  |
 |
| |
|
|
|
 One-Trick ElephantPosted on Aug 16, 2007By Marie Cocco WASHINGTON—The corpse has a pulse. Or at least the Bush White House and congressional Republicans are counting on the predictable thump, thump, thump about taxes to resuscitate themselves. To Republicans, the tax issue is a political pacemaker, inserted to restore normalcy in the order of things. They need to inject a steady rhythm into a world that has become a chaotic and frightening place, where none of the usual tricks—not whipping up fear of terrorism or gays or immigrants or even the now-unmentionable one—Osama bin Laden, convinces the public that they are to be trusted with governance. In the past few weeks, we have heard the president oppose an increase in the tobacco tax to pay for health insurance for needy children. He has opposed an increase in the gasoline tax—a temporary one—to pay for highway and bridge repairs. No cause is sufficiently worthy—not getting kids to a doctor or preventing another deadly rush-hour collapse of any one of our thousands of aging, creaking bridges—that it might be paid for by asking for some small sacrifice. This is the Bush character. He has so far spent half a trillion dollars on the war in Iraq without blinking, and without seeking a temporary war tax or any other way to pay for it except through deficits and a mounting debt. Now comes the push to cut corporate income tax rates. It is billed as a job-saving measure. American economic competitiveness would be enhanced through this tax cut, the administration argues, because many U.S. trading rivals already have slashed business tax rates. This happens to contain some truth, international economists say, though they place varying degrees of emphasis on how much of a role taxes play. “It’s very hard to disentangle the tax rate from all the other things that determine foreign investment,” says C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. We have had seven years now of a White House that has ignored if not managed to worsen the burdens American workers shoulder because of globalization. Nothing is done to relieve either employers or workers of the health insurance monster. Little has been accomplished toward the business-backed goal of creating a better-educated work force; the sinful inequality in educational opportunities and outcomes endures. Bush’s answer to the inexorable and unfair erosion of private pensions for average workers was to propose privatizing—and thus making less secure—Social Security. So will this administration engineer a corporate tax overhaul in good faith? Or to put it another way, why would it start promoting good government now? The president says he wants to “simplify the [tax] code” and would proceed only if a plan raises the same amount of revenue that comes in now. The idea would be to eliminate deductions and loopholes and take money from these givebacks to lower rates. Bush calls this “shorthand for ‘certain deductions would be taken away.’ ” But, he adds, “powerful interests” have worked to get their favored preferences into the tax code. Like, say, the oil industry. Just two years ago, when gas prices were climbing and industry profits were soaring, Bush proposed and won from a Republican-controlled Congress $14.5 billion in new tax breaks for energy companies, promoted as a way to ease American dependence on foreign oil. House Democrats have just passed a measure to redirect those breaks to renewable energy sources and conservation. Bush has threatened to veto it. Is there any reason to believe that a corporate-tax proposal from this White House won’t open a bidding bazaar in which the likely outcome isn’t “simplification” but simply a big business tax cut? I can’t imagine one. Isn’t it just as likely that the White House will one day revise its rationale, and sell the business-tax cut as a cure-all for the economic crisis of moment? Soon enough, we may well hear that the utterly unrelated credit crisis brought on by loose mortgage lending could somehow be soothed through lower corporate tax rates. This is how Bush’s 2000 campaign promise of drastically lower individual taxes—which began as fodder for Republican primaries—was remarkably transformed into a recession-fighting necessity in 2001. As it was, so it is likely to be. This latest tax craze isn’t really about saving jobs that Bush has heretofore shown little concern over losing. It’s an effort to save Republicans from a worse political circumstance than that which afflicts them now. Marie Cocco’s e-mail address is mariecocco(at)washpost.com. © 2007, Washington Post Writers Group SHARE THIS TRUTHDIG ARTICLE:
|
|
Confronting the Terrorist Within
Email
Print
Share
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Fark
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
MySpace
NewsVine
NewsTrust
Reddit
SphereIt
StumbleUpon
TwitThis
YahooBuzz
Jump to Comments
By cyrena, September 5, 2007 at 6:10 pm #
#98793 by Dan Uu Noel on 9/05 at 4:52 pm
Does anyone have any clue as to what may be going on?
Dan,
I wish I could answer the above question for you, but I’ve run into the same problems for the past few weeks now. Sometimes my comments are posted, but usually they aren’t.
I haven’t figured out yet, how “they” (whomever is administrating)"decide" what they will allow through, and what not. I honestly wish I DID know, (like, maybe there’s a reasonable limit to the number of posts that they will accept from certain posters, some just writing far more than others. But, if there are such limits, than I don’t know them. I would probably do my own submissions a bit more efficiently (or at least choose between them) if in fact I was aware of such. But, I’m not.
So, I eventually decided that for the most part, my own stuff is just censored, and it would seem to be by content.
Still, I can’t swear to that. So the answer here is...I don’t know what’s going on, but it isn’t only happening to you.
