No wonder regular Americans' anger is increasing to the boiling point.  They have become Washington's punching bags.

Throw the bums out is aimed at both the GOP and the Democrats.  It's well deserved.

Nothing is being done to effectively overcome and fix massive unemployment, the widening chasm of economic inequality, and unfair, regressive taxation, as the richest of the rich and corporations that control government have turned it into a mechanism to serve the wealthy oligarchy, relegating typical Americans to serfdom. 

Basically the corporatist White House and Capitol Hill, with its inadequate, meager stimulus and stingy jobs bill are telling those Americans bearing the brunt of this staggering economic inequality and huge unemployment burden to suck it up and keep struggling, while the economic meltdown criminals and their Bushite/Obama enablers get wealthier on the backs of those same struggling Americans.

From Robert Borosage at Campaign for America's Future:

"Yes, there is a class war, Warren Buffett once said, and my class is winning. The IRS study of taxes paid in 2007 makes his point. The top 1% of taxpayers averaged about $138 million in income, and paid taxes at a rate of 16.6%.

"As Buffett says, their secretaries pay a higher rate. No wonder Republicans and conservaDems like the much regretted Evan Bayh are fighting to lower the estate tax rate as part of a "jobs" bill. These folks will have a lot to put in the estate that's never been taxed as income.

"Ah, for the extremist liberal days of Ronald Reagan when capital gains were taxed at the same rate as income.

And David Sirota sheds more light on unfair, regressive taxation in which the richest get richer as the rest of us struggle to keep jobs with stagnant wages.

"Pulitzer Prize-winning Tax Notes reporter David Cay Johnston has a big scoop (subscription required):

" 'The incomes of the top 400 American households soared to a new record high in dollars and as a share of all income in 2007, while the income tax rates they paid fell to a record low, newly disclosed tax data show.

'In 2007 the top 400 taxpayers had an average income of $344.8 million, up 31 percent from their average $263.3 million income in 2006, according to figures in a report that the IRS posted to its Web site without announcement that were discovered February 16. (For the report, see Tax Analysts Doc 2010-3372 .)

'The figures came at the peak of the last economic cycle and show that widely published reports in major newspapers asserting that the richest Americans are losing relative ground and "becoming poorer" are not supported by the official income data.

'The long-term data show that under current tax and economic rules, the incomes of the top earners rise when the economy expands and contract during recessions, only to rise again. Their effective income tax rate fell to 16.62 percent, down more than half a percentage point from 17.17 percent in 2006, the new data show.' "

"I can't say I'm surprised, but I can say I am sickened. At a time when both Republicans and the Obama administration want us to believe our deficit problems should be solved through "reforms" (read: cuts) to Social Security and Medicare, we should be having a discussion about out of control defense spending and the ultra-rich watching their tax rates decline."

Meanwhile Mike Elk reports: "Earlier today, I learned from trusted sources on the Hill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will propose only a 15-day unemployment and COBRA extension.

"Such a move is absolutely pathetic and unacceptable. About 1.2 million million Americans are expected to lose their unemployment benefits at the end of the month. While a 15-day extension will allow people to continue receiving aid, hundreds of thousands of people will still receive notices from state unemployment offices saying that they will stop receiving aid."

These senatorial hypocrites (most of whom are millionaires and multi-millionaires) who receive six figure salaries, top of the line health care and other benefits thanks to the taxpayers are consigning hardworking people to 21st century serfdom. 

At the same time, these senatorial hypocrites take money from their corporate handlers and crony Wall Street casino gazillionaires that cost these hardworking Americans their jobs.

Economist Dean Baker reminds us that the Federal Reserve may be breaking the law, under Obama's re-confirmed economic meltdown and unemployment enabler, Ben Bernanke.  (What does that say about Obama?)

"The mistakes of Bernanke, along with Alan Greenspan, in allowing the housing bubble grow to dangerous levels are the main reason that the country is stuck is suffering from high unemployment. Millions of people are out of work not because they lack the skills or willingness to work hard. They are out of work because Ben Bernanke messed up in managing the economy. But Ben Bernanke still has his job.

"Is the Fed breaking the law? That is a question that members of Congress should be asking. The Humphrey Hawkins Full Employment Act, which governs the Fed's operation, requires the Fed to pursue price stability and full employment, which is defined as 4% unemployment. It would be hard to maintain that current policy is consistent with these goals.

"At this point the Fed is explicitly discussing its plans for an exit strategy, moving away from its policy of quantitative easing. This means we should anticipate a general upward movement in interest rates in coming months, although the speed of this movement is not clear.

"This is troubling because the economy is expected to remain very weak by almost everyone, including the Fed itself. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the unemployment rate will average near 10% in 2010, 9% in 2009, and 8% in 2012. Unemployment is not projected to fall to 5% until 2015. If the Fed is retreating from its quantitative easing and allowing interest rates to rise, its policy will be doing little to push down the unemployment rate more quickly.

"Unfortunately, more quantitative easing or the targeting of a higher inflation rate do not appear to be on the Fed's agenda. Its sole concern appears to be ensuring that inflation does not begin to accelerate. This is not only perverse given the fact that inflation is slowing and is expected by nearly everyone to continue to slow for the next several months, it also would appear to violate the law governing the Fed's conduct.

"The Fed does not have the option to ignore the full employment part of its mandate, as it appears to be doing at present. Congress should carefully question the Federal Reserve Board chairman, Ben Bernanke, when he gives his semi-annual Humphrey-Hawkins testimony this week. He should be forced to explain how doing nothing to counteract the five years of high unemployment projected by the Fed and others is consistent with its mandate to promote full employment."