Well….I was going to append this one to the last one but the more I thought about it, the more I felt that it deserved its own even though this one will be short…..does anyone else smell a rat with the precipitous drop in new private sector jobs last month? I think there was just too much good news coming out of the labor market, which would undoubtedly help Obama in the general election…so what do the friends of the repubs do that run most of the business in the US? They take one for the team and stop hiring to support the repub line that the economy still stinks and Obama should not be reelected. I normally don’t really support conspiracy theories, but the repubs are well known for rewarding businesses that give them money and support the party line (think Halliburton) and I would not put it past them that they are using all of the coercion and reward that they can to win the election…and those in business that will benefit the most from a repub president are all too happy to comply by hurting the economy and the middle class for their personal gain…geez…
Tag Archives: business
More thoughts….
Well..this one came to mind with just a tiny little article in one of the newspapers I read every morning that passed on the fact that taxes, for both individuals and business, are at their lowest level in more than 60 years. If you’ve been here before, you heard me talk about this topic, but not in this context….the context of Obama going to the Chamber of Commerce and promising them lower taxes and less regulation if they will just start to hire more people with the over 2 trillion dollars in retained profits that they now hold; a figure that is higher than any time in recorded history. How did they make so much profit if their taxes are too high? My question is, “who pays for the infrastructure, education of the workforce, and other things necessary for business to thrive if they don’t pay their fair share of the tax burden? Guess who? You and me….
I understand that this trip to the Chamber was a political calculation to look like there was no stone unturned in creating jobs, but to go to these thieves with his hat in his hand and say “pretty please” to get them do do the right thing for the country that made them successful is just wrong…business owes it to the people of America who bought the roads they use to transport their goods, who bought the education that gives them good workers, who bought the military that protects them every day, and who gave them the profits they so jealously hoard….to dismiss this debt while passing responsibility on to individual Americans is morally reprehensible…geez…
Why not here?
Well…in reading all of the press about the events in Egypt, one thought just came to me…these people are protesting the theftocracy that has been running their country for the last 50 years and the media is all gung-ho about covering it…but, the question that immediately popped into my head was “why not here?” When it has been determined that it is noble to fight against the entrenched power and the cronyism that has stolen so much from the Egyptians, I see a parallel to what is going on in the US right now and the media just ignores it; and our politicians call it capitalism. The rich, connected and business are doing exactly the same thing here that has gone on in Egypt for the past 50 years…maybe in a more subtle way….if it is so noble for the Egyptians to fight, why are we that fight for the same thing here in the US called socialists, communists, or worse…un-American? Is it different here that the wholly owned subsidiary of business, the Republican Party, works every day to take away from the middle class and give more to the rich and business when the ruling party in Egypt does the same thing? Show me the difference between Egypt and us.
We need our own Tahrir Square where business and the thieves that run them are called out, where the workers that built this country are given the voice that has been silenced by money and power…until that time we are just a more developed Egypt…waiting for the smoldering embers to become a flame…geez….
Molly Ivins was right…
Well…started reading the book ‘Bushwhacked” by Molly Ivins, the late columnist for the New York Times and all I can say is my depression has returned with the realization that she was right…not just about the “Shrub”, but about how business has bought this country…from the Supreme Court down through the state legislatures. The book is nominally about ole GW, but I see it as more an example of how pernicious the effect of money is in our election process, but not only that, it is a succinct indictment of the power that business wields in out society. And now I see that some of you that voted for Obama and change away from the wholesale theft of America, are leaning toward voting for the crooks that are rigging the game against you…that are using the secret money that is flowing into the repubs hands to steal this election. I now see this fight as one where we won a round in 2008, where we started to take the country back from the rampant business interests, but it was only one round…we need to be in this fight for the entire bout, until we can take the thumb of business off the scale and run this country for “we the people” again. But, we can’t do it if you fall for the lies of the right and big business…it is not better to have 50 million Americans without health insurance, it is not better to continue to give tax breaks to companies that move our jobs overseas, it is not better to have our elections stolen by secret money that is buying the legislators they are supporting. It’s up to us….
I think this is going to be a serial as I get deeper into the book and try to connect things that have happened like Enron, Adephia, Harken Oil, and others, to what you can expect if you vote for these guys again.
I’m not surprised…
Well…as promised, I have to comment on the op-ed by Nolan Finley in the Detroit News today, in which he asserts that Obama is directing a “War on Business” since he wants to revise how corporations are taxed and regulated, and how trade is conducted. And the only evidence this guy presents is a “report” that was cooked up by some group called the Business Roundtable as a response to the imagined slight they felt when they met with Obama and he didn’t roll over and give them everything they wanted a la the Bushies. He then goes on to cite 5 areas that the righties and their business cronies are so concerned about: taxes (go figure), financial regulation, trade, energy, and healthcare. I think I’ll respond in that same format; paraphrasing his words and then giving my response.
Taxes. His take..we should cut corporate taxes so they will invest more here since we have a higher corporate tax rate than other countries. Mine…you have got to be kidding me….we may have a tax rate that is higher but look at the actual taxes paid and you see a different story since the repubs built in so many loopholes that only a company with a really stupid accounting firm pays their full tax bill. Disingenious Nolan.
Financial Regulation. His take…we re-regulate the financial industry since it will cost companies 5-6 billion dollars and maybe 120K jobs. Mine…ha, ha, ha, ha….again, and you have got to be kidding me! Not regulate the guys that cost the economy 8 million jobs and trillions of dollars? Just because it may cost them some money and we may lose some financial industry parasites? Take a look at Canada and what has happened there since they were NOT taken in by the calls for deregulation of their financial industry….much less losses in both jobs and money. Read a little about your neighbors across the river, Nolan.
Trade. His…we need more agreements like Nafta or we will lose jobs to our competitors. Mine….I can’t even laugh about this anymore. Nafta started the wholesale loss of jobs in this country and now he wants more of the same? Just so his business buddies can ship more jobs to low wage countries like China who then use currency and tariff manipulation to ensure we can’t sell to them?
Energy and environment. His take…limits on carbon emissions that are proposed will send business elsewhere. Mine…these are proposed regulations that are in the talking stages but the same thing was said when the first smog regulations were put into place for cars and when the first CAFE standards for fuel mileage were imposed. That worked out pretty well…for both business and regular people.
Health care. His take (or I should say business’s take) is that the new regs will cause uncertainty and change. Mine…I sure hope so..try being a 56 year old who needs to buy health insurance…you can’t unless you want to pay 1,200 to 2,000 dollars a month.
He then finishes with the Republican talking point that we need to do something about the deficit; well, where the hell were you, Nolan, when your repub buddies were taking the surplus Bush was given and then starting two wars you didn’t pay for using accounting tricks and then rewarding the rich for being rich with those massive tax cuts that did nothing for the economy? If you are so concerned about deficits, then you will support letting the Bush tax cuts expire. Do you even realize that what your are proposing (cutting spending during a recession/depression) was tried in the 30′s? Didn’t work then.
You seem to think that we all need to do what rep Joe Barton did last week: apologize to business and ask “pretty please” will you let us help you make obscene profits while telling the American middle class to go to hell. Geez….