Report thisBy Dan Uu Noel, September 5, 2007 at 5:05 pm #
Go figure my complaint got posted as soon as I logged it; let’s try the original comment; here it comes
Tax cuts make sense to the extent that they are useful. Many circumstances would make them, indeed, useful, such as:
1) a huge predicted surplus of money in federal coffers; obviously, this is not the case at this point; if anything, the unprecedented level of the federal debt would call for higher taxes.
2) a drive to increase federal productivity, which would allow to lay off the thousands of unneeded and uncaring public servants and to rein in the costs of ultra-expensive purchases; there is evidently much low-hanging fruit in this area; just today, the LA Times published that the CIA still has to fire a single employee for the inexcusable lapses that led to the 9/11 tragedy.
3)closing down or drastically downsizing some major agencies and making it clear that their activities dont fall under the mission of the federal government; members of this blog can certainly think of a few!
However, reducing taxes for the sake of demagoguery is not only misleading, but a very poor stewardship of the government; putting the cart in front of the horses only leads to disaster
Love,
Report thisBy Dan Uu Noel, September 5, 2007 at 4:52 pm #
Strange I have tried to post a comment twice; it has never made it to the blog, even though
Report this1) as a registered user, I supposedly enjoyed the privilege of unmoderated comments;
2) my comment is clear, straight to the point, well written;
3) my comment does not contain foul language or ad hominem attacks;
4) my comment puts on this theme a slightly different perspective from Marie Cocco while getting to similar conclusions..
Does anyone have any clue as to what may be going on?
By Marshall, August 28, 2007 at 9:45 pm #
This thing still posting? I posed several days ago but it never appeared. Testing.
Report thisBy purplewolf, August 22, 2007 at 5:22 pm #
Hi Cyrena. Well actually I guess since the rez born Natives, which is a soverign nation, they are not American citizens, they are still prisoners of war to this day, they are not allowed to actually own the land that was once theirs. The war department didn’t know what to do with the Indians after the wars and all the land stolen so they gave them to the Department of the Interior and are still controled by them to this day. It is really bad that people come here seeking freedom or if they are born on American soil they are a citizen, but if you are an Indian born on the rez you are not a citizen, you are born into a lifetime of being a prisoner.
Report thisDid you know that the Americna Indian was not allowed to practice their own religion inthis country legally until Jimmy Carter signed it into law that they could practice it.If you were caught practicing the native religion in America it was punished by death in most cases,true fact not taught in schools. It is pretty bad that people fleeing religious persacution in other countries when once here totally denied the people here the right to continue theirs? Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose-Janis Joplin from the song Me and Bobby Magee.
By cyrena, August 22, 2007 at 10:23 am #
#96365 by purplewolf on 8/22 at 9:33 am
YEAH purplewolf!! Thanks for that education. I hoped some folks sort of did the math along with you, so they can figure out the absurdity in such comments as an expanding middle class, or a dramatically declining deficit. Now exacly how is THAT happening, in any world except that Alice in Wonderland tale that they don’t even try to put in the headlines any longer. (well, other than FOX and the Murdoch crowd)
Anyway, your post is excellent, and this should instill a little reality into the tax subject. I’m still waiting for my payment as well, so I’m all for elmininating the middle man on that. It’s really very annoying to pay to live on property that was yours to begin with, eh? In reality, the Navtive peoples of the Americas didn’t see themselves as “owners” of the land as much as they saw themselves as “belonging” to the land. i.e., the land didn’t belong to them, but rather they belonged to the land.
And, then came Columbus with an uppercase “C”, as in Capitalism, and that changed the whole picture.
Report thisBy purplewolf, August 22, 2007 at 9:33 am #
We all know the tax cuts for the rich were a scam upon the country. G.W. bankrupted every business he ever ran because he never learns. You cannot cut taxes then spend as recklessly as he has and outsource our jobs here with the LIE of “they are doing jobs Americans won’t”.That is crap and he knows it. Since outsourced jobs do not pay taxes to fund the moneypit of the Weed fantasy world,and the illegal under the table workers don’t pay taxes on income and tend to send money out of the country to help their families outside the US, where does this moron think the money is going to come from to pay this debt he so willingly adds to. We all know that his rich cronies won’t and to keep borrowing from other countries is bad karma. WHY DOES THE WEED HATE AMERICA SO MUCH, IT’S PEOPLE AND WAY OF LIFE BY DESTROYING ALL OF WHAT MAKES THIS COUNTRY WHAT IT IS.He has turned his back on the working segment of the middle to low income people, who are the support system of this foundation of the country.Well guess what Weedboy, as the base crumbles and breaks down so does the rest of the structure that rests on this foundation.But then why shold you care you have your compound in Paraquay ready and waiting for you and yours when things get to be to much for you.
As for taxing the property people live on.How can you demand people pay taxes on a land that was stolen and never paid for to the orginal people in this country.You in goverment have dragged on forever denying payment to the Native Americans and yet you continue to make property owners(leasees) keep paying you.Maybe we should get rid of the middleman(goverment) and pay this Property tax to those it really belongs to the Native peoples of America.
