CEOs paid more than the corporate tax bill

The Republicans party has turned into a tax cut cult. The US actually has one of the lowest tax rates of the industrial world and corporate taxes are not paid by many of the largest US corporations.

For example, the largest US corporation , GE, hasn't paid corporate income tax for years. Meanwhile 'moderate" Jon Huntsman wants to reform federal income taxes by exempting billionaires and millionairess form the capital gains tax. More than 70 per cent of the capital gains tax is paid by people making more than $200,000 per year.

How many Americans are stupid enough to believe that cutting taxes for the affluent will actually help the economy?

The basis of the Bush tax cuts were the

• Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA)
• Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA)

These tax cuts which started in 2003 were extended by the Obama administration until 2010. If these supply side tax cuts worked, why has the US been in a recession since 2008? 

The Republicans will probably say that the economy would be even worse off without the tax cuts without being able to back that declaration up with any factual information. 

sources:

Hillbilly Report

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/08/16/139676644/congress-approval-rating-plummets-especially-among-independents

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Does cutting taxes increase government revenues?

The Republicans would like you to drink this tax cut Kool-Aide which is the basis of supply side economics, but cutting taxes it is not a government revenue panacea.


America strarted to unravel when Ronald Reagan and other Republicans started coddling the rich by cutting income tax, capital gains tax, corporate income tax and the estate tax. 


The Media Matters research on this topic is impressive. 


Rightardia encourages you to read the entire article because the GOP tries to push their one trick pony, Tax Cuts, in every election. 


Here are some of the Media Matters quotes. 


Bush CEA Chair Greg Mankiw: Claim That Broad-Based Income Tax Cuts Increase Revenue Is Not "Credible:" Virtually every economics Ph.D. who has worked in a prominent role in the Bush Administration acknowledges that the tax cuts enacted during the past six years have not paid for themselves--and were never intended to. Harvard professor Greg Mankiw, chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers from 2003 to 2005, even devotes a section of his best-selling economics textbook to debunking the claim that tax cuts increase revenues. [Time, 12/6/07]


Former Bush Economist: "[N]o Dispute Among Economists" That Bush Tax Cuts Reduced Revenue. The Washington Post reported on October 17, 2006: "Federal revenue is lower today than it would have been without the tax cuts. There's really no dispute among economists about that," said Alan D. Viard, a former Bush White House economist now at the nonpartisan American Enterprise Institute. "It's logically possible" that a tax cut could spur sufficient economic growth to pay for itself, Viard said. "But there's no evidence that these tax cuts would come anywhere close to that." [The Washington Post,10/17/06]


Krugman: After Reagan's 1981 Tax Cuts, "Revenues Are Permanently Reduced Relative To What They Would Otherwise Have Been." Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote on July 15, 2010, that "the revenue track under Reagan looks a lot like the track under Bush: a drop in revenues, then a resumption of growth, but no return to the previous trend." He added, "This is exactly what you would expect to see if supply-side economics were just plain wrong: revenues are permanently reduced relative to what they would otherwise have been." [The New York Times, 7/15/10]


Clinton Economist: Reagan Tax Cuts And Bush Tax Cuts "Contributed To Record US Budget Deficits." Harvard economist and former Clinton economic adviser Jeffrey Frankel wrote in September 2008 that cuts in federal income tax rates "reduces revenue ... this was the outcome of the two big experiments of recent decades: the Reagan tax cuts of 1981-83 and the Bush tax cuts of 2001-03, both of which contributed to record US budget deficits."


The Orange County Register reports: 

"While Republican lawmakers appear unified against tax hikes and many Tea Party activists want existing rates rolled back, statistics consistently show that federal taxes are at a historic low.

For the past two years, a family of four with the median income has paid less in federal income taxes than any time since at least 1955, according to the Tax Policy Center. All federal, state and local taxes combined are a lower percentage of per capita income than any time since the 1960s, according to the Tax Foundation. The highest income tax bracket is its lowest since 1992. At 35 percent, it's well below the 50-percent mark of much of the 1980s and the 70-percent bracket of the 1970s."

