Looking Ahead

LOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis Bad campaigns and search for power Our telephones seem to have become open targets for unsolicited phone calls, selling credit card services, cheap Con Ed charges and ocean cruises, the latter low cost and even free (beware). It is not just the robocalls, it is those poor untrained voices that cannot pronounce names, spell out the services offered and supply any details. It is as though the phone were the last refuge for the poor, unemployed and unlettered, a cheap way to earn a commission that is unlikely to materialize, with work that must be totally depressive in processing the responses, at best hang-ups and at worst curses. Whatever happened to the "no unsolicited calls accepted" system? One has to feel sorry for the callers. One also has to feel sorry for us, should we fall in the hands of Governor Mitt Romney, who pays only 15% tax on his multi-million annual income, the son of the highly respected high-earning president of America Motors, who paid full 37% on his income, which at under $1million annually was very high for the latter half of the 1900s. Those were the days when executives earned high positions by faithful service to the corporation, stockholders and employees, and did not push for high bonuses and huge bailout pay. Corporations thrived, and, if not, were merged or refinanced without the Bain Capital type dynamics. Now we find that Romney Son has been keeping many of his fast earned millions in offshore bank accounts, potentially the first US president to do so. He revealed his Swiss bank account in his 2010 income tax disclosure, but further holdings in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda offshore bank shelters were reported in Vanity Fair, early in July. These accounts were apparently maintained for investment holdings, used for complex partnership income which Mr. Romney received after leaving the private investment firm he founded. By disclosing this information , President Obama's people were careful not to question the general practice of corporations and executives to diminish their tax rates by any means that are legal. The Romney camp defined his tax payments, totally legitimate, to be no more and no less than what is allowed by law. The Obama campaign wants to make sure that its effort has nothing to do with demonizing wealth, as some commentators suggest. Nevertheless, this and other measures taken by the tea party/right wing advocates clearly indicate that the red state representatives want America to be pure, not immigrant tainted and not- oriented toward the have-less.That includes us, the constantly eroding middle-class, work to success oriented masses, faithful to the shared responsibilities of the social contract (I don't want to quote Hume and Locke and the Constitution of the United States, maybe later.) In Pennsylvania, the legislature has enacted a voter identification plan with complex procedures that will take the voting rights away from 18% of Philadelphians, mostly the poor, under the pretense of eliminating vote. This despite the evidence that only one or two instances of fake voters occur per decade. Similar stuff is in effect in Florida. The objective of eliminating the impact of the less than wealthy and the immigrants on the vote is unmistakable. The ghost of Emma Lazarus must be reeling, as the golden gate shuts down, and the prospects of new Henry Fords and Thomas Alva Edisons and Ben Franklins recede. (I cannot believe I wrote this without the benefit of shiraz and mournful music. But my computer did shut down in protest, honestly.) Further, the growing success of right-wing Presidential election propaganda is not only due to the impact of unlimited contributions to political PACs as a result of the Citizens United decision. While these are non tax deductible. it has been discovered by such groups as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington that giant corporations have given huge tax-deductible sums under the 501(c)4 section of the Internal Revenue code to such thinly veiled social benefit organizations as the US Chamber of Commerce (Prudential Insurance, Dow Chemical, Chevron Oil, Merck Drugs) for thinly veiled commercials , advocating limited government . Aetna the insurance giant gave $3million to the American Action Network to attack lawmakers who support the ACA bill (also $4.5million to the US Chamber, despite their outward stance of neutrality and a pledge to the public oriented Mercy Management Company to disclose political actions.) American Electric Power gave $1million to the Founding Fund, and so it goes on, a lot of one and half-million dollar corporate tax-free concealed political gifts. This does not count the Citizens United driven $25 million advertising campaign by Karl Rove via the Crossroads Grassroots Political Strategies, and the $400 million allegedly to be spent by the Koch Brothers to stop Obama by whatever means. Let it be understood that unions have also given, thus the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees gave $100,000 to Advancing Wisconsin, and Obama now accepts Citizens United type campaign contributions. I am getting close to quoting Gresham’s Law but not quite to offering you Lord Acton’s threatening dictum. Thank you NYTimes and Internet sources and City College.