Tax Cut Obscenity

This is just Too Much. ( The source of the graphic below)

Let me put this is words.

Because of the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, the top 1% in income will receive an average tax cut of $66,384.  This tax cut is larger than the average income of $58,506 of the other 99% of the people.

That is an obscenity.

This Is Why We Need Univeral Health Care

 From here.

The 1% Don't Give A Shit Who You Are...

...even if you are a 4'-10" 84 year old lady.

From The Immoral Minority

Do Nothing Looks Better

A few months ago I wrote about the Do Nothing solution for our deficit/debt problem.

In light of congressional actions since then, doing nothing is looking even better according to E. J. Dionne.  In fact, if congress just packed their bags and went home today, we would reduce the deficit by $7.1 trillion dollar over the next 10 years. 

$7.1 TRILLION DOLLARS

In the process, the budget would almost be balanced by 2021...another benefit of doing nothing.  So where does that $7.1 trillion dollars come from?  Well it comes from here.

● $3.3 trillion from letting temporary income and estate tax cuts enacted in 2001, 2003, 2009, and 2010 expire on scheduled at the end of 2012 (presuming Congress also lets relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax expire, as noted below);

● $0.8 trillion from allowing other temporary tax cuts (the “extenders” that Congress has regularly extended on a “temporary” basis) expire on scheduled;

● $0.3 trillion from letting cuts in Medicare physician reimbursements scheduled under current law (required under the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate formula enacted in 1997, but which have been postponed since 2003) take effect;

● $0.7 trillion from letting the temporary increase in the exemption amount under the Alternative Minimum Tax expire, thereby returning the exemption to the level in effect in 2001;

● $1.2 trillion from letting the sequestration of spending required if the Joint Committee does not produce $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction take effect; and

● $0.9 trillion in lower interest payments on the debt as a result of the deficit reduction achieved from not extending these current policies.

 So, in reality, all this yelling and screaming over the budget deficits and the ballooning deficit is BS.  We don't need drastic cuts in entitlements.  We don't need drastic cuts in any spending.  We will be just fine if everyone just sat back, had a beer, and did nothing.

Here Is The Type Of Senator We All Should Elect

What a much better country we would have if the House and Senate were filled with members like Elizabeth Warren instead of the dead weight we have there now.

Want To Cut Spending...

 Start here.  Below is a list of items that are from a comment by #37927 on Contra O'Reilly.

OK immediate 50% cut to the bloated Pentagon budget, so we can bring the brigade home the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team from Vicenza, Italy. After all nobody has attacked them since 1944-45, nor do they look endangered.

We can also bring all the troops occupying Germany home since their reason for being there "the USSR" ended in 1991.

Ditto for Japan, Bulgaria, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Romania.

We also could downsize from an 11 carrier fleet to a more reasonable 7-8 carrier fleet given how much the right wing wants budget cuts. we could also take off line half the nuclear attack and boomer subs, since both the Russians and US all are downsizing our ability to nuke the world 3-5 times over.

Downsize the air Force in a similar manner, MUCHO money saved.

Total federal spending on a safety net for the poor costs the average taxpayer about $400 a year, while spending on corporate welfare programs costs the same taxpayer about $1400 a year. (source: Congressional Budget Office figures)

The largest direct subsidy program in the federal budget is for crop and farm subsidies. Most farmers don’t receive direct subsidies from the federal government,” the report states. “The taxpayer-financed handouts go to only about one-third of the nation’s farmers and ranchers. So, where does all the taxpayer money spent on farmers actually go? Mainly to large corporate agribusinesses and the richest farmers.


Make the farmers getting welfare start paying for all their expenses, NO government money at all.

Cut all subsidies to oil corps, and any other for profit industries'

Give the airlines the full bill for all airport construction and traffic control and accident investigations costs.

Allow the SS admin to bargain for drug costs like the VA can, so less government money is wasted.

End the $70 + billion in public airwave channel rights free of charge...make them PAY for the public airwaves, so they stop getting a free ride,.

Individuals and families must demonstrate need to receive benefits, while corporations with billions of dollars in annual income remain on the federal dole.

Take away Wal-Mart's $37 million from Uncle Sam in the transportation bill.

Stop handing money to Egypt and Israel so they can buy weapons, make their citizens cough up the money, not US tax payers.

