Sanders, below is the voice of informed reason. But it
is not the voice of PKT or of the rest of the American
people.
No voice is raised that gets to the heart of the matter:
How do you subsidize manufacturing and insist on a
prosperous work force without examining exactly what
it takes to pay for a property-owning free enterprise
monetary system of production to work?
It takes money.
Money circulating in the commercial economy is not
enough. Certainly taxing money out of that system
only makes things worse.
The commercial for profit system concentrates wealth.
Then the tax system aggravates that concentration and
creates a concentration of political power to complement
concentrated wealth.
If we would keep freedom of enterprise and break the
back of over-concentration of wealth and power we
must free the nation's spending power from its direct
dependence on the commercial private sector.
All our reforms are throttled because we pretend we
don't have the money -- we never claim to lack the
people or industrial capacity to put through the reform.
Socialism is dead. But the answer to its death, that also
answers the contradictions within capitalist accounting
for earnings and wages, was proposed by Keynes --
It is government spending.
Lerner continued the thought by noting that the limit to
government spending was production -- not taxation of
existing earnings or wealth.
Keynes, Lerner, Liu and Sanders sounded the alarm.
Does PKT respond? Please don't tell me it's
re-distribution of income -- when GROWTH of that
income and the production it must represent is by far
the highest priority; and opposition to green growth,
fueled by a rational monetary system of production
does not exist. I hope you all know that a nation once
nailed to a cross of gold is today nailed to a stalemate
between opposing sides on whom to tax--as long as
you don't tax me.
John Gelles
----- Original Message -----
From: "Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 5:03 PM
Subject: Voice of the people
Statement of Congressman Sanders on 7/16/2003 regarding:
Congressman Sanders' Questioning of Federal Reserve
Chairman Greenspan
The following is the transcript of Rep. Sanders' question-
and-answer period with Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan during Tuesday's Financial Services hearing.
SANDERS: Thank you, Madam Chair.
And, Mr. Greenspan, nice to see you again.
Mr. Greenspan, I have long been concerned that you are
way out of touch with the needs of the middle class and
working families of our country, that you see your major
function in your position as the need to represent the
wealthy and large corporations.
And I must tell you that your testimony today only
confirms all of my suspicions, and I urge you -- and
I mean this seriously, because you're an honest person,
I think you just don't know what's going on in the real
world...
I would urge you come with me to Vermont, meet
real people. The country club and the cocktail parties
are not real America. The millionaires and billionaires
are the exception to the rule.
You talk about an improving economy while we have
lost 3 million private sector jobs in the last two years,
long-term unemployment is more than tripled,
unemployment is higher than it's been since 1994.
We have a $4 trillion national debt,
[HERE WE SEE THE GREAT DILEMMA:
SANDERS TALKS FO NATIONAL DEBT
AS THOUGH THE MONEY WE NEED
TO ADDRESS OUR PROBLEMS CAN
COME FROM REDUCED NATIONAL
SPENDING. OR AS THOUGH TAXES TO
FURTHER DRAIN THE PRIVATE SECTOR
MAKE AS MUCH SENSE AS KEYNSIAN-
LERNER TAX POLICY WOULD. SANDERS
MAKES THE WHOLE POLITICAL CASE
FOR REFORM FALL IN THE FACE OF
AGE OLD SUSPICIONS THAT TAXES
ARE NO FRIEND TO ANY VOTER.]
1.4 million Americans have lost their health
insurance, millions of seniors can't afford
prescription drugs, middle-class families can't send
their kids to college because they don't have the
money to do that, bankruptcy cases have increased
by a record-breaking 23 percent, business investment
is at its lowest level in more than 50 years,
[BUSH's TAX CUTS ARE INTENDED TO
HELP RAISE INVESTMENT. THEY FAIL
IN THAT THEY DO NOT CUT TAXES
ENOUGH FOR THE CONSUMERS WHO
MUST SUPPORT INVESTMENT WITH
CONSUMPTION. BUT BUSH's TAX CUTS
DO HELP HALF THE PROBLEM -- THEY
HELP MAKE POSSIBLE THE RISK TAKING
UP FRONT INVESTMENT THAT IS MADE
AHEAD OF THE TIME A BANKER CAN
DISCOUNT EXPECTED FUTURE CASH
FLOWS. SANDERS OUGHT TO HAVE
THIS IN MIND -- EVEN IF HE LEAVES
IT OUT OF THIS DIALOG. DOES HE?
