A lot of people are unhappy that the president punted on first down, and I'm one of them. Extending the excessive Bush tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires will explode our deficit over the next two years without doing anything to help our economy. I think it's simply bad policy.
But for Minnesota's middle class, struggling to get by in a tough economy, there's a lot in this bill that will really help: tax cuts for working families, a payroll tax holiday, energy tax credits, and the extension of Recovery Act initiatives that are already making a difference.
And for the Minnesotans truly suffering right now -- men, women, and children on the edge of economic disaster -- the alternative is simply unacceptable. If we let Republicans block unemployment benefits, even temporarily, there will be a lot more pain for working families, a lot more homeless kids spending Christmas in a shelter or a car.
If this is the prelude of a permanent extension of the Bush tax breaks for the super-wealthy, we're in big trouble. We'll lose our ability to make the investments we need to grow our way out of long-term budget deficits: education, infrastructure, and research and development. And I am taking the president at his word that he will fight harder to put an end to these wasteful tax breaks in 2012 than he did in 2010.
This isn't a great deal by any stretch of the imagination. But I got into this line of work because I wanted to stand up for Minnesota families trying to put food on the table and build a better life for their kids. And, for them, the only thing worse than a bad deal would be no deal at all. That's why I voted yes yesterday -- and why I will continue my fight for economic policies that create jobs, address our deficit problem, and build new opportunities for Minnesota.
While there are some threads of truth to your writing, some thoughts for consideration.
1. You could take EVERY DOLLAR from the wealthy, and it could not possibly keep up with Washington's insatiable appetite for spending. D's and R's are both concerned about your level of comfort spending money you don't have. Particularly when government employees make roughly twice what private employees make (source: CBS... not Fox).
2. Many of these 'rich' folks you want to tax are rich only on paper. A family farm valued by government assessors at $10m. Farmer dies and you would like his kids to pony-up $Xmil in estate taxes. Gotta sell the family farm (or chain of hardware stores or whatever). Doesn't seem right. The farmer doesn't control property values. There are no 'perfect' answers, but it would be nice to hear you talk about the problems that such taxes create for folks that 'look' rich... but are not. It would show you 'understand' the issue.
3. The wealthy don't bury their money. They invest it, spend it, save it. What makes you think that DC is better at spending their money than they are? They aren't the ones who are in debt. Washington is. Your credibility is lacking. The dollar is strongest when it's moving through the economy... not the treasury.
Enough of the demonizing. It's not helpful. Most R's that I know are very willing to help those in need via extending unemployment or whatever.
1. It is unfair to make one man pay for another man's food and shelter.
2. If is unfair to overcharge one man for his products and services relative to other men.
3. Inheritance is not illegal, unjust or unfair. A gift is a posession, not an unfair advantage.
4. Not having to work at a job in order to exist is not illegal, dishonest, evil, unjust or unfair. If it were, then grandmas and babies would be fair targets.
5. Everyone has the opportunity to earn money. The capitalist game is freely available to all. Score more points in that game. If you can't, then study and learn how.
6. Being jealous of rich people is not a smart way to look at the world, and will not solve pverty or lead to riches.
7. If poor people can't earn, multiply or manage money very well, then giving them more money is foolish.
8. Stealing from the wealthy will not solve the problem of the poor lacking money acquisition and management skills.
9. The capitalist game is a game against yourself. If one man makes $1 million, it does not penalize another man that makes only $10,000.
2. Makes no sense.
3. It is also not a right. We are one from many, not many from one.
4. Reductio ad absurdum.
5. False premise. Many poor people manage their paltry finances far better than many rich people or corporations do.
6. False premise. "Jealous" is made out of whole cloth.
7. Ignorant.
8. False premise. Taxes are not stealing. "Stealing from the wealthy" also won't solve the problem of my eczema. So what is your real point. Wait! Don't bother.
9. The premise makes no sense. Neither does the explication.
Your entire post ignores the real truth; Poor people spend very little time learning to earn. Instead, they rely on their liberal politicians that try to feed them by taking from the educated, high earning, high achievers.
1- they are the Obama tax cuts now
2- this went in when the Democrats still had control of congress, not the Republicans, as John Stewart quipped "During the Bush terms the Republican's never had a super majority and did anything they wanted, the Dems have a super majority and can't pass anything"
3- they should all be ashamed of themselves.
