On Eagle’s Wing

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Yesterday was the first day of Advent. It is variously observed in Christian churches; it seems especially emphasized in the Roman Catholic, my particular tradition. So, now we’re in Advent, Christmas is little more than four Sundays away.

I planned a reminiscence about a simpler time for yesterday. It is premature. Too gentle. Perhaps next week.

(click to enlarge)

Picture an eagle flying with only a single wing, or with simply a head….

*

The “Tax Reform” of the most smelly variety which passed the U.S. Senate early Saturday morning keeps interfering with my “Christmas Spirit”.

Even before the final version has been cobbled together, the bill is being sold as a great Christmas gift to all Americans. The reality will be that it is indeed a gift, but only to the richest Americans and the big corporations.

In the longer term, the next few years, thanks to this bill, our country will incur a huge additional financial debt, which will be paid by the poor and the middle class, and future generations. The victims of the bill will be the same people who are the fuel – “the Christmas Shoppers” – of the American economy.

If the Democrats had passed an identical bill, they would be crucified. The bill is classic “bait and switch”.

The facts are and will be available to everyone; but too few will care to learn, and act. Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware.

*

I keep thinking of a favorite hymn, “On Eagle’s Wings” by Michael Joncas. You’ll notice the title of this post misses the “s” on “wing”. That is not an error.

The song has a religious tack, but no matter. No one owns the majestic eagle.

I have for a long while compared our political system to an eagle. Twice, recently, I have included an October, 2008 photograph of a sculpture of an eagle at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum*. The photo leads this post.

It goes without saying that a functioning eagle needs all of its parts working together. A bird with only one-wing cannot fly; similarly, a bird with no wings and only a head, will not survive predators in the alien environment in which it is forced to live. Any organism in our natural world is similar, including human beings. To function, “right”, “left” and “center” must work together.

Enter the “political” sphere.

Here we are: the tip of the right wing has managed to move its agenda in Congress, to give the “head” – the President – a “win” before his first year ends. To do this it rendered the left wing powerless. “Nuts to you!” This is not a new phenomenon in American political warfare. It has been developing for years. Two single votes on Saturday night made the difference. Two votes. Iron discipline of the right wing led to its “win”.

In the real world of nature, such a creature as our current “win-lose” politics would be doomed to crash. Every part would die, including that “right wing”. I think this is our contemporary political world – a system facing certain death.

As I’ve said, there is plenty of evidence about the long term effects of this “tax reform” bill, but for the short term the politically disengaged ordinary people will be led to believe that this fraud is to their advantage. Too late will they learn the reality.

The little people – that is 99% of us – still have one weapon: our vote, in each and every election. It takes much more than that vote to change course, but a well informed vote is absolutely crucial.

If we are sloppy about our use (or misuse, or non-use) of this franchise, we have no excuses.

It’s time to get to work, and stay at work. 2018, and 2020, are not that far away.

* – The Eagle in the photo has an interesting history. I was privileged to be in attendance at its dedication by my friend Mary Lou Nelson in October, 2008, at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. It is still there. Here is how it is described.

Eagle’s are powerful birds, symbols of power. The sculptor called his work “hunter”, as that is what an eagle is – a hunter. Mary Lou, a wonderful peacemaker, chose to give that symbol of power a kinder and gentler descriptor: “messenger of peace”. She was speaking, if I recall correctly, about how we might improve as a nation, at that time at war in Iraq.

Even predators at the top of their food chain hunt only as much as they need. They do not wantonly kill or gorge themselves or take more territory than they need. Nature is efficient. We might be the same.

POSTNOTE: As I clicked publish on this post, into my mailbox came this post which you might take time to read on this chilly and windy and snowy (in my town) day.

POSTNOTE 2: After publishing the above, I embarked to a workshop I was to conduct about 40 miles from here. The roads were terrible. I cancelled after taking 90 minutes to drive what usually would take 15 minutes. No need for details….

I made it to a favorite restaurant in Edina, and there was one table open, and I had breakfast before attempting the drive home (which was much more normal).

At the table next to me were two young people, I gathered both were in late teens, out of high school, a young man and a young woman. Just two kids ‘catching up’. It was impossible not to eavesdrop. I was by myself. The table on the other side was occupied by another couple, but they weren’t visiting.

More than once the conversation between the “kids” veered into politics. And the one thing I would share was the comment the man made, that he had been very active politically in 2016, but he was too young to vote. The conversation went from here to there and back again. They were nice kids.

I thought to myself, these kids are the ultimate victims of what is happening in both national and state government. They just won’t realize it for a few years when things we took for granted, like Medicare and Social Security, have been strangled or otherwise diminished in favor of privatization.

