I am writing to comment on the movie "We're Not Broke" sponsored by the Delaware Americans for Democratic Action, advertised in the Cape Gazette and shown on June 27 at Midway.
It was the only movie that I've ever attended that provided two pages of talking points and a prepared political postcard to be sent to Congress. The 90-minute movie (could have been 45) really has only one theme.
Namely, if the selfish, greedy corporations paid their fair share in income taxes to the federal government all would be well (budgets full) which would prove that "We're Not Broke." The talking points say that "the United States Treasury is losing $100 billion per year in revenue" from these cheats in legal tax maneuvers.
And, although the movie makes some good points about crony-capitalism and the corrosive symbiotic relationship between corporations, Wall Street and Washington, it really leaves the federal government's out-of-control spending/borrowing and veracious appetite for our money uncriticized.
Consider this. In 43 years after LBJ's guns and butter (Vietnam and Great Society) budget in 1967 ($882 billion in today's dollars), the federal budget has grown by more than 400 percent to an annual $3,550 billion ($3.55 trillion) in 2010 (Federal Reserve Archives) and growing.
Meanwhile, according to the U.S. Census's Real Median Household Income Report, during the same period annual income only went from $39,000 to $51,000 or a paltry 31 percent. And that's before taxes to pay for the 400 percent growth! The middle class loses big time.
For this movie's makers to think that confiscating another $100 billion from companies, to feed a $3,550 billion (per year) beast that has overspent to the tune of $16 trillion (debt), would fix anything is a joke. One hundred billion (although a huge number) only amounts to 3 percent of bloated federal spending.
The Delaware ADA should wake up and attack the elephant-sized federal government and help increase our paychecks through reduced tax burdens. Society is better off when more wealth is left in private hands to save and spend rather than squandered by bureaucrats.
Otherwise, we will remain "broke" in spite of the movie's claims.
Geary Foertsch
Rehoboth Beach
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