Read in the WSJ that more and more millionairs are storing they money in forengn banks…The reason is fear of torts and confication. Not to evade taxes, since they still have to pay the same amount… And an S&P 500 company is moving to England.

Soon, the rich will abandoned their citizenship. More companies will move outside the USA, and all of a sudden, there will be no one to pull the cart filled with the people.

If you want to find out about the future, study the Wiemar Rebpublic.

Keep your passport up to date, park some money overseas, increase your education and leave before it is too late… like the smart Jews who left Germany in the early 30’s.

ron hansing

Be prepared.

Cliff Carson:
You are correct that the Social Security Trust has been included in the General Fund for accounting and budgeting purposes (since 1969, action by LBJ).

But Social Security & Medicare have always been funded exclusively by payroll taxes.
http://www.ssa.gov/history/InternetMyths.html (see item 4)

So my reply to felicity was correct, raising income taxes on high earners won’t help fund social security.

Bears repeating:

Tax Consumption, not Labor.

Lafayette speaks well and with clarity…this is the recipe that will bring the US out of this economic debacle ...to a more egalitarian society…that will in the long run be more prosperous…

oddsox, the money comes out of the General fund since those collections are deposited in to the General fund.

Supposedly, the money collected is IOU’d into a fund and since collections have exceeded payouts to the programs each year since its inception, there should be quite an accumulation available. 

However the government admits to only around $2 Trillion and that is for a payback for funds borrowed to pay for things not either of these two programs.

My calculations of what is actually owed to the two programs comes to around %6.5 Trillion before interest.  Supposedly just the interest owed alone should fund the payouts for the next six years.

felicity, social security and medicare are funded solely by payroll taxes.

Allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire (in whole or in part) would do nothing to increase funding for FICA/Medicare.

My belief, offered many times here on TruthDig, is that we should eliminate payroll taxes (regressive taxes on Labor) and fund FICA/Medicare with with a point-of-purchase national sales tax at a rate that makes the tax swap revenue-neutral.

Tax Consumption, not Labor.

Lafayette - I really appreciate your comment. I’d add
that not extending the tax cuts for the very rich,
Bush’s baby, would mean that Social Security would be
funded as far as the future can be reasonably
predicted. 

I mention SS because it (and medicare) is a favorite
whipping boy of Republicans who would have us believe
that it is breaking our economic backs - and there is
such a simple and painless solution.

bhawk, you write:
“...Mitt you know where he stands up front.”
Wish it were so, but no.
Take a cruise on the Tea Party website, they haven’t figured him out yet either.

My educated guess is Romney will keep moving Right for a short while longer, until his nomination is secure.
He’ll pick a VP more conservative than he is, then campaign towards the Center as we approach November.
Nixon’s tactics in 1968.

I don’t like either obama nor romney - the two parties have converged more than at any other time - obama kept the tax breaks for the rich, is much more zealous than bush for eroding american civil rights (he’s going after Julian Assange, Brad Manning and any other whistlerblower/messenger than any other president), obama kept the bailouts for the rich corporations leaving nothing for job creation, hasn’t raised the minimum raise like he promised, let down the environmental people - if you want more of the same either candidate will do it’s just that obama will say anything to get elected and then betray you whereas Mitt you know where he stands up front.

RECOVERY

BB: Like Romney, he talked about creating jobs. But where Romney reduced it to a bookkeeping exercise of simply cutting taxes and the size of government, Obama recognized America has suffered through a historic recession, and it will take more than a tax cut for the rich and deregulation to pull the country out of it.

Well put, BB.

When a nation has a Challenge Duality of both Income Disparity and Durable Employment, it is facing a major long-term crisis. Because both are economically linked.

I never tire of making the point that Income Disparity requires an income tax solution – that is, to not only restore the Marginal and Capital Gains taxation that existed before Reckless Ronnie came to power, but to institute a level of income confiscation.

This latter is necessary to limit the hallucinatory rewards that BigBusiness awards itself. And which allow them to feed the maw of SuperPACs, thus having an undeserved influence on internal politics. (Which would not happen were American not so attached an a Pavlovian fashion to the BoobTube as an info-feeder. So, apparently, the Media Manipulation works poltically.)

Durable Employment into the future - that is, to assure that our children can raise families decently - requires a Very-Long-Term Educational Reform Plan. Just have a look at the PISA scores of student assessment around the 28 countries of the OECD here. The result is lamentably mediocre for a nation as rich as ours.

