COMMENTARY | Can we please remove the phrase "class warfare" from the English language? Once again, the GOP is crying "class warfare" after President Barack Obama's announced plan to increase taxes on the wealthiest citizens.
The phrase is as overused as teen text-speak. "LOL, let's cut funding to Planned Parenthood." The liberals cry back, "The conservatives are declaring class warfare against poor women."
Any attempt to remove tax loopholes is seen as an attack on the rich and any attempt to cut social programs is seen as an attack on the poor. The two major parties are so far apart on the issue of actual finding a way to reduce our nation's deficit, they can only turn a blind eye to any suggestions they aren't in favor of.
When House Speaker John Boehner said "Class warfare isn't leadership," I wonder if he actually listened to anything other than a suggestion to implement the "Buffett Rule." Did Boehner hear the part about pay cut for federal employees? Did he hear the proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid?
Class warfare isn't a new term but the way it's been bandied about recently, it's becoming a joke.
Five years before Warren Buffett wrote his editorial to the New York Times, economist Ben Stein wrote one of this own. Stein related a meeting he had with Buffett in which the billionaire, in reply to a statement about class warfare, said "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."
Maybe the wealthy are winning. The tax breaks and loopholes they have been enjoying (also proposed to be cut by Obama) have not led to increased jobs. Production doesn't just magically increase because some wealthy corporation gets a tax break. It only increases when there is an increased demand for the product. And when the middle class and lower class can't afford to buy something, they just don't buy it.
The true war that is being waged isn't about the haves against the have-nots. It's about the politicians against each other and the very people they claim to represent.
It might very well be class warfare, but let's try to get the teams correct.
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