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Pundits can’t speak for real people

I watch the major network and cable news shows listening to their pundits and guests discussing the pros and cons of deficit reduction by increasing revenues through tax increases for the nation’s high earners, eliminating oil company subsidies and cutting a myriad of social programs.

My problem is these are people who not only have jobs, but have very high-paying jobs. They can neither know, nor understand, the real-time pain these millions of folks are feeling. And they certainly don’t know what we really think.

I suggest those highly-paid pundits and guests sit back and try to learn something about the real world. Toss those ridiculously inaccurate polls they love to quote. All they have to do is turn those conversations over to real people, the ones who are actually experiencing this economic disaster. The news organizations won’t do that, however, because they don’t really want to know what the middle class really thinks. So, they allow the pundits and guests to sit there with their comfy jobs and try to convince the American people that they are speaking for us. News flash. They aren’t.

Are the American people against “any kind of tax increases” as one party insists? No. Do we believe that making a hedge fund manager who takes home up to $5 billion per year in income should pay the regular tax rate instead of the same 15 percent as the lowest earners in the country? Yes. Will that somehow ruin the economic recovery? No. Are the people against any kind of adjustments to our social programs? No, as long as the adjustments are fair and even-handed.

If the politicians and pundits are really serious about solutions, they need to stop talking to their employed, well-paid selves and let the real folks sit at the table.

Len Brauer

Palatine