Report thisBy Gloria Picchetti, August 22, 2007 at 2:28 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
No taxes are just except land value taxes, LVT, which are also called site value taxes, SVT. Tax is really and only rent. It’s a gift to be simple! henrygeorge.org
Report thisBy farmertx, August 20, 2007 at 2:47 pm #
Re:#96022 by Louise on 8/20 at 12:37 pm
(102 comments total)
Good points. Looks like she is back, at least for a while. And, yours made it through.
As for Marshall, any post of any length, as long as it is articulate and well thought out is good to read, regardless of who posted it.
Report thisSimple answers are sometimes the right ones. Sometimes being the key word.
By Louise, August 20, 2007 at 12:37 pm #
farmertx #95962
“About Cyrena. She has all but given up trying to post”
In spite of what some might say, it is possible to block someone by placing something in the text, that they might copy. Not forever, because in spite of efforts to the contrary, this site still does not belong to the creeps who would love to destroy it.
They are easy to recognize, because they pretend to care while trashing the truth. They love repub policy, protests to the contrary and seem to believe in a strange god who hates in the name of love.
An email to info at truthdig dot com might help. I’m sure they have had many, because a lot of comments posted have disappeared in the past few days.
Other suggestions, delete cookies, don’t right-click to copy commenter names, type instead. And make sure you know what you are clicking on when a commenter expresses hostility then encourages a visit to an unknown web-site.
Looks like cyrena has made it back. Maybe e-mails to the site have paid off.
But then I’m not sure this will post!
Report thisBy cyrena, August 20, 2007 at 11:14 am #
Marshall doesn’t have much confidence in the Truthdig site logistics, if he thinks that my comments, (lengthy and wordy) would overwhelm the site. (and he’s the one who complains that I never back anything up.)
So, how do you really want it, Marshall?
You post things here, (probably as a paid shill) and then when someone disagrees with you, or calls you out, and proceeds to provide the back-up, they become “wordy” and lengthy.
Admittedly, I do become wordy and lengthy sometimes, since that is required to counter your lies in a way that EVERYBODY can understand. In other words, a little SUBSTANCE is required to counter the incredibly stupid things that you post, such as, “the deficit is drastically declining”. (I don’t know which number or thread you posted this on, but it is very typical of the kind of broad lies that you post.) Or, “tax cuts work”. Right. Let’s just look around and see how well those tax cuts have helped.
So you see, that’s how they become lengthy and wordy.
And, while I am still able to post the occassional message on this forum, there’s no doubt that there is something going on. If you can think of a better word than “conspiracy” or selective censorship, then be my guest. I’m more inclined to call it what it seems to be.
Report thisBy farmertx, August 20, 2007 at 3:54 am #
Louise
Report thisAbout Cryena. She has all but given up trying to post.
She sent me an email with a message to post for her. I tried 3 different times on 2 different threads and it never posted.
Sometimes a Private Message can get through to her.
She, nor any of the blogger’s have any idea what is going on.
Conspiracy seems a tad strong, but something is sure smelling funny about this.
By Louise, August 19, 2007 at 9:58 pm #
Marshall #95947
“Ah - the conspiracy theories about site posting begin”
Right ...
And those towers really did just fall over ... and republican politicians really are good because everyone knows elephants can fly like the angels ... and ... they really do believe in small government and low taxes ... and war and peace in that order ... and ... hate in the name of love is a good thing ... right?
Besides I wasn’t referring to you ... but if the shoe fits ...
“Usually the simplest explanation is the most accurate”
If it’s coming from the “right” it will indeed be simple ... [have to reach those simple minds]
Report thisand more than likely wrong.
By Marshall, August 19, 2007 at 9:13 pm #
#95944 by Louise on 8/19 at 8:25 pm
Ah - the conspiracy theories about site posting begin. Is it just possible Cyrena’s posts are so wordy and lengthy that the site just got overwhelmed? Usually the simplest explanation is the most accurate.
Report thisBy Louise, August 19, 2007 at 8:25 pm #
#95567 by jbart on 8/16 at 6:55 pm
cyrena probably is posting comments as are so many others not showing. I don’t know if this will post. I don’t think its the site, I think it’s a certain poster who is trying to mucky up, or take over the site.
Hint: totally dominating Scheers last article!
Report thisBy Marshall, August 17, 2007 at 9:02 pm #
I can barely tell if this article is against cutting corporate taxes or not! Afterall, it admits there’s truth in the proposition. But it incorrectly implies that the deficit has increased (it’s been decreasing dramatically), and ignores the general rises in real wages and increased federal tax income due to the tax cuts. No gas tax has ever been “temporary” - but hey, the Democrat response to anything is “raise taxes”, even failures of the government to handle the money it has.
It’s just a bit ironic that, even when something works (like cutting taxes), some people brand it as just a “political tool” to increase popularity.
Report thisBy farmertx, August 17, 2007 at 3:57 am #
Outraged
My comment about temporary was that the help provided by Government be temporary.
Report thisI am well aware of Wally World, Buster Brown (UPS) and many other companies who use temporary worker’s to avoid paying benefits.
