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Jill Stein on Corporations
Green Party presidential nominee; Former Challenger for MA Governor
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Enormous bipartisan collaboration on deregulation
Q: What is the biggest difference between you and George W. Bush?ROMNEY: President Bush and I are different people, and these are different times. And that's why my five-point plan is so different than what he would have done.
STEIN: The lines get
very blurred when you try to distinguish between even the policies of George Bush and Barack Obama on so many key areas, not to mention that the distinctions are very hard to find between Mitt Romney and George Bush. There's been enormous bipartisan
collaboration on deregulation, on tax breaks for the very wealthy, and on the explosion of dirty energy as supposedly the route to a new economy. So, we've gotten ourselves into great crises under both parties. And in many ways, Barack Obama expanded the
bad policies of George Bush, with Wall Street bailouts that went ballistic, the continued offshoring of our jobs, the skyrocketing of student debt and home foreclosures, the expansion of the war, the attack on our civil liberties. The list goes on.
Source: Democracy Now! Expanded Second Obama-Romney 2012 debate
, Oct 16, 2012
Romney & Obama are both pro-1% big corporation
Q. What do you think of Mitt Romney?A. He responds to his electorate. When he's running in Salt Lake, he's anti-abortion. When he's running in Massachusetts, he's pro-abortion.
He responds to his electorate, broadly, except that he remains basically pro-business in a very narrow sense of the word--that is a pro-one-percent big, corporate multinational business. You know what, that's not so different from the way
Larry Summers and Tim Geithner are running the country under Barack Obama. When our governorship changed from Mitt Romney and it went directly to Deval Patrick, who is another poster child for progressive Democrats, no difference.
Nothing detectable. Nothing changed in Massachusetts whatsoever.
Source: Michael Shear, New York Times, "5 Questions"
, Feb 14, 2012
Corporate elite richer than ever, but pay less tax than ever
While the economy does not work for the vast majority, it does work for a few; at least for now. The owners of the big corporations are enjoying historic profits, with a record $2 trillion in cash reserves at home and $1.4 trillion overseas.
Though the corporate elite are richer than ever, they are contributing less than ever to the tax base that keeps the infrastructure going that their profits rely on--schools, transportation, clean air and water, safe food, the legal system, the police,
and the military. In fact, 30 major corporations paid no corporate income tax at all over the last three years, despite making $160 billion in profits.
And the big banks--whose fraud and greed crashed the economy to start with--are bigger than ever, with the six biggest banks now controlling capital equivalent* to 60% of all economic activity in this country.
Source: Green Party 2012 People's State of the Union speech
, Jan 25, 2012
Record profits-with politicians' help--caused the recession
To be clear: the greed for record profits is what got us into this mess in the first place. Of course it wasn't greed alone. It was the capture of both political parties by Wall Street and other powerful corporations that buy influence with campaign
contributions and lobbyists. Using this routine currency of American policy making, Democrats and Republicans alike dismantled protections against waste, fraud and abuse by Wall Street. This bipartisan cooperation enabled greed to crash the economy.
That not only killed jobs, it also depressed tax revenues--which has been one of the biggest drivers of the federal deficit. That deficit has also been made worse by unconscionable spending choices: notably the 4 trillion dollars spent on illegal wars
and bailouts for Wall Street. And now, the political establishment are making matters far worse, doing the opposite of what we need, by inflicting needless, harsh austerity policies on the country.
Source: Green Party 2012 People's State of the Union speech
, Jan 25, 2012
Make all corporate tax subsidies transparent
We will honor that oldest of American rights, the right to fair taxation that's distributed in proportion to ability to pay. And we will make any corporate tax subsidies transparent by putting these subsidies in public budgets where they can be
scrutinized, not hidden as tax breaks in complicated tax codes.
In honoring these rights we will create the basis for a new economy--an economy that is stable and not vulnerable to speculation--an economy that is prosperous and that pays for itself through the creation of real wealth that is distributed throughout
America--an economy that is no longer dragged down by big corporations preying on the elderly, the poor, the disabled, the unemployed, and the young, but which instead supports small business, individual liberty, and local, thriving communities.
Source: Green Party 2012 People's State of the Union speech
, Jan 25, 2012
1776 Revolution threw off corporate rule; it's creeping back
Q: You said, "We need to be selective about what we worship in the past" regarding America's founding principles. What do you mean?A: We don't need to be arming state militias, for example.
We are not counting African-Americans as 3/5 of a human being like at America's founding. And we don't tell women to stay in the kitchen and not be seen or heard or represented democratically.
There are some things we have improved upon, but there are some rights that we declared--freedom not only from aristocracy but also from corporate rule. Here in New England at the time of America's founding, we had the
British East India Company's aristocracy. We threw off rule by the 1% then--that has now crept back into our system. In that sense we're going back to founding principles, by moving toward a democratic revival in this country.
Source: 2011 AmericansElect interview questionnaire with Jill Stein
, Dec 21, 2011
Page last updated: Oct 27, 2012