Posts Tagged ‘rich’

For Want of a Nail

Friday, August 20th, 2010

For Want of a Nail
by
David Schlecht

For want of a nail the shoe was lost
For want of a shoe the horse was lost
For want of a horse the rider was lost
For want of a rider the  battle was lost
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost
All for the want of a nail.

Have you been to the DMV lately? How long did you spend there? Do you realize that for little more than a $1.25 annually in taxes you could have more offices and shorter waits? But, no, the conservatives have convinced us that we want lower and lower taxes.

So where does this mad race to the bottom end? When we have the cheapest government money can buy? Hello Somalia.

Are we getting to be such cheapskates that we don’t want to pay the price of a nail and will let the kingdom fall? We will gripe and complain about having to spend hours in line at the DMV but will complain even louder about having to pay an additional $1.25 to build more offices.

When will America wake up and realize the conservative ways are not in America’s best interests? Hacking away at our social safety net while giving the billionaires a free ride doesn’t help anyone but the rich. Stripping  our government oversight agencies are giving the billionaire foreign corporations a free ride while we Americans pay for their pollution and illnesses. We feel worse and worse about ourselves as we let the poor, elderly, and sick suffer.

But, still we let the media (representing the rich) get us riled up about considerably less important things like where they’re building a mosque or whether there’s an illegal alien having a baby while hundreds of millions of our jobs are shipped over seas. As long as we’re distracted the billionaires get richer and we get poorer.

When will it end? Will we let the kingdom fall for the want of a nail or will we wake up from this media-induced coma  and start refusing the failed conservative policies?

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Posted in Politics | 6 Comments »

Stop The Greed

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Stop The Greed

I got a plea from Senator John Cornyn today. Here’s what he has to say:

If the Democrats have their way, very soon our taxes will be going up.

They have been very busy in Washington spending your money on their radical liberal agenda. They have been financing these bloated government takeovers and spending programs by borrowing money from your children. We now have a more than $13 trillion national debt which is growing by an average of $6.534 billion per day. The American people have become outraged at this reckless and irresponsible path, and rather than dealing with their outrageous spending habits, President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are going to try to pay for their agenda by taxing you.

In 2001 and 2003, Republicans passed into law the largest tax cut in American history, and lowered taxes for all Americans. But that tax relief is set to expire very soon, and the Democrats have no intention extending them. They want to raise your taxes in the middle of the biggest economic downturn in generations. And this isn’t just any tax hike, we are talking about a $3 trillion tax hike.

If you are single and make $30,000 a year, expect to see your taxes rise by $426. If you make $50,000, you will owe an additional $602. The expiration of this tax relief will mean less hiring by small business, a 50% cut in the child tax credit, a return of the marriage penalty and a 164% hike in the tax on dividends. What do you think this will mean for our economic recovery?

Don’t let them get away with it. Go to [some website], and sign our petition to tell the Democrats not to raise our taxes. Tell Congress you want them to extend the tax cuts before they expire at the end of this year.

Sincerely,

Senator John Cornyn
Chairman, NRSC

Honestly, John, don’t you feel any shame? Talk about greedy and shelfish. It’s about time you millionaires and billionaires started paying your fair share again. The American people WILL NOT ask Congress to extend your selfish tax cuts. America is paying the lowest taxes we have paid in centuries and our government is going broke while you millionaires and billionaires bring home more and more money. The disparity between the ultra rich and the rest of America is the worst it has been, ever! And, you want it to continue. You want more tax breaks for the rich while the country and the middle class disappear.

Honestly, John, isn’t it time you started paying your fair share? Isn’t it time we brought this country back to the prosperity we had before the conservatives like you started telling us that greed was good and that some day, even we may be millionaires if we just gave more money to the richest in America.

I’m sick of the lies and I’m sick of the greed and I’m sick of the rich taking advantage of us. Pay your taxes John and quit asking me to help you with your selfish quest to avoid paying your fair share. The rich are not paying their share and you want me to help continue the mistake? What do you take me and the rest of Americans for? Fools? No more!