Some states (I think Deleware was first) have mandated that employer’s of a certain size provide health insurance to take some of the load off the state and local governments in providing health care.
Granted that the average mon and pop operation with 5-10 employee’s can’t afford health insurance for it’s employee’s and still be competitive in the market place.
But a big corporation that claims it can’t provide coverage while paying its executives multi million dollar salaries plus other considerations smells to me.
Especially when the CEO is basically a caretaker, not rescuing the company from bankruptcy or coming up with innovative new products/methods, other than methods to screw the workers.
By Outraged, August 16, 2007 at 10:45 pm #
Re:#95426 by farmertx on 8/16 at 9:20 am
“Welfare as such should be eliminated. Help those who truly need help. Make all others perform some type of community service to get money, temporarily.”
Farmertx:
We have a situation whereby corporations are hiring people “temporarily” at a low wage and without ANY type of job security. Where I live if you receive any type of “assistance” you have to accept ANY job you are offered. Even if that job KEEPS you on the welfare rolls. This benefits ONLY THE EMPLOYERS. It is a kind of backward corporate welfare (but it doesn’t show up on their balance sheet). If the safety nets were in place they would HAVE to pay more because no one would accept the positions if they didn’t. After the corps. broke the unions they went right for welfare “reform”, because they KNEW they wouldn’t be able to “GET” those workers otherwise. Not at THAT wage! This wasn’t “reform” it was simply a way to undercut wages. Watch this video by Michael Moore. Pay attention especially to the beginning where he talks about the camera men and also just how profitable it is for Manpower Inc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXbJJThL9Vs&mode=re lated&search;=
(I copied this over so if it doesn’t link directly just go to http://www.youtube.com and search for: The awful Truth Michael Moore - Mind that Memo Parts 1 and 2)
I guess my point farmertx is that they already have “temporary” jobs.
Report thisBy farmertx, August 16, 2007 at 9:05 pm #
jbart
Report thisCyrena ALWAYS has something to say and it’s good.
Some glitch in system (or a hacker) is best guess. She and skruff and others will be back.
By farmertx, August 16, 2007 at 7:42 pm #
Purplewolf
Report thisI lived in Trenton MI back in the 70’s for awhile. When they opened up branch offices at Armories to dispense Unemployment Checks, it seemed like a good time to leave. And I did.
‘Course, I wasn’t a native, had no ties to the area, so it was much easier for me.
I’ve never understood why the US allows work visas for the technical & professional trades, but not for the manual labor jobs like farming.
There was a program under Reagan that allowed farmers (and others) to pay $250 dollars for a migrant to get a work visa. Trouble with that was, once they had the work visa, they took off for the city to get a construction job.
And the farmer was out the cost of the visa and the laborer.
When Immigration was notified, their response was Gee, too bad. Wanna buy another visa?
By Paul, August 16, 2007 at 7:16 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Eliminating the corporate income tax is actually a good idea PROVIDED the lost revenue is recouped by increases in the taxes paid by those who’d benefit the most—those with incomes over $200,000 or so. Further simplification can be achieved by taxing income from labor and capital at the same rate instead of taxing that from capital at a much lower rate as at present. These sorts of changes would eliminate many of the avenues currently available to those who emply armies of lawyers and accountants to dodge taxes and also make the system much more equitable. It would also remove the “double taxation of dividends” crock used to justify tax breaks for the already weatlty.
Report thisBy jbart, August 16, 2007 at 6:55 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Why is cyrena posting with no comments? Has he/she nothing to say? Or, is he/she being “censored”?? By THIS site ?? If anyone knows what’s up here, please let us/me know. Cyrena contributes a lot of perspectives that are essential to the discussions found here, and needs to be heard.
Report thisBy cyrena, August 16, 2007 at 5:55 pm #
#95548 by purplewolf on 8/16 at 5:10 pm
I believe it was out of the bush bunch that someone commented, It is easier to control the religious people as they basically are preprogrammed to follow us blindly. Also those that follow blindly have done some of the most corrupt acts upon other people.
PurpleW This one is definitely a keeper. Im sending it off to the R cult, even though I think its too late. Heres a sample of some of the daily mail that I get from the sheeple, who have, as youve suggested in this quote, always been religious people but only in the past several years have become so indoctrinated that they cant possibly be catching on to the total hypocrisy in this kind of stuff. They really do believe that they are sharing some sort of special blessing of the in crowd.
The Favor of God
Today’s Scripture
God earnestly longs to be gracious to you...to have mercy on you and show you His loving-kindness (Isaiah 30:18).
God longs to pour out His favor upon you. He wants to remove your burdens so you can enjoy life. He wants you to be free and living each day full of peace. He wants to assist you and give you special advantages every single day. Todays verse talks about Gods grace, mercy, and loving-kindnesswhich are all part of His favor! When you receive that favor by faith, youll have tremendous advantage! Gods favor will cause you to be promoted even though you werent the most qualified. Gods favor will open a door for you that may not open for someone else. Gods favor will bring unexpected blessing from unexpected sources. Activate your faith in this area today by declaring Gods favor in your life. Thank Him for his mercy and loving-kindness. As you expect His favor, God will do unusual and extraordinary things in your life and youll live the life of victory that God has in store for you!
