Where Do Those Tax Breaks Go?

Ya know what the talking point for giving tax breaks to the wealthiest two percent of our people is? The claim is that these are the folks that create jobs and they need these tax breaks to do it. So, is that true? Would these folks really use this trillion dollars plus to create new jobs? If that were true, I guess I'd grudgingly give it to them. Problem is, it isn't true. Look. If they make ten million a year, and they got an extra ten percent off on taxes, that amounted to, let's say two hundred thousand dollars for the sake of argument, what would they do with it? They could create half a dozen jobs, maybe. Question is, what would those six workers do? If this rich guy's company isn't making sales. If nobody is buying his products, would he really hire six more people? Would you? So, maybe he'd invest in Wall Street instead. How would that create more jobs? See, the big money in investing, isn't in loaning money to companies to expand, it's in betting those companies will fail. It's the part of Wall Street that caused the Great Recession, although they won't admit it. No my friends, there's no good reason to give a tax break to the rich, unless you're rich. So why are so many politicians demanding those tax breaks? Well, my guess is that either they're rich, or some rich people are buying them off.

Why Do Rich Get Richer, Poor Get Poorer?

Hey, what's going on? When's the last time you heard somebody say that taxes are too high? I mean besides just now? Probably within the last couple of days. So, why is everyone so worried about taxes? Well, of course, people have always felt taxes were too high. Probably even before there were taxes. Which was a very long time ago. So, is the answer to cut taxes? Even if it means fewer teachers? Fewer paved roads? Fewer police and firemen? Where do we say "Stop"? When is it OK to raise taxes? What parts of education can we do without? If we allow our transportation network to fall into disrepair and our educational institutions to fall behind the rest of the world, is it OK? To be sure, the wealthy will always be able to find someplace where their kids can get a good education, but how about yours? Can we afford to give tax breaks to the wealthiest one or two percent of our population as a trade-off for schools and roads and cops and all that? It's easy for me to say tax the rich. I'm not rich. But how about you? Do you mind if some rich guy gets a tax break while you pay more and get less? I'll bet I know how rich people feel about it.

What's A Republican?

Do you Remember Sen John McCain? The one who ran for president against Barack Obama? He's fallen on something like hard times. By that I mean he went from being an independent Republican maverick to conservative Republican who tows the mark, to now, a man in an uphill fight to hold his Arizona Senate seat, and clearly leaning towards Libertarianism. But if you think that's bad, you need to look at some other Republicans. Like Angel, the lady running for the Senate in Nevada and Mr Paul, running in Kentucky, both on the Republican ticket, both Libertarians. Both representing anything but sanity. Now don't get me wrong, the Democrats have their share of problems and problem people, but nothing like the Republicans. What happened to the Republican party? I used to be a Republican. But the GOP of today is nothing like the GOP of the past. They love to point to Ronald Reagan as though he's their idol, but they seem to be against most of what he stood for. They've changed. They seem to want to rewrite history to read like the current GOP manifesto. Think I'm wrong? Look at Texas. The State Board of Education has rewritten the history book of American history. They don't even mention slavery. They call it something like Three Product Trade, or something like that. Suggesting that slavery was just a good business practice, I guess. And that's just one of many. So what if Texas wants to teach it's students dumb things? Because they buy for the whole state instead of just one school district. The publishers choose their version for everyone. So your school may well be stuck with it. So, is it possible that the Republicans can win with these strategies? Do people really care so little about what happens to themselves? When will sane people take back the Republican Party?

For A Large Campaign Donation, I Can Guarntee---

Your Congress(s) at work. Here's how things work in our Congress. They want to pay for any bill they pass. An admirable trait. So when they needed to pay for bills for increases to school lunches and state's jobs, they turned to the Food Stamp program to pay for them. Now they could have funded these worthy pieces of legislation from things like farm subsidies, or even better, oil industry subsidies, but the thing is, these things bring votes. Now presumably food stamp recipients vote too, but not in the numbers provided by the suggested areas, and not to the influential legislators necessary to win the day. Here's the thing, if you can't bring either votes or large amounts of money to the legislators, the right legislators, you won't get the attention you want. Similarly, states are concerned because the pension funds they control for retired state workers and teachers is insufficient to cover the number of retired people and the high pensions owed. What's the answer? Who will pay to fill those needs? Here's a suggestion; Let the current workers pay or reduce the amount of the benefits. Heaven forbid. Well if not them, then who? If you guessed the taxpayer, you win the Kewpie Doll. Of course, it'll be well hidden in legislation. Sort of like a shell game.

