A standard right wing talking point is that tax cuts for the rich and corporations create jobs.
This is, actually, true. They create jobs overseas.
The tax cuts' two bills, in 2001 and 2003 – changed laws so that personal income tax rates were reduced, exemptions for the Alternative Minimum Tax increased, and dividend and capital gains taxes also cut.
Yet in the debate, it seems of no moment to either side whether the tax cuts were effective in achieving their goal of spurring business investment and making the US economy more competitive.
Our own examination of US non-residential investment indicates that the reduction in capital gains tax rates failed to spur US business investment and failed to improve US economic competitiveness.
The 2000s – that is, the period immediately following the Bush tax cuts – were the weakest decade in US postwar history for real non-residential capital investment.
Not only were the 2000s by far the weakest period, but the tax cuts did not even curtail the secular slowdown in the growth of business structures.
http://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/tax-cuts-rich-create-jobs-outside-us
The logic of this is simple enough. If you have money to invest, you're going to invest it where it'll return the most. Right now and in the past couple decades that is either in leveraged financial games, or it is in economies which are growing fast and have low costs. The US does not have high growth compared to China or Brazil or many other developing countries. It has high costs compared to those countries as well.
If you can build a factory overseas which produces the same goods for less, meaning more profit for you, why would you build it in the US?
Until that question is adequately answered, by which I mean "until it's worth investing in the US", most of the discretionary money of the rich will either go into useless speculative activities like the housing and credit bubbles, which don't create real growth in the US, or they will go overseas.
There are a number of ways this question can be answered.
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Dick's letter to the editor:
The wealthy in this nation have come to the realization over the past twenty or so years they no longer need an expensive 'middle class' in this country to build their cars, staff their factories or write their programs. Lesser minions in third world countries are eager to do those things for far, far less money.
So what's to be done if one still needs one's toilets cleaned, limos driven and gardens tended? Well why not simply reduce all the riff-raff to gardeners, chauffeurs and char-persons? Take away their high-paying jobs…and those expensive social programs like welfare, food stamps, unemployment insurance, social security, Medicaid and Medicare. Starve as many as possible into submission and terrify the remainder. Bend them – nay, break them – to the will of the elite.
But who among the disaffected would be so crazed for power – and so insanely greedy for a bit of money – as to ignore the interests of all but themselves and eagerly abet such a diabolical undertaking? Oh, I know…ask the Republicans what they're doing to amuse themselves whilst no longer in power.
"There will be high security tonight when Sarah Palin shows up to watch daughter Bristol perform on Dancing with the Stars," TMZ reports.
Most interesting: Security has been told if there is a breach, Sarah is a "higher priority than Bristol."
Of course Sarah Palin must be protected at the expense of her daughter. After all, she's the one who gets paid $100K for her word salads. Bristol only pulls down a paltry $30K.
I suspect Mama Grizzly wouldn't hesitate to use grandbaby Tripp as a human shield.
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Exhausted lady sticks it to Obama.
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The Obamas attended Christian religious services at a Washington church yesterday, wreaking Sharia terror on the modest God-fearing congregants. Perhaps President Obama wants fewer Americans to think he's Muslim. Will you take the bait?
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It's an example of how stupid our national discourse has become. On September 11, the Portland Press Herald in Maine ran a front page story on Eid al Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan. It was the worst thing ever, according to some readers, and editor Richard Connor felt the need to issue a front-page apology the next day.
We made a news decision on Friday that offended many readers and we sincerely apologize for it.
Many saw Saturday's front-page story and photo regarding the local observance of the end of Ramadan as offensive, particularly on the day, September 11, when our nation and the world were paying tribute to those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks nine years ago.
We have acknowledged that we erred by at least not offering balance to the story and its prominent position on the front page.
This struck a lot of people as crazy. In fact, if covering Eid on 9/11 could, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered a mistake, apologizing for it was a bigger one. Coverage of peaceful Muslims must now be "balanced" with coverage of violent Muslims? That's a pretty offensive stance. Connor now claims he was answering complaints that he didn't cover 9/11 at all, but the opening paragraphs of the apology suggests the complaints were about Muslims in the paper on 9/11 -- as if they're real Americans and not outsiders who all share responsibility for the worst terrorist attack in American history. In fact, a lot of people took it that way, which is probably why Connor took to NPR's On The Media to defend his editorial decision to apologize.
Keep reading: http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2010/09/wedge-issue-becomes-too-hot-to-use.html
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God's Gentle People™ at the Catholic charity Knights of Columbus have donated more to fight marriage equality than it has allocated for its own food bank program.
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The voters of Louisiana are clearly unconcerned with the admitted hooker patronage of "sanctity of marriage" defender, conservative Christian, and serial adulterer Sen. David "Diaper Boy" Vitter. As one of the Senate's chief sponsors of the (failed) Federal Marriage Amendment, Vitter called the banning of same-sex marriage "the most important issue" before Congress. He also said that gay marriage would wreak a devastation on Louisiana comparable to hurricanes Katrina and Rita. And then he pulled $500 from the ATM, put on his diaper, and called Mistress Kandi.
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The Catholic News Agency announced today that all Catholics in Minnesota will be receiving a DVD and a letter from their bishops urging them to opposing same-sex marriage.
