Tag Archives: taxes

Politics

One last thing for today…

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Well…I don’t know what happened to my brain over the last couple of days but I have been able to work up some outrage and this one is just a jaw dropping example of the world as the repubs see it….over the last year, 25 individual hedge fund managers made over 26 billion dollars in income…yep, that’s right folks, these thieves took an aver age of a billion dollars home each…with the top guy making 4.9 billion dollars…and since they bought themselves a law from the repubs back when ole GW was running the whole show, they only pay 15% tax on that money; never mind that the secretaries that work at these funds and the janitors that clean up after them pay 25% of their pay in taxes. This is the repubs idea of fairness? How many jobs did this 26 billion create? Not one…yep, not one….

Where are the jobs, Boehner? Where are the jobs, Cantor? Where are the jobs, Snyder?

I do also want to take on the myth that the the low tax policies of gov Perry of Texas are the cause for job growth there…I have to laugh at that nonsense since almost all of the jobs are a result of the runup of oil prices and profits, so the rest of us are paying taxes in the form of higher prices that are subsidizing job growth in Texas…what are the repubs going to claim next as a result of their anti American agenda? That the oil in the ground in Texas is there because the repubs gave the rich more tax cuts? I think their crazy is starting to rot this country…geez….

Politics

Didn’t get to it….

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Well…I was going to lie out in the sun for a while but it was just too hot to do it comfortably so I took a pass….looks like I’ll have to live with the weird looking tan for another day….I did want to get to the Michigan tax thing….I saw an analysis the other day that really describes what the “shared sacrifice” that our gov and the rest of the repubs here are trying to sell. Under the new plan, and with the deletion of the homestead tax credit for the middle class…a retiree making around 50K a year in retirement benefits will pay more than 3,000 dollars a year more in taxes…taking almost 8% additional from that meager amount. But, people making over 250K per year that are still working will pay less than that in their tax increase. Now, does that sound fair to anyone? Does that sound like shared sacrifice. Nope, it didn’t to me either….I have only one more comment….where are the jobs from the 2 billion dollars you just gave away to business? There are none….but ceo pay just went up again and I am pissed about having to pay for a raise for someone making millions a year….

Politics

Thoughts, thoughts, and more thoughts…

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Well….I haven’t been able to make a coherent long-form thought in a couple of days so I think I’ll just go with it and write what I like to call short stories…pretty original, huh? Starting with the headline in the USA Today that states that American taxpayers are paying less in taxes than they have in any year since 1958…yep, so when you hear the repubs say that taxes are still too high and want to cut them more for the well off, remember that if we went back to the tax rates of the booming 1990′s, the deficit would be cut by more than a third without cutting the aid to college students, seniors, and the rest of the middle class that the repubs are saying is absolutely necessary. Remember, too, that it has never been shown that tax cuts for the rich and business do anything but make them richer…no jobs created, no benefit to those who are struggling.

Another one that got a rise out of me was an editorial in the Detroit News that did nothing but denigrate the people in localities around Detroit for approving millages to continue to pay their firefighters, police, and to maintain the services that make their communities more livable. The News goes on to assert that the voters in those localities are stupid for raising their own taxes instead of buying into the draconian cuts that gov Snyder is jamming down the throats of the rest of Michigan. Where the hell does the News get off telling the voters how to vote? I see this as just a huge snit by the News since they blindly think Snyder is the savior of Michigan and that only his ideas are worthy of action….and they are so irritated that the elected officials of those communities have decided not to attack their neighbors and buy into the bogus attempts that the repubs are making at playing the middle class off against each other. What’s next Snyder? Are you going to take over those communities that voted to raise taxes and appoint emergency managers since they are obviously crazy to not drink your repub kool-aid? I guess the Snyder honeymoon is over…can’t wait for 2012 when we can say goodbye to these idiots…geez…okay, only two thoughts so the title is not accurate….maybe there are more than one thought in each one?

Okay, let’s make it three….another report that came out today saying that the compensation for CEO’s is higher than it has ever been as compared to normal workers and has completely recovered from the blip of a downturn it took last year…I don’t have to tell you what that means…okay, I will anyway….these guys were not touched at all by the recession that decimated the rest of the nation….great work if you can get it…geez…

Politics

Maybe not….

