Dr. Arthur C. Donart, Ph.D. submitted this essay.
Recently I received a letter signed by Emily Seidel, Advisor, Americans for Prosperity Action. The “action” they wanted was, for me to send them some money. Americans for Prosperity sounds good; I would like to see all Americans prosper. As it stands, there are a few Americans with way, too much money and a lot of Americans with too little in the way of money.
It seems that honest, hard work pays too little, and having smart investment people pays too much. Add the fact that the smart investors pay only 15% income tax, while most hard workers are paying 22%! How does that lead to Prosperity?
The letter’s first sentence asked, “Do you remember how the progressives picked up 40 seats and seized control of the U. S. House, in the midterm election during Trump’s first term? I sure do! I was very angry, because his tax plan gave the people who didn’t need a tax break a huge tax break! The rest of us got peanuts, while the National debt surged by 4,000,000,000 dollars. If that’s American “Prosperity,” I want no part of it.
Now, Trump’s “rubber stamp” House of Representatives have done it for him again. You would have thought, they might have learned something. Apparently that is not the case.
My idea of a “prosperous” America
•pays everyone who works a 40-hour week a decent living wage.
•offers a decent living pension after age 65.
•assures needed healthcare for all.
•provides a free, quality education for all its young citizens, through college or trade school.
All but 43 countries in the world have free healthcare or access to universal healthcare for at least 90% of their citizens.
To achieve all this prosperity and pay off the National Debt, I suggest we make the super-wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes.
So, I looked into this group that calls itself “Americans for Prosperity.” It was founded by the billionaire Koch brothers [Charles and David]:
•who inherited their father’s billions
•who once worked in the Soviet Union helping Joseph Stalin set up oil wells
•who returned to the United States to help found the John Birch Society.
The John Birch Society spun conspiracy theories and accused Republican President Dwight Eisenhower of being a Communist. I well remember this sorry period in our history.
I concluded, I would not contribute to Americans for Prosperity. I want all our people to be prosperous–not only the billionaire class.