Republicans are killing democracy

OK: I admit, that is a pretty strong statement in the title of this post. With the recent Supreme Court decision that treats corporations as individuals, moneyed interests will buy the future and buy the votes. It is so hard for me to believe that 48% of Republicans are Republican. Walk into any trailer park and I'll bet you will find significant majorities voting Republican. Why? I understand the top 2% of the Republican party voting Republican, but don't tea party folks realize that the Republican leadership wants to strip them of social security and their medicare benefits.

For you middle class Republicans, you have to realize that it is the Democrats that have fought for better lives for all citizens. The private sector has some great people providing jobs throughout this country (people of both parties), but in the end, every American needs to be worried about their future. Social Security and Medicare are easily fixed by raising taxes only slightly on the rich in this nation. Hell - During the Eisenhower administration, citizens making over $1 million per year were taxed at a 91% rate. World War II had to be paid for. All Obama is asking is for the wealthiest in our society to pay 39% instead of 36% of income (Clinton level taxation). Bush pushed the tax cuts for the middle class and the rich but this long ugly experiment simply has failed. Government needs to raise revenue just like any business. Our wars need to be paid for and with the wealthiest calling the shots, they need to pony up.

I would ask Republicans to join "Patriotic Millionaires For Fiscal Strength" and I would also urge everyone to read "Bush era tax cuts the largest contributor to the public debt."

I could never be more eloquent on this issue than a former Supreme Court Justice:

"We can have democracy..... or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both". Justice Louis D. Brandeis

With the current Republican intransigence, I ask you; are Republicans killing democracy?

tomtoak

Federal taxes are at their lowest point in decades

After filing my taxes for 2010, I noticed that my effective tax rate was just under 10%. This is about as low as it has ever been. Why all of the Tea Party angst? Republicans continue to keep screaming about taxes while they have no concept of economic reality. The reality I'm talking about is the need to raise revenue to pay for their ridiculous war in Iraq and the failings of the Bush administration to keep the economy on course. It's funny how Republicans never mentioned the deficit when Bush was President but they blast Obama daily for inheriting his mess.

There is a great web site that I happened upon the other day called; "VisualizingEconomics.com". In one article, the top marginal tax rates from 1916 to 2010 are charted. Categories of taxation on the chart include income tax, corporate tax and capital gains for the period. Just look at the picture; a picture is worth a thousand words in this case. I'm still not sure that Republicans will get it as they are still tied to Reagan voodoo economics that has caused our massive Federal deficit.

I have a smaller problem with lowering the corporate tax rate from the current 35% to 25% as even Obama has suggested. The key here is to have 100% of U.S. corporations paying taxes, not the current 25%. Corporate lobbyists have done a great job making sure their interests avoid taxes. The middle class has no such luxury in this country.

So why all of the fuss about taxes? It's truly a ruse created by the Republican Party to win votes through radical propaganda. Barack only wants to turn the green line on the chart back to where it was during the Clinton administration. Remember, this is only being considered for those incomes that exceed $250,000 per year (35% to 39%). Please note that this rate was 91% during the Eisenhower administration and at 50% during the Reagan administration.

Republicans continue to say that America has spoken because of the 2010 election. I hate to clue them in but, Barack Obama won in 2008 by over 5 million votes and ran on this very concept. Barack stood in front of the American people and insisted that the top marginal tax rate needed to be where it was during the Clinton administration. Tea Party Republicans are simply wrong.

tomtoak

Public Pensions and the Fight Ahead

Governor Scott Walker, Republican ideologue from Wisconsin has done something that I did not think possible a few months ago. Walker has mobilized unions that will serve as counterweight to any Tea Party movement in this country. Governor Scott has ruined chances for Republican leadership in my estimation. Good for him; keep talking Scott Walker, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, you guys are the best thing to happen to the Democratic Party since Franklin Roosevelt had to step in and clean up the Republican mess left by ideologues like you. Remember Republicans; Democrats won 5 consecutive Presidential elections and they only lost because a moderate for all of the people stepped forward to rescue the ideological bankrupt Republican Party. Dwight was a guy for all of the people.

Walker's attempt to strip employee unions of power has nothing to do with the reality of state financial burdens. Everyone needs to read the current McClatchy Report; Why employee pensions aren't bankrupting states. This is a great report that underscores the true reason why Republicans are trying to gain political capital by scapegoating public employees and attacking their pensions.

In Rhode Island, our new Democratic Treasurer, Gina Raimondo has had the nerve to say that she believes that retirees may not own their pensions nor do state employees. Oh really: Who the hell do you think put the money into the fund? Employees put 8.75% of their income and school teachers put 9.5% into the system over their careers of 30+ years, and the state matches that whenever they feel like it (this is the problem), and now you say that system is taxpayer money? Gina Raimondo, you border on delusional and do not belong in a position to speak for the citizens of a free country! You will not get my vote next time around and never will get my vote unless you apologize to all of the hard working public employees across this state.

Governor Lincoln Chafee will be proposing steps to help secure the state's financial position tomorrow. One recommendation will be to increase state employee and teacher contributions to 11.5% for an interim period until a comprehensive pension overhaul can be achieved. Rhode Island employee contributions are already the highest in the Nation and now the move is to increase that by 2% for teachers and 2.75% for state employees?

