Flames engulf an image of Mayor Bloomberg in this new, hard-hitting ad from CWA Local 1180, whose president, Arthur Cheliotes, tells me the union had no choice but go graphic. Video after the jump.
1. What’s the main message?
SHORT – Make rich elites who cause the economic crash pay, They created this REVENUE crisis in our government they should do the patriotic thing, support our city so it can provide essential public services like quality healthcare, education, housing and an infrastructure that stimulates the economy by putting money in the hands of people who spend it in our neighborhoods not some speculative financial scheme in cyberspace.
LONG – New Yorkers understand that government has a revenue problem caused by the rich elites who crashed our economy in a gambling frenzy facilitated by deregulation and tax cuts. Rich elites don’t want government to work because when it works as it should in a true democracy it protects the average citizen from exploitation and intimidation from the rich elites. We can rebuild our economy by making rich elites pay their fair share for the prosperity they enjoy while limiting their tendency to speculate and create dangerous boom bust cycles in the economy. Government can invest in our most important asset the people of our city. Government must provide quality healthcare, education, housing and an infrastructure that stimulates the economy by putting money in the hands of people who spend it in our neighborhoods not some speculative financial scheme in cyberspace. When I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s the middle class grew and we all shared in the prosperity we produced. Millionaires paid a top marginal tax rate that was over 90% when that socialist Eisenhower was President, over 16% when Rockefeller was Governor and there was a stock transfer tax.
2. Target audience?
New Yorkers who understand that we had better stand up for a government by and for the people while we still have a chance of getting our government back from the billionaires.
3. Flames rising on either side of Bloomberg: is an arresting image? Does that impact at all the ability to lobby the administration directly?
Lobby directly are you kidding?
4. How much money is being put behind the end; how long will it run?
$50,000 plus lots of members volunteering to distribute leaflets throughout the city.
5. When did you realize you needed to go down this road?
When Bloomberg started running for a third term. But most recently when he started blaming the state legislature for screwing NYC with the budget cuts it did not compute. He bankrolled the Republicans in the senate yet they targeted cuts to NYC??
Bloomberg constantly attacks Speaker Silver who demanded the millionaires tax be extended. Bloomberg didn’t lift a finger to support Silver thus increasing the cuts to the city. The solution is clear, Bloomberg must again do what he did his first term increase income taxes on his millionaire friends who won’t miss it since the state increase is ending. He should also rescind property tax abatements on all residential property owned by anyone with an annual income of $5 million.
When I first realized we need to fight back.
In the 1980’s when Ronald Reagan cut taxes for millionaires from over 70% down to 28% he began the process of starving government and shifting the tax burden to the middle class since state and local governments relied on regressive property and sales taxes to make up federal funding losses.
Reagan also lifted FCC regulations limiting ownership monopolies in media markets and equal time for differing opinions. The consolidation of mass media into the hands of a few rich elites has limited the voices engaged in the public discourse.
When he fired the PATCO workers he started the avalanche that destroyed unions in the private sector thus shifting productivity gains previously shared with middle class unionized workers to elite rich shareholders.
He started the sabotage of the federal civil service driving talented people from government and initiated the corporate – government revolving door that has rendered regulatory agencies impotent.