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Well….I have been thinking about my idea of proposing solutions to Michigan’s problems and it’s much harder than just bitching…so I’m not sure how long it’s going to take to get something that makes sense….one thing I would like to see is a progressive income tax here…one thing that the repubs don’t want you to know is the fact that even with tax rates that were twice what they are now, we had huge periods of growth and job creation…along with balanced budgets. During that time, the interstate road system was built, good schools were everywhere, and there were possibilities that we could be better. Where are we now? Tax rates are lower than they have been in 50 years and there is still no job creation…so when the repubs say they want more of the same, my jaw drops with the stupidity of that stance.

Okay…I promised, so I’ll change tack here….I heard a news show on MSNBC today and I just about lost my lunch…these people were bitching that ceo’s are being hurt by the recession, too…with the admonition that we shouldn’t pick on them since they were taking a hit along with the rest of us….yep, I couldn’t believe it either….these poor guys are only making 800 times what their workers make…down from 900 times….I’m going to cry a tear for them and their hard times…geez…

One last thing….there may be a budding revolt going on in the repub ranks here in Michigan over the draconian cuts in school funding while giving all that money to business in the form of tax cuts….yay…

Politics

Forget the b.s on corporate taxation….

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Well…to hear the repubs talk, the reason there are no jobs being created here in the US is the “fact” that corporate taxes are too high and this taxation is driving companies overseas. Really? they are still saying this after the news that came out about G.E. yesterday? In case you didn’t hear, one of our largest corporations, General Electric, paid no taxes last year…yep, you’ve got it, the company that is being held up as the shining example of success here figured out a way to not pay any taxes…but more than that they figured out how to steal 3.2 billion dollars of your and my money in the form of a tax refund…and that figures to a negative 60% tax rate. Where is your overtaxation now repubs? The second fact that these tax cutters don’t want you to know is that over 60% of American corporations paid little or no taxes last year. When was the last time you or I paid little or no taxes? These guys should be ashamed of taking advantage of the infrastructure that you and I pay for to make obscene profits and then twisting the knife by taking food out of the mouths of our poor. How many people could be fed with the 3.2 billion dollars that G.E. didn’t deserve? Geez….

Politics

Okay….

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Well…out the bike, I had an idea that ended up being way too depressing…the title was going to be “what happens when your dreams are gone?” but that’s way too depressing even for me..so let’s go another direction. You know I’ve been severely critical of our gov Snyder and his plans to raise taxes on everyone but corporations….and I may have been a little too strident but that reaction comes from my long experience following politics and the fact that since Reagan, there has been a notable bias by the repubs against the middle class. Can a leopard change it’s spots? So, I think I’ll take it easy for a couple of days and try to regain my perspective…and I’ve always said that I don’t mind paying taxes since it is one of the responsibilities of any society; I just don’t like it when corporations get to freeload on the infrastructure you and I pay for. It would be nice to have an I-94 that didn’t destroy you car when you use it and schools that aren’t crumbling. That brings me to the one last thing…when did teachers become the devil? The way the right is foaming at the mouth about them, you would think they stole the candy from the mouths of babies and kicked puppies. I for one, have always looked up to good teachers and I don’t I don’t understand whey they are always considered overpaid when a ceo or hedge fund manager makes a thousand times more than their average. Just a question…don’t expect an answer…

Politics

The hypocrisy disease has spread to Michigan…

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Well…I hope you got the chance to read some of the news coming out of Michigan today…Gov Rick Snyder unveiled one of the primary ways he proposes to balance the budget here…and guess whose backs that one is going to be carried on? While proposing the repubs cut taxes on corporations here, his new proposal raises taxes on every retired person in Michigan by raising taxes on pensions, IRA’s, and Social Security. Nope, I’m not making this up folks, the tax cuts for the rich party, who blew a gasket when Granholm proposed higher taxes as a part of the deficit solution, now propose that people that worked their whole lives to get their meager pensions subsidize business by paying more taxes. And, that is exactly what this is, you and I and the rest of us workers are being asked to build better roads, utilities, and other infrastructure for business to take advantage of while they get to retain more of the highest profits in the history of the world as they continue to send jobs overseas and ask for more, and more, and more, concessions from you and I. Where is the outcry from the right who constantly spew that taxes are too high and who sabotaged the Granholm administration for 8 years ensuring we’d end up with an untenable financial position?

I hope this bunch of hypocrites are seen for what they truly are, lying shills for business who will be taken care of by business when they leave…..to make millions from the companies they have just rewarded…geez…

Politics

How can one guy be wrong all of the time?