A Prayer for Today
Prayer For Today: Father, thank you for your favor on my life today. Thank you for guiding me and reminding me of your presence in everything I do. Give me strength and peace today so that I can live in your victory today. In Jesus Name.
I think the line that most terrified me (first) in reading this, was when it read:
When you receive that favor by faith, youll have tremendous advantage! Gods favor will cause you to be promoted even though you werent the most qualified. Gods favor will open a door for you that may not open for someone else.
So in short, God is gonna give you a job that somebody else was more qualified for. (So apparently, that other more qualified person doesnt have the same god on their side). Not only that, this god is gonna open doors for you that might not open for someone else. (yeah well, we figured that out from the fact that this same god is willing to give you the job instead of the more qualified person).
Now all of this could be a very sick joke, except of course that it isnt a joke, because the people who believe this shit really do believe it, and they are very righteous in their beliefs that all is fair as long as god has ordained it for them, because they are special. They need only believe and accept gods special graces that are intended only for them. So, this is just one hell of a competitive god they believe in.
And, THIS is the kind of stuff that passes in huge volume- through the rank-and-file email systems of the corporate bureaucracies. This is the kind of stuff that these people share with each other, to keep all of the brainwashing in action all the time. It becomes self-perpetuating.
And of course we know that this is exactly what these corporations LIKE to have their employees pass around, because if they didnt, it would never get through.
So, its corporate-sponsored propaganda. Just like the government does with all of these flippin faith-based initiatives. Thats why everybody is playing the R card now. Theyve all had the chip implanted, and have lost their minds, or otherwise given them over to god.
Report thisBy purplewolf, August 16, 2007 at 5:10 pm #
#99506 ocjim
Report thisNope, not as long as they play the “R” card. Meaning religion. I believe it was out of the bush bunch that someone commented, “It is easier to control the religious people as they basically are preprogrammed to follow us blindly”. Also those that follow blindly have done some of the most corrupt acts upon other people.Too many people follow the weed because they believe(remember the word lie is used to make this word)that he is most “God or religious based or faith based” so that justifies him as okay by the sheeple. Why do you think they call religious followers sheep, because sheep are dumb and they stink.
The polititions(polished criminals) know they if you believe all this heresay of the bible as true, they will have no problem believing bigger lies.People came to this country to escape other countries where the church ran everything.So why are they trying to return to this form of rule when it was so bad in the past.It is not as Martha Stewart says,” It’s a good thing.”
By Davol, August 16, 2007 at 3:03 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
I think we just need to get creative about tax revenue. If there was any lesson we could take from the Clinton Administration that Bush has squandered it’s that these debt problems can be turned around pretty quick. For example we could introduce Government subsidized health care to take the burden of this off of businesses, which would be a boon for the economy it itself, but we must do it quickly before businesses continue to cheapen the health care they offer in which case the burden government lifts won’t amount to much. I’m also for legalizing Marijuana and throwing a generous excise tax on it. Currently Marijuana is costing billions in the prosecution of victimless crime. A Marijuana tax would raise many billions in revenue so the rich could just keep their damn tax cuts. Let’s make sure they remove their influence from our government along with their taxes. Then government will have to listen to pot smokers like me since we’re the one’s paying taxes here.
Report thisBy ocjim, August 16, 2007 at 1:45 pm #
To trust anything said or done by George W. Bush totally ignores almost seven years of Bush administration lies and advertises how much of a simpleton you are. Haven’t too many Americans been duped enough by this gaggle of snake oil salesmen?
Report thisBy cyrena, August 16, 2007 at 1:37 pm #
#95497 by purplewolf on 8/16 at 12:49 pm
Many places hire you part time for less than enough hours to get any benefits then fire you before you could become a permenant employee. They often tell these these same people they just fired, you are a great worker and you can come back and start all over again like a new employee. This has been the practice in the nursing field here in Michigan and other companies like Koegels Meat packing company in Flint since the 70s.Our GM jobs started to leave in the 70s and never stopped.
Purplewolf,
Thanks for making this information available, since this is something that has been occurring EVEYWHERE, (though I know especially the industries of your area have been especially hard hit) for a really long time Yes, as far back as the 70s in the case of GM, but along the way, its been the same with so many others. And your story is so similar to so many others.
The problem is that this has become the norm in so many of our areas throughout the country, and yet people from one area to the other, are not necessarily aware of that. Unless one reads, travels, or tries to be somewhat conscious, they all find themselves in their own bubbles, oftentimes presuming that all is right with the rest of the country, and so its just they who are suffering. (I mean, how often do we have to listen to the weed tell us that our economy is strong as we look around for some indication of that in our own circumstances, knowing hes lying with his bald face hanging out. Strong for WHOM? HIM?)
Meantime, keeping the entire population in the dark, (or lied to) and creating conditions that force people to compete for resources, (something theyve done for decades) is one way to control the masses.
