Michael Moore delivers 'Modest Proposals for President Obama', IF he WINS

g under p · October 2008

Michael Moore delivers 'modest proposals for President Obama' at film premiere

Proposal One: Institute a military draft, but only for the children of the top five percent of wage earners in the country. "I am convinced that if they have to send their own kids off to war, there won't be any wars," Moore said.

Proposal Two: Sign into law congressman John Conyer's universal health-care legislation (HR676). "The Obama health plan is no good. The McCain health plan is really, really no good," Moore said, explaining that on this issue, his support for Obama comes down to the "lesser of two evils."

Proposal Three: Ban high fructose corn syrup. "And I will be the poster boy of that campaign." Earlier in his lecture, Moore suggested that corn syrup's historical dominance as a sweetener was a result of government collusion with large agribusinesses.

Proposal Four: Build wells in the developing nations to provide clean drinking water for all. Moore says it will cost $10 billion to dig wells in villages. "We're going to spend $12 billion on Iraq in this month alone. $12 billion. One month of Iraq and the entire world can have clean drinking water. What is our problem?"

Proposal Five: Remove the $102,000 income cap on the social security tax. "If you make over 102,000 a year, do you realize the people in that category do not pay one dime on wages they earn over $102,000 ... Why shouldn't they have to pay the same six-and-half to seven percent rate that you have to pay on 100 percent or your income?" Moore cited former presidential candidate Chris Dodd, who said that if the cap was lifted, the resulting income would be able to fund social security for 75 years. He also told the audience to remind their neighbors that President Bush wanted to "put social security in the hands of Wall Street five years ago ... We'd all be Lehman Brothers."

Proposal Six: Change the way we do elections. Moore offered several suggestions, including holding elections on the weekend so that more people can get to the polls, allowing multiple parties access to the debates and discarding voting machines in favor of paper ballots.

Proposal Seven: Change the Pledge of Allegiance to reflect "the America we all believe in." Moore closed his lecture by reading his proposed pledge: "I pledge allegiance to the people of the United States of America / and to the republic for which we stand / one nation, part of one world / with liberty and justice for all."

I like the one about the draft but I'll never happen, the USA has become too Militaristic for that to happen. I love 3, 4 and 5 too.

Peace

jimed14 · October 2008

g under p wrote:

Michael Moore delivers 'modest proposals for President Obama' at film premiere

I like the one about the draft but I'll never happen, the USA has become too Militaristic for that to happen. I love 3, 4 and 5 too.

Peace

for the record, #5 is the BIGGEST reason we have a progressive tax system and people who make a lot of money or who complain about wanting a flat tax should really think before they whine ...

For the record, I'm one of the people that benefits from the SS tax cap, and even I think it's a sham.

Indifference · October 2008

jimed14 wrote:

for the record, #5 is the BIGGEST reason we have a progressive tax system and people who make a lot of money or who complain about wanting a flat tax should really think before they whine ...

For the record, I'm one of the people that benefits from the SS tax cap, and even I think it's a sham.

I would be fine with #5 - but the question that no one answers is OK say the cap is changed when paying into the SS system. Currently, BENEFITS are capped as well so will benefits become uncapped? So if someone that makes say 250K and now pays SS on the whole figure when their SS BENEFIT calculations are done will they see a significant increase in benefits paid out? Or this is simpley taking money away and redistributing from people that make over the cap?

g under p · October 2008

* Academy Award-Winning Filmmaker Michael Moore on the Election, the Bailout,
Healthcare, and 10 Proposed Decrees from a New White House *

With the election four days away, we spend the hour with Academy Award-winning
filmmaker and author Michael Moore. His film Fahrenheit 9/11 took on the Bush
administration. Sicko took on the health insurance industry. His first film
Roger and Me targeted General Motors. Moore joins us from Michigan to talk about
the election, the bailout as "robbery," the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and
the changing political climate in his home state. Moore also shares his ten
proposed decrees for a new administration’s first ten days in office.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/31/academy_award_winning_filmmaker

AMY GOODMAN: Governor Palin, was she a surprise to you? What are your thoughts about her? And because, especially, you’re saying you don’t know what’s going to happen on Tuesday.

MICHAEL MOORE: I think Governor Palin was a surprise to everybody. And I guess, at first, it was good for comedy, which I always support, anything that happens, you know, to give us a laugh or two during hard times, difficult times. But I think it’s pretty much understood now that while she’ll bring out a lot of people to vote for John McCain, if he loses on Tuesday, she’ll be considered one of the main reasons why he lost, because people in the middle just had a hard time thinking about voting for her.

But I don’t think—I mean, you know what I’ve said to people—I live up here in northern Michigan, so I live in an area that voted three-to-one for Bush in the 2000 election. And, you know, I have neighbors and people like that up here. You know, they’re Republicans. That’s the only thing they know. That’s the way they’ve always voted. And what I’ve said to them is, “OK, I don’t want to discuss, you know, Governor Palin’s politics or what she believes in or whatever with you, I just want to—let me just ask you this question: you know, you’ve only known her for like seven weeks; would you turn the keys to your house over to somebody if you’re going away on a trip to somebody you’ve known for only seven weeks? Would you turn your children over to someone that you’ve known for seven weeks? And if you love your country, why would you turn your country over to someone that you’ve known for seven weeks?”

It makes absolutely no sense to me, just on that level. No matter whether you agree with her or disagree with her, it’s just you don’t know her, and you really—it’s way too dangerous, statistically—not that I want this to happen; I mean, I hope John McCain lives a long life, but, you know, statistically, that may not happen. And you’re going in the booth, and you’re potentially voting for President Palin. And you have to ask yourself that. You know, how do you feel about that? I am hoping sensible people will say, “I just—I can’t handle that.”