And may I suggest that, in the PISA scoring, it is columns 2, 3 and 4 that are most important for the Information Age that is upon us. Our children must be at the top of the list for them to not end up working at a fast-food outlet. The Brave New World of tomorrow that will be upon us requires the nation to optimize its workforce to meet the oncoming competitive challenge.

It is by enhancing the skills and talents of that workforce that we shall be able to survive and flourish economically in the future.

Put together, the Challenge Duality is really as simple as that explained above. But, let’s also face reality … it will all take much time. There is no QuickFix - not next November and not even in 2016.

So, let’s get started on the long, long progressive-reform road to recovery.

MY POINT?

A nation’s greatness is not measured in how many millionaires it can create. But how it improves and maintains a high standard of living and well-being for all its citizens - and particularly its poorest.

Nobody deserves the indignity of poverty, especially in a nation as immensely rich as ours.

DBM, March 3 at 5:35 pm

“Nowadays, another Bush might be a problem for the Republicans and the country.  What the powerful want is a Democrat with Corporate sensibilities.  That is, a Democratic “populist” only nominally opposed to corporate domination of politics and the economy for the benefit of the executive class.”

DBM, Another Bush would be a problem for the Country and so will another Obama.  So what is the American voter to do?

I believe that concerned Americans need to select an Independent Party and go with it.

What would be most desirable would be a Coalition of Independent Parties choosing a majority slate from all the Independent Parties as a Union.

An agreement whereby all Parties present their candidates at an Electronic Convention before election day and where every Independent voter could choose and rank 5 candidates from the participating Independent Parties registered in their state plus the same for the President and Vice President.  Totaling the scores on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis would yield a slate that the Independent voter could then go vote for on Election Day.

This would put a hurt in the Democratic and Republican Parties and by the next Election Cycle the Independents could be organized sufficiently to really take the power and bring real change.

Even better would be some better idea than this presented.

Please - going it alone is definitely not the answer.

In the ante-bellum days (pre-Civil War) it was said that the only acceptable President was a “Northern man with Southern sensibilities”  That is, a Northerner only nominally opposed to slavery but who would support slavery in all important ways.

Nowadays, another Bush might be a problem for the Republicans and the country.  What the powerful want is a Democrat with Corporate sensibilities.  That is, a Democratic “populist” only nominally opposed to corporate domination of politics and the economy for the benefit of the executive class. 

They’ve got that in Obama.  Perhaps that’s why the Republicans are running a “Clown Car” of candidates (of whom Romney is possibly the least embarrassing).  It probably doesn’t matter who wins the Republican ticket.  In fact, the whole sorry debacle is possibly just sending a message to the public that they’d better elect Wall Street’s man (Obama) because his opposition are nuts.

A good article, good comments, and some excellent facts posted. But sometimes I feel like others in this thread:  Our current, in place Governance, is rotten to the core!

It is difficult to pinpoint a beginning since the International Financiers have been after the American Plumb almost from the beginning.  The bringing in of the Fed in 1913 was a major tipping point .  That little Financial thievery transferred our Nations money to private control. No longer would the people of America be able to control the American Money supply or Money policy.

But our current sad state of affairs really began to gain momentum with Reagan in my opinion.  I lived in California when he was elected Governor and wondered at the time about his transferring much of the Government run programs into Private hands, something he also did once elected President.  See, if its Government, in Theory we could control Programs with our vote, but if in Private hands there is no vote.

The fundamental difference between the Democrat and Republican Party stated philosophy is that the Republican Party wants to Privatize everything possible and the Democratic Party seems to want to bring everything possible into being run by the Government.  The most efficient mix is truly somewhere in the middle.
 
But Reagan initiated the most insidious plot against the American people’s ability to enforce moral and ethical governance when he authorized the American Legislative Exchange Council - ALEC.

ALEC is composed of Corporate CEO’s, Lobbyists, Republican members of Congress -State and Federal, with a few Democrats thrown in to make it look Bi-Partisan.  In this organization, the Corporate representatives write pro Corporation Laws and submit the proposed laws to the Council.  Laws adopted for going forward are carried by the Congressional people to their House or Senate and submitted as Bills to be enacted into Laws.