There are two ways to reduce the national debt and the deficit. The first way is to reduce government spending.

The big thee are defense that is paid for with income tax revenues and the other two, Medicare and Social security are funded by the FICA payroll tax.

The other solution is to raise taxes and certainly the FICA payroll tax needs to be reformed to pay for Social Security and Medicare. Most of the out of control spending in past presidential administrations has been on the GOP side. The GW Bush administration has a particularly bad record when it comes to an increasing the deficit and decreasing tax revenues with unecessary tax cuts that primarily benefited the affluent.  

After Bush was inaugurated, he said this at one of the inauguration balls: 

“This is an impressive crowd: the Have's and Have-more's. Some people call you the elites. I call you my base.”

He wasn't kidding!

source: 

http://articles.ocregister.com/2011-04-14/news/29426357_1_tax-burden-tax-cuts-tax-policy-center

http://mediamatters.org/research/201106170009

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WIN: Tax collection a historic low or the Great GOP tax scam

5/19/2011 

---

 By Doug Cunningham

General Electric corporation famously paid zero taxes this year. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

In 2009 Exxon Mobil paid no federal taxes.

The Republican budget plan gives away even more tax breaks to corporations and the rich and there’s a steady drumbeat from conservatives that taxes are too high.

Here’s some tax truth. As a percentage of GDP, tax collections in America are actually at historic lows. That’s according to the tax policy center Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.

And according to the White House Office Of Management and Budget corporate income taxes total one percent of Gross Domestic Product this year – 60 percent lower than 40 years ago. SIXTY PERCENT lower.

And wealth is taxed at a lower percentage than your labor. Middle class workers pay about 25 percent while stock dividends and capital gains are taxed at just 15 percent. If we simply returned to the tax rates of 1979, budget deficits would disappear.

And if we levied just a half percent tax on Wall Street’s financial transactions it would generate $170 billion a year in federal revenue.

 While corporate profits have greatly increased while white, gray and blue collar wages have remained flat.

"In 2008 affluent households—single person households with a $75,000+ income and multiple person households with a $100,000+ income—made up 22% of all households, yet were responsible for generating 52% of aggregate household income in the U.S., or a total of $4 trillion. "

In the economic model that resulted form the New Deal, taxes were kept high on the affluent house holds and this resulted in the Golden Age of the United States after World War 2.

There was a ho+using boom and employment was very high. a young man or woman could work in the town factory for their entire life and retire with a pension after 30 years. these corporations also provided lifetime medical care.

Today only 20 per cent of Americans have pensions and corporations drop medical care when a pensioner reaches Medicare age.

To make matters worse, the GOP has been attacking these two lifelines for seniors for years. Paul Ryan wanted to voucherize medicare creating a two tier system that would have provided vouchers to people who are currently under age 55, crating a two tier system.

Most of those people underage 55 would be forced to purchase private insurance to offset the reduced Medicare benefits.

Clearly private enterprise is deficient in many ways of meeting the modern needs of American workers. We need to return to proven model of the New Deal with a far higher tax rate on affluent Americans to fuel the economic recovery of this country.

This is how the US got out of the Great Depression. The US has experimented with supply side economics of the have mores for 20 of the past 30 years. The bottom line is that supply side economics doesn't work!

source: http://www.packagedfacts.com/Affluent-2010386/

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Class Warfare 101: Most Americans don’t believe hard work will get you rich

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 26% of Adults believe it’s still possible for just about anyone in America to work hard and get rich.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) do not think a good work ethic will pay off, while 16% more are not sure.

However, a plurality of all Americans (46%) still feel it’s possible for anyone in the United States to work their way out of poverty, but thirty-seven percent (37%) disagree and say it’s not possible to work your way out of poverty. Another 17% are undecided.

But only 41% say it’s possible for anyone who really wants work to even find a job. Forty-five percent (45%) do not think finding work is that easy. Thirteen percent (13%) are undecided. Confidence that jobs are available has been falling since the beginning of last year.

Americans continue to show little short-term confidence in the country’s economic recovery but remain more confident in the long-term..

