Another Great Idea that Will Never Happen

I just read an email about my hero Bernie Sanders "new" idea about raising the cap on the payroll tax in order to fund social security.  Here are the usual reasons that this will never fly:

We don't tax the rich in this country, because it is unfair to them.  It is unfair to them because they are the people that make this country great.  They are the job creators, the investors, the innovators.  We, on the other hand, are the folks who ride on their coattails, and we should be grateful for it.

The people who keep getting elected are the ones who are trying to kill the government.  They have been doing it, one program at a time, and if they can't strangle social security this year, they'll try again next year.  And they have the means, and the moral compass of a squid, so they surely will keep trying.

No matter how much Democrats are giving lip service to saving social security, they are mostly in the pockets of the wealthy and nearly as deeply as the republicans.  If they were as convinced about the need for the haves to pay more to raise the rafts of the ever-sinking middle class, they would be shouting as loudly, and being heard as clearly as the Tea Party.  Regardless of the media's fondness for highlighting the crazies.

And then there is the mainstream media.  The media who reports on the screamers, but fails to point out the disinformation that they spread.  We will no more hear on NBC than we will on FOX the facts about social security; if they report on Bernie Sanders' plan to raise the cap on the payroll tax, it is only so they can quote some republican patsy whining about "class warfare" and how we are trying to stifle the "job creators".

Sorry, Bernie, I wish I could be more optimistic.  And I wish we had a country where your ideas could truly be heard without being twisted, so the voters might have a shot at electing more like you.