Honestly, John. Should you really be in Congress? You don’t represent America. You should be ashamed!

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Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

Obama’s Big Deficit

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

Obama’s Big Deficit
by
Captain Jack

I’ve heard one person after another explaining how Obama’s deficit is the biggest in history. I though I would look into this claim a little and see what I can find. Here’s is a quick graph from OffTheChartsBlog to show what the major contributors are to the deficit.

US Deficit

US Deficit

Take a look at the white area of the graph at the bottom. You see the small sliver of white? That is what the deficit would look like without the Bush years. In other words, take away the economic collapse Bush ushered in, take away the Bush tax cuts for billionaires, take away Bush’s misguided wars and what you have left is the small area at the bottom.

Of course, the TARP money is from the Bush years if you remember. TARP was already passed before Obama took office.

So, please, do yourself a favor and get in the habit of questioning the numbers and fears you hear spread by the right wing lie machine. It’s sole purpose is to take advantage of the uninformed. Don’t be one of them.

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Posted in Finance, Politics | 8 Comments »

Medical Costs

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Medical Costs
by
Captain Jack

In order to fix what we think is broken, we should try to understand how we got in this mess. The problem with our out-of-control medical costs exemplifies this handily. Knowing how we got in this mess will usually help us figure out how to get out of it and at the very least can help us avoid stepping in the same hole again once it’s fixed.

If you only have one power company, they can charge whatever they want for electricity and you can either pay through the nose or freeze to death. This is an example of supply and demand. There is a large demand and only a single supplier. That is why most of our power providers are tightly regulated — to prevent this type of abuse.

Computers were expensive at the beginning. I remember when my first desktop computer cost me $1300 for a run-of-the-mill computer. Now you can buy a computer for $300. Why the difference? Supply and demand, obviously. Now there are numerous companies trying to sell you a computer.

So let’s think back about 30 years. Medical care was expensive. You paid almost $30 for a doctor visit. No, not for the co-pay, not for the deductible. That was the cost of the visit. Sure, that was expensive then, but nothing like what we’re paying today.

What has changed since then? What has caused the prices to sky rocket?

Do you think that it might possibly have something to do with supply and demand? You’re right on the money.

We have a higher demand for medical care now than we did back then. There were more doctors available per patient than we have now. Considerably more. And, why is that? The reason is two fold.

1. The AMA restricts how many doctors get through a medical degree.  They control the supply. The AMA should be terminated. It is not benefiting society, but causing the deaths of many Americans due to unavailable affordable health care.

2. The second reason is along the same line. What else changed 30 years ago? What changed that affects how many people graduate from medical school? You’re probably way ahead of me on this one. Yes, it’s because the cost of education has gone through the roof. 30 years ago many colleges were free or close to free. Today, only the elite can afford to send their kids to medical school.

If we all paid $10 per year to provide free medical education to anyone interested and capable of graduating, we would save hundreds of dollars a year in medical costs. But, no, we don’t want to pay an extra dime on our taxes and see what this stingy attitude has done to our once great nation?

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We’re Winning the Race to the Bottom

Monday, February 1st, 2010

We’re Winning the Race to the Bottom
by
David Schlecht

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

Nevada’s budget outlook is so bleak that lawmakers doubt whether state government can remain afloat without drastic cuts to everything from prisons to schools to state parks and services for the poor and elderly.

Legislators met Tuesday with Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons to discuss how they will cope with a short-term deficit of about $900 million during an upcoming special session of the Legislature. Some Democratic lawmakers acknowledge options to bridge the gap probably won’t include tax increases.
…
Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, said pay cuts and layoffs for state employees are probably inevitable.

“These are drastic, drastic cuts. I would be surprised if some folks didn’t lose their jobs,” Oceguera said.
…
Taylor said such a cut would hit lower-wage employees extremely hard, especially because some lower-paying jobs are held by single parents raising children. There had been talks that salary cuts would be made only to employees earning more than $40,000 a year.