Make BP pay the FULL costs of all the response to their oil spill in the gulf.

Charge market costs for Resource leases for mineral rights.

Let Boeing, GE, Conoco Phillips among others finance their foreign sales instead of the US government doing it for them.

Why should American taxpayers subsidize the foreign advertising budgets of McDonalds, General Mills, Campbell’s Soup, Pillsbury, Miller’s beer and Gallo wines, as has been the case in the past?

The Cato Institute defined corporate welfare as “any federal spending program that provides payments or unique benefits and advantages to specific companies or industries.” Stephen Slivinski, director of budget studies of the think tank, conducted a detailed policy analysis of the issue in 2007 titled, “The corporate Welfare State: How the Federal Government Subsidizes U.S. Businesses.

The report shows that despite all of the public pleas for the federal government to play a reduced role in private businesses, many Fortune 500 companies are using the federal government as their personal ATMs and have made no moves to get off of the dole.

Thats seems like a good start.

Seems like a good start to me too.

Best Quote Of The Day...so far!

In a .44 Magnum large-bore world, we have a Republican field composed of cap pistols.

Thanks to (and stolen from):   Burr Deming over at FU - FairAndUnbalanced.com

Income Inequality -- So What?

We hear a lot these days about income inequality, particularly with the OWS movement in the news, and spreading across the US and the world.  But, so what?  We also hear that the rich are getting richer because they earn it.  They are the engine that drives the economy.  They are the job creators.  They need to earn the big bucks otherwise there will be nothing to trickle down to the rest of us.

But what is the price we pay, as a society, for allowing this income inequality to exist and, in fact, grow at an alarming rate?

The Equality Trust takes a look at the impact of income and wealth inequality around the world.  Here are the highlights of their findings.

• People in more equal societies live longer, a smaller proportion of children die in infancy and self-rated health is better. 
• People in more equal societies are far less likely to experience mental illness.
• People in more equal societies are less likely to use illegal drugs.
• Children do better at school in more equal societies.
• Unequal societies are harsher, they imprison a higher proportion of people.
• Obesity is less common in more equal societies.
• There is more social mobility in more equal societies.
• Communities are more cohesive and people trust each other more in more equal societies.
• Homicide rates are lower and children experience less violence in more equal societies.
• Teenage motherhood is less common in more equal societies.
• Unicef measures of child well-being are better in more equal societies.
• Further economic growth will not improve our health or well-being. For a better quality of life we need greater income equality.
• More equal societies spend a higher proportion their income on overseas aid and perform better on the Global Peace Index.
• Inequality fuels status competition, individualism and consumerism. It makes it harder to gain public support for policies to reduce global warming.

So what does this all mean?  Applied to the United Kingdom (and I would assume similar results for the US), it means:

• Murder rates could halve
• Mental illness could reduce by two thirds
• Obesity could halve
• Imprisonment could reduce by 80%
• Teen births could reduce by 80%
• Levels of trust could increase by 85%     

Watch the video below for today's Inequality Report.



So, what world do you want to live in?

Medicare For All - Here Is What It Will Do For The Country

Medicare for All (Single Payer) Reform Would Be Major Stimulus for Economy with 2.6 Million New Jobs, $317 Billion in Business Revenue, $100 Billion in Wages. The number of jobs created by a single payer system, expanding and upgrading Medicare to cover everyone, parallels almost exactly the total job loss in 2008, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study.

 For those of you who do not want to read the report, here are the highlights in pictures.

Here are the highlights in words:

• Create 2,613,495 million new permanent good-paying jobs (slightly exceeding the number of jobs lost in 2008)
• Boost the economy with $317 billion in increased business and public revenues 
• Add $100 billion in employee compensation
• Infuse public budgets with $44 billion in new tax revenues 
• Adding all Americans to an expanded Medicare could be achieved for $63 billion beyond the current $2.1 trillion in direct healthcare spending. 
• The $63 billion is six times less than the federal bailout for CitiGroup, and less than half the federal bailout for AIG. 
• Solely expanding Medicare to cover the 47 million uninsured Americans (as of 2006 data on which the study is based) could be accomplished for $44 billion.

And republicans don't even want Obamacare which doesn't come close to doing this and provides a big handout in the form of millions of new victims policyholders to private insurance companies.