The 99% "Mic Checks" the 1%

Michele Bachmann appears stunned as Occupy Charleston protesters using the human microphone technique interrupt her speech aboard the USS Yorktown in South Carolina, 11/11/11. (photo: Getty Images)


By Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News 21 November 11

Reader Supported News | Perspective

As the lead Republican negotiator during the manufactured debt crisis, Eric Cantor had the podium all summer long. He walked out of the early debt talks, insisting on a cuts-only solution. The House Majority Leader readily dismissed sensible proposals like ending billions in wasteful tax giveaways for corporations and the super-rich. Cantor's callousness is legendary - he even withheld FEMA assistance to his own and other hurricane-ravaged districts until disaster-relief spending was offset by cuts.

With Cantor at the helm, Republicans in the House refused to end $20 billion in wasteful subsidies to tax-dodging oil companies, stalled on closing corporate tax loopholes that bleed out $100 billion annually, and even refused to close a tax loophole for corporate jet owners.

Republicans got everything they wanted thanks to Cantor - cuts to public services, no new revenues and a "supercommittee" tasked with making even more harmful cuts.
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