By Robert Reich
“America will never be a socialist country,” Donald Trump declared in his State of the Union address. Someone should alert Trump that America is now a hotbed of socialism. But it is socialism for the rich. Everyone else is treated to harsh capitalism.
In the conservative mind, socialism means getting something for doing nothing. That pretty much describes the $21bn saved by the nation’s largest banks last year thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, some of which went into massive bonuses for bank executives. On the other hand, more than 4,000 lower-level bank employees got a big dose of harsh capitalism. They lost their jobs.
Banks that are too big to fail – courtesy of the 2008 bank bailout – enjoy a hidden subsidy of some $83bn a year, because creditors facing less risk accept lower interest on deposits and loans. Last year, Wall Street’s bonus pool was $31.4bn. Take away the hidden subsidy and the bonus pool disappears.
Trump is promoting socialism for the rich and harsh capitalism for everyone else in other ways. GM has got more than $600m in federal contracts, plus $500m in tax breaks. Some of this has gone into the pockets of GM executives. Chairman and CEO Mary Barra raked in almost $22m in total compensation in 2017 alone.
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Yea, there is no labels for what we are doing, just appropriations.
Who gets what, is always the issue.
We got to get all Ida Tarbell up in here !
In my area, there are no more bakeries, no hardware stores, hardly any family businesses. The backbone of a healthy economy.
How are we going to pay for all these wealthy people ?
Until the American voter says enough to voting for the one party corporate millionaire Zionist controlled dictatorship we will always have candidates like the sociopath Hillary, or the carnival barker con man The Donald.
I agree with everything JohnZ says. This country is gone. Americans must wake up and take it back from the crooks who stole it from us. All free hard earned money sent to Israel must be stopped and repaid to the taxpayers in the U.S. All relations with this Al Capone cesspool country must end. Boycott them in every way possible. This is the only kind of language these crooks understand.
https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2019/02/11/zoa-ilhan-omar/
“Omar tweeted Sunday that Congress was paid to defend Israel — by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), among others.”
The only member of Congress from Minnesota who tells the truth about the whores in Congress who are bribed or threatened to do the bidding of the gangsters in Israel She also supports BDS but they label her as anti semitic. How about separating church in Israel from our government in the U.S.? Shove it Israel. You are receiving too much free money and publicity.
When will Congress force these illegal lobby groups for Israel to register as the foreign agents they truly are?
When San Diego voters were brow beaten to pay for Billionaire Alex Spanos NFL CHARGERS stadium, they rejected it and sent him packing to L.A. NFL Billionaires have been fleecing taxpayers to pay for their profits for decades. So it’s possible to get this stopped! But can USA voters at fed level do same?
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