The Rich Economics

A favorite editorialists, Steven Pearlstein in the Washington Post this morning, made some interesting points. He was writing about those 40 Billionaires who are giving half of their fortunes to charity. But the point he makes that really struck me is about the so called Trickle Down Theory. The thing is, it doesn't work anymore. He claims that at one time, in the past, it did work. The reason it worked is that those at the top, gave generously so that those in the middle and at the bottom had a chance to get to the top. That's no longer true. Folks at the top don't give as much as those in the middle or bottom. I'm speaking of percentages of income, or wealth. It's like the old Biblical parable of the poor widow who gave the two coins while the rich man made a big show of giving from his wealth. Making a big show is only helpful if it encourages other wealthy to give likewise. The thing is, if the wealthy don't give a great deal, then their wealth doesn't help the country or the society. They do have a responsibility to help others to become successful. If they don't give it away, then the government is justified in taxing it away. Now, I realize that nobody likes taxes. So maybe the rich should start supporting education and hospitals and a host of other things so that the government won't have to. The reason it's important for them to do so, is that the middle class in this country is disappearing. It's disappearing because the country is losing middle class jobs. They're being shipped overseas by companies owned by the rich who complain about the high price of labor. Of course, the complain about the low performance of foreign labor and the lost customers in this country. How come the folks who used to work for me don't buy my companies products any more? Probably sour grapes. Or maybe they don't make enough to pay for the products anymore, because flipping burgers doesn't allow for it in the budget.

Yes. I Was Born Straight Here.

What do Prop 8 Gay marriage and Article 14 babies have in common? Well first, what are those things anyway? Prop 8 was a vote by Californians to make Gay Marriages illegal and Article 14 of the Constitution, states that anyone born in the United States automatically has citizenship in the U.S. First, Prop 8 was struck down by a federal judge as unconstitutional. It'll go to the Supreme Court. Second, Some Social Conservatives, especially some Conservative politicians are trying to make some hay out of this by claiming that too many foreigners are sneaking into the U.S. to have a baby then returning home (or not) with a U.S. citizen child. They want to change the Constitution to read that a child born in this country is only a citizen if one of the parents is also a citizen. What these two things have in common is that they point out the intolerance of some people. For these folks, only certain people are good enough to be Americans. Presumably White Angelo-Saxons. Maybe even Protestants. Which would mean only WASPs need apply. And all of them must swear to be heterosexual. The odd part to all of this is that the same folks who demand these changes to the Constitution are the same ones who demand that we all defend the Constitution exactly as it is or risk being anti-American. If they got their way, then the next change they would demand might be to eliminate you from the list of acceptable candidates for American Citizenship. Then they might even want my hide. So, my friends, we need to fight this ignorance with the golden rule. It still works pretty well. DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU!

I Like Oil, You Like Oil, We Are The Friends Of Oil

Far be it from me to find fault with the Oil Industry. I mean, let's face it, Fossil Fuels are the elixirs of life. They are what made the internal combustion engine possible. They power our world. From the electric toothbrush you use after each meal, to the TV reality show you watch constantly to the SUV you drive to the store down the street, to the movie, to work, to the flight you take on your vacation to the City of Lights or the City of Sin or wherever you go. Yes children, fossil fuels are what our world is all about. And the best part is that it is an unending supply of energy. There's enough coal to pollute, I mean power our electric grid far into the future, and there's enough oil to supply our wander-lust as far, as well. And if supplies are interrupted there's always natural gas, anxiously waiting in the wings. But here's the best part. Fossil fuels are safe. There's never a fear of a mishap. Right? I mean, the single most feared word in the English language is "oops". You won't hear that kind if word bandied around the oil fields, or in coal mines or at gas drilling sites. Not in this day and age, no sirree. Ya know, if there were as many oops' used at a nuclear reactor as there is in any and all of the fossil fuel industry, we'd never have even discovered the atom.