Only 23% of all adults say today’s children will be better off than their parents. Fifty-six percent (56%) do not believe today’s youth will be better off than their elders. Twenty-one percent (21%) are not sure.

In regard to becoming rich, the IRS has just released an analysis of the richest 400 American tax filers (.pdf) that supports the American belief  that it isn't hard work that makes someone rich.

The top-line finding drawing the most attention is that these 400 earned about $138 billion, collectively in 2007. In contrast, the bottom 90 percent of Americans, over 24 million filers, earned $247 billion.

There are two important things to note from this chart. The first, and most visually apparent, is that the tax rates of the rich are far more closely linked to the capital gains taxes than income taxes. Salaries and wages, the source of income taxed at the blue line, represented only 6.5 percent of these filers’ income.

Nearly two-thirds of their income comes from capital gains, and this is why you see a much tighter coupling between the orange and red lines.

The second thing to note is that the overall tax rates are really not that high. Contrary to concerns about socialism or a government takeover, the richest Americans, those earning an average of $345 million in 2007, paid about 16.5 percent in federal income taxes.

Contrary to what many American believe, Americans pay a marginal income tax rate. This figure is generally not well understood and is certainly not the one we debate in the public sphere. Instead, we generally end up talking about marginal tax rates.

The word “marginal” in this context means you don’t actually pay the full rate of the bracket you fall in.

For example, a single person earning $50,000 in 2009 would technically be in the 25 percent bracket. But they would actually pay 10 percent on their first $8,350 in earnings (the lowest bracket), 15 percent on every dollar between $8,351 and $33,950 (the second bracket), and 25 percent on every dollar between $33,951 and $50,000 (their salary). This works out so that the hypothetical person would actually only pay 17.4 percent of their income in taxes.

Many wealthy people know that working a 9 to 5 job will never make one rich. You become rick by acquiring assets such as really estate, stocks, bonds and precious metals. In most cases, the affluent will pay the lower capital gains taxes from any earnings form these assets.

The capital gains tax was 15 per cent under GW Bush.

source: http://www.livecitizen.com/americans-dont-hard-work-rich/ and http://www.quickanded.com/2010/02/effective-tax-rates-of-the-richest-400-americans.html

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The Gavel: House GOP Whip Eric Cantor’s Plan to Add $2.7 Trillion More to Deficit

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the current tax rate on capital gains is projected to bring in about $1.24 trillion in federal receipts over 10 years. [CBO, 1/10/10]

So eliminating this tax could cost middle-class Americans up to $1.24 trillion over 10 years, while giving even more tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. For example, the Joint Committee on Taxation indicated that for 2005, 88 percent of the benefit of lower rates for capital gains would go to individuals with incomes over $200,000. [CRS, 2007]

Reducing the top corporate tax rate to 25 percent. It's COST – MORE THAN $734.7 BILLION OVER 10 YEARS [Tax Policy Center, 9/15/08]

A flat tax could increase taxes on the middle class by thousands of dollars a year, while cutting taxes for the top 1 percent by more than $200,000. [Citizens for Tax Justice, 2/19/10]

The Cantor Plan would provide a permanent bailout for billionaires and millionaires (the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans). It's COST – $700 BILLION OVER 10 YEARS [Washington Post, 9/8/10]

Rightardia agress with Nancy Pelosi. The affluent got an 8 year holiday when bush was president. The tax cuts did little for the economy. The people who benefit from capital gains are most affluent Americans and flattening the tax tables would just increase the deficit. The problem with corporate tax is that too many businesses are exempt from it. A twenty five per cent tax rate might work if all corprortions paid the tax and the existing corporate exemptions were rescinded.

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WSJ: Wide spread fraud suspected for first time home buyer credit

By JOHN D. MCKINNON

WASHINGTON -- The Internal Revenue Service is examining more than 100,000 suspicious claims for the first-time home-buyer tax break, another sign of potential trouble for the soon-to-expire program.

