It’s about time the middle class wakes up

Earlier this year when President Obama observed that the huge tax cuts for the wealthy were going to end next January, he added it’s about time the very rich started paying their fair share. The Republicans complained that it sounded like Obama was trying to start a class war between the wealthy and the middle class.

My reaction was, well, it’s about time.

It’s about time the middle class wakes up to the fact that it’s a class war the super rich, super conservative Republicans have been waging against the middle class the last two years.

It’s about time the middle class understands that the Republican Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 has opened up the floodgates for unlimited corporate spending in our elections. Enormous amounts of money from plutocrats and corporate treasuries have been funneled into SuperPACs, which in turn finance Republicans spouting the super conservative party line.

It’s about time the American voters recognize that all the Republicans have to offer in this election campaign is fear and lies. They complain about the large budget deficit — and tell us to vote for them and the problem will disappear. And how will they help? They promise to lower the taxes on the very rich, increase spending on the military, repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, offer vouchers for Medicare coverage and privatize Social Security. In other words, the middle class will pay for balancing the budget while the rich get richer.

Oh yes, you must understand that by lowering the tax rate on the wealthy, they will reward the middle class by allowing jobs to “trickle down” to them — later on. The “trickle down” theory has been discredited and laughable for years, but it’s still out there.

Leo T. Ratzer

Lisle