Republicans Are “Out of Touch” With Reality
Republicans and Conservatives want to go back to the “good ol’ days” of America. When was that? The 1940s? The 1950s? The 1960s? Think of a Norman Rockwell painting…
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You know what was going on in the “good ol’ days”? The marginal tax rate for the top-income earners (the top 1%) was above 70%. That’s right, just like Article I, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution states, the U.S. Congress collected taxes to pay for our roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, and on and on. We, the United States of America, invested in the majority of Americans in the “good ol’ days.” If you want to imagine America like a Rockwell painting – I’m talking to you Republicans and Conservatives – then pay your taxes. Of course, the year is actually 2012 – when taxes for the Superwealthy are historically low. This ain’t the “good ol’ days.” Bush/Cheney and the rest of the neo-conservative nutjobs, with their “Trickle-down” economic fantasies, have put our economy in the shitter. It is time to wake up to reality, Republicans. It is time to end the Bush Tax Cuts for the Superwealthy, and start reinvesting in the majority of Americans.
Oh yeah, we’re not going back to the 1980s either. Great music, for sure, but we already had the 80s.
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We’re not going backward. We’re going forward into the 21st century. Don’t give me any remixes of the 1980s either. I’m talking to you, Republicans.
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According to the Congressional Budget Office and the Tax Policy Center, top-income earners paid a marginal tax rate of around 70 percent starting in 1917…which dropped from 56 percent to 46 percent to 25 percent in the 1920s…under three consecutive Republican Presidents – Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover – whose economic mismanagement led to the Great Depression of the 1930s, when top-income tax rates rose again into the 60 percent, 70 percent region during that “Grapes of Wrath” decade. During WWII, top-income rates were in the 80 percent, 90 percent region, and stayed thereabouts until 1964, when the top-income tax rate dipped into the 70 percent region again. Top-income tax rates stayed in the 70 percent region until 1981, when Ronald F*ckin’ Reagan became President…when the marginal tax rate for top-income earners dropped to 50 percent, 38.5 percent, and then 28 percent by the time that misguided, B-movie actor left office. Of course, Bush 1 raised taxes, despite his lips. And Clinton raised taxes again on the top-income earners. Reminder: during Bill Clinton’s presidency, the United States enjoyed the longest stretch of economic prosperity for the majority of Americans ever in our country’s history; and Clinton balanced the budget as well as left U.S. a surplus of approximately $200-300 billion cash-in-hand that was projected to be a $5.7 Trillion surplus over the next 10 years (if not for the dot-com bust, 9-11, and the virtually simultaneous 2002 bankruptcies of WorldCom, Tyco and Enron – the single largest campaign contributor to the Bush/Cheney campaign in 2000.) Then Bush/Cheney proceeded to waste $1 Trillion on a false war in Iraq (as well as waste thousands of human lives), waste $1 Trillion on the Bush Tax Cuts for the Superwealthy in 2001 and 2003, and allow self-regulation by the Wall Street banks concerning the buying and selling of subprime-mortgage-backed securities that required a $700 billion bailout of the Wall Street banks with taxpayers’ money and $9.1 Trillion in emergency loans at 0.01% from the Federal Reserve ($7.7 Trillion of that went to Wall Street banks). It is time to raise the marginal tax rate on top-income earners…it is time to readjust tax rates to the levels of the Clinton-era, when everybody was flush with $CASH$.
SOURCES:
* Graph source = The Tax Policy Center, “a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution. The Center is made up of nationally recognized experts in tax, budget, and social policy who have served at the highest levels of government.”
From the Tax Policy Center…
“31-Jan-11
Historical Highest Marginal Income Tax Rates
|
Top Marginal Year Rate |
|
Top Marginal Year Rate
- 1913 7.0%
- 1914 7.0%
- 1915 7.0%
- 1916 15.0%
- 1917 67.0%
- 1918 77.0%
- 1919 73.0%
- 1920 73.0%
- 1921 73.0%
- 1922 56.0%
- 1923 56.0%
- 1924 46.0%
- 1925 25.0%
- 1926 25.0%
- 1927 25.0%
- 1928 25.0%
- 1929 24.0%
- 1930 25.0%
- 1931 25.0%
- 1932 63.0%
- 1933 63.0%
- 1934 63.0%
- 1935 63.0%
- 1936 79.0%
- 1937 79.0%
- 1938 79.0%
- 1939 79.0%
- 1940 81.10%
- 1941 81.00%
- 1942 88.00%
- 1943 88.00%
- 1944 94.00%
- 1945 94.00%
Top Marginal Year Rate
- 1979 70.00%
- 1980 70.00%
- 1981 69.13%
- 1982 50.00%
- 1983 50.00%
- 1984 50.00%
- 1985 50.00%
- 1986 50.00%
- 1987 38.50%
- 1988 28.00%
- 1989 28.00%
- 1990 31.00%
- 1991 31.00%
- 1992 31.00%
- 1993 39.60%
- 1994 39.60%
- 1995 39.60%
- 1996 39.60%
- 1997 39.60%
- 1998 39.60%
- 1999 39.60%
- 2000 39.60%
- 2001 38.60%
- 2002 38.60%
- 2003 35.00%
- 2004 35.00%
- 2005 35.00%
- 2006 35.00%
- 2007 35.00%
- 2008 35.00%
- 2009 35.00%
- 2010 35.00%
- 2011 35.00%
Note: This table contains a number of simplifications and ignores a number of factors, such as a maximum tax on earned income of 50 percent when the top rate was 70 percent and the current increase in rates due to income-related reductions in value of itemized deductions. Perhaps most importantly, it ignores the large increase in percentage of returns that were subject to this top rate.