Still, Ive watched what has happened to my own former industry, and just about every other.
Its not getting any better.
On another long forgotten front that#95485 by NewsSophisticate on 8/16 at 12:16 pm has brought to our attention is this
This article brings about the greater issue..Where are we going as a NATION. Does anyone remember what our politicians and media were yelping about on Sept. 10, 2001. I do. 2.3 Trillion dollars of misplaced taxpayer money.
2.3 Trillion of our own dollars was quite a sum to somehow be misplaced in the first 8 months of this rouge administration. A whole hell of a lot of money. Its true that our economy has been artificially inflated for years, and that all of the corporate outsourcing, etc, etc, has brought about this depression that was inevitable. BUT, somehow losing track of trillions of dollars hasnt helped either.
So, while you might feel stuck there, that seems to pretty much be the case with many of us, and I can only think that there might be some places that are slightly easier to be stuck with than others, (because Ive certainly proved that out myself) but in the end, were still gonna have to save each other.
Report thisBy MaryinNC, August 16, 2007 at 1:15 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
The conservative movement mantra has been ‘cut taxes’ for over 30 years now. What’s left to cut. There is no money for infrastructure, health care, education, etc. We are borrowing money for the two wars. Where are the funds to maintain our society for the ‘common good’ of all people. There’re not enough food inspectors, not enough border patrol agents, and the list goes on and on. The government’s job is to protect the people. Is that happening - NO!!
Report thisAlso, the government is privatizing most of its work. The Walter Reed debacle was a result of privatization. It’s sad, sad.
Last night PBA had a program about the 1960s. Lots of things happened during that decade - Viet Nam, civil rights, womens rights, rebellion against the establishment, and most important the murder of four great leaders - John & Robert Kennedy, Martin King and Malcolm X. Why?? What’s going on??
By purplewolf, August 16, 2007 at 12:49 pm #
#95426 Farmtex:
Report thisI see you have had to hire illegals, to bad, but I am not condemning you. I live in Michigan, the worst job market for to long. Due to medical problems I can no longer work outside my home. I get really tired of the goverment justifying the excuse for the illegal workers here by saying, “they are doing jobs Americans won’t”. Well I have done some pretty distasteful jobs in my life to survive that illegals would not do,at minimum wage or barely above that. Funny how the illegals cost more than the American workers.I have heard that businesses hire the illegals to clean hotel rooms for $12 an hour because Americans won"t. Damn strait we don’t, they pay us minimum wage with no benifits.Been there done that.I have been to college and am realistic as to the games our polititions play. Our job market is practically non-existant here. Our goverment is bringing between 2,000-13,000 Iraqi people(the new mexicans?) to the Detroit area claiming they are here to do jobs Americans won’t do.There are no jobs here now. The Arab community where they are being relocated to already has a severly depressed job (80% unemployment in their own population)market not counting Americans that are out of work there also and to bring in thousands more unemployed people into a area that has sinking down so far is a death sentence.I have neighbors who also work hard for little pay so we get really tired of the song and dance of “the illegals are here to do the jobs we won’t”. We are never given the chance to even find out about a lot of these jobs to begin with.There are few and far.Or you can drive 80 to 150 miles to a job for 3 hours at minimum. Many places hire you part time for less than enough hours to get any benefits then fire you before you could become a permenant employee. They often tell these these same people they just fired, “you are a great worker and you can come back and start all over again like a new employee”. This has been the practice in the nursing field here in Michigan and other companies like Koegels Meat packing company in Flint since the 70’s.Our GM jobs started to leave in the 70’s and never stopped. There are places in Iraq that are in much better shape than most areas of were I live. I cannot afford to leave so I guess I am stuck here.At one time you still could make even $$ to survive in a small home business, but not in the last 6 1/2 years of the tumbleweed. Don’t tumble weeds just go from one place to another and sometimes leave a mess if they have a mishap with something else, like (reality) something solid over the hot air blowing out of this administration .
By NewsSophisticate, August 16, 2007 at 12:16 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
This article brings about the greater issue..Where are we going as a NATION. Does anyone remember what our politicians and media were yelping about on Sept. 10, 2001. I do. 2.3 Trillion dollars of ‘misplaced’ taxpayer money.
Remembering History: Donald Rumsfeld on 9/10/2001
It’s amazing, just one day before the events of 9/11, Congress and the media were beginning to ramp up their coverage on a report that the Defense Department ‘misplaced’ 2.3 Trillion dollars of taxpayers money. Six years later.. an estimated 40 cents of every dollar spent on the war on terror goes to secretive sub ‘machine gun’ contractors and outsourced intelligence agencies with absolutely no oversight. Worse yet, we are now publicly arming the enemies of our enemies...again. Prepare for the impending ‘blowback’.
read the full article..watch the vid..and digg it..Bring this information to the masses.
Report thishttp://newssophisticate.blogspot.com/2007/08/rememberi ng-history-donald-rumsfeld-on.html
By cyrena, August 16, 2007 at 10:52 am #
#95378 by Novista on 8/16 at 6:47 am
Something else, the MSM still focuses mostly on the sub=prime market when the rot has spread much further. Why is that?
