Thursday, February 26, 2009

Mountains and valleys

I've been trying to find this quote from Mao about leveling the mountains and filling in the valleys, but Google keeps giving me articles like "What is the clinical significance of an elevated platelet MAO level?" Anyway, it wasn't a very appropriate analogy, or at least not one that would bring a lot of converts to what I'm writing about... which is that I'm excited about Obama's proposed budget, or at least the way the NY Times describes it:
The Obama budget — a bold, even radical departure from recent history, wrapped in bureaucratic formality and statistical tables — would sharply raise taxes on the rich, beyond where Bill Clinton had raised them. It would reduce taxes for everyone else, to a lower point than they were under either Mr. Clinton or George W. Bush. And it would lay the groundwork for sweeping changes in health care and education, among other areas.

More than anything else, the proposals seek to reverse the rapid increase in economic inequality over the last 30 years.

About time! That's what I've really been wanting all these years. Foreign policy and all that is important, but I really want someone to stick it to the rich people... and get things back to the WPA days.

UPDATE:

That's a bit rash, but my main thing is that Clinton never cared about inequality. He cared about the little guy, sure, but not inequality. If Obama does, then I'm more or less satisfied.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's especially heartening is Obama's willingness to talk about this in moral terms - using words like "shameful" - and unwillingness to be bowed or insecure about his beliefs. It's good stuff.

Manfred said...

Yes, the Republicans have long used class as a sort of under the radar moral appeal, e.g. "this normal person thinks abortion or money spent saving an endangered mouse is repugnant, shouldn't you pampered elites also think so?" It's time to bring class out into the light and make morality center on inequality itself.