Sources: Eugene Steuerle, The Urban Institute; Joseph Pechman, Federal Tax Policy; Joint Committee on Taxation, Summary of Conference Agreement on the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, JCX-54-03, May 22, 2003; IRS Revised Tax Rate Schedules”
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=213
http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11976
http://theweek.com/article/index/221883/the-federal-reserves-breathtaking-77-trillion-bank-bailout
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marginaltaxrate.asp#axzz1kjNATzJz
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/effectivetaxrate.asp#axzz1kjNATzJz
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Read more:
http://parkwestgallery.wordpress.com/category/artists-special-collections/norman-rockwell/
picture source = http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=14143
The Constitution of the United States
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html
Article I, Section. 8.
“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;–And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”
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The One Percent vs. the rest of U.S.
End the Bush Tax Cuts for the Superwealthy and Witness the Reemergence of the Middle Class
Click the link to see the video from Moyers & Company…
http://billmoyers.com/segment/jacob-hacker-paul-pierson-on-engineered-inequality/
America the Beautiful
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http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/covering-america-the-beautiful/?hp
EXCERPTS from The New York Times in bold:
“Katharine Lee Bates was not only a poet, but a social activist, an American patriot and world pacifist who wanted to unite people ‘from the Pacific to the Atlantic, around the other way … and that will include all the nations and all the people from sea to shining sea.’ That Mitt Romney loves this poem is encouraging; that he misses the ironies is disquieting.
It’s been called a hymn, a prayer – written by a rebel against religious dogma who nearly quit her job when Wellesley insisted that faculty members sign a pledge confirming their Christian beliefs. She was raised poor but educated, by a single mother (her father, who was a minister, died when she was 5), in Falmouth, Mass., which she later described as ‘a friendly little village that practiced a neighborly socialism.’
Bates spent most of her adult life in a household that included, over time, her female partner, one parrot, and two collies – neither of which is known to have traveled on top of her car.
She was also born and bred a Republican, but in 1924 her presidential vote went to John W. Davis, the candidate who supported the League of Nations, which she saw as ‘our one hope of peace on earth.’ Davis was a Democrat.
Lynn Sherr, a broadcast journalist and writer, is the author of ‘America the Beautiful: The Stirring True Story Behind Our Nation’s Favorite Song.’”
The Artist = The Best Picture of the Year in 2011
The Artist is definitely the Best Picture of the Year…maybe ever! Top 10 movies of all time for sure!
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President Barack Obama = Clean-up Hitter
“Hey Barack,” the Republicans say. “We got a few things we need you to clean up.”
“Yeah?” answers the tall, Democratic man. “What is there to clean up?”
“Well, there’s the banking system,” they say. “And Iraq…and Afghanistan…and Osama bin Laden may still be out there…and there are a whole bunch of unemployed people in the U.S.”
Three years later…
- The financial system is functioning, banks are lending more than before, and the stock market is off its Great Recession low of below 7,000.
- We are ending the war in Iraq.
- Osama bin Laden is dead.
- Unemployment decreased to 8.6%.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re still working on Afghanistan.
Four out of five ain’t bad for a clean-up hitter. Albert Pujols is just like Barack Obama, except one plays baseball and one is President of the United States. But they’re both consummate clean-up hitters.
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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/business/economy/us-adds-120000-jobs-unemployment-drops-to-8-6.html
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CEOs and stock traders are lazy, and the productive workers of America have been getting robbed for 30 years
CEOs and stock traders are lazy, and the productive workers of America have been getting robbed for 30 years, according to Rutgers University history professor, James Livingston.
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Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens was a sinful sage, an eloquent provocateur, and an inimitable intellectual. I heard him introduce Salman Rushdie at the 92nd Street Y in New York, in 2005. Mr. Hitchens also moderated the Question and Answer segment with the audience after Mr. Rushdie read from his novel, Shalimar the Clown. Thank God, the Universe, Time & Space, that Christopher Hitchens was here.
Watch and hear:
http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/?bcpid=533363107&bctid=802338105001
Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16212418
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/books/10-best-books-of-2011.html
Mark Twain Prize for American Humor: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
Jon Stewart deserves an award for his parody of the news; and Stephen Colbert deserves an award for his satire of the news.
“The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” – Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain
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EXCERPT:
“WE went tiptoeing along a path amongst the trees back towards the end of the widow’s garden, stooping down so as the branches wouldn’t scrape our heads. When we was passing by the kitchen I fell over a root and made a noise. We scrouched down and laid still. Miss Watson’s big nigger, named Jim, was setting in the kitchen door; we could see him pretty clear, because there was a light behind him. He got up and stretched his neck out about a minute, listening. Then he says:
‘Who day?’
He listened some more; then he come tiptoeing down and stood right between us; we could a touched him, nearly. Well, likely it was minutes and minutes that there warn’t a sound, and we all there so close together. There was a place on my ankle that got to itching, but I dasn’t scratch it; and then my ear begun to itch; and next my back, right between my shoulders. Seemed like I’d die if I couldn’t scratch. Well, I’ve noticed that thing plenty times since. If you are with the quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go to sleep when you ain’t sleepy — if you are anywheres where it won’t do for you to scratch, why you will itch all over in upwards of a thousand places.” – Mark Twain
source: http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/kiernan/FlorenceItaly.html
“The situation of the villa was perfect. It was three miles from Florence, on the side of a hill…to see the sun sink down, drowned on his pink and purple and golden floods, and overwhelm Florence with tides of color that make all the sharp lines dim and faint and turn the solid city to a city of dreams, is a sight to stir the coldest nature and make a sympathetic one drunk with ecstasy.”- Mark Twain