For those here who thought Obama should have called the GOP's bluff.....I wouldn't have bet on the GOP doing the right thing for the father whose unemployment checks ran out and is facing eviction in the dead of winter.
The GOP can't be trusted to do the right thing for middle America. That's why we need the democratic party to keep fighting and do what can be done in spite of the overwhelming opposition from media, corporate lobbyists, and now the courts.
Yep. The corporate giveaway continues and services for the poor and poorer are cut or eliminated.
Only in America.
A small business man I know has components built in China for 6 bucks each including shipping. Best deal he got in the US was over 70 bucks.
Predatory?!? Always was, always will be. Build yourself the skills YOU need to succeed.
If Congressional Dems could have done this, then mustered the discipline to filibuster an extension two years later, it would leave the country in far better shape.
But progressives, as with so many other issues, haven't criticized the substance of the admin's plan, just the failure to pass it. We're trying to argue that people making 200K were somehow middle class. Seriously? Obama first surrendered the narrative on middle class tax cuts, instead of rebutting it. He then surrendered the entire narrative on tax cuts (though the deal was necessary). But instead of defending a payroll tax holiday on the basis that it hits the middle class the hardest, progressives instead worry about a tax on Social Security. In other words, we're refusing to defend the most basic fact about the system; that its fiscally sound.
Stop trying to play nice with the GOP. Stop wasting political capital on bad solutions.
Our nation is doomed if such bribery of the wealthiest int'l bankers in the world is required to retain the almighty dollar as the world's reserve currency.
In any case, don't come looking for cuts in spending on anything other than Defense or Wall Street for tax increases. That's where the "austerity" should be spread around....not on Main Street. (Putting 147 bankers in jail for 18 month stints at Fed camps won't cut it, Al. That PR already left the building stinking. The rot left when they used a big TARP to cover their bets - but the stench lives on.)
What about inflation, Al? That miasma cuts across all classes like the most regressive tax rates of all. What a scam and a swindle you've gotten yourself into, huh?
“Whatever your status, if you work for a living, your standard of living is falling or will do so in the up coming years.”
“recessions do end. But when that day comes, your standard of living-over the long term-will continue to decline”
“…people in Washington who write the complex tangle of rules by which the economy operates have, over the last 20 years, rigged the game-by design.” “Seizing the opportunity, an army of business buccaneers began buying, selling and trading companies. They borrowed money to destroy, not to build. They constructed a financial house of cards.”
“As a result, the already rich are richer than ever; life for the working class is deteriorating.”
“They have placed homeownership and college education out of reach”
Now, all of this shrill gloom could have easily been written today. It was all written about 20 years ago in the Philadelphia Inquirer and put together in a book called “America: What Went Wrong?” Notice anything about the words then and now?-quite similar, eh.
The authors obviously got it wrong-just about as wrong as you can get it. Obviously, the 90s happened, the most successful and longest lasting era of prosperity in American history.
"Extend 20,000.00 in credit with 0% APR to anyone and their brother, then bring in the stores, new car lots covering thousands of acres,building gorgeous homes and tell them "even you can live here." As the money flow from credit that never should have been extended takes place, jobs are created. Lifestyles improve with this new "superficial" economy. And then, pull the rug out from under them. Policies and procedures have led the American consumer right off the freaking cliff. It's highway robbery and the rich benefitted more than anyone, and in fact, bet on the collapse, counted on it to happen, invested in it happening, and relished the event. The rich at the top of this pyramid are bandits and no less. The politicians who allowed this to happen should not be permitted to sit on the City Council of their home town. Unions - If it were not for unions, we'd be watching slave labor take place. Regulation for unions and regulations for corporations and the financial industry is the only answer because it is quite obviously that without regulation, the sharks and pyrrhias reach the top and pay everyone off to look the other way. If you think this country is in the pocket of China for any other reason that deregulation you are sadly mistaken. It's a heist, a money grab and it was a well thought through event which allowed a handful of individuals to end up filthy stinking rich.
"
To regain composure let me suggest a weaker, but still smart way forward. Certainly it would not in any way increase the deficit to reimburse private employers who hired the unemployed by paying those employers the $300/week unemployment insurance they would be saving the government and paying those employers the income taxes those hired employees are now able to pay the government thanks only to the fact of those private employers' act of hiring. Some more milk for Washington to spill ?
America produces bankers and bubbles for the entire world...