Lobbyists are busy passing around incentives to get the Bills enacted into Law.  ALEC has bragged for years that they submit about 800 bills to the State Legislatures every year with a success rate of about 200 of those Bills enacted as written each year.  I suggest that none of these Bills being enacted into law is good for the average American, but you can bet your last nickel that every Bill is written to profit Corporate America.

http://www.alternet.org/story/150001/

“Republican forces are collaborating in the massive robbery of the collective wealth and precious self-esteem amassed by the America middle-class since it took shape following World War II. And ALEC is at the center of this political campaign. Its programs fashion the legislative agenda of class robbery that defines American politics today.”
 
So in 1913 our Government gave away our control of Americas Money supply and policy and beginning with Reagan laid the Groundwork to let the Corporations write the Laws.

And in between they got laws passed to effectively control who gets elected by forming a Two Party System making it next to impossible to elect a moral and ethical Congress.

Nowadays, they are going after getting rid of the Constitution, and personal freedom using a Faux War on Terror movement as the excuse.  Keep in mind that the only entity to make a profit out of war is Corporations.  And Wars of Profit have become big business.
 
You think it might be time to take back our Government?

OK Vector,
I agree with you; my point was that the banking
industry needs reform (as well as the tax code) but
if, IF, there was ever, ever, a chance for that to
happen it would have been in the early days of the
new Obama White House. He was afraid to spook the
markets so just towed the line, of course that would
have been expected:that is where his coterie comes
from such as Summers and Co. which is why there was a
big argument between him and Stiglitz. As it is now,
no reform can take place until some other fatal crash
sometime in the future comes about and refocuses the
public on the problems. The sad thing here is that
few Americans take the necessary time to do their
economic studies—and everything that happens now
will effect all of us, whether adversely—or for
those few the very top— positively. The subject—
in my opinion—is that it is only now that the
general public is taking an interest; something that
should have been done,say,like, 20 years ago. Things
were not as rosy during Clinton’s days as so many
thought because Greenspan just kept the bubble
afloat.Sooner or later it was going to pop with such
high debt ratios that were unsustainable plus—
Greenspan telling poor people to go variable
mortgage. I mean, that is crazy! He really thought
that interest rates would remain super low forever?.
Big Bang, Big Bust.The world is flat after all. It is
going to take years to straighten all this out. I
feel sorry for those just entering college today.

It must be easier to curse the darkness than to light a candle.

I still prefer to light a candle

Rocky Anderson for president

Amen to all above who just wish a good progressive voice with a contract to write
for this site would consistently look at WHAT OBAMA DOES when writing down the
faux politics of this age.  Where’s Hedges?

Boyarsky says the Republicans want to return us to Victorian morality, laissez faire economics and a heavy dose of Christian theology. I think we can appreciate what the man is saying, but Republicans wouldn’t understand the teachings of Christ if those teachings kicked them in the gonads. The Christian “theology” they are pushing is a sick joke.

Mench & Vector56, and anyone else who hasn’t read this yet, regarding the banks:

http://open.salon.com/blog/oddsox/2011/10/10/too_big_to_fail_too_big_to_begin_with

Can’t trust Boyarsky as an “honest broker” regarding Romney actions if elected.

I doubt even Romney’s supporters know for sure.

“Obama missed the opportunity to reform the banking
system when he took office, continuing to keep the
Bush/Reagan/Friedman policies in place. “

MenschGuy; (respectfully), get it through you well formed, yet “sturdy” head that Obama did not miss any opportunities to carry out his mission!

Everything Obama has done to date, has been exactly what his sponsors on Wall Street have requested of him. The most resent Bank Robo-Signing (immunity) settlement should make this clear?

Remember that the GOP pushed the old Heritage Foundation scam (Pay Roll Tax Holiday) to defund Social Security for years with little or no results; it took a Democratic president (Obama) to make it a reality.

it seems to me that planet earth is getting poorer in too many ways to list even
all salient ones and since some individuals are ever getting richer than most
people, we can expect worsenings for the 80% or so in too many ways to list
them all, it won’t matter who get’s the presidency.
in short, some aspects in daily living never change: right of a person to own
another, only supremes interpret all US laws; 1% controlling w.h, cia, fbi, police,
education, congress, judiciary, teachers, clergy, corporations, etc.

the 20% will either maintain, augment, or maybe lose a bit of their wealth; the
80% would be getting poorer, less free, etc. that’s 100% certain! and i think that
the OWS sees this as well. thanks, bozhidar b., planet earth
[btw, i am ok! i’m in love with my thinking, food, roof over my head, and my wife;
so what more do i want?]

