"Thursday’s hearing highlighted certain fundamental aspects of American politics. Both parties represent the interests of a small and parasitic financial elite. When negligence and borderline criminality among the super-rich lead to a crisis, it is the unanimous consensus of both parties that none of those responsible should be punished and that the masses of working people should be left to pay the bill.

The degree to which the two-party system has so openly and shamelessly become an instrument of the financial aristocracy is a reflection of the immense growth of social inequality in America. The concentration of wealth at the very top has become the central feature of a social structure that is increasingly incompatible with democratic institutions."

Sunshine: This very succinctly states the issue. I read with amusement the headline on MSN Money which stated: "Wall Street Worried about Obama and the Re-distribution of Wealth" The interesting thing is, the re-distribution of wealth has been going on steadily for years, and has been accelerated greatly in the last eight years of the Bush Administration. If greed and fear does indeed dictate the market, then the excessive greed of large banking institutions, the real estate mortgage industry, and investment houses has caught up with them, and now fear is ruling the day. It was Bush who stated in 2004 that our economy was strong, and everyone should buy a house because that was the American dream. No matter if they couldn't really aford it, just buy it, someone will loan you the money. Looks like his big business and mortgage banking buddies really decided to put the fix in. They were not only incredible greedy but monumentally stupid. There has been absolutely no accountability for any of this, and the chickhens have come home to the roost. The Dems in Congress have been just as bad as the Repubs. Everyone is trying to close the barn door after the horses are gone. The big bubble has burst, and our economy is in big trouble.

The middle class in America is disintegrating. The gap between the haves and have nots has been increasing rapidly. Yes, the budget defecit must be balanced and revenue needs to be increased by raising taxes, but taxation on the correct sectors. Trickle down (supply-side) economics never worked in our society because the haves have always made sure not much trickled down. This is why the top 1 percent are so against Obama. They like things the way they are with the middle class taking the brunt of taxation. For the middle class, the current tax legislation is truly taxation without representation, similar to the situation that spawned our own independence from good old King George and the British aristocracy in the first place. How ironic that our present George II represents the Bush Dynasty and the entitled ruling class. Now Obama is being criticized for outlining an agenda that actually proposes to stop the erosion of the middle class and correct the current re-distribution that has been taking place because our nation is being run by a ruling elite that aims to control most of the wealth. Why is it that in America, the average annual income of a CEO is 400 times the average pay of their workers, and in a country like Japan, which is buying up our debt, CEO pay is 10 times the average worker. What’s wrong with this picture?

Not that our middle class should get off the hook. Ours is a debtor society that saves nothing and wallows in consumer debt compared to the rest of the industrialized world. The "values" that we as a people really need to espouse are a little bit more of good old Yankee frugality and personal financial accountability, rather than fuming about whether a couple of lesbians in a long term relationship should get married. We are a consumer-driven society that unfortunately consumes way more than we actually produce (think trade deficit). Sadly, many of the American middle class are becoming dupes for the current ruling class in this country. They, the haves, naturally want to keep it this way. So all these same dupes who think that Obama’s notion of wealth distribution is some kind of “socialism” are just continuing to be dupes to big business and the ruling elite. The big money just loves it when these poor smucks keep going into debt, selling their soul to the company store, think Obama is the boogyman , while they just keep accumulating wealth on the backs of the declining middle class. When are people going to wake up!