===================
Novista,
I think this has to do with the typical distraction that MSM has provided the foundational tool for, these past 7 years. In short, if they can focus everyones attention on the alleged calamities of the sub-prime market, (and this isnt a first bar-B.Q” for this sort of thing, as it happened back in the 80s as well) then that keeps the attention off of the rot where it has in fact spread. In other words, -look over there, not over here-.
Bottom line is, thats what theyve been doing for 7 years. The Cabal controls the sheeple via the media, (since they control it). And, its pretty amazing the job theyve managed to do on brainwashing a large portion of a population that we would in the past- have considered to be reasonably intelligent people.
So, thats why the focus on the sub-prime crises, which is actually another one of their creations anyway. Not that it isnt perfectly real to the millions that are losing their investments, because in this kind of game, NOBODY wins, and hysteria sets in.
Still, this is another one of those tactics that can back-fire. Because, rather than providing a distraction to the rot that is deeper and far more widespread, it could serve as an attention grabber for those who would trace it a bit further below the surface, where theyll eventually discover all of that rot.
Its been a house of cards for a long time now, and they had to know it was gonna crash.
Report thisBy Mar Del Zur, August 16, 2007 at 9:52 am #
Yeah...let’s see what the Republicans’ corporate-whore policies have done for America…
Stock market in the toilet (let’s hear it for the faith-based ownership society)
Higher energy prices
Higher food prices
But hey...they haven’t raised your taxes...never mind you’re paying more for EVERYTHING.
Report thisBy farmertx, August 16, 2007 at 9:20 am #
I’ll never pretend to understand the business of International Money Markets.
Report thisAll I understand is that when you spend more than you have, bad things start to happen.
Yes, the Democrat’s want to raise taxes. And nobody likes to pay taxes.
But the Republican’s just want to spend money and let someone else come up with the money. That’d be the Democrat’s; then the Republican’s can say, see, I told you that they wanted to raise taxes.
A simpler plan would be a National Sales Tax in lieu of the Income Tax.
Those who have the most to spend are the ones who will pay the most, but, if they weren’t living in the US, would they have as much to spend?
Eliminating the fraud and waste would go a long way in easing our problems.
Right or wrong, we have come to depend on all branches of Government (local to National) for a lot of services.
Welfare as such should be eliminated. Help those who truly need help. Make all others perform some type of community service to get money, temporarily.
Fund the social programs that people really need plus the military, administration and public works. Then worry about pet projects.
Congress critter’s brag about returning $1.25 for every $1 that their district sends to DC.
Hmm, that means some other district is getting short changed. Don’t sound all that fair.
And Cyrena is right about too many folks that too dumb to understand. Common sense is becoming a rare thing to find anywhere, especially in Government.
A large part of the illegal alien problem would be solved if they were removed from welfare/public health and their kids removed from school.
Kinda harsh, but we have to take care of our own before worrying about taking care of outsider’s.
I’ve had to use illlegals to pick vegetables, because citizens won’t do that work, even at $9/hr, which puts me earning about $6/hr and it’s my land, seed, fertilizer, chemicals. And thats if I have a good crop, which I haven’t in the past two years.
And the farm bills, they don’t apply to my type of farming. All my subsidies come from me.
By cyrena, August 16, 2007 at 9:11 am #
#95378 by Novista on 8/16 at 6:47 am
Anyway, I thought the IRS (a private corporation) a.k.a. collection agency for the Federal Reserve (a private corporation) passed all income tax to the Fed as payment on the national debt. Which is approaching the 9 trillion cap and Paulson wants to raise that.
So Novista,
Does this mean that the private corps (IRS, Fed Res) either IS NOT passing on the income tax to the national debt, or they just arent collecting enough income from the peasants to hand over? I know theyre still bleeding me for a 12 year old tax debt, like any other ruthless credit collector, and I dont even HAVE any earnings. Even so, what they get from me, could hardly make a dent in the debt.
So, its up to 9 trillion now eh? What a difference 7 years can make.
And the deficit, 71 trillion? Doesnt seem to alarm the average citizen. And no, I dont know why that is, unless they are simply clueless robots. And, thats pretty much what one has to be now, to keep slaving at minimum wage, and handing half of that over.
Meantime, the next 5 generations of people not even considered yet, will be paying all of this back. IF China, Japan, India and Saudi Arabia dont take it back before. Apparently none of them realized they were financing a crap shoot. Or, maybe they figured they were giving us enough rope to hang ourselves. Loan sharks love to do that. They make most of their money financing bad judgment gamblers. They keep extending them credit until theyve totally busted out, and then move in on them, and take it all.
Thats where the boys from Texas have put us.