Obama missed the opportunity to reform the banking
system when he took office, continuing to keep the
Bush/Reagan/Friedman policies in place. This is the
real problem because we taxpayers bailed out Citibank
and AIG et al. and the consequences of that will not
be fully felt for awhile. Financial Capitalism failed
and gov’t had to save it—again. Since the S&L,
(rescued0 Long Term Capital Management’s
fall(rescued), Mexico(rescued), southeast
asia(rescued), Iceland…not to mention the minor
economic domestic failures of Enron, WorldCom…
Nothing is going to change because of the
congressional stalemate in D.C. with both parties
dependent on the status quo for their own
livlihood…unless the Republicans do win the White
House which would bring about a disaster ever more
soon…doubtful this would be, considering how nutty
the GOP has become. Thus: all we can have is just
more of the same with wages stagnant, a shrinking
middle class and bigger tax breaks for those who move
the money around without due concern for social
consequences. In other words—we are all in trouble,
except of course, the uber rich.

Who cares if, or if not, Romney will be as bad, or worse, than Obama.

Obama would not be a consideration if you valued truth and are for peace, justice, and liberty for all. No exceptions. But he isn’t.

Obama doesn’t meet the minimum necessary standards for someone who could take our country into a different direction. He is like all the other corporate supported politicians, just another henchman. Who cares if Romney (or any other candidate) is going to be worse, because the only difference is if you are going to be held 8 inches of water or 12 inches. It doesn’t make much of a difference to a drowned person.

I am more concerned not of their differences, but what policies they hold in common.

“I’d rather vote for what I want and not get it than vote for what I don’t want, and get it.” - Eugene Debs

For anyone who understands that White Romney would be as bad as Black Romney

There is organizing going on all over the country. I just got off a Mid West Conference call with the Rocky Anderson for president campaign. It was exciting. This group is dedicated to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, Michigan, Ohio.

You can visit the Rocky Anderson website voterocky.org and click to volunteer.

You can listen to those who decry the Republican Clown Car Circus or who complain about Obama. Curse the political darkness if you like.

Or you can help light a political candle to dispel that darkness.

Rocky Anderson for president

If Romney wins he’ll bust unions, just like Obama.

He’d be for torturing gay/antiwar hero Brad Manning, just like Obama.

He’d sign NDAA and supported FISA, just like Obama.

He’d be a pigheaded opponent of marriage equality, just like Obama.

He’d have a racist attitude towards imported and immigrant workers, just like Obama, who denies them health care.

He’d probably be just as bad as Obama. It’s unlikely he’d be worse.

On Tuesday November 6th vote left, vote socialist or just sit it out. If you want to show your contempt for both antigay, prowar candidates write in Brad Manning. He’s a hero.

Obama and Romney are not - they’re both criminals for attacking unions and giving away trillions to the already obscene rich. They’re candidates of the .01%

If you detect a great deal of cynicism in the above comments, it is surely warranted. I myself published a column or two like this in the run up to the 2008 election, but at least I learned something from the last four years. Any hope of electoral politics bringing about real change is a pipe dream. Only a unified left, led by a commitment to dismantling capitalism, greed and corruption will lead to a better tomorrow. Let’s abandon both corporate parties and build from the bottom up… beginning now.

Surely, in the latest edition of the DSM diagnostic guide to psychiatric disorders there has to finally be identified an affliction characterized by the behavior and aberrant ideation presented by those self-reporting as republican, conservative, “born again”, and/or free market capitalist. To claim to make any sense of the nebulous rhetoric spewing forth from those claiming to have answers to our pressing dilemas based upon a set of “principles” which have proven specious over and again historically surely puts one in the realm of the Red Queen who was capable of however many absurd beliefs daily before breakfast or, was it lunch?

ardee what truths are within the piece? i read no truths i did read spin and fear mongering with money raising as the intent. your government is a captive of wall street and mr. boyarsky makes a nice living off this very old us against them game. you have to recognize the problem before you apply the cure. neither romney or o’bama are part of the cure, neither is the senate or the congress.the driving principal of american pols. is captured in the old puritan chant,” gain wealth care only for thyself.” more millionares were created in congress and the senate in 2011 than any other time in u.s. history.

I don’t know why anyone would bother to listen to these speeches, let alone write about them.

I hope the next column is about something other than the election.

It is still many long months until November.

You must entertain me Mr. Boyarsky, or failing that, make me think (which I would prefer).

I can’t do it all myself you know.

I am sooooooo bored.

Maybe you could set E.J.‘s or Eugene’s hair on fire.

