Let Them Eat Cake

I spent Thursday on the floor - painting baseboards. A tedious, one-inch-at-a-time project that already had me in a bad mood. I decided a little NPR might be just the thing, some news and current events might enliven my mind-numbing project.

Thursday happened to be the day the Senate was conducting a hearing on tax breaks for the big oil companies. The top 5 companies - BP, Conoco Phillips, Shell, Chevron and Exxon just posted record-breaking first quarter profits of over $35 billion. In light of this - some people are questioning whether these tax breaks continue to make sense for this industry. Afterwards, NPR's Jim Lehrer was alternating interviews with senators from both parties. There was a ton of tiresome pontificating and grand standing on both sides. But it came down to this, speaking for the oil companies, their supporters were saying:

"It would be punitive to single us out for a tax hike."
Wait a minute, it was a tax break they have been enjoying that made it possible to generate record-breaking profits at a time when the rest of us are experiencing significant pain at the pump. In the end, WE are paying the taxes that THEY are not... equating to huge profits for them.

"Well then, expand our access to U.S. resources - let us drill and explore where ever we want. Less regulation and more money for you America."
Right. How stupid do they think we are? Do I even need to mention BP and Exxon?
"Please can we have carte blanche to ravage the environment? Let us police ourselves - honest, that will work."

"If you take away our special tax breaks, you leave us no choice but to eliminate jobs."
No doubt that would be necessary to maintain the record-breaking profits. That sounded like an ultimatum to me. Is that what it's come to? What a bunch of bullies.

If all of that wasn't bad enough, one Senator segued over to the best part in his opinion: no new taxes America! We're not going to raise taxes, we're making plans to cut entitlement spending instead. Social Security and Medicare are the single biggest chunk of that.

This is the point where I couldn't listen any more. I had to get up and turn it off. Self-preservation; I felt like I was going to have a stroke.

We've worked long and hard to get to the retirement finish line. We've paid into these programs our entire working lives. And now this. First there was the mortgage fiasco, born of greed and arrogance gone wild, which decimated our investments. So we reconfigured and scaled back our plans. Then the housing market plunge followed. So we gave each other a pep talk on accepting what you can't change and scaled back our plans. Our retirement continues to get postponed and our plans become more and more modest.  Right now they largely hinge on my 62-year-old husband's ability to continue to circle the globe crammed into a coach seat. It shouldn't be this hard.

I realize, compared to many people - we are very fortunate. I'm just saying... I'm riled, really, really riled. This oil company thing was the last straw. It seems so clear cut to me... of course they are not entitled to any special tax breaks. The justifications for it are stupid. This is foolishness on a grand and massive scale.

But that didn't help much when I was sitting on the floor inhaling paint fumes and experiencing uncontrollable irritation. I came very close to blowing a gasket. I was already on the floor. Why not give in to it and just lay there kicking and screaming? I felt like it.

Our corporate and government leaders have stripped this country of virtually all manufacturing and a large portion of service jobs as well. Jobs like customer service, accounting, IT, programming, engineering, banking, medical diagnosis, legal work, even graphic design and printing, are rapidly disappearing and going overseas.

When I'm long gone and this chapter in our history has been written, it will be a sad one. I think it will be identified as an unprecedented period of gross mismanagement and incompetence; coupled with unparalleled greed and corruption. With a cadre of corporate and government leaders working hand-in-hand to benefit themselves; impervious to what they are doing to the planet. We will be known as the generation who didn't give a flip about the future or their heirs. Ordinary people feel paralyzed and helpless. My vote is puny and insignificant in the face of all this.

The really ironic part? NPR's Federal funding is almost sure to be yanked and with it - the opportunity to even hear a 2-sided debate.