President Obama in yet another speech yesterday, outlined his plan for how the government can reduce $3 trillion of the federal deficit. The President’s plan includes raising $1.5 trillion in revenues, primarily through letting Bush-era tax cuts for couples making $250,000 a year or more expire, and adjusting the tax rates for millionaires so that they pay the same rate as everyone else. Currently, the tax rate for income through investments, which is how most millionaires makes their money, is taxed at only 15%. Republicans went on the offensive by labeling the President’s plan as “class warfare” – a term that has become synonymous with conservative criticisms of Obama. Meanwhile, independent Senator Bernie Sanders, a staunch progressive, has introduced legislation to strengthen Social Security and keep it solvent well beyond it’s projected date, by applying payroll taxes that most Americans pay, to those making more than $250,000 a year. While goings-on in Congress often seem far removed from the effects of the Great Recession on ordinary people’s lives, an organized gathering of people in New York over the weekend is attempting to embody the real meaning of the term “class warfare.” After months of organizing a call for action to occupy Wall Street by the anti-consumerist Adbusters Magazine, the activist Hackers group, Anonymous, endorsed the call in a highly viewed online video. The video garnered a warning by the Department of Homeland Security. The call to action resulted in thousands of people showing up on Saturday September 17th on Wall Street, dubbed the ‘Day of Rage.’ Activist Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping addressed the crowd. Several hundred people have spent the night since Saturday, and remain on Wall Street for a fourth day today. Protesters are referring to themselves as “the 99%” of Americans, and donning masks seen in the anarchist themed film V for Vendetta. In a communique issued this morning, they say “We’re still here. We intend to stay until we see movements toward real change in our country and the world. ”
Come and hear Varoufakis speak in person on Saturday April 23rd in Pasadena, California, at his ONLY Los Angeles-area event!
WHEN: Saturday April 23rd, Reception at 12 noon, Event at 1 pm
WHERE: Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church, 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91103
Yanis Varoufakis of the Syriza Party took the European political establishment by storm a year ago when he was appointed Finance Minister of Greece by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Varoufakis is an ……