Oceguera was uncertain whether it would be considered “a socialist type thing” to tailor pay cuts according to earnings.

A Chamber of Commerce study released earlier this month found state and local government employees in 2008 earned an average pay of $55,657 in 2008, sixth highest among states and $6,800 higher than the national average. For state employees alone, the average pay was $55,266.

Teacher pay in Nevada averaged $48,257 a year in 2008, below the $50,852 national average, according to the chamber study. University and community college faculty members in Nevada earn $69,282 on average, compared with the national average of $72,959.

The study also found that Nevada has the fewest number of public employees on a per capita basis in the country, at 43.7 per 1,000 residents.

But Gibbons, who sets the agenda for the session, has long said he would veto any tax increases.

“Our only real option,” Horsford said, “is to eliminate or reduce spending.”

This is absolutely shocking. Gibbons is leading us in a race to the bottom.

Nevada state and local government employees get paid more than the average. That means the local employees get paid more than the average and the state employees get paid considerably less than average. But, that’s not what the Chamber of Commerce says since they might have a little difficulty being objective in this matter. What on earth are they even involved for? They’re the enemy and part of what made our current mess.

This seems so terribly obvious to any casual observer to be a race to the bottom. Nevada has been groveling at the bottom of everything important for so long, we just don’t know what to do if we’re not dead last. We seem to be winning the race to be the first state to resemble Haiti. Let’s all compete to see how low we can pay our state employees. Soon we’ll all be greeted by illegal aliens at the state agencies because they’ll work for less than Americans will. Is that what we want in America?

They’re afraid to affect the rich more than the poor because they’re afraid it’ll sound Socialist? This has to be about the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in a while. When was it considered Socialist to expect those who benefit the most from society to pay the most? Socialist? If this is Socialism, then America’s founding fathers were all Socialists. They expected everyone to pay their fair share. Shame on you for disparaging the names of our forefathers!

And, if you were paying attention, Nevada is paying our educators well below the average. Obviously we’re dead last in education. We only get back what we’re willing to invest. We should be having a race to see how much more money we can put back in the hands of the middle and lower class and we should be expecting the wealthy to start paying their fair share.

Gibbon, oh what a fine example of Republican principles. No new taxes. We wouldn’t want the billionaires to pay their fair share, now would we? No, let’s just take it out of the pockets of those who need it the most.

When will America start to realize that this Republican approach is destroying our country?

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Posted in Finance, General, Politics | 2 Comments »

Selling America to the Highest Bidder

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Selling America to the Highest Bidder
by
David Schlecht

A letter to my readers…

Dear Friends,

If you’ve been paying attention to the news today, you have heard about the horrific ruling by the Supreme Court. With this ruling, they have perpetrated the greatest attack on our country that we have witnessed in our lifetimes. With this ruling, corporations (including international corporations) have the right to buy our political races and nothing will stand in their way.

Take as an example, the 2008 presidential elections. Between the two leading candidates, they spent $1.1 billion in advertising, and that’s a record expenditure.  Divide that by a four year term and it’s about $270 million per year.

This year, the bankers on Wall Street received over $30 billion in bonuses alone, not including regular income. This means they could spend just one tenth of one year’s bonus and completely drown out everything all other candidates can say. This is not free speech. This is selling our country down the toilet to the richest and most ruthless and most unethical buyers. Just think what the oil companies will do. Three billion dollars in deceptive campaign marketing and they can realize hundreds of billions in subsidies. There’s no better return on investment than buying a politician or two.

If you think business has too much control over our government now, just wait and see what this brings.

This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue or a conservative issue or a liberal issue, it’s an American issue. The only way we can repeal this is if we work together.

I signed this petition and encourage everyone to do the same and then to forward this message off to everyone you know.

It’s not too late but it soon will be. You and I are the only hope America has of surviving this attack.

-David

This morning, I watched five Supreme Court Justices stab at the heart of democracy, our electoral system.