AMY GOODMAN: Governor Palin has been, along with McCain, the one who’s been pushing this whole issue of the Obama being a socialist. And I want to ask you about that. Governor Palin, who comes from Alaska, where people are all given money, wealth redistributed from the most powerful corporations perhaps on earth, like Exxon Mobil.

MICHAEL MOORE: Well, yes. I mean, there’s great irony in that. And, of course, it seems like people like Governor Palin, a lot of Republicans, wealthy people, they’re all for the idea of what they perceive to be socialism, if it means that it’s good for them, but—and at the same time, attacking Barack Obama for, you know—but I think he put it best the other day, when he was talking about, yes, it’s true that he shared his toys with other kids in kindergarten, and he might have once shared a peanut butter sandwich in fourth grade with another kid, so he does have these socialistic, communistic tendencies. You know, the only redistribution of wealth that’s happened has been distributing more of the wealth to the wealthy, especially in the last month or so. And they’re great in their Orwellian attempts at trying to turn it around and use that word at somebody else.

But, you know, Amy, maybe the good thing about this is, is that, you know, we’ve heard the word “socialism” used more than we’ve heard it used in decades, almost. So maybe that’s a good thing. It gets people looking it up in Wikipedia or something, start to think about—they start reading about it. “Hey, you know what? That’s not a bad idea there, taking care of everybody, making sure everybody is cared for.” So, also, I think that the dangerous thing that the Republicans have done is by making—tried to make this election a referendum on, would you vote for a socialist? And if the majority of Americans end up voting for Obama on Tuesday, haven’t they essentially said that, actually, they like the idea of socialism. I mean, that’s the paradigm that the Republicans essentially have established with this, with the way that they’ve presented this whole issue. So I guess if Obama is president when we wake up on Wednesday morning, you know, we should all go dance around the May Day pole

Peace

fugawzi · November 2008

I just saw Michael Moore on Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Real Time With Bill Maher tonight. I liked him on both shows. On Bill's show, he seemed really confident about Obama winning Tuesday. I found out he has a movie called Slacker Uprising out, it's free and can be seen at http://slackeruprising.com/ (I didn't see that mentioned anywhere.)

bootlegger10 · November 2008

jimed14 wrote:

for the record, #5 is the BIGGEST reason we have a progressive tax system and people who make a lot of money or who complain about wanting a flat tax should really think before they whine ...

For the record, I'm one of the people that benefits from the SS tax cap, and even I think it's a sham.

Why is it a sham?

Indifference · November 2008

Indifference wrote:

I would be fine with #5 - but the question that no one answers is OK say the cap is changed when paying into the SS system. Currently, BENEFITS are capped as well so will benefits become uncapped? So if someone that makes say 250K and now pays SS on the whole figure when their SS BENEFIT calculations are done will they see a significant increase in benefits paid out? Or this is simpley taking money away and redistributing from people that make over the cap?

Anyone?

jeffbr · November 2008

Indifference wrote:

Anyone?

You have it exactly right. Uncap the benefits if you want to uncap the contribution.

Otherwise it should stay where it is.

g under p · November 2008

fugawzi wrote:

I just saw Michael Moore on Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Real Time With Bill Maher tonight. I liked him on both shows. On Bill's show, he seemed really confident about Obama winning Tuesday. I found out he has a movie called Slacker Uprising out, it's free and can be seen at http://slackeruprising.com/ (I didn't see that mentioned anywhere.)

It was mentioned here in the interview on Democracy Now this morning..Academy Award-Winning Filmmaker Michael Moore on the Election, the Bailout, Healthcare, and 10 Proposed Decrees for the New President’s First 10 Days

Guest:

Michael Moore, filmmaker and author. His movies include Sicko, Fahrenheit 911, Bowling for Columbine and Roger and Me. He is author of the new book Mike’s Election Guide ’08 and a new online film called Slacker Uprising: A Look at the Youth Vote.

I liked what he had to say here about the election this Tuesday.

AMY GOODMAN: One of your chapters in Mike’s Election Guide 2008 is “How to Elect John McCain,” is “How Many Democrats Does It Take to Lose the Most Winnable Presidential Election in American History?” How many Democrats does it take?

MICHAEL MOORE: Not many. I think Obama’s done a good job of, you know, paying attention to not making some of the mistakes Democrats have made in past elections. It’s really kind of up to us, the rest of us, Democrats or not, just to get out there and do what we can in the next three days to get people to vote. I mean, that’s really what I think is the key thing, and not to be doing a dance on the five-yard line before—thinking that we’ve already scored the touchdown. And, you know, there’s that famous incident there with the football player in the Super Bowl, Leon Lett, who had picked up a fumble, and he ran all the way down and starting around the ten-yard line, before he crossed over the goal line, he puts his arms out, you know, like “Woo-hoo! Touchdown!” and the guy from the Buffalo Bills came up from behind him and whacked the ball, caught up to him and whacked the ball right out of his hands. No touchdown. There’s too many of us that are—and I know why we do it, because we’re so—we’ve been so depressed for the last eight years of having to deal with, you know, what’s happened to the country, it just almost—it feels like we’re on that five-yard line right now, and we want to start doing the dance. But there’s no dancing allowed until, you know, midnight Tuesday. So, everybody’s got to go out and do what they can do in these next few days, and then you should participate in any kind of poll watching or whatever on Tuesday to make sure that things are honest and fair and no shenanigans are taking place

Peace

fugawzi · November 2008

Yea I liked the Leon Lett analogy. I remember watching that when I was a kid. It totally applies.

Indifference · November 2008

jeffbr wrote:

You have it exactly right. Uncap the benefits if you want to uncap the contribution.

Otherwise it should stay where it is.

Alrighty - thanks.

Michael Moore delivers 'Modest Proposals for President Obama', IF he WINS

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