And I remembered a piece on the news last night. The new tax bill will probably benefit the Donald Trump family by a billion dollars (elimination of the death tax), and perhaps save the Donald himself perhaps a million dollars.

Quite a Christmas present, indeed.

But for whom.

COMMENTS:
from Paul: the Grover Norquist plan is playing out.

from Dick, in response: Yes, it is. Norquist was promoting his plan long before those kids I mention above were born.

A new 9-11: “Tax Reform” Under Cover of Night….

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Picture an eagle flying with only a single wing, or with simply a head….

Last night the U.S. Senate facilitated, on a strict party-line vote, a forseeably disastrous end game: to steal from the poor and middle class as a giveaway to the already super-rich. The implications are, for ordinary Americans, worse by far than 9-11-01.

The public has a very short time to weigh in on this initiative with their own representatives. The bill was hurriedly passed with virtually no public view, much less input. All that remains is for the Senate and the House of Representatives Republicans (the Republicans are all that matter, here) to reconcile their differences, which are helpfully laid out in this mornings Washington Post.

This is how CNN sees what is being proposed.

This is not the first ‘stealth’ effort by the Republicans. Twice they failed to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (derisively called “Obamacare”), using the same strategy. Now they’ve hidden the down-the-road repeal of such programs within the latest bill, which virtually nobody has really seen, including those who voted for it last night. The ‘bait and switch’ is pretty obvious: the damages will not really take effect until after the next election, with short term sweetness in 2018.

For those who contend that the Republicans are doing only as the Democrats did to pass what came to be called Obamacare in 2010, never forget that Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was publicly debated for a year before its final adoption in 2010. See especially the section on “Healthcare Debate 2008-2010 at this link.

Haters of Obamacare would send me extracts from, let’s say, page 1023 of some draft, allegedly proving the Acts dangers. You can’t share pieces of last nights action. Some pieces were handwritten in by people not long before the vote.

Here is the New York Times summary of what happened overnight: NY Times Dec 2, 2017001. The same NYT shares the vote by Senator last night: here.

Those who passed this bill depend on a sloppy and lazy citizenry.

I’m old enough to possibly be gone before the bad news within the plans of this bill hit the young folks who will be most adversely affected by its provision, and the satellite initiatives to slash other programs like medicare to pay for the immense deficits it will create. The young need to figure this out for themselves.

I’ll do what I can….

POSTNOTE: I question not at all the issue of needing to “reform” taxation. This has been an obvious problem for years. The problem is that this is a country with differing points of view, and it is dangerous to cede to one radical side control of this or any issue.

POSTNOTE 2: An afternoon mailing from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Dec. 2.

“While most of America was sleeping last night, the Senate Republicans jammed through their terrible tax bill.

I wish I could tell you all of the awful things that are in it, but I’m still reading the bill myself. The Republicans released the bill only a couple of hours before the votes started last night. There were no hearings. There was no debate. In fact, they were literally sending around edits in hand-written chicken scratch minutes before we had to vote.

But we do know that the big Republican donors are popping champagne today. This 500-page bill is a massive tax giveaway to billionaires and giant corporations, paid for by America’s working families. It attacks college students. It sabotages the Affordable Care Act and threatens health care for millions of Americans. It opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling in Alaska. And who knows what else is buried in there?

That’s not how you make tax policy, health care policy, or any other policy in the United States of America.

This Republican-controlled Congress doesn’t work for working families. It works for corporate lobbyists and campaign donors in backroom deals and 1:30 AM votes. This is corruption – plain and simple. And this corruption is hollowing out America’s middle class and tearing down our democracy.

But we cannot – CANNOT – give up. The other side has concentrated money and concentrated power – but we have our voices and our votes. And there are a lot more of us than there are of them.

We need to fight harder than ever to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. When this tax scam causes the national debt to explode because billionaires and giant corporations don’t pay their fair share, the Republicans will say – “Sorry!” There’s no money to pay for the things that affect working families. Remember that when the sequester cuts kicked in during 2013, cancer clinics had to turn away patients from their chemotherapy treatments – and that was just fine with the GOP.

And we need to fight harder than ever to elect Democrats who will fight for working families – not for those who can afford to hire armies of lawyers and lobbyists. Not a single Democrat in the House or the Senate has voted for this terrible tax scam. If we want to change policy in America, we have to change the people who are in the room fighting for those policies.

It’s been a brutal week. This is a David vs. Goliath story, and this time David got his slingshot shoved down his throat – sideways. But even though we won’t win every fight, we won’t win what we don’t fight for.

Stay in this fight. We need you.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth”