This morning on CNN a man was interviewed who had been out of work long enough to have to rely on extended unemployment benefits.  His wife has been unable to find work for two years now.

If nothing changes, in January - next month - and 1.8 million families like him will no longer have any income.  And if his three at home and two at school children are typical of these 1.8 million families, then 9 million more people will have no way of buying food, paying for shelter, or getting any of the other life subsistence needs.

They will join the already approximately 22 million in the same fix.  And that will just be in January.  Another 2 million is expected to join them during 2012.

What has brought about this sorry state of affairs?
Well I wrote in an earlier comment on here that it started with the Reagan Administration and his thousand points of light.  Remember?  We were promised the ultimate solution - Trickle Down Economics - remember?

The idea was that if we unregulated Corporations and let them have more of the Wealth - all they could stuff in their pockets in reality - that these much more profitable Corporations would create more jobs and build more factories and hire more workers and we could all share in the prosperity.  Wasn’t this what was promised?

But instead the 80% of the average people giving up something for the Corporation Wealth, became the 90%, and they have now become the 99% who have become economic slaves to the Wealth of the Corporations.

Reagan and his political Party - The Republican Party - created the Front Group ALEC to cause Legislation to be written by the Corporations and pushed through by Republicans into LAW.  Those bills had one theme in mind - remove all constraints on the Corporations so they could increase their share of the Nations Wealth.

Again this activity was sold as a means to “Trickle Down” wealth for the American worker.  Instead those Corporations took their excess profits and went overseas with their new factories and jobs and even began to ship American legacy jobs and factories overseas until we came to where we are now.  Does this remind you of the Nixon Republican Administration “Windfall Profits for Oil Companies Plan” to make America independent of Foreign Oil?  Wasn’t Gas less than a dollar then?

There has been a tremendous re-distribution of America’s Wealth to the 1% from the rest of AMERICA since ALEC was formed.

When America, in 2008, tossed out the Republican Party for the mess that they had inflicted, that Party realized they still had enough clout to keep changes from occurring and at that time, their campaign for 2012 began in earnest.  Their plan was to foil Obama at every endeavor and to keep the Republican imposed misery going for as long as possible while blaming Obama ( the dark skinned Kenyan according to the Republican faithful )for the continued misery.

I don’t think this would have worked except Obama couldn’t resist the open trough of corruption. He became the continuation of the Bush Policies.

America deserves better than they are getting from the two Party system, but things will continue to get worse until the people decide to do something about it.

I have for the last several years advocated that the public can force change by deciding to shun one of those two parties out of existence.  I choose the Republican Party as the first Party to send to the dust bin of history.  Democrats are for it.  Republicans think such thinking is stupid.

My suggestion in its entirety was to Shun Republican Candidates while forming a Third Party composed of a Coalition of Independent Parties, and when powerful enough, shun the Democrats out of existence.

Both Democrats and Republicans can tell you in a heartbeat that plan won’t work.  But both fail to start representing the interests of the 99% as opposed to the 1%.

So what have you ( the 99%) have to lose in shunning these two dominant Parties?

I have a comment on the “Claimed High Corporate Tax Rates” and what the Corporations really pay.  As you all know sometimes what is claimed is no more than an illusion, and sometimes just a downright lie.  The Republican hue and cry about the Corporations and Millionaires and Billionaires needing lower tax rates so that they can create more jobs for Americans.  You’ve heard it just like I have.  I did some data mining and decided to put in my two cents worth for your consideration.

To begin there is an organization named ALEC.  It was formed by the Reagan Administration.  The Group is composed of Corporation Leaders, Lobbyists, and Elected Politicians.  Right Wing Conservative and heavily Republican, though there are a few scattered Democrats, the mission of ALEC is to put legislation ( Laws ) on the books that favor Corporation interests in lieu of the interests of the people.  Since 1999, ALEC members have sought to restrict or abolish Consumer Protection Laws.  Each year approximately 800 bills based in whole or in part on the ALEC model legislation are introduced in the states. Annually, about 20% of these introduced bills become law.

