles. They want us to give up our way of life. Our way of life has protected us against demands that we works unlimited hours. Our way of life has protected us against demands that we work without receiving enough pay and benefits to support our family with, at least, decent housing, a quality education, good nutrition, and quality medical care. And, our way of life has guaranteed a minimal retirement for all. Our way of life is the American way of life.

So, whether we are young or we are old, we must stand up, stand tall, stand loud, and stand firm for an absolute commitment to a fully inflation-protected Social Security, medical care, and a basic social safety net for every American, forever. This has been the American way of life for which we and our ancestors have fought, struggled, and died. It is ours by right, but only so long as we demand it. It is the good life. Why would we ever give it up?