“I placed my bet on the American worker, and I’ll make that bet any day of the week”.

Yeah, sure you will.

Love that “job’s council” Mr. President.

Ok… I have appointed three corporate Democrats, and three Republicans to outline a general plan for what the new “New Deal” should be. It won’t be easy. There may be setbacks, but I’m sure we could all come to some sort of agreement if it weren’t for Republican obstructionism in congress.

By jimmmmmy, March 1 at 5:29 pm Link to this comment

right again vector 56 i’m with you on this

Get a room already!

Yes, Boyarsky is an unabashed Democratic loyalist, as are many on this site in fact. That doesn’t mean one can suspend ones reading comprehension skills and reject whatever truths are contained within the piece.

Romney, if not all of the candidates cannot relate to nor represent the 99% of Americans.

Millionaires/billionaires should be barred from politics since they only represent & relate to the rich.

The millionaires, billionaires and corporations MUST be forced to help America recover from the financial crises that they created through corruption, greed and/or ignorance.

From 1945 to 1986, America experienced its greatest real growth in history with the highest taxes on corporations, the rich(over $20,000 in 1945) and on millionaires and billionaires.

Right after WWII, “1945: 94% tax on income over $200,000 – absolutely astounding. It stayed over 90% until 1964 when it was lowered to 77% and had been consistently falling until …”

“—–$200,000 in 1944 is the equivalent of $2,290,909.09 in 2006 according to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator).”

See:  bargaineering.com/articles/a-look-at-historical-federal-tax-brackets.html Add www.

Partial Solutions to Financial Crises

1. New Total Taxes (federal, state, luxury, etc)
    for millionaires, billionaires:  40% to 80%
    for corporations:  35% to 55%

2. Nationalize the Federal Reserve, a PRIVATE CORPORATION whose main goal is making its secret owners and share holders rich.  It loans billions of dollars to the US government and charges 6% interest which keeps America in debt, now at 15 trillion.
 
Most Americans believe that the Federal Reserve is a US government department.  No, lies and deceit.
 
Nationalize the corrupt financial empire, banks,  wall street, etc.  Sounds crazy but America needs intelligent crazy changes, not more bull from the millionaires, billionaires.

For a history of money and the Federal Reserve watch award winning documentary, “The Secret of Oz” at http://www.documentarywire.com/the-secret-of-oz

3. Stop the out of control exponential growth of the Military-Industrial-Complex (MIC).
  Over 1,000 US foreign military bases costing one trillion dollars annually.  Beef up the UN. 
  In Afghanistan:  “450 Bases and It’s Not Over Yet”
  “The Pentagon’s Afghan Basing Plans for Prisons, Drones, and Black Ops, By Nick Turse”
  At tomdispatch.com/archive/175501/  Add www.

4. Phase out, vote out the GOP.
  “How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich”
  “The inside story of how the Republicans abandoned the poor and the middle class to pursue their relentless agenda of tax
  cuts for the wealthiest one percent.”

rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-gop-became-the-party-of-the-rich-20111109   Add www.

enough.

Excuse and correct any errors.  I’m politically ignorant, but did my best.

right again vector 56 i’m with you on this

mr boyarsky as an o’bamacrat soldier your so predictable. don’t worry the banksters are giving o’bama a billion bucks[ to give back to the corporate media of course, for the campaign ] hell even bill maher has signed on. he needs that corporate passport to show eric holders dope police. mr romney is exactly like mr o’bama politically. all the red meat he throws to the mouth breathers would be forgotten if he became potus. hell his health care plan was way better than o’bamas. and he would keep on the same banksters that o’bama now employs,and trust me his foreign policy would be just like o’bamas he’ll do what the pentagon demands.,finally he’ll continue to pardon war criminals persecute whistle blowers , and prosecute dope smokers.

“One expressed faith in working people, like those on the General Motors, Chrysler and Ford assembly lines. The other offered the vision and values of a conservative bean-counting management consultant, eager to close down factories, fire workers and get a big bonus for doing it.”

This post is nothing more then an unpaid advertisement for Obama!

“Bull” is too kind for this tacky piece of obvious propaganda!

This whole “dog and pony show” is about making sure Wall Street’s Guy (Obama) gets re elected!!

Why else do you think the GOP did not send in their “A” team?

What is going on here is akin to the Mob telling a Boxer to “Take a dive!:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/10/1043958/—Taking-a-Dive-?via=blog_744899