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Well…I do hate to pick on one person all of the time..no that’s not true, I love to call out the idiocies and inconsistencies on both the right and left…but if you’ve been here before, you’ve noticed I do tend to to go after those on the right more…but I should because they are the ones that have taken idiocy to a new level that I could not have imagined a few years ago. This morning I was reading the Detroit News again (I know, why should I keep reading that right wing rag?) and our boy Nolan Finley is at it again…taking the president to task for going to the chamber and asking them to take part in the recovery by hiring. Well..old Nolan goes on either to lie, or to show his ignorance of economic reporting saying that companies are not going to hire until they are profitable when, as you and I and almost everyone else in the US knows, retained corporate profits are at their highest level in the history of the world. He goes on to assert that they are not hiring because of the repub talking point about uncertainty keeping business from being able to plan and know what their costs are going to be down the road. Nolan, Nolan, Nolan….the only uncertainty that business cares about it whether or not the billions they spent buying a republican house is going to give them free reign to steal more from the pockets of workers. You guys have created the uncertainty about the healthcare law….spending almost all of your time since the new congress started trying to repeal the law when you know it won’t happen and snowing your business buddies that the money they gave you is going to get them something; all the while collaborating with them to keep from hiring to make sure you have a new talking point.

But that’s not the worst of it….here in Michigan the earned income tax credit for lower income folks is being eliminated while business is given a huge tax cut…this is a tax increase no matter how the right tries to spin it…and these guys are held up as fiscally responsible when any time the previous governor asked for more taxes to help cut the deficit she was tarred as a tax and spend liberal. I guess it’s okay if you raise taxes on those that have no money, power or lobbyists…another example of the hypocrites that reside in the modern repub party….geez…

Misc

Aren’t you tired of being held hostage?

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Well…I have been thinking about this one ever since a new governor was elected here in Michigan and one of his first acts was to propose changing the business tax structure to give corporations a huge tax cut carried on the backs of the workers who will be forced to take pay and benefit cuts to pay for them….these cuts for business would worsen our deficit here by 100% and be another huge transfer of wealth from you and I to the rich…again. The reason for these changes, along with the repub bowing to business interests, are the threats by corporations to move out of the state if they don’t get what they paid for when they gave the money to elect repubs to take control of all of Michigan’s government. The same thing is happening in Illinois, when the legislature there voted to raise taxes (from 4.8 to 6 percent) to deal with one of the most severe budget crises that any state faces and businesses have started those same old tired threats….never mind that most corporations have many ways to avoid taxes that you and I don’t…these ungrateful thieves have started to pout and want to take their ball and go home. I say, good riddance….these guys want all of the rights of citizens (that they were granted in the Citizens United decision) but they want nothing to do with the responsibilities. When was the last time you were given free land to build a house or had your taxes eliminated to keep you living where you do? I’ve had enough of the competition to make our workers into third world laborers who can never make enough money to live a middle class life while corporations and their political lapdogs rake in all of the benefits of those labors.

We need to start a new movement where there is a price to pay for selfish corporate behavior…let’s find out who these creeps are and just stop buying from them…it’s been too long that corporations have been able to do whatever they want and hold the rest of us hostage to their whims….it will never stop unless we do….geez….

Misc

I agree with Thomas Jefferson…

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Well…watched a great program on the History Channel over the weekend about Thomas Jefferson and one of the things that struck me was his thoughts that one of the great dangers to the republic in his times ( and I feel current times) was inequality in the society. He was concerned about the concentration of political and economic power in the few, relating it to the structure in England where wealth and power were expectations of the elites; and not earned by any effort of that class.

I see the same thing happening in our society right now, where the watchword of the rich and powerful is “I’ve got mine, the hell with everyone else” and is distilled in the fight to keep tax cuts for the rich all the while telling the rest of the country they have to tighten their belts, that they have to sacrifice because the rich deserve the rest of us borrowing $700 billion dollars to give to them. I marvel at the sense of entitlement that has developed with these folks exemplified by the Koch brothers who are bankrolling the Tea Party, and who revolt at paying their fair share of taxes but have no problem spending hundreds of millions of dollars to extend their privilege while trying to destroy what is left of the social safety net for the rest of us. I’m tired of hearing millionaires whining that they are not rich, that the expenses of their lifestyles make it impossible for them to pay one more dime in taxes, that they would have to give up one of the summer houses and send their children on one less European vacation, and they would have to keep the Mercedes for an extra year. I see this new royalty and their sense of entitlement as a repugnant distortion of the American dream that is much more dangerous than any terrorist threat could be..geez…