From Personal Libert Digest:
The Makeover Is Almost Complete
March 7, 2011 by Bob Livingston
There will be wailing, weeping and teeth gnashing in Washington, D.C., in the coming weeks as the elected elites in Congress posture and moan about potentially cutting Federal spending.
Republicans will puff themselves up, declaring they are doing the will of those who went to the polls in November, 2010. “Look at us,” they’ll say. “We’ve made drastic cuts and are on the way to fiscal sanity.”
Democrats will cry foul. “You’re hurting old people, starving children, giving tax breaks to the wealthy, you evil Republicans,” Democrats will say. “How can you be so mean… so heartless?”
It’s all a fraud and a ruse for public consumption. No significant cuts will be made. In the end, nothing will change.
Weeper of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) has already surrendered on his insignificant cuts, negotiating himself down from $100 billion to $61 billion — out of a $3.6 trillion budget. Boehner’s retreat has sparked calls for his head by one Tea Party group.
The reality is Republican elected elites have no more interest in cutting Federal spending than Democrat elected elites. They made this plain when they promised pre-election to cut back to George W. Bush spending levels and cooed about how smart they were.
That’s not good enough for much — if not most — of the Republican-leaning electorate. They’re the middle class; the folks that bear the bulk of the nation’s tax burden, and will bear even more, if the elites have their way.
The middle class — tired of supporting the parasite class that makes up about 50 percent of the population, tired of bailing out “too big to fail” institutions and tired of an elected class that enriches itself off government — has sent a message that government is bloated… that it doesn’t work… that it needs to be reformed. They’ve shouted the message loudly, but the elected elites don’t take them seriously.
The middle class is being destroyed. When Federal, State and local taxes are added together more than half of the middle class worker’s paycheck goes to satisfy the government leviathan.
It’s almost impossible for a family to survive on one income, so both spouses have to go to work and farm the kid-raising duties off on a stranger at a daycare. But often that’s not enough and the husband or wife has to have a second job — and a greater tax burden.
Food prices rise. Oil prices rise. Making ends meet becomes a fantasy. Credit cards are tapped to keep up. Home equity lines are tapped to keep up, and the debt piles on.
But the elected elites aren’t concerned with the plight of the middle class. They cater to their corporate masters, to unions and to bureaucracies.
Federal subsidies go to foreign governments and foreign banks. Money goes to prop up dictators in foreign lands. Special tax breaks and subsidies go to large corporate farms and large corporations — perks that small farms and businesses don’t get. Bailouts and stimulus programs have finalized the transition of America from a free-market economy into a fascist corporatocracy. Sweetheart deals are made in back rooms and corporate CEOs get cushy appointments in the administration and companies rake in trillions of dollars in government contracts.
The appetite of the military-industrial complex continues to be sated with the blood of American service men and women and fiat money printed by the Federal Reserve. Overburdensome regulations and perplexing tax laws stifle innovation, create stumbling blocks for entrepreneurs and encourage businesses to take their jobs overseas.
As Republicans preach austerity they are nickel and diming us. They pick a little here and little there but make no move to eliminate unnecessary, unConstitutional and harmful government programs and agencies. They don’t mention cuts in corporate welfare. They don’t mention drawing down the war machine, paring back military bases and reducing empire America.
And President Barack Obama tries to pile on more socialistic, central planning-style spending programs while promising to cut government spending. It’s all doublespeak.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats have broached meaningful welfare reform. So-called entitlements are sacrosanct. The parasite class continues to bleed the host — the producers — white.
Never mind that the War on Poverty, like the War on Drugs, has hurt rather than helped the middle and lower classes. Huge sums of money spent on feckless programs to “help” the underprivileged and “get drugs off the street” have led to a breakdown of the family in some social strata and the incarceration of a large of number of people for victimless crimes.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats have broached the idea of tax reform, except in the context of raising the Federal taxes individuals pay — particularly those who through hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit have managed to exceed an arbitrary threshold that socialist-leaning politicians have decided makes one rich — and in instituting a value-added tax.
We have a system where the nation’s largest corporations pay no tax at all.
Bank of America, one of the many recipients of the government largess under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), paid zero Federal taxes in 2009, but did pay its top executives millions.
Citigroup, also a TARP recipient, paid a grand total of zero taxes for the third quarter of 2010, but paid John Havens, the head of the company’s investment bank, $9.5 million.
Boeing, recently the recipient of a $35 billion government contract to build tankers for the military and a regular government contractor that receives billions of dollars in government contracts annually, paid zero Federal taxes from 2008 to 2010.
General Electric — whose CEO Jeffrey Immelt is on the list of Barack’s closest friends and recently landed a gig on a White House economic advisory board — filed 7,000 tax returns and still paid nothing to the Federal treasury. Immelt was paid $9.89 million in 2009.
Wells Fargo, which was able to exploit the tax codes by writing off the losses it accrued through the government-mandated purchase of Wachovia, paid zero taxes. However, Wells Fargo’s CEO received a salary of $5.6 million paid in cash and stock and stock awards of more than $13 million. [1]
In the United States, the top 50 percent of income earners pay 96.4 percent of the income tax, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. This progressive income tax system is right out of Karl Marx’s manifesto and the goal of the progressives — Republican and Democrat alike — is to roil the economy to get more into the class of leaches. Progressives want an electorate eager for handouts so they can appear benevolent as they transfer wealth.
The elected elites succeeded in creating a soft tyranny. But they fear their subjects. So, with the USA Patriot Act and through the Department of Homeland Security and its increasingly invasive program of screening, scanning, poking, prodding, watching and questioning, they work toward establishing a hard tyranny such as that seen under harsh dictatorships.
The makeover of America is almost complete.