DO WE ON PKT?]
CEOs make more than 500 times of what their
workers make,
[HERE PKT, SANDERS AND I ARE ALL IN
AGREEMENT: WORKER AND CONSUMER
REPRESENTATION ON CORPORATE
POLICY BOARDS OUGHT TO BE PART OF
A REFORM AGENDA THAT ROLLED BACK
TOP MANAGEMENT'S COMPENSATION TO
A MULTIPLE OF WORKERS EARNINGS THAT
CAN PASS A NATIONAL REFERENDUM--
SOMETHING AROUND TEN OUGHT TO BE
THE LIMIT IN FACT IF NOT THE LAW.]
the middle class is shrinking, we have the greatest gap
between the rich and the poor of any industrialized
nation, and this is an economy that is improving.
I'd hate to see what would happen if our economy was
sinking.
Now, today you may not have known this -- I suspect
that you don't -- but you have insulted tens of millions
of American workers.
You have defended over the years, among other
things, the abolition of the minimum wage --
... and giving huge tax breaks to billionaires.
But today you have reached a new low, I think,
by suggesting that manufacturing in America
doesn't matter. It doesn't matter where the
product is produced.
We've lost 2 million manufacturing jobs in the
last two years alone; 10 percent of our work force.
Wal-Mart has replaced General Motors as the
[LARGEST] employer in America, paying people
starvation wages rather than living wages, and all
of that does not matter to you -- doesn't matter.
If it's produced in China where workers are making
30 cents an hour, or produced in Vermont where
workers can make 20 bucks an hour, it doesn't
matter.
You have told the American people that you support a
trade policy which is selling them out, which is only
working for the CEOs who can take our plants to China,
Mexico and India.
You insulted Mr. Castle. Mr. Castle, a few moments ago
-- a good Republican -- told you that we're seeing not
only the decline of manufacturing jobs, but white-collar
information technology jobs.
Forrester Research says that over the next 15 years, 3.3
million U.S. service industry jobs and $136 billion in
wages will move offshore to India, Russia, China and
the Philippines.
Does any of this matter to you? ...[Have you no] nconcern
for the middle class and working families of this country?
That's my question.
GREENSPAN: Congressman, we have the highest standard
of living in the world.
SANDERS: No, we do not. You go to Scandinavia, and you
will find that people have a much higher standard of living,
in terms of education, health care and decent paying jobs.
Wrong, Mister.
GREENSPAN: May I answer your question?
SANDERS: You sure may.
GREENSPAN: Thank you.
For a major industrial country, we have created the most
advanced technologies, the highest standard of living for
a country of our size. Our economic growth is crucial to
us. The incomes, the purchasing power of our employees,
our workers, our people are, by far, more important than
what it is we produce.
[HERE, OF COURSE, GREENSPAN IS NUTS.
AND ANYONE WHO WILL SAY THIS CRAZY
STUFF OUT LOUD PLAYS INTO THE HANDS
OF REFORMERS -- IT IS THE BEST AMMUNI-
TION I'VE SEEN IN MANY A YEAR.]
I submit to you -- may I?
SANDERS: (inaudible)
GREENSPAN: The major focus of monetary policy is to
create an environment in this country which enables capital
investment and innovation to advance. We are at the cutting
edge of technologies.... We are doing an extraordinary job
over the years.
And people flock to the United States. Our immigration
rates are very high. And why? Because they think this is a
wonderful country to come to.
SANDERS: That is an incredible answer.