Save our cities . . . cut the real fat!

Once we who do not earn over one million dollars a year wake up, real ‘hope and change’ will occur.

Unlike the right-wing rhetoric which has seeped down into that of the so-called progressives, a.k.a. Democrats, the fat is not where the hypocrites say it is. No, the waste is not focused on so-called ‘entitlements ‘(welfare, food stamps, Obamacare, etc). The real waste is to be found in the fact that over 50% of each of our federal taxes goes for military spending. Before you get up on your high horse and tell me I do not support our troops, the grunts only get less than $50,000 a year of a total cost of over $1,000,000 yearly to keep one of them in places like Afghanistan. Think about that for a minute. Someone in the private sector is making lots of money . . . your tax money on our military. Years ago, when the debate would come up as to those welfare queens who rip us off (and many did), this writer would inform my right-wing supporting friends that one B-1 bomb costs $1,000,000! How many welfare cheats and others who get ‘entitlements ‘does that one bomb’s cost cover?

Congress just voted to spend over 500 billion dollars of your tax money on military spending for 2014 . . . while our cities are crumbling physically, economically and spiritually. Services are being cut or sold to private industry (for profits that are unnecessary), library and school budgets lowered . . . everything we need is becoming in short supply: fire personnel and equipment, local police, ambulance services . . . need I go on?

How many cities will go into actual bankruptcy (to name a few in the past year: Detroit; Stockton and San Bernardino California; Jefferson County, Alabama; and Central Falls, Rhode Island) before we who suffer from all this understand America’s twisted priorities? Imagine if we closed most of the nearly 900 foreign military bases and sent our personnel and equipment home, how much would that save us each year?

As many out there now realize (not enough of you, sadly), we should have never conducted our illegal and immoral attack and occupation of Iraq. As far as Afghanistan, the UN could have conducted a police action to weed out the fanatical group that conducted acts of terrorism against our nation. We still do not know the real truth as to 9/11 and who was behind it, or who may have allowed it to happen. Yet, many out there continue to wave the flag and think that they are the true patriots, when it is we who dissented against our nation’s acts of aggression that are just that.

In addition to cutting back on our foreign adventures, we need to initiate the 25% Solution to Save Our Cities: Immediate cuts of 25% on all military spending, sending the savings (this year that would amount to over $130 billion) back to the states and cities . . . every year!

As far as who is making out so well while the 99+ % of us struggle . . .

• In 1960, the top rate for federal income tax was 91% on incomes of over $400,000

• In 1970, the top rate was 71.75% for incomes over $200,000

• In 1980, the top rate was 70% for incomes over $215,400

• In 2013, the top rate is 39.6% for incomes over $400,000

Do you think, with all the economic woes our citizens are facing, that it is time to Tax the super rich? Now, unlike the Democrats, who wish to lump those earning a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year in the same bracket with those earning millions and tens and hundreds of millions, this writer has a better idea. Since there are at least 16 million households with incomes of over $1,000,000 a year, let’s issue a 50% Flat Surtax on all income over $1,000,000 a year. So, we give the current break of 39.6 % on all income up to that million dollar threshold, and then tax all money over that figure, with no deductions, at 50%. Think of all the revenue that would come out of that. As in the good old days of revenue sharing between the federal government and the states (and their cities) money would find its way to help salvage all those needed aforementioned services. Couple those amounts along with the 25% Solution and we can actually jumpstart a Medicare for All system of national health care in addition to helping our state and city budget deficits.

It is never too late to see the light and demand a better way of life here in America. You won’t find the solutions offered above within either of those two phony political parties. We need to get out of our kitchens and living rooms and stand up for real change . . . peacefully and with purpose and passion. Why not make or order a sign and stand on the street corners and town squares, letting your neighbors know what needs to be done?

Philip A Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC longshoremen. He is a free lance columnist (found on TheSleuthJournal.com, Worldnewstrust.com, The Intrepid Report ,Nation of Change, The Peoples Voice, Information Clearing house, Dandelion Salad, Activist Post, Dissident Voice and many other sites worldwide). Philip works as an environmental products sales rep and has been an activist leader since 2000. In 2010 he became a local spokesperson for the 25% Solution Movement to Save Our Cities by cutting military spending 25%. Philip can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net.