Compassionate Progressive - Part 3

Image from: quoteswaveWhy am I a Democrat? Well...

Continuing my, "Compassionate Progressive Series", I am struck by the increasing need for compassion in today's society. Reading or watching the news has become a barrage of negativity; not only for the violence in the world, but also for the lack of concern, and even a revictimization, of those suffering at the hands of others. As stated in previous posts, our continued survival as a species depends on our ability to refocus toward solutions through the lens of compassion.

Enjoy this next installment in the series, reread the first two posts, and I encourage your comments as we open a dialogue for compassionate solutions. Remember, all comments are moderated to ensure respectful debate sans spam.

Why am I a Democrat? Well...

"I am a Democrat because I see several things wrong with eliminating the necessary tax revenue to wage a trillion dollar war of choice."

The Republican-Libertarian-Tea Party has been advocating for a much lower corporate and uberwealthy individual tax rate, and some have even argued for a total elimination of taxation for that group. They make the spurious claim that corporations are the "job creators" of our economy and placing a tax burden higher than the current effective tax rate of 27.7% would result in "job killing". While ignoring the fact that this claim is utterly untrue (based on years of irrefutable data), the claim also ignores the fact this ideology merely shifts the tax burden to an ever-shrinking middle class which simply cannot shoulder the additional burden. In addition, the return for their (and our) tax investment is much greater when the large corporations and wealthiest individuals pay their fair share, as those tax dollars are spent on infrastructure, public education, social safety nets, health care, etc., which in turn creates a robust economy and higher consumer spending. And consumer spending is the only real job creator. Jobs are only created when consumer demand increases, but when consumer spending is depreciated by economic uncertainty, the effect of low-to-no taxation on corporations will in no way create a single job.

The second point concerns our military budget and its out-of-control, virtually unregulated spending, or more appropriately, the hemorrhaging of our tax dollars. The following graphs illustrate the gross overspending of the US on its military:

Image from: Time

The US clearly spends far more than any other nation on Earth, and nearly as much as all other nations combined. But the actual breakdown of the budget begins to look even more ominous, as various aspects of defense spending are included in different programs, divisions and budget requests. The total defense spending exceeds $715 Billion dollars, when these various aspects are included. 

In spite of the excessive spending, the Center for American Progress found, "Excess defense spending does not make our country safer—it adds to our debt and diverts resources away from key investments here at home. In these times of fiscal austerity, each dollar spent on defense pulls funds from critical investments in the American economy—the real foundation of the United States’ global power." (Click here for the entire extensive report)

Image from: National Priorities Project

Beyond the excessive spending as comapred to every other industrialized nation, our defense budget is creating real and devastating harm to our own economy. With resources diverted to such a drastic degree, our economy is unable to shoulder the increasing burden of a jobs market that has yet to recover from the Great Recession and the subsequent increase in families thrust into poverty.

We simply cannot continue to justify the wasteful and excessive spending for military expenditures, the majority of which are paid to government contractors, while ignoring the needs at home. And we simply cannot continue to allow the uberwealthy and largest corporations to shirk their fiscal responsibility to contribute to society.