The rich are getting richer. Their effective tax rate, in recent years, has been reduced to the lowest in modern history. Nurses, teachers and firemen actually pay a higher tax rate than some billionaires. It's no wonder the American people are angry.
Many corporations, including General Electric and Exxon-Mobil, have made billions in profits while using loopholes to avoid paying any federal income taxes. We lose $100 billion every year in federal revenue from companies and individuals who stash their wealth in tax havens off-shore like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. The sum of all the revenue collected by the Treasury today totals just 14.8% of our gross domestic product, the lowest in about 50 years.
In the midst of this, Republicans in Congress have been fanatically determined to protect the interests of the wealthy and large multinational corporations so that they do not contribute a single penny toward deficit reduction.
If the Republicans have their way, the entire burden of deficit reduction will be placed on the elderly, the sick, children and working families. In the midst of a horrendous recession that is already causing severe pain for average Americans, this approach is morally grotesque. It's also bad economic policy.
President Obama and the Democrats have been extremely weak in opposing these right-wing extremist proposals. Although the United States now has the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major industrialized country, Democrats have not succeeded in getting any new revenue from those at the top of the economic ladder to reduce the deficit.
Instead, they've handed the wealthy even more tax breaks. In December, the House and the Senate extended President George W. Bush's tax cuts for the rich and lowered estate tax rates for the wealthiest Americans. In April, to avoid the Republican effort to shut down the government, they allowed $38.5 billion in cuts to vitally important programs for working-class and middle-class Americans.
Now, with the U.S. facing the possibility of the first default in our nation's history, the American people find themselves forced to choose between two congressional deficit-reduction plans. The plan by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, which calls for $2.4 trillion in cuts over a 10-year period, includes $900 billion in cuts in areas such as education, health care, nutrition, affordable housing, child care and many other programs desperately needed by working families and the most vulnerable.
The Senate plan appropriately calls for meaningful cuts in military spending and ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But it does not ask the wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations to make any sacrifice.
The Reid plan is bad. The constantly shifting plan by House Speaker John Boehner is much worse. His $1.2 trillion plan calls for no cuts in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it requires a congressional committee to come up with another $1.8 trillion in cuts within six months of passage.
Those cuts would mean drastic reductions in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. What's more, Mr. Boehner's plan would reopen the debate over the debt ceiling, which is now paralyzing Congress, just six months from now.
While all of this is going on in Washington, the American people have consistently stated, in poll after poll, that they want wealthy individuals and large corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. They also want bedrock social programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to be protected. For example, a July 14-17 Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 72% of Americans believe that Americans earning more than $250,000 a year should pay more in taxes.
In other words, Congress is now on a path to do exactly what the American people don't want. Americans want shared sacrifice in deficit reduction. Congress is on track to give them the exact opposite: major cuts in the most important programs that the middle class needs and wants, and no sacrifice from the wealthy and the powerful.
Is it any wonder, therefore, that the American people are so angry with what's going on in Washington? I am too.
Mr. Sanders, an independent U.S. senator from Vermont, is a member of the Senate Budget Committee and the longest serving independent in congressional history.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
THEY SAY AMERICANS HAVE A SHORT MEMORY... LETS HOPE NOT
It is hard to forget who wants to maintain outrageous tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires and the wealthiest corporations in the history of mankind at the expense of our middle class and our seniors and the education of our children, all while peddling the lie that such tax breaks create jobs. They never have and they never will. It is hard to forget who said that goal #1 is to make Obama a one term president rather than moving the country forward.
What should not be forgotten is how we got here. It did not just happen and both parties are not equally at fault. Forgetting would only legitimize and whitewash the reckless Republican spending which is what got us into the mess we find ourselves in today. Namely; unconscionable, unfunded tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans, two unfunded wars one of which was unnecessary and implementation of an unfunded drug plan for Medicare recipients. That in a nutshell is Republican economics, more spending and less revenue and they have the nerve to rail against reckless spending. What is hard to forget is what phony hypocrites these people are.
So yes, spending needs to be cut, but before we cut a dime of spending on programs that support our seniors and the middle class, spending should be reduced on tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% among us.
What is not hard to forget is who has the best interests of the country at heart and who will do anything to regain the White House. The evidence is clear. Hopefully Americans have a long memory.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
NASSAU COLISEUM BOND ISSUE - VOTE NO
If you care about Nassau County
In order for taxpayers to be paid back the entire $400 million as promised today, one has to be willing to believe that the new arena will magically generate more than $13 million in PROFITS every year for the next 30 years when Wang admits that he currently loses “millions” each year. How exactly are they going to do that with an aging population and shrinking economic base? Young people are leaving the island in droves due to the high cost of living, scarcity of reasonably-priced housing, and lack of jobs outside of the low-wage retail services sector.
Economists have proven that taxpayers NEVER get the promised return on investment for publicly-financed sports stadiums. Let Mr. Wang put up his own money and bear the risk if the Islanders are such a good bet or take his team elsewhere.
Mr. Wang should pay for a new building with his own money. Oh wait, he can't because in this economic environment he either does not have the cash, does not want to incur the risk or he can't secure the necessary private financing. No wonder he has turned to the county. The problem is, the county's pockets are empty.
Well then, I suppose he can always seek public financing elsewhere being that there are so many states and localities out there who would jump at the chance to incur another $400 Million of long term debt. Oh wait, local and state governments across the nation are massively cutting back on spending as they are more or less broke as well.
Despite Mr. Wang's threats, he is not going anywhere, anytime soon. Where would he go?
Yes the project would generate some short term jobs but only at the cost of more long term debt for the county. The math here as is indeed fuzzy, and intentionally so. Mr Wang as he has so often in the past and Mr. Mangano are trying to pull a fast one. The theme song for the taxpayers of
Saturday, July 9, 2011
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