Philip A. FarruggioPhilip A. Farruggio -- World News Trust
May 8, 2017
Anyone with even a portion of logic in their minds knows that absolutes are for mathematical formulas... not real life.
Factor out those who are from the class of mega-millionaires, and the rest of us here in good ole America are simply working stiffs. If you either work for your income or wish you could, or are retired from such things, you are a working stiff.
Again, anyone who earns less than a million per year is welcomed into my political tent. My ideas will not please both Marxists and Libertarians, but it can and should rally most of you out there. Just take the time to see the value in some of these platforms.
Let's realize that in today's world of hype and spin, words and phrases matter. To consolidate lots of working stiffs from various backgrounds, we shall name this new political party The Small Business/Labor Party.
We need to disassociate small business owners (I know you Marxists think little of these "Petit Bourgeois" folks) from those who run our big corporations. Small business must be the backbone of American commerce, and it sadly is not!
In reality, small business owners and managers have the same needs and desires as those who labor for others, private or public. We all are getting screwed by this corporate Military Industrial Empire.
If small business owners and managers can peel away from supporting the Republicans or Independent Conservative movements, and realize that they are just working stiffs at heart... change can begin. If those working stiffs who work for others can realize that small business owners have the same fears for economic demise as them... a merger will occur.
A Small Business/Labor Party will, like all political parties, have an extensive platform. This writer understands it would take literally a book to cover them all. So, let's mention but a few major points of interest:
- Tax the Millionaires to raise revenue -- Institute a 50 percent Flat Surtax on all income over $1 million per year, with NO accountant's deductions or write-offs of any kind. Translated: You earn 4 million bucks. The first $1million is taxed at today's rate, allowing for the same deductions presently taken. The next $3 million is taxed 50 percent, with $1.5 million going right to the Treasury. If anyone tries to move offshore to avoid our income tax rates, just pass a law that anyone working for a company that trades a certain percent of products or services within the USA must pay regular federal income tax as those who reside here. Period!
- Cut Military Spending by an initial 25 percent, increasing it to 50 percent within a few years, and so on. Along with doing this, close most of the 1,000 foreign military bases we now have. Then get most of our military personnel the hell OUT of the rest of the world, and transfer some of them to our domestic bases already established. This would both cut spending and create an economic stimulus for the towns nationwide that our bases are in or near. One great advantage of doing this is during times of natural disasters (and with global warming more than ever have there been) these military personnel can be ready to come to the aid of victims and damaged infrastructure. As far as the rest of the world, where our bases and their WMDs have been too close for comfort for the inhabitants of those countries (more than 100 at last count) maybe their anti imperialist/ anti colonialist anger will dissipate a bit. How would our people feel if China or Russia had bases on our border with Mexico, with their missiles pointed in our direction? Food for thought indeed.
- Issue a Payroll Tax Forgiveness for businesses and ALL USA working stiffs. If we cease taking out a Payroll tax on the first $25,000 of wages for the employee and the small business owner (for each of his or her employee), each side saves the 7+ percent of that $25,000, or around $1,800 a year per employee. I would cap the employer contribution at 50 employees per company to help small businesses to better compete with large corporations, but all USA employees would get the forgiven take-out.. tax free! Imagine what a working stiff could do with that extra tax free money. Maybe to save for a down payment on a home; tuition to take advanced educational or vocational training; better car or finally be able to purchase a car; better rental housing (I'll get to that subject later on); dental treatment needed (I'll get to that one too later on) or just putting the money in the bank as savings. If they choose to spend the money, imagine the economic stimulus that would create. The employer could use that savings to upgrade the business, or pay for more advertising, or maybe even give some of it back to the employees in the form of an incentive bonus for good performance. This idea would also help to wipe out the underground economy. Why would any small business owner even contemplate hiring someone off the books, when the first $25,000 of income has no employer contribution? Since most "off the books" workers are part-time anyway, this idea would be an incentive for hiring "on the books."
- Medicare and Dental Care for All -- at least for those who want in. The key here is to not legislate getting rid of private health insurers. No, let them continue to offer the inferior coverage they offer. Rather, with the added savings from super-taxing millionaires and drastic cuts in the obscene and unnecessary military spending, Uncle Sam could really institute a viable national health and dental care plan. No need for any private insurer to be involved in this at all, as they now do with our current Medicare programs. One form fits all, and with the added caveat of comprehensive dental coverage too. We all pay into the plan according to our incomes, at a much lower rate than we pay now for private coverage. My family doctor of 17 years pushed me off as a patient because he no longer participated with my current health insurer under Medicare. I would also have at least FOUR more teeth than I have now, because it was cheaper to spend $175 to pull one tooth than the $2,000+ for a root canal and crown. A friend of mine, who had to have FIVE teeth pulled at once due to gum disease, would have been able to afford the gum surgery needed in advance of things (a surgery that now averages around $6,000). We would not need Medicaid at all, as all Americans would be able to fit into this "For All" plan. Plus, the fear of going into an assisted living or nursing home would be alleviated, as National Health Care would cover it. To those who counter with "How can we pay for this?," well, 25 percent of military spending cuts currently would be a figure of $170 Billion. Do you think that would be enough to jumpstart things?