Report thisBy michael, August 16, 2007 at 8:44 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
I have heard a lot about chinia dropping the economic bomb on us. Wouldn’t that be killing the goose that lays the golden egg ? True they own most of our debit , but aren’t we also one of their largest customers ? If they ruin our economy won’t that ruin theirs ?? just wondering
Report thisBy Sutter, August 16, 2007 at 8:19 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
As usual, the Bush Administration cherry-picks from the tax code of other countries. Most countries with lower corporate taxes also have universal health care and a value-added tax, both of which help exports. Value added taxes are refunded on exports and added to imports. If the US had a VAT it would act as a defacto import tax on US multinational goods manufactured in China.
Report thisBy DennisD, August 16, 2007 at 8:14 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
The sub-prime bailout is around the corner and will just be added to the Iraq war, S&L;and corporate welfare bills the as yet unborn American taxpayer may consider his inheritance from our Reaganomics disciples. I thought the you can have and spend it too fantasy was a hard lessoned learned.
Report thisNo area of this country can be said to promote “recycling” more than D.C. - the same crap with a new label every 10 to 20 years, sooner if needed. It still amazes me how many people buy into it and explains why we never make any progress. Voting R or D and expecting change is the definition of insanity.
By GW=MCHammered, August 16, 2007 at 7:38 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
When an elephant craps himself, everyone sees. And he cannot hide his vast mess not even behind a Sociopath Bush. The final trick I wanna see is a Vanishing Act. ‘Cause there’s a crap-load of cleaning up to do in the Three Ring Bu$h-ChΣney-Яove Circus of Lies.
The GOP must Go!
Report thisExile Bush-Cheney-Rove in ‘08!
By Novista, August 16, 2007 at 6:47 am #
Cyrena,
Aside from China, India and Japan hold quite a lot of reserves. Any of the three could potentially drop the ‘economic bomb’ on the U.S. dollar.
Anyway, I thought the IRS (a private corporation) a.k.a. collection agency for the Federal Reserve (a private corporation) passed all income tax to the Fed as payment on the national debt. Which is approaching the 9 trillion cap and Paulson wants to raise that.
And with derivatives, according to some analysts, is approach $71 trillion this year.
Something else, the MSM still focuses mostly on the ‘sub=prime market’ when the rot has spread much further. Why is that?
Report thisBy KISS, August 16, 2007 at 6:05 am #
Bush’s plan to simplify the tax code means the have-nots will pay more and receive less in social distribution. To further Fascism, he will tax big business less along with the wealth class and enrich the treasuries of corporate with purchases, and infusion of government funding and a war to secure oil.
Report thisCreating a Mexican two class system, here in the states, has been his agenda since first elected. At this point he looks to be succeeding quite well. This Texas Turd is causing a stink in Washington D. C. that is wafting over all of our country.
Impeachments is a must, and it must be done now!
By cyrena, August 16, 2007 at 5:33 am #
#95358 by farmertx on 8/16 at 5:12 am
There is one guy here who claims that the Treasury has more money now than ever before, thanks to the tax cuts.
Hmm, that would explain why we issue so many T-Notes, otherwise known as IOUs, to the Asian banks.
Course, this guy is the same one who said that if Micky Mouse ran on the Republican ticket, hed vote for him.
In a sense, he already did.
Farmertx,
When stupid people make these statements, (like the Treasury Dept now has more money than ever) do they even have a clue to how the Treasury Dept is funded? Do they understand, (even a little bit) that it is funded from tax revenues, and that if youre not taxing the big income earners, (and only the minimum wage earners) that you just arent gonna collect much money? Or, when jobs are no longer available to the middle class, (which has ALWAYS provided the bulk of the tax revenue) that they cant collect income taxes from them, when they dont have any income? Do they have a clue to what would happen if China started calling in even a portion of its loans? Have they even considered who else might come to our rescue? I cant think of a single source/entity (other than China) who has that kind of money to hand out, and doesnt mind dealing with the devil in its negotiations.
So, this guy who would vote for Mickey Mouse, (or already has, and hes not alone) maybe just cant do the normal counting. All he can say is that dems wanna raise taxes. Hes a parrot, whose tune will never change, because its not based on reason, but hyperbole propaganda. You have to admit that it holds deep sway in your neck of the woods.
This same guy will tell you that our economy is going just great, and so is the war on Iraq, and there’s a rainbow that you can stand under for protection against all enemies.
Report thisBy farmertx, August 16, 2007 at 5:12 am #
The only people that the Shrub worries about are those who put lots of money in his pocket. All others are a means to an end.
Report thisThis boy has depended on conning his daddys’ friends and when that dried up, he was back to asking mommy to tell daddy that he needed more money.
That is why he can’t comprehend that folks have to budget their money; he never has.
And if he doesn’t, why should Government.
The R’s around here tell me that D’s are only interested in raising taxes.
I counter that D’s understand that things have to be paid for, not charged to their grand-kids.
Hopefully, the Democrat’s will stand firm on this latest tax cut.
There is one guy here who claims that the Treasury has more money now than ever before, thanks to the tax cuts.
Hmm, that would explain why we issue so many T-Notes, otherwise known as IOU’s, to the Asian banks.
‘Course, this guy is the same one who said that if Micky Mouse ran on the Republican ticket, he’d vote for him.
In a sense, he already did.