At first I was really angry at the idea, then I realized it may well be brilliant. The Congress just reduced contributions to Social Security for workers and employers by 2%. This is something that Obama should never have agreed to do. Republicans will use this loss of revenue to argue for privatization of social security. Chafee's plan will result in little change in take home income for public employees that pay into state retirement as well as social security. Money that formerly was going to the Federal Government will now accrue towards the state's retirement plan.

Union workers do not want their pensions decreased. My guess is that most union workers will see this as a step toward fully funding the promises. I must admit though, until the state of Rhode Island taxes all of the yachts in Narragansett Bay, I find it hard to take money away from the hard working middle class.

One last comment that I have already made a half dozen times before in this blog. Donald Carcieri, our past ideologue governor attacked pensions and attacked public employees every day for eight years. Carcieri took 3000 state employees out of the system and yet his final budget proposal called for a 9% increase (from $7 billion to $7.8 billion). Employees are not the problem as salary, fringe and benefits of all employees account for 17% of the entire budget on an annual basis. Public employee pensions are not bankrupting the system. Republican privatization practices are bankrupting the system (more money to their friends).

tomtoak

The Mock Interview with a Tea-bagger!

Sorry for my absence! It seems like the United States is going to hell in a hand basket woven by the Republican Party. At any rate; through all the non-sense, I am intrigued by the misguided energy of the tea-baggers. I would love to interview a few and I think this is how the conversation would go.

Tomtoak: Mr. Tea-bagger, could I ask you why you call yourselves the Tea Bag Party?
Mr. Tea-Bagger: Didn't you ever hear of the Boston Tea Party? We're a tax protest just like the Boston Tea Party.
Tomtoak: Mr. Tea-bagger, the Boston Tea Party was about taxation without representation. I don't see a parellel. Barack Obama won the election by 6 million votes and won in many traditional Republican states. You have representation - you lost.
Mr. Tea-bagger: So what! I want my taxes lowered.
Tomtoak: Well Mr. Tea-bagger, are you aware that President Obama has lowered taxes on 95% of the citizens as he promised during his campaign?
Mr. Tea-bagger: He's a Muslim. This country is going to hell and we're headed for financial ruin and Obama is to blame.
Tomtoak: Mr. Tea-bagger, did you forget that this country was headed for another depression unless drastic steps were taken to calm the financial markets and do you realize that the Dow Jones average has improved by almost 4,000 points since Obama took office? Do you realize that this significantly improves every one's financial situation?
Mr. Tea-bagger: Obama is like Hitler, he's leading us down the path to socialism and no good can come from him!
Tomtoak: Do you realize Mr. Tea-bagger that the rest of the world has been quite impressed with our last election and U.S. foreign policy is far stronger because of Obama's leadership. Obama even won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Mr. Tea-bagger: Ya, if that is so great, why is he getting our boys killed in Afghanistan and he hasn't done nothin yet!
Tomtoak: Mr. Tea-bagger, I admit that even liberals don't like the war, but lets be fair; President Obama promised action in Afghanistan all through the election as this country's primary target must be the al Qaeda network; and haven't you noticed that there has been far better cooperation from Pakistan in seeking to bring these terrorists to justice? Did you not read about the recent disarmament talks with Russia and the treaty that will lead to a verifiable reduction in nuclear warheads between the 2 countries?
Mr. Tea-bagger: Are you trying to insult me? I can read; you're trying to knock Sarah Palin aren't you.
Tomtoak: Me, knock Sarah Palin; no, she does not need help from me to look like a fool, she is capable of doing that all by herself and constantly, I might add.
Mr. Tea-bagger: Obama has done nothing about growing jobs in this country and we need the Republicans to straighten out this mess.
Tomtoak: You know Mr. Tea-bagger, this is one topic that truly confuses me. I've heard all of the Republican leadership say that "Government never created one job", and now, the Republicans want to focus on jobs. Why don't they just tell the private sector to go create jobs and keep the government out of it?
Mr. Tea-bagger: It's all about taxes; cut taxes and there will be plenty of jobs.
Tomtoak: Mr. Tea-bagger, are you taxed when Exxon-Mobil raises the price of a gallon of gas from $2.50 to $4.50 in a matter of weeks? You see, insurance companies and businesses that approach monopolies in this country can tax us at will. I guess that is OK with you!
Mr. Tea-bagger: And that's another thing, I don't want to pay for the health insurance of a bunch of illegals and Obama is making us all pay.
Tomtoak: You have been paying all along my friend. Health care legislation protects you against the whims of the insurance industry and outlines a process by which everyone can assume responsibility over their health care (A Republican idea I must say). It's not the solution I wanted, but progressives need to be willing to compromise.
Mr. Tea-bagger: Compromise nothin!!! Obama is not even American. We need to take back this country!!!!
Tomtoak: Take back this country from whom? From Me? I'm an American and I'm very proud of this country. When one person determined who our 43rd President would be after he lost the popular vote by 500,000 votes, I was devastated. I did not go around this country claiming that George Bush was a Nazi. I suggest that you thank God we have an intelligent leader that cares about our future and that is capable of doing more in 15 months than George Bush accomplished in his entire life.
Mr. Tea-bagger: We'll see about that! Sarah Palin will beat that n_____!
Tomtoak: Oh; and I'm sure that race has nothing to do with this. Keep the faith Barack!