- Community-Owned and -Operated Low-Profit Mortgage banking -- With all the savings, once again, from cutting hundreds of billions of dollars of military spending, and taking in tens of billions of dollars each year in taxing the mega rich, who needs private for-profit mortgage banking? They don't create anything except in moving paper around. Imagine being able to buy a home or apartment with a mortgage that is maybe 1 percent above overhead? Translated: If today's average private mortgage banking rate is let us say 5 percent, a community nonprofit mortgage bank could charge at least half! You would see millions of folks who now have to rent an apartment or home actually being able to afford a mortgage.. and the mortgage paper would stay within that community bank, not to be bundled and sold as a security. This is how things were in the good old days when the local banks operated like those in films like Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. After overhead expenses, whatever profits arise can be reinvested into that local community for a zillion worthwhile things.
- No more Private Absentee Landlords -- When the tide of representative government changes, we need to pass a law outlawing absentee landlords. Even the term itself comes from feudalism, with the Land Lord. The only time a home owner could charge rent for an apartment is if he or she actually lives in that same structure, as in the case of two-family homes. This was a great way for someone to be able to afford a home, using the rent from the second unit to cover mortgage and other costs. In any other case, just have the actual local community own all rental property. Here is how it would work: The local community would buy all private rental property using eminent domain. It would then offer the current tenants the option to actually "rent to own" the home or apartment. Let us say the rent charged by the absentee landlord was $1,000 monthly. The community would lower the rent at least by 25 percent, to $750 a month. Then, and here is the caveat, the renter would have 25 percent of that $750 ( $187.50 a month) be put in escrow toward a future down payment for that residence, IF he or she wishes to purchase it. The ramifications of this plan would really create a surge in economic stimulus. More current renters would soon own their own residences, and neighborhoods would see better caring for property, and a newer pool of home owners would see more need for housing... meaning more cabinets and doors and accessories needed... meaning more work and more jobs etc. One aside: As a renter myself for most of my life, I recall when my new wife and I rented the upstairs of an old house on Long Island N.Y. in 1992. Our landlord was an absentee one, owning 19 such homes in the area. He did as little as he could get away with in way of repairs and upgrades. We had an old refrigerator that I would joke about, saying it had arthritis. The bathtub had tiles cracking and slowly falling into the tub. We had NO banister to our upstairs apartment, so my 80-year-old parents could not visit us. He had a pear tree in the yard where he allowed us to park our cars. Each fall, the pears would fall off of the tree and lay in waste on the ground. One day my landlord called me and said " Why don't you clean up the pears where you park?" I told him "When you give me a break in my rent I will be happy to keep YOUR yard clean." He came the next day and had the yard cleaned.
- Public Funding of ALL Elections -- Now we know that the Supreme Court ruling in 1976 (Buckley vs. Valeo said that "Money is free speech," thus eliminating any chance to see private money prohibited from elections. This needs to be changed. If it takes an amendment then a mass movement should begin. Obviously, this will take a long time, what with the level of understanding of our fellow citizens currently. Yet, in 1996 Maine instituted its Clean Election Law. It stated that for all elections held in Maine, excepting federal seats, candidates who received enough valid signatures and collected a few dollars from each signatory for the state held pool, could be placed on the ballot as a "Clean Election Candidate." This meant that each such candidate would receive money from the pool to operate his or her campaign (not much money at that) and most importantly, the public would know this person was running FREE of any private donations or using their own money. Please note, that in the first election in Maine using that formula (2000), around 27 percent of those elected ran as "clean election" candidates. If we had such clean election laws in all our states, maybe John and Joan Q Public would get wise to the con job perpetrated by the Two Party scam now being run. Honestly, despite what many on the so called "Left" think, the Democratic Party cannot be reformed. This attempt has been tried for generations to no avail. As far as the other party, well, they are so far gone to the far right that they are simply hopeless. It is more than high time for regular, well-informed and well thought out folks to be able to run and secure elected office. By having lots of political parties and lots of independents in office, deals can be made in the spirit of compromise to get laws passed and laws changed.
There is so much more to deal with on so many other important and vital issues, like the environmental crisis we face, a woman's right to choose, better civil liberties for all of we working stiffs, especially the disenfranchised, and on and on. The purpose of this brief platform is to go after the real KEY to securing change, and that has always been the economic one. With the issues addressed above, the other as important issues can more easily be focused on.
This writer wishes NOT to be the leader of any such new party. Rather, the spokes of the wheel of needed change must be highlighted, as I have attempted to do with this piece. If we take the most recent experience of another "Democratic Republic," France, we see that the two finalists in their presidential election were NOT from any of the leading political parties (France has a multi-party system, where we have only two real vibrant ones here).So, there is a precedent for the "hope and change" we never have seen to finally appear... Yes?
PA Farruggio
May, 2017
Philip A Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC longshoremen. A graduate of Brooklyn College ( class of '74 with a BA in Speech & Theater), he is a freelance columnist posted on World News Trust, Nation of Change Blog, Op Ed News, TheSleuthJournal.com, The Intrepid Report, Information Clearing House, Dandelion Salad, Activist Post, Dissident Voice, Counterpunch and many other sites worldwide. Philip works as an environmental products sales rep and has been a street corner protest activist leader and Green Party member since 2000. In 2010 he became a local spokesperson for the 25% Solution Movement to Save Our Cities by cutting military spending 25%. Philip can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.