You may recall that the prevailing cry of the Republican Party is that the U S Corporations have the highest tax rate in the World.  And that is true.  But what you haven’t heard them talk about is the Tax actually paid by the Corporations and the Rich.  The first thing to realize is that the tax rate is meaningless if you don’t have to pay that rate.  What tax you do pay is where the rubber meets the road.
The current Corporate tax rate is 35%.  But nearly all Profitable Corporations pay little to no tax and a significant number not only pay no taxes but actually get “Tax Refunds” and subsidies that add up to over a $Trillion dollars annually.  The deficit this year is thought to be about $1.2 Trillion dollars.  It would appear that if all Corporations paid their assessed rate the annual deficits would magically go away.

Take a look at how these Corporations are doing these days and possibly why they are Republican to the core.  Remember the Democrats are for the top 1% paying their fair share while Republicans would let the Nation go down in flames rather than make those Corporations pay one cent more than they do now.  Notice how the Corporations pay less and less while you and I pay more and more.
Here is a quick look at the difference and how it has changed over the years:
Average Paid Corporate Tax Rate as a Percentage of Federal Revenue
1955 . . . 27.3%
2010 . . . 8.9%
Average Paid Corporate Tax Rate as a Percentage of GDP
1955 . . . 4.3%
2010 . . . 1.3%
Individual Income/Payroll Tax as a Percentage of Federal Revenue ( This is you and me).
1955 . . . 58.0%
2010 . . . 81.5%

Of the 275 Fortune 500 companies that made a profit each year from 2001 to 2003 and for which adequate information to draw conclusions is publicly available, only a small proportion paid federal income taxes anywhere near that statutory 35 percent tax rate.

It gets worse.  In 2003 alone, 46 of the largest Corporations paid zero or less in federal income taxes. These 46 companies told their shareholders they earned U.S. pretax profits in 2003 of $42.6 billion, yet they received tax rebates totaling $5.4 billion.

Remember the Republicans bellowing that if we just let the Corporations and the Rich and Powerful pay less taxes they could hire more workers?  Well when we did let them pay less taxes - they did hire more workers, but not in the United States - they used those tax gifts to build staff new factories in third world countries, where they can often get workers for less than one dollar per hour.  So when you drink the Kool-Aid of Trickle down Economics, this is what they used those tax breaks and subsidies for, low wage factories in foreign lands to replace workers here in the United States.

As Leefeller warned -Voting Republican is not the answer.

Just in case you were wondering what “lower than a snake’s eyebrow” means ....

Zero interest rates may have saved wall street but it was at cost to future retirees. imo.

Hey, you maybe able save your retirement by investing in oil or natural gas?

Listen up.
http://www.prosefights.org/nmgco/tap/audio/111202_000.mp3

Documents.
http://www.prosefights.org/nmgco/tap/tap.htm#david

This Corporate chicanery reminds me of a Company I once worked for.

The Company built a fund to pay or “share” good performance with all employees down to the lowest hourly wage earner.  At years end the employees received their bonus (share) based on the profitability of the company and the employees time and grade.  Sometimes mine exceeded a third of the annual salary.  Naturally the employees wanted to stay and give maximum work.

Unfortunately the Company I was working for became too profitable and became vulnerable to Corporate raiders.

Our company was bought by an International Company and the multi-million dollar fund disappeared, the bonuses went away and salaries were lowered.

As workers began to leave, the Big Company send HR people to see if they could find out why.  When they asked me ( a Director) I told them “Look in the Mirror and you will see the culprit”.  I went on to tell them the Company was unethical and immoral at best, but most likely down right criminal.

They didn’t like that.

It didn’t matter to me since I had already turned in my retirement notice.

I became a Self-Employed Consultant and haven’t missed a weeks work since retirement several years ago.

Gee, kinda makes ya want to go right out and vote for…....?

Newt Gingrich touts the idea of 99 percent opposed to the 1 percent must be repudiated. This article substantiates why occupy exists and why it must grow and who and what must be repudiated!

Ms Schultz’s book is full of examples of corporate corruption so machiavellian that
it would make even dick cheney blush. It is a terrific read and the revelations of
the machinations of corporate America in raiding retirement funds, often with
government acquiescence will have you angry enough by book end to want to
chew your leg off !  A terrific amount of research appears to have gone into Ms.
Schultz’s work and we owe her mightily for the ammunition to go after corporate
America and their crony congress critters !