This I Believe: Part Two

So... There is hope! The only requirement is that we, each and every one of us reach out and enable it. It resides in us. It will not happen with Complacency or Inaction. It will only happen if we, to a man, woman, and child, step up to our most fundamental responsibility - the responsibility for our own success and prosperity. It's easy to think that somebody else should provide for some of this given the amounts that we pay in taxes but truthfully, that's just to provide sustaining infrastructure. It's not up to someone else. It's up to us.

As long as we tolerate the likes of Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, at the top of our power structure advising the president on what our economy should look like and how we should create jobs, and the vast army of lobbyists and insiders that are far more effectively represented in US policy and tax law than the population of the country is, we are doomed. I quote here from a MoveOn.Org campaign letter (with reference links) I received today -

"According to The New York Times, last year General Electric (GE) made over $14.2 billion in profit, but paid NO federal tax.¹ None. In fact, thanks to the millions GE spent lobbying Congress, we American taxpayers actually owed GE $3.2 billion in tax credits.²

Now GE is slashing health benefits and retirement benefits for new employees among non-union workers and is expected to push unions to accept similar cutbacks³, while its CEO, Jeff Immelt, gets a 100% pay raise.⁴

What's worse? Immelt now sits as chair of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness (Jobs Council), representing corporate America to the President on matters like job creation and corporate taxation."

and

"One of the chief ways GE avoids paying taxes is by shifting a large portion of its profits overseas, and jobs follow.⁵ Now GE's CEO is the person charged with helping the President create jobs here in America. That's just perverse.

And if the American people got back just the $3.2 billion GE took in tax credits, it would pay for the programs that House Republicans want to gut, like community health centers providing care to over three million low-income people⁶ and food and health care assistance to pregnant women, new moms, and children.⁷ We'd even have enough left to save the jobs of over 21,000 teachers across the country.⁸

The American deficit is being weighed down by hundreds of billions spent on bailing out major corporations. The tea party's plan is to make working families pay through devastating cuts, instead of making corporations with billions in profits pay their fair share.

But if we can hold Immelt accountable for GE's corporate irresponsibility, the nation will turn its attention to the injustice of corporate tax evasion in the face of the Republicans' budget-slashing attack on working families.

Make it all happen by signing the petition calling for Immelt to go. Just click below—and share this email with your friends, family, and social networks today.

http://pol.moveon.org/immelt_must_go/?id=26713-18776274-8YPpxxx&t=2

Thanks for all that you do.

–Lenore, Tim, Marika, Kat, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "G.E.'s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes All Together," The New York Times, March 24, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207259&id=26713-18776274-8YPpxxx&t=3

2. Ibid.

3. "After Paying Zero Income Taxes, GE Plans To Ask Its Union Workers To Make Wage and Benefits Concessions", ThinkProgress, March 28, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207260&id=26713-18776274-8YPpxxx&t=5

4. "UPDATE: GE Doubles CEO Immelt's Compensation, Shrinks Board", Smart Money, March 14, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207261&id=26713-18776274-8YPpxxx&t=6

5. "G.E.'s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes All Together," The New York Times, March 24, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207259&id=26713-18776274-8YPpxxx&t=7

6. "NACHC Statement in Response to the Budget from the House Appropriations Committee," National Association of Community Health Centers website, February 9, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206514&id=26713-18776274-8YPpxxx&t=8

7. "Bye Bye, Big Bird. Hello, E. Coli.," The New Republic, February 12, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206104&id=26713-18776274-8YPpxxx&t=9

8. Based on an annual teacher's salary of $42,500, as noted in the Payscale website (updated March 19, 2011), accessed March 30, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207263&id=26713-18776274-8YPpxxx&t=10 "

Now MoveOn.Org is right to raise this issue and make these points, BUT it's not enough. There is, within that appeal, the notion of dependence upon that ubiquitous "somebody else" that we have to appeal to to get it right. None the less, at it's heart, MoveOn.Org does serve to move US to action individually and that is a step in the right direction.

So... what else is at issue? I was communicating with a female friend last night and the ending of her message went "...Glad to hear there is some 'paying now' work going on. Wish I could say the same." Wish I could say the same... I detect a note of resignation, even despair in that - this in a message in which she's telling me that she has had a good job interview. I had to respond with a basic review of "Pep Talk 101"

"OK - it's time for the big reveal. Du du Dah!!!

Late last year I spent some significant time to review what was going on in my life, particularly in regard to what I "know" and what I "do". I came to the conclusion that I'm not farming half as good as I know how aka I was not doing what I know. Some of this is attributable to outside influences in my life that I let have more influence than they should have, but mostly it was me loosing track of the real vision in the comfort of a regular paycheck.

What I know is that you get what you focus on, and that focus has to be singular, unimpeachable, and continuous. No FUD - Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. I know that life can have any number of problems but that true faith is transcendent of problems and it is manifested in "feeling good now" as perfectly described in the Abraham Hicks audio link provided here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAoLDrERfko (forget any predispositions you may have about Abraham-Hicks - it's not relevant to this conversation. The point in this audio clip is valid and well made.)

So... when I left American Systems I made a hard core commitment to myself that I would NOT allow FUD and that I would, as some in my circle of opportunities choose to describe it, "operate from sufficiency" instead of from scarcity. That I would at all times and in all things manifest what I KNEW to be TRUE - that the powers of the universe REALLY are aligning with me every second that I am positive, and focused about my goals and feeling good about myself... On the dry marker board outside my cubbyhole office in our apartment I have written three things, labeled The Big Three:

1) You can't win if you don't play! Get on the field!!
2) Take care of yourself - they aren't making any more!
3) Clear the decks!! Get rid of or eliminate any and everything that in anyway distracts, breaks up, or fractures your focus on the goals. With EVERYTHING you do ask yourself "How is this contributing to me reaching my goal?" If it isn't - get rid of it!! "

It has been working rather well so far :-) ... for me! It COULD be working for everyone but "we, the people" persist in operating from, thinking in, and being overwhelmed by visions of scarcity and impossibility thinking. The majority population routinely forgets is that if the glass is half empty - IT'S ALSO HALF FULL!!

More about what we are facing if we do NOT get this in the next post -

Thanks for reading :-) Have a truly great day!!