Will there be one urging them to insist they stop raping children?
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"Palin is operating on a different plane, hovering higher than a mere celebrity, more buoyant than an average politician." Mark Halperin
Really? An unserious grifter is on a higher plane? Then operating on a higher plane is way, way, way overrated.
Seriously, elevating Palin with this kind of starburst talk is dangerous for America. She is utterly unqualified to hold any office or determine the direction of any policy. Yet by stroking her this way, the superficial nonsense trumps her lack of qualifications.
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This isn't helping, Mr. President.
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Why would a media savvy candidate like Christine O'Donnell blow off a coveted opportunity to appear on the Sunday political shows? Could it be because her lawyers warned her against risking incriminating herself by discussing on-air an ethics watchdog group's charge that she embezzled campaign funds?
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The pope told the British press that pedophilia, which he did so much to cover up, is an illness which robs people of their free will. So that's all right then. He said that his priority is to help the victims (not the priests, victims though they are of this horrible free-will-robbing illness) recover and "rediscover too their faith in the message of Christ." Don't know why he thinks they lost it; they weren't the ones raping children, they were the children being raped.
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Tony Perkins - smearing gays and allies alike
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council on repealing DADT.
"Well, those [countries] that do [allow gays to serve openly], they're the ones that participate in parades, they don't fight wars to keep the nation and the world free."
It's one thing to be a homophobe and quite another to be a lying dick. In fact…
Great Britain and Australia, two countries that have contributed significant numbers of soldiers to the war in Iraq and are close allies of the US, both allow gays to serve openly. Israel's military also permits gay and lesbian troops in its ranks, as do NATO countries including Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and France, all of which have forces in Afghanistan. Because at the Values Voter Summit, maligning the military forces of key American allies like Israel, Great Britain, and Australia is acceptable as long as it serves the greater goal of denigrating gays and lesbians.
Perkins, just another right-wing whack job intent on never allowing facts to get in the way of a bigoted rant.
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Marc Perkel - letter to the editor
Republicans are holding tax cuts for everyone hostage to get more tax cuts for millionaires hoping that the Democrats will give in. I'd rather see all the tax cuts expire than to go further into debt to fund tax cuts for the rich.
The poor and middle class are getting very little in tax cuts as it is and whatever we get will have to be paid back someday because we have to borrow money to pay for the rich. So if the rich get a tax cut the middle class really doesn't. We get a few hundred bucks while they get hundreds of thousands.
So I say let them all expire. I'll give up my trivial cut just to make sure the rich don't get theirs. We are already trillions in debt from these cuts and we still have 2 wars we are paying for. Americans need to feel the cost of their choices so that we don't keep making the same mistakes and show some fiscal responsibility.
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I wonder what else might be found in the Iraq PM's office? BBC
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Nicholas Kristoff has written a very nice column this week in the Times. He takes the theme of journalistic balance and twists it like a pretzel to show its ugly side. I can only quote part, so I'll do the Muslim–Christian opening. But do click through; his cleverness and insight will delight.
Many Americans have suggested that more moderate Muslims should stand up to extremists, speak out for tolerance, and apologize for sins committed by their brethren.
That's reasonable advice, and as a moderate myself, I'm going to take it. (Throat clearing.) I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you. The venom on the airwaves, equating Muslims with terrorists, should embarrass us more than you. Muslims are one of the last minorities in the United States that it is still possible to demean openly, and I apologize for the slurs.
He then goes on to tell about his interaction with the editor of the the story of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald. Seems they published a "good Muslim" story on the front page, and all hell broke loose (so to speak); oops, the date was last Sept 11. Balance; gotta add more balance.
He ends with a serious point, one I share. Yes, there are horrid Muslims in the world — "theocratic mullahs oppressing people in Iran; girls kept out of school in Afghanistan in the name of religion," etc. — but there are millions of gentle Muslims as well, literally millions.
It's in fact a gentle religion; more about practice than orthodoxy (how refreshing). And that practice is prayer, five times a day, every day of your life, in which you acknowledge the primacy of an Other and humble yourself before it, again literally.
Kristoff appreciates this as well:
I'm sickened when I hear such gentle souls lumped in with Qaeda terrorists, and when I hear the faith they hold sacred excoriated and mocked. To them and to others smeared, I apologize.
As should we all, sir. Thank you.
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Athenae's pissed ...
In the second place, in the second paragraph, really. You're really going to tell starving children to go blow because you're mad about your taxes. That's a thing you're going to do. The starving children, natch, having all kinds of influence in Congress, given how everybody's falling all over themselves to help THEM. Those are the people who can do exactly dick about your tax sitch, so I'm sure your brave moral stand will SO TOTALLY get noticed by our decision makers. Shit, stop giving money to politicians if you don't like how they behave, but Toys for Tots did nothing to you to deserve your contempt, and you're doing plenty to earn mine.
If the Republicans were normal human beings, the "There's no difference" argument would be a no-brainer. I've been voting since 1976 and I am sick and tired of voting for people who I know even as I hit the "X" on the non-verifiable Sequoia voting machine we use here in my hometown will sell me out for a corporate nickel.
But Jesus H. Christ....what are we supposed to do when the alternative is what Rachel Maddow reported on from the Values Voters Summit:
http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/09/are-we-at-we-suck