Middle class is finally rising up

By Paul Gwin, Las Vegas

Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014 | 2:01 a.m.

A handful of billionaire individuals and corporations are pouring money into propaganda attacking all social programs that help the middle and lower classes (the masses). Their only interest is in lowering taxes on the rich.

A rebellion by a moral majority to actions of the governor and state legislature in North Carolina was reported in the monthly newsletter “Washington Spectator” recently; it gives a good picture of how possessors of big money take advantage of those with little money:

Before adjourning last September, North Carolina’s Tea Party-dominated General Assembly:

• Denied Medicaid to 500,000 qualified recipients.

• Eliminated 5,200 teaching positions and 4,580 teacher assistants.

• Cut pre-kindergarten classes for preschoolers.

• Diverted $10 million to a school voucher program.

• Terminated unemployment benefits for 170,000 out-of-work North Carolinians.

• Abolished the earned income tax credit for 907,000 working-class residents.

• Reduced taxes for the top 5 percent.

More than 10,000 aggrieved citizens responded for mass rallies in the capital, Raleigh, to protest. The governor’s rating dropped 30 percent. We’ll have to wait until the next election in North Carolina to see whether the haves or the have-nots won in the end.

My view of Obamacare is that it is a good start at reforming Medicare. President Barack Obama admits it isn’t perfect but it was the best he could get through Congress (it was a miracle he and our Sen. Harry Reid performed).

Now, the government has something to work on and our members of Congress can take bugs out of the system as they appear. Most important, it is in the hands of people we elect and out of the hands of health insurance corporations, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, etc.

All of them have been ripping off our Medicare funds and driving up costs. Let them call it “socialized medicine” if they like. It’s our medicine, not theirs.