[1] http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/26/main-street-tax-cheats/
The Makeover Is Almost Complete
March 7, 2011 by Bob Livingston
There will be wailing, weeping and teeth gnashing in Washington, D.C., in the coming weeks as the elected elites in Congress posture and moan about potentially cutting Federal spending.Republicans will puff themselves up, declaring they are doing the will of those who went to the polls in November, 2010. “Look at us,” they’ll say. “We’ve made drastic cuts and are on the way to fiscal sanity.”
Democrats will cry foul. “You’re hurting old people, starving children, giving tax breaks to the wealthy, you evil Republicans,” Democrats will say. “How can you be so mean… so heartless?”
It’s all a fraud and a ruse for public consumption. No significant cuts will be made. In the end, nothing will change.
Weeper of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) has already surrendered on his insignificant cuts, negotiating himself down from $100 billion to $61 billion — out of a $3.6 trillion budget. Boehner’s retreat has sparked calls for his head by one Tea Party group.
The reality is Republican elected elites have no more interest in cutting Federal spending than Democrat elected elites. They made this plain when they promised pre-election to cut back to George W. Bush spending levels and cooed about how smart they were.
That’s not good enough for much — if not most — of the Republican-leaning electorate. They’re the middle class; the folks that bear the bulk of the nation’s tax burden, and will bear even more, if the elites have their way.
The middle class — tired of supporting the parasite class that makes up about 50 percent of the population, tired of bailing out “too big to fail” institutions and tired of an elected class that enriches itself off government — has sent a message that government is bloated… that it doesn’t work… that it needs to be reformed. They’ve shouted the message loudly, but the elected elites don’t take them seriously.
The middle class is being destroyed. When Federal, State and local taxes are added together more than half of the middle class worker’s paycheck goes to satisfy the government leviathan.
It’s almost impossible for a family to survive on one income, so both spouses have to go to work and farm the kid-raising duties off on a stranger at a daycare. But often that’s not enough and the husband or wife has to have a second job — and a greater tax burden.
Food prices rise. Oil prices rise. Making ends meet becomes a fantasy. Credit cards are tapped to keep up. Home equity lines are tapped to keep up, and the debt piles on.
But the elected elites aren’t concerned with the plight of the middle class. They cater to their corporate masters, to unions and to bureaucracies.
Federal subsidies go to foreign governments and foreign banks. Money goes to prop up dictators in foreign lands. Special tax breaks and subsidies go to large corporate farms and large corporations — perks that small farms and businesses don’t get. Bailouts and stimulus programs have finalized the transition of America from a free-market economy into a fascist corporatocracy. Sweetheart deals are made in back rooms and corporate CEOs get cushy appointments in the administration and companies rake in trillions of dollars in government contracts.
The appetite of the military-industrial complex continues to be sated with the blood of American service men and women and fiat money printed by the Federal Reserve. Overburdensome regulations and perplexing tax laws stifle innovation, create stumbling blocks for entrepreneurs and encourage businesses to take their jobs overseas.
As Republicans preach austerity they are nickel and diming us. They pick a little here and little there but make no move to eliminate unnecessary, unConstitutional and harmful government programs and agencies. They don’t mention cuts in corporate welfare. They don’t mention drawing down the war machine, paring back military bases and reducing empire America.
And President Barack Obama tries to pile on more socialistic, central planning-style spending programs while promising to cut government spending. It’s all doublespeak.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats have broached meaningful welfare reform. So-called entitlements are sacrosanct. The parasite class continues to bleed the host — the producers — white.
Never mind that the War on Poverty, like the War on Drugs, has hurt rather than helped the middle and lower classes. Huge sums of money spent on feckless programs to “help” the underprivileged and “get drugs off the street” have led to a breakdown of the family in some social strata and the incarceration of a large of number of people for victimless crimes.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats have broached the idea of tax reform, except in the context of raising the Federal taxes individuals pay — particularly those who through hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit have managed to exceed an arbitrary threshold that socialist-leaning politicians have decided makes one rich — and in instituting a value-added tax.
We have a system where the nation’s largest corporations pay no tax at all.
Bank of America, one of the many recipients of the government largess under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), paid zero Federal taxes in 2009, but did pay its top executives millions.
Citigroup, also a TARP recipient, paid a grand total of zero taxes for the third quarter of 2010, but paid John Havens, the head of the company’s investment bank, $9.5 million.
Boeing, recently the recipient of a $35 billion government contract to build tankers for the military and a regular government contractor that receives billions of dollars in government contracts annually, paid zero Federal taxes from 2008 to 2010.
General Electric — whose CEO Jeffrey Immelt is on the list of Barack’s closest friends and recently landed a gig on a White House economic advisory board — filed 7,000 tax returns and still paid nothing to the Federal treasury. Immelt was paid $9.89 million in 2009.
Wells Fargo, which was able to exploit the tax codes by writing off the losses it accrued through the government-mandated purchase of Wachovia, paid zero taxes. However, Wells Fargo’s CEO received a salary of $5.6 million paid in cash and stock and stock awards of more than $13 million. [1]
In the United States, the top 50 percent of income earners pay 96.4 percent of the income tax, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. This progressive income tax system is right out of Karl Marx’s manifesto and the goal of the progressives — Republican and Democrat alike — is to roil the economy to get more into the class of leaches. Progressives want an electorate eager for handouts so they can appear benevolent as they transfer wealth.
The elected elites succeeded in creating a soft tyranny. But they fear their subjects. So, with the USA Patriot Act and through the Department of Homeland Security and its increasingly invasive program of screening, scanning, poking, prodding, watching and questioning, they work toward establishing a hard tyranny such as that seen under harsh dictatorships.
The makeover of America is almost complete.
[1] http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/26/main-street-tax-cheats/
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