The measure, adopted in February as part of the economic-stimulus bill, gives first-time buyers an $8,000 tax credit in an effort to boost sales and stimulate the flaccid housing market. The program is set to end Nov. 30, but housing-industry leaders are lobbying Congress to extend it.

Some people in the real estate business are hoping the tax credit is increased to $15,000. This amount can be taken right off the top of a taxpayer's income

More than a million claims for the credit have been received so far, and housing-industry experts estimated that the credit has helped generate about 350,000 home sales that wouldn't otherwise have occurred. Some lawmakers and tax experts now say there is evidence that a significant number of the claims might prove to be unjustified or fraudulent.

"I am concerned about recent reports that there have been fraudulent schemes involving the credit," Rep. John Lewis (D., Ga.), chairman of a House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, said in a statement. The subcommittee is planning a hearing on the problems on Thursday.

The IRS said it was investigating 167 "criminal schemes" involving the credit. IRS officials on Monday declined to describe the suspected schemes or provide additional details.

At a recent hearing of a White House tax advisory panel, Bonnie Speedy, national director of AARP Tax-Aide, a volunteer service for low-income people, suggested that abuse of the home-purchase credit appeared to be widespread, in part because of relatively loose standards for claiming the credit.

source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125599683058895389.html

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Editor's Note: The Project for the Old American Century is one of my favorite blogs and has three galleries of posters that Rightardia frequently uses. The POAC counter-spin provides great talking points that you can use to refute conservative disinformation . Wikipedia is also a good resource to research conservative claims that Democrats caused the Great Depression, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or that the finacial meltdown was caused by the Democratic Congress.

POAC counter-spin

 The facts behind the current talking points

The talking point	The facts
Questions surround the authenticity of President Obama's birth certificate (example)	Representatives from the State of Hawaii have repeatedly authenticated Obama's COLB.
Republicans are the party of fiscal responsibility	Fiscal responsibility: a five point analysis
High gas prices are the result of  a lack of domestic drilling in places such as ANWR	Drilling the largest continuous oil formation ever discovered in the U.S. would represent only a five to seven month supply of oil for the United States at 2007 rates of consumption.
	More: House Natural Resources Committee Report: The Truth About America’s Energy
Lawsuits filed by environmental groups have prevented any new construction of refineries since the 70's	The oil industry closed down 50% of its existing refineries starting in the 80's to boost profits.
China is drilling for oil off of the coast of Florida (Examples: 1 2 3 4 5)	While it's true that as many as 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas may lie off Cuba's coast, no country, including China, is drilling for a drop of it. Florida Sen. Mel Martinez – a Republican who served in Bush’s cabinet, even took time on the Senate Floor to debunk the lie.
Obama was endorsed by Hamas	A Hamas spokesperson made a general observation that Sen. Obama promises to bring a foreign policy leadership marked by respect not "arrogance." Also... Hamas slammed Obama, saying he confirmed US "hostility" to Arabs and Muslims.
Ethanol is responsible for the recent spike in food prices.	Critics say biofuel responsible for 8.1% hike in grain costs, diverting attention from oil's much larger impact
Bush's "abstinence only" programs have been a success.	Abstinence-only programs have not cut teen pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases or delayed the age at which sex begins.
The planet has been cooling since 1998	This claim has been thoroughly debunked every time it’s popped up. The oil-backed global warming denier Dennis Avery first made the claim — which hinges on the fact that 1998 was an exceptionally warm year (but not the warmest ever) — in 2006. source: Think Progress
Obama Attended "anti- America" Sermon.	The truth is that Obama did not attend church on July 22. He was on his way to campaign in Miami.
Barack Obama is a Muslim who was schooled in a madrasa who won't put his hand over his heart for the national anthem/pledge of allegiance who belongs to a radical black church, has his presidential campaign funded by Hugo Chavez and is endorsed by the KKK.	Barack Obama is a Christian who went to a secular school, has led the pledge of allegiance in the Senate, belongs to a normal Christian Church in Chicago and has never been funded by the KKK or Hugo Chavez
Waterboarding is not torture and has no long term effects	Waterboarding is considered to be torture by a wide range of authorities, including legal experts, politicians, war veterans, intelligence officials, military judges, and human rights organizations. Some victims are still traumatized years later'. One victim couldn't take showers, and panicked when it rained. Water-boarding or mock drowning can result in immediate and long-term health consequences. There is a real risk of death from actually drowning or suffering a heart attack or damage to the lungs from inhalation of water. Long term effects include panic attacks, depression and PTSD. Source: Wikipedia
Bill Clinton was quoted saying we must 'slow down US economy' to stop global warming.	It’s a moment taken out of context in such a way as to change the meaning of the sentence. Consider what Clinton actually said:  “And maybe America, and Europe, and Japan, and Canada — the rich counties — would say, ‘OK, we just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions ’cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren.’ We could do that. But if we did that, you know as well as I do, China and India and Indonesia and Vietnam and Mexico and Brazil and the Ukraine, and all the other countries will never agree to stay poor to save the planet for our grandchildren. The only way we can do this is if we get back in the world’s fight against global warming and prove it is good economics that we will create more jobs to build a sustainable economy that saves the planet for our children and grandchildren. It is the only way it will work.”
Iran is a major source for insurgents and foreign fighters in Iraq.	Around 60% of all foreign militants who entered Iraq to fight over the past year came from Saudi Arabia and Libya, according to files seized by American forces. The files also gave details of 68 Yemeni nationals, the third-biggest source. There were 64 fighters from Algeria, 50 from Morocco, 38 from Tunisia, 14 from Jordan, six from Turkey and two each from Egypt and France.
	More than 40% of the foreign fighters who entered Iraq to join the insurgency in the past year were citizens of Saudi Arabia
Nancy Pelosi included a provision in a water redevelopment bill that would benefit property her husband owns in San Francisco.	The waterfront improvements were requested by the Port of San Francisco and the four rental properties in question are at least a mile away.Republicans, who raised the issue more than two weeks after the bill passed the House, offered no evidence of benefit to Paul Pelosi's real estate holdings.   "I don't have any facts to say anything untoward has been done here," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the Republican Study Committee.
Joe Wilson had said his wife was not a clandestine officer when Bob Novak blew her identity.	Wilson's comment was meant to reflect that his wife lost her ability to be a covert agent because of the leak, not that she had stopped working for the CIA beforehand. His wife's "ability to do the job she's been doing for close to 20 years ceased from the minute Novak's article appeared; she ceased being a clandestine officer," he later said.
The Bush administration scandal involving the firing of U.S. prosecuting attorneys for political reasons is a non-story because Bill Clinton also replaced US attorneys upon assuming office.	Clinton did fire all 93 US attorneys upon assuming office. So did Bush 41 and Ronald Reagan. Previous U.S. attorney selections were subject to Senate confirmation. Bush's are not thanks to a loophole secretly inserted into the PATRIOT Act. Also, previous presidents bumped all their old attorneys when they first took office, not in the middle of their second term when the opposition party was preparing investigations and serving subpoenas into evidence of corruption as Bush had.
