The proto-fascist-communist-socialist, Bernie Sanders had a huge article in the Views section of our local, liberal rag The Centre Daily Times today. Bernie is the Senator from Vermont—a Northeastern state very near Canada. The title of the article was “Deficit reduction requires shared sacrifice,” but what it really espoused was soaking the rich and corporate to “reduce” the burden on the poor and middle class—-who, according to Bernie—are facing the loss of Medicare, education, unions, livelihood and oxygen. “Red” Sanders suggested three ways in which the rich and corporate might pitch in:
- By getting rid of the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy
- By closing corporate loopholes, and
- By reducing the budget of the Pentagon—now fighting three unbudgeted wars.
Smokey and I shuddered to read the ideas spelled out by Sanders, but I must report that the more we thought about it, the more they began to make good sense. What is wrong with taxing the rich and corporate and ending even two wars (it appears that you have to have at least one unfunded war—boys will be boys)?
To find out what we were missing, Smokey Diamond visited Millard Needsmore—spokesperson for Eye of A Needle, Inc. on his yacht anchored just off Newport, RI. Over lunch, Millard spelled it out. “It’s that the rich are morally superior,” he said. “Wealth and moral superioritiage go together like a horse and carriage.” “We have known since the day of Horatio Alger, a great American hero, that anyone with any gumption and moral fortitude can gain great wealth and power.” “It follows,” he continued, “that the poor, infirm, old, ugly and more and more the middle class suffer only from moral turpitude.” “They need to try harder,” he said. “No coddling.”
Smokey, curious about the corporate name, asked Needsmore—who inherited his wealth from his grandmother—if it didn’t imply that the rich were barred from the kingdom of god. “That might have been true years ago,” said Needsmore, “but with the recession all it takes is a big check.”
At the end of lunch, a surprised Smokey was handed a bill for the meal. “If you are not wealthy,” said Millard, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”