They overturned over 100 years of statute and precedent, and declared that corporations can spend all the money that they want to buy elections. In fact, these five men in robes declared that they have a constitutional right to do so.

I was there. I saw it. And one seat away was Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who could barely contain his glee.

If you signed our petition, you were there, too. Right in the courtroom. Because your petitions were with me, and I delivered them to the Supreme Court. If you signed our petition, you were one of almost 15,000 people who told these judges that “we cannot have a government that is bought and paid for by huge multinational corporations.”

And now, we have to fight. We have introduced six bills to prevent the sale of our government to the highest bidder. The “Save Our Democracy” package must pass. As Lincoln said in his first inaugural address, the war is forced upon us. And if we fail, then as I said yesterday, “you can kiss your country goodbye.”

Forward this message to your friends now. Tell them to sign the petition at SaveDemocracy.net to support the “Save Our Democracy” package now.

Regards,

Alan Grayson
Member of Congress

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Posted in Politics | 12 Comments »

Shrinking Tax Dollars

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

Shrinking Tax Dollars
by
Captain Jack

Expanding on David’s great post about Welfare for the Rich, I see services in our state shrinking and drying up. Snow plows are just one of numerous examples. Our entire country has been seeing infrastructure crumbling around us which is a direct result of lower tax revenues caused by tax breaks for the billionaires. Reagan’s and Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy are destroying our once-great country.

And, that was before the Bush recession.

Now that we’re suffering further reduction in tax revenue, the services we are paying for with yours and my tax dollars are shrinking. We’re getting less for our money. But, your taxes aren’t going down and neither are mine. So all you smart readers out there are probably wondering where your tax dollars are going since your services are being curtailed.

We’re seeing services stripped for the middle class and the needy but the services for the wealthy are still being provided, now, out of our tax dollars. That means there’s less left over to provide services to the real tax payers.

It is time to start expecting the wealthy to start paying their fair share.

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Posted in Finance, Politics | 1 Comment »

A Fair Tax

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

A Fair Tax
by
David Schlecht

What is a fair tax?

I’m not surprised when I hear the rich crying and whining about having to pay their fair share. After all, our broken predatory capitalist system requires people to be immoral and predatory to be successful and we wouldn’t expect anything less when it comes to paying back for the wealth this country has given them. What, then, is fair?

Let’s take the plight of the poverty stricken worker, making some CEO rich while she raises her family in poverty. When she goes to the grocery store, she pays sales tax, usually in the range of 7-10%. In other words, this country is taking food off the tables of the poor in order to pay taxes. Another way to look at this is to say that 100% of the poor working mother’s discretionary spending (money she doesn’t need to survive) is spent on taxes. The middle class has a negative savings rate. In other words, all the middle class’ money is going to pay for their dwindling “American Dream”. How much of their discretionary spending is eaten up in taxes? Obviously 100%. This is immoral for so many reasons. How can a society tax their people to death? Shame on us.

Okay, so our government, pandering to the rich, have decided that it’s okay to tax people 100% of their discretionary income. Well, then that means 100% of what the rich make, after paying for a meager middle class life style, should be taxed. But, no, instead the poor and middle class are paying the taxes for the rich. The uber rich are paying about 10% of their discretionary income in taxes while the rest of the country is paying 100%.

If we’re in agreement that we don’t want to tax anyone 100% then it should be pretty obvious that the only moral solution is to levy taxes proportionate to the amount of discretionary income. This is called a progressive tax. In other words, the tax progresses up as the income goes up.

Back in the days when this country used to function successfully, we had a top marginal tax rate of over 90% on the uber rich. Isn’t it time we went back there? Isn’t it the moral thing to do?

Sales taxes, on the other hand, are regressive. They affect the poor considerably more than the rich. Fuel taxes affect the poor disproportionately. Property taxes should be more progressive, with low cost primary homes paying nothing in tax but million-dollar mansions pay a high percentage.

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Posted in Finance, Politics | 8 Comments »