This article from the Huffington Post absolutely floored me. What the hell did anyone expect? Here’s a news flash for all you fat cats sitting on your asses inside the beltway arguing about the economy:

WHEN PEOPLE LOSE THEIR JOBS THEY STOP PAYING TAXES!

I’m trying to resist using the word "moron" here, but it’s really hard. I mean, what the hell did they think was going to happen? The sky was going to open up and money was going to descend upon us like manna?

Look boys and girls, here’s the deal:

• Person loses job
• Person no longer pays Federal Taxes
• Person no longer pays State Taxes
• Person no longer pays Local Taxes
• Person no longer pays FICA
• Person no longer pays for group health insurance at employer
• Person draws unemployment
• Person goes on food stamps and welfare

Now multiply that times 10,000,000 people out of work, and you can do the math. So, while all those guys at the tops of all those corporations were axing their way to profitability, they managed to systematically destroy the tax base of the good old U.S. of A., which happens to be the country that allowed them to build their corporations and rake in their profits and rape the American worker in the first place.

Nice guys, huh?

But, wait! There’s more!

Not only have they betrayed the country that sheltered them. They have generally succeeded in gutting a significant portion of the Middle Class. You remember them. The Middle Class. Those folks who went to work in the factories and the office cubicles and paid the lions share of the taxes, bought the lions share of the houses, and cars, and clothes. You remember, the engine that used to drive this train.

Well, pay attention, because this is where it gets really interesting: Without the Middle Class, you have two classes of people left. On the one hand, you have the very rich, who couldn’t care less what happens down here in the trenches, because they’ve got all the dough they need. On the other hand, you’ve got the very poor, who live at or below the poverty line. The very rich aren’t going to pay more taxes, because they don’t think they need to, and they’ve got a whole bunch of politicians in their collective pockets who will make sure they don’t need to. The very poor can’t pay more taxes, because they can’t live if they do (although the Michelle Malkins of the world evidently don’t have a problem with Americans starving to death on the streets).

And so ends the saga of the late, great country formerly known as the United States. The country which traded thousands of its manufacturing jobs for cash in the pockets of the corporate hot shots. The country which gave up on its Middle Class for some idealistic vision called Free Market Capitalism which clearly doesn’t work and arguably never did.

No matter what happens from here on out, the U.S. of A. is not going to be the same place. The Government will have lost whatever trust it had left from its people. The Politicians will no longer have the respect of anyone except their toadies and lobbyists. The Common People who made this country run, who fought and died for this country, will turn a calloused eye toward the Beltway and start asking some hard questions. Uncomfortable questions. The Common People of the United States paid into their government because they expected something in return, and what they got was the shaft.

The Common People of the United States are more angry, more sick and tired of obstructionists, appeasers and carpetbaggers than they have been in a very long time. They are not going to forgive this injustice, nor are they going to forget it. And, that’s just the beginning. There is a silent revolution taking place in the minds of the people in the Heartland. It is not a Republican revolution, nor is it a Democrat revolution. It is a revolution of people sitting in front of their televisions every night seething at the sight of inept politicians acting like five year olds. It is a revolution of people sitting on their couches thinking: "If I ever get out of this, I will never trust my government or my employer again." It is a revolution of the mind, a revolution driven by intense anger and outrage. It is a quiet revolution that is going to fundamentally change the way Americans view their government and their country.

Fasten your seatbelts. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

© 2009, Mac Williams. All rights reserved.

• No Related Post