It's bad enough that Wisconsin's Rep. Paul Ryan keeps spewing absolute garbage about Medicare and Social Security (he fraudulently refers to the programs as "entitlements"), which he wants to privatize. 

But when a recipient of those programs contests his statements, it gets even worse. A 71-year-old man was grabbed by security, dragged out of the room and knocked to the ground after interrupting Ryan's drivel.  

from AMERICAblog

And then the chump cracks a joke about the old man, too? Something tells me this will come back on Ryan - and pretty damn soon. 

It’s an economic environment of exclusivity, a recent episode of Fault Lines depicts.

Only one percent of the population takes in more than 20 percent of all earnings in the United States, for example. Since the 1970’s, the income levels of the top 10 percent in wealth increased four-fold; the remaining 90 percent of the country has had no income growth, when accounting for inflation and other cost-of-living increases.

And the U.S. government – not any branch and neither side – is fully helping to stop this anti-Democratic, non-capitalist movement from ransacking our Democratic capitalist country. The movers and the makers are led by the money shakers.  And that’s probably never been more apparent than it is today.

“As both Democrats and Republicans gear up for the 2012 presidential elections, the race to raise money for campaign advertising is a driving force for both parties,” the reporter of this recent August 2 episode, titled “The Top 1%,” says.

The top wealth in the country and their corporations, who provide the most in campaign donations by far, get an unfair and disproportionate influence on government as a result.

Take U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, for example, who’s featured in the episode. Chair of the House Budget Committee, Ryan claims the only way to help our economy is by taking away healthcare benefits from the poor and elderly, cutting benefits from retirees … and lowering the tax rate on the top income bracket to only 25 percent.

Ryan’s top campaign donors are investment firms and insurance companies, as well as Koch Industries.

These politicians don’t want to answer up to the public about their proposals or policies, either.  Watch the young female reporter attempt to interview Ryan, having to dodge parking meters along the sidewalk as she tries to keep with the evasive Wisconsin Republican. (“Your questions are rude,” Ryan barked as he got into his SUV, closing the interview.)

And those who do answer questions about the policies they promote are quite blunt. Scott Hodge, president of the Tax Foundation, is asked if his conservative think tank only advocates on the behalf of wealth. “Yeah – you just can’t help it,” he replies. 

This is a 25-minute episode, which might be too long for some to watch. But if you only have a few minutes to spare, just slide the bar over to the 20:00 mark. You could even mute the volume. The next three-and-a-half minutes of the clip provides a rather vivid video grasp of the current economic situation in the U.S.

You’ll see the excitement and enthusiasm swarming the campus of Harvard University as it hosts an outdoor graduation ceremony, a rite of passage for the children of wealth to go on and score their own.

And then you’ll see the team of common Americans scouring the area after the ceremony, cleaning up all the trash those wealthy folks left lying on the campus grounds.

Right after that segment, put the volume back on to hear what’s probably the most succinct of summations on the subject.

According to Leo Hindery, a progressive political activist, “This degree of inequity will ultimately lead to social upheaval – it’s that acute.

“But the politicians aren’t listening (to the public),” Hindery says. “They’re listening to the lobbies. They’re listening to the wealthy people.

“We’ve got to disconnect.”