Iran has repeatedly rejected U.S. offers for discussion on stabilizing the region and halting it's uranium enrichment program	2003: Cheney Rejected Iranian Offers To Help Stabilize Iraq. Iranian concession package was close to what US is asking for now
	Rove Received and Ignored Iranian Peace Offer
The ACLU has proven to have an anti-Christian stance, particularly in matters concerning schools	ACLU's position on religion in school
Al Gore is hypocritical in his stance on reducing carbon emissions due to his energy use and travel.	In addition to purchasing carbon offsets, Gore’s family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology.
Nancy Pelosi  had demanded access to the military equivalent of a 757 to fly her back and forth between Washington, D.C., and her San Francisco home.	Pelosi offered to fly domestic and pay for any guests accompanying her, the military plane was requested by the House Sergeant at arms, and the plane size was dictated by the pentagon.
Thomas Jefferson owned and/or utilized his Koran in order to understand his "enemy", i.e., the Barbary Pirates that were threatening American commerce between the 1780's and early 1800's.	Jefferson bought his Koran on October 5, 1765 -- when he was a 22-year old law student at William & Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia. Barbary Pirates were hardly an issue for Americans in 1765
Nancy Pelosi exempted a mega corporation based in her home district and operating in Samoa from the new minimum wage laws	American Samoa has ALREADY been exempt from those laws for some time, including for 12 years under a Republican majority.  Currently wage floors in American Samoa are set by the US Department of Labor. Nancy Pelosi has nothing to do with that.
	Pelosi moves to close Samoa wage loophole.
George W. Bush called the Constitution "Just a god damned piece of paper".	The source of this story is unable to verify the statement claiming "...I heard from two White House sources who claim they heard from others present in the meeting...". This isn't acceptable by any journalistc standards
Iranian President Ahmadinejad has repeatedly threatened to destroy Israel	The most infamous quote, "Israel must be wiped off the map", is the most glaringly wrong. In his October 2005 speech, Mr. Ahmadinejad never used the word "map" or the term "wiped off". According to Farsi-language experts like Juan Cole and even right-wing services like MEMRI, what he actually said was "this regime that is occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time." His message was, in essence, "This too shall pass."
The New York Times disclosed vital secrets in the War on Terror™ by publishing an article on the gov't secretly monitoring financial transactions without a warrant.	Not only has the administration been bragging about their funds transfer tracking system, they've been publicly giving our far more details than the NYT
Tax cuts generate revenue and pay for themselves	A host of studies, some of them written by economists who served in the Bush administration, have concluded that tax reductions lose more revenue than they generate.
	Virtually every economics Ph.D. who has worked in the Bush Administration acknowledges that the tax cuts of the past six years haven't paid for themselves.
The Bush administration had no idea that a 9-11 type attack would occur.	US aviation received 52 al-Qaeda warnings before 9/11
	Censorship of Aviation Warnings Leading up to 9/11
	A point-by-point analysis of Condoleeza Rice's statements versus the truth
Electronic voting machines are secure and there is no evidence to suspect rigged elections	Programmer Clint Curtis claims that four years ago Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Florida) asked his then-employer to write software to alter votes on electronic voting machines in Florida.
	Evidence of rigged elections in the United States
Peak oil is just a myth	Saudis admit peak oil
No one expected the levees to fail.	2001 Houston Chronicle: FEMA ranked the potential damage to New Orleans as among the three likeliest, most castastrophic disasters facing this country.
	Mediamatters.org's full list of examples of the well known potential for levee failure
LA Governor didn't take the steps necessary to request emergency and major disaster declarations:	Blanco pushed all the paper she was supposed to push, prior to the storm hitting, to rouse FEMA into action. (.PDF)
	Governor Blanco asks President to Declare an Emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina
Social Security is going to collapse and republicans will save it by privatizing it.	A memo written by  an aide to Karl Rove, about how to sell Social Security privatization. The public, says Mr. Wehner, must be convinced that "the current system is heading for an iceberg."..."For the first time in six decades, the Social Security battle is one we can win."
	President Eisenhower called Texas oil millionaires "stupid" for wanting to abolish social security
Cheney has severed his ties to Halliburton	Cheney's Halliburton Ties Remain
Valerie Plame was not deep undercover	CIA SAYS WILSON WAS UNDERCOVER: “But within the C.I.A., the exposure of Ms. Plame is now considered an even greater instance of treachery. Ms. Plame, a specialist in nonconventional weapons who worked overseas, had ‘nonofficial cover,’ and was what in C.I.A. parlance is called a Noc, the most difficult kind of false identity for the agency to create.” [New York Times, 10/5/03]
	MSNBC confirms that Plame was working on Iran nuke counter-proliferation when she was outed.
It was the Democrats who stopped the vote count in 2000	The man Bush tapped to fill Karl Rove’s spot as his policy advisor is none other than Joel Kaplan, who took part in the infamous “Brooks Brothers riot” of 2000. That’s when a bunch of Washington GOP operatives, posing as outraged Floridians, waved fists, chanted “Stop the fraud!” and pounded windows in an effort to intimidate officials engaged in the Florida recount effort.
	John Bolton: "I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the count."
	Bush gave plum jobs to supporters who worked recount
Al Gore claimed to invent the internet	"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system."
Republicans are the party of smaller government and fiscal responsibility	ha ha ha ha ha Do I really need to provide a link?

Source: http://www.oldamericancentury.org/counterspin/counterspin.htm

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The Good Ol' Days or the best of times

The best of times

Yes, I remember them well being a Baby Boomer.  After World War 2 there was a tremendous building boom in the US because returning vets used their VA benefits to buy homes. My parents brought their first home in a Huber Community in southern Ohio that sprawled for four or five square miles.

Many also used their veteran's benefits to go to college. College enrollment also boomed.

During this era the Income Tax rate on the most affluent Americans was 90 per cent. FDR used income Tax and the Estate tax to pay for the war and help returning vets restart their lives. At this time only one in 30 Americans was considered wealthy.

Neighborhood schools were embraced by parents and it was considered patriotic to support tax changes to increase schools millages.  I can never  recall a tax amendment that benefited the school system that was defeated.

At that time the power company, the water utility and trash pickup were public and were very low cost.

If you worked for a fair to meddling corporation, you could look forward to a company pension and medical care when you retired. It was the best of times.

The worst of times 

Americans have been sometimes called sheeple because they really are unaware of how much things have really changed.

At this time there is a building collapse that  was caused by decades of Republican deregulation and the Bush Ownership Society. The repeal of the Glass-Steagal Act (1933) and an SEC rule change in 2004 that allowed banks to reduce reserves were the two main culprits.

Colleges are under assault by conservatives for being liberal and many neighborhood schools are being closed due tax shortfalls. Teachers are also being laid off. In Florida there is a supreme irony: Republicans wanted bonuses for the best teachers. These teachers, who make more than the average teachers, are the ones who are being laid off.

Many of these tax problems cause by over zealous Republicans who made tax cuts that would not fully fund government activities. The deficit doubled under the Bush presidency. Bush used the Republican Trojan horse, Supply Side economics. to cut taxes for the most affluent Americans and he was also the only president stated a a war without raising taxes.

After eight years the US deficit was doubled. Bush also suspended the Estate Tax. The income tax rate for top earning Americans in 2009 is now 35 per cent. That is a 55 per cent drop since the Eisenhower era. But wait there's more: Bush dropped the capital gains tax to 15 per cent. Millionaires and billionaires make most of their money with capital gains so the most fortunate Americans actually have a lower tax rate than the average American.

The income tax rate for top earning Americans in 2009 is now 35 per cent. That is a 55 per cent drop since the Eisenhower era. But wait there's more: Bush dropped the capital gains tax to 15 per cent. Millionaires and billionaires make most of their money with capital gains so the most fortunate Americans actually have a lower tax rate than the average American.

Most of the utilities have been privatized and some of these power companies request rate hikes whenever oil prices rise. Oddly, the don't request rates drops when the price of crude drops.

Very few Americans get private pensions anymore because corporations cast them out before they hit retirement age. The Supreme Court has stated that corporations do not have to provide private medical care once a retiree is eligible for Medicare.

The Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is also an interesting phenomena. Congress established the IRAs as a savings program not as a retirement program. Many corporations now only offer the IRA as their 'pension program.' Many corporate IRAs have hidden fees that the IRA fund manger doesn't have to disclose.  Many Americans who became unemployed recently discovered their IRAs had been looted by Mini-Madoffs.

If a corporation doesn't offer matching funds or other financial incentives, their IRA program is valueless.You may be better off settitng up an IRA with a bank.

There you have it. Since the New Deal, many American have lost their homes, the neighborhood school has been weakened or closed, college costs have accelerated,  your utilities now take a bigger bite from you paycheck because of privatization, and most Americans will never see a corporate pension or corporate medical benefits.  Still confused about public health?

This is the legacy of the Republican party and some conservative Democrats who should have known better.

It is the worst of times!

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