tagged w/ tax cuts for the rich
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Published: 11:03 PM 07/06/2011
The Obama administration, in seeking $4 trillion in spending cuts in a debt limit deal, has put major changes to Social Security and Medicare on the table if Republicans agree to increased tax revenues.
The offer caters to both sides in the debt limit negotiations and according to the Washington Post, President Obama will urge congressional leaders on Thursday to seize the opportunity to act. The compromise, however, still puts both Republicans and Democrats in tough spots.
Democrats have vowed to protect Medicare and Social Security, while Republicans still argue that tax increases are not realistic legislative proposals. If leadership from both parties agree to the Obama’s compromise, the next move will be to sell the plan to their respective bases and to members of Congress.
But Thursday’s meetings at the White House will reveal just how many concessions each party is willing to make.
The president has reportedly already privately discussed his plan with Speaker of the House John Boehner. Michael Steel, spokesperson for Boehner, though, told the Washington Post “there are no tax increases on the table.”
But House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, however, signaled Wednesday that he may be flexible on ending certain loopholes in the tax code. (Obama recognizes mistakes in Twitter town hall)
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned that if the debt limit is not raised by August 2, the United States will default on its debt.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/06/obama-puts-medicare-social-security-cuts-on-the-table/#ixzz1ROBgkvFPPublished: 11:03 PM 07/06/2011
The Obama administration, in seeking $4 trillion in... more
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Dan Webster, Republican congressman from Florida, gets heckled by his constituents as they react to the Paul Ryan Republican budget, end of Medicare, Medicaid cuts, tax giveaways to the rich in the GOP plan.Dan Webster, Republican congressman from Florida, gets heckled by his constituents as... more
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I thought this was a pretty accurate statement of the recent situation here in America. I hear so many middle and lower class folks defending the wealthy under the guise that "its not their fault for having money" but this lets them off the hook for their abhorrent choices that directly affected 'us'.I thought this was a pretty accurate statement of the recent situation here in... more
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A small but growing number of moderate Democrats are balking at boosting taxes on the rich. Many face electorates that recoil at the mention of any tax increase. Some represent areas that are loaded with wealthier taxpayers. Further, some incumbent senators who don't face voters this fall are reluctant to increase taxes on anyone while the economy remains sluggish.
* * * * * I'm a Democrat and hearing that these cowardly Democrats are selling out makes me want to throw up.A small but growing number of moderate Democrats are balking at boosting taxes on the... more
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The 'L-curve' helps one imagine the degree to which wealth in the United States in inequitably distributed by policy and by design. The US population is represented 'stretched across a football field in order of income, from poorest, on the left, to richest. Imagine a stack of $100 bills 'representing each person's income.' For example: a stack one inch high represents a stack of one hundred dollars bills, i.e, $25,000. The red line on the graph represents the height of that stack compared to an American football field.
"The red line in the first picture is the beginning of the U. S. income distribution. On the scale of the football field the line slopes gradually from zero on the left to less than 2-inches high at the 50-yard line ($39,000), to about 4-inches high at the 95-yard line ($132,000). On this scale the entire graph is less than one pixel high, up to this point. It is not until you are well past the 99-yard line that you hit the $1 million mark: a stack of $100 bills 40-inches high. There were over 144,000 people who turned in IRS returns in 1997 with adjusted gross incomes of $1 million or more." [See: Houston Independent Media Center, Wealth Distribution in the US http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2003/07/14100.php ]
Although the US economy produces tremendous wealth, it is always accompanied in GOP regimes by tremendous poverty. The US, for example, was most egalitarian in the years immediately following WWII. During GOP regimes, income inequality increased and is, in fact, measured with the GINI index. Higher Ginis indicate greater levels of income inequality. These indices have been significantly greater in every GOP regime since World War II.
Certainly --there is enough wealth to go around. Instead, wealth flows upward ---not down, as the propagandists of 'supply side' i.e. 'trickle down theory' would have you believe. The problem is systemic --the result of identifiable, right wing policies that can be identified.
The primary culprits are GOP tax cuts by Mssrs Ronald Reagan and Bush; the effect of those cuts have been the deliberate transfer of wealth first to the upper quintile and, most recently, to an increasingly tiny elite of about one percent of the total population [See: Dr. Daniel Weinberger, US Census Bureau Briefings; Also see: The Quarterly Journal of Economics: Income Inequality in the United States at the following URL: http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/pikettyqje.pdf]. It's a PDF and cites academic and official, original sources of data.
As wealth is transferred to the very top with tax cuts for only the very, very wealthy and practitioners of 'corporate socialism', the masses are left to fight over the crumbs. There is no poverty in America that could not be addressed by simply addressing GOP tax policies --give aways -- which deliberately make the rich richer, the working class significantly poorer.
If you are in the middle class now, don't kid yourself. Unless you stand to inherit a fortune of several billions from a rich and long lost Uncle, the chances are almost exponentially high against you. Chances are --you will NOT progress upward in this society. Moreover, this aspect of American society is the work of one party primarily: the GOP! The GOP is the party of a rich elites who have learned how to 'sell' a fairy tale: supply side economics, or, derisively --"trickle down theory". To sum it all up: wealth has never, does not, will not 'trickle down'. The 'L-curve' helps one imagine the degree to which wealth in the United... more
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