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Picking on the Rich - Comments (6) View Comments
- 9/22/2011
OMG!!! President Obama is picking on the rich and big corporations again!
Earlier this month, he presented his plan to help create jobs for Americns. Now he is proposing to pay for spending in the jobs plan with higher taxes on the rich and elimination of corporate tax loopholes.
As usual, congressional Republicans are calling this class warfare.
First off, we need a distinction between households making only $250,000 or $350,000 (no one I know!) and those making $1 million, $10 million, $20 million…
I’m talking about the latter group, and so is Obama. Much of their income comes from dividends and capital gains taxed at 15 percent, versus a much higher rate for earned income.
Republicans say raising their taxes would penalize job creators. Much of this income is from financial wheeling and dealing, not anything that creates jobs. Plus, some of that financial wheeling and dealing is what helped destroy our economy, jobs and 401k values.
Regular working stiff Americans pay a significant amount to Social Security, either divvied up with their employer, or the whole thing if they are self-employed.
Taxes owed for Social Security don’t apply to earned income above $106,000, and they don’t apply at all to investment income. So for the mega-rich, only a tiny part of their income is subject to this tax.
Then there are the mega-corporations. Their share of tax payments as a percentage of federal revenue is the lowest since about 1950, even though the US supposedly has the highest corporate tax rates in the world.
We have tax subsidies for highly profitable multi-national oil and gas production companies.
We have a list of multi-national corporations that paid no income tax last year thanks to provisions in the tax code that facilitate transfers of income and wealth from the many to the few.
Mega-corporations have become experts at shifting money around among their foreign subsidiaries to end up in places like Bermuda, where there is no corporate tax.
Mega-corporations owe no allegiance to this country, yet they get constitutional personhood rights (the best free speech that money can buy) and lots of tax loopholes.
Again, Republicans say that higher taxes on these entities would penalize job creators. Yes, they are creating jobs, but not in this country! They are sitting on record amounts of cash in this country, or spending it on stock buy-backs, technology and automation (to reduce the number of workers needed), stock dividends, and CEO mega salaries and bonuses.
Then there’s that class warfare. In this scheme of things, wealth redistribution is fine as long as it’s going from the many to the few. Anyone who complains about it is “stirring up class warfare.” And anyone who suggests government policies to encourage some redistribution the other way is a socialist.
Class warfare is real. The rich and the mega-corporations have been winning big time. That’s why working stiff Americans no longer have money to spend and revive the economy.
And the national Republican Party has made it very clear which side of class warfare they are on.
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It would be really nice if the PRT would at least show who wrote the above nonsense so that we could appropriately address the person..........
Judy Spady
With the current taxation rates we have now the corporatocracy is creating jobs hand over fist! That is the ones that havent moved overseas to take advantage of cheap and ignorant labor. Buy Chinese made and cut your childrens throats.
Jeff Wood
Letter to the editor regarding the county commissioner race between Kellie Hotter and Gwen Lachelt
from Jeff Glode Wise P.O. box 2916 Durango Co. 81301 970-259-2122
To the Editor,
Planning for the future is not a United Nations plot to take over America.
It is in fact a common sense way of making sure that our children inherit a
community worth living in. Its what squirrels do when they gather nuts.
Bees figured this out a long time ago. So how did Kellie Hotter not get the
memo? Does having a gas well in your front yard help you achieve life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Will sitting in traffic on Camino del
Rio give you more time to fight communism? Kellie Hotter is paying way too
much attention to a small group of people with a very destructive and
distorted perspective. Gwen Lachelt is a rare and remarkable person who for
the past 25 years has truly sacrificed her own comfort and security to build
for all of us a healthier, thriving and more secure community. She has been
able to bridge all sorts of divisions and divergent interests in order to
improve all of our lives and that to me is truly what America is all about.
Go Gwen!
Sincerely
Jeff Glode Wise
Jeff Glode Wise
Hello,
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Thanks
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Gillian Christensen
Gillian Christensen
I thought the job of the press is to print the news not shape, fake it or make it up.
Your left leaning pro bozo the clown nobama comes through your editorial writing everytime you open your mouth.
I am so glad I dont subscribe to your newspaper. I wish someone would write an editorial that says something good about our country instead of buying into the shadow government, illuminati, Bilderberg agenda. Does anyone even know who nobama is? hes a puppet for the powers that control our money.
And you, editor, everytime you open your mouth, you play right into their hands.
How about printing some real news instead of the prescribed agenda?
J Paul Where are you with your reasonable editorials?
An American, not a Democrat, Not a Republican.. American. I like this country.
Snowbaby
I have been sending email like this to Pine River Times. But this week they have desided to block my mail. Reason, the Editor only prints her hate mail.
Hes a Marine, 63 and tired, and an actor on CSI! Wait till you read this...
Robert A. Hall is an actor. He plays the coroner on CSI if you watch that show. He also is a Marine Vietnam War Veteran, but does not mention that he had his legs blown off in that war.
This should be required reading for every man, woman and child in the United States of America.
"Im 63 and Im Tired" by Robert A. Hall
Im 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, Ive worked hard since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and havent called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didnt inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, theres no retirement in sight, and Im tired. Very tired.
Im tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who dont have my work ethic. Im tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.
Im tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, Im willing to help. But if they bought Mc Mansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble use their own money to help them.
Im tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America provided to them. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have:
1. the economy of Zimbabwe,
2. the freedom of the press of China
3. the crime and violence of Mexico,
4. the tolerance for Christian people of Iran
5. the freedom of speech of Venezuela .
Im tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor" of Muslims rioting over some slight offense of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they arent "believers" of Muslims burning schools for girls of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery" of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls all in the name of Allah, because the Quran and Sharias law tells them to.
Im tired of being told that "race doesnt matter" in the post-racial world of Obama, when its all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.
I think its very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly in an all-knowing government.
Im tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must not complain when Saudi Arabia uses the money we pay for their oil to fund mosques and madras Islamic schools to preach hate in America, while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance..
Im tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5 of Al Gores, and if youre greener than Gore, youre green enough.
Im tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I dont think gay people choose to be gay, but I sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And Im tired of harassment from "cool" people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.
Im tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers", especially those who arent working, but living on welfare or crime. Whats next? Calling drug dealers, "Undocumented Pharmacists"? And, no, Im not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and its been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. Im willing to fast track citizenship for any Hispanic who can speak English, doesnt have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military. Those are the kind of citizens we need.
Im tired of the trashing of our military by latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So heres a deal for those folks. Ill let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, while the critics of our military can be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of school girls in Indonesia because the girls were Christian then well compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.
Im tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers bums are bipartisan. And Im tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois, where the "Illinois Combine" of Democrats has looted the public treasury for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obamas cabinet.
Im tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about "innocent" mistakes, "stupid" mistakes or "youthful" mistakes, when all of us know they think their only mistake was getting caught.
Speaking of poor, Im tired of people with a sense of entitlement who have air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didnt have that in 1970, but we didnt know we were "poor." The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.
Im real tired of people, rich or poor, who dont take responsibility for their lives and actions. Im tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.
Yes, Im tired, but Im also glad to be 63, mostly because Im not going to have to see the world these people are making. Im just sorry for my granddaughter.
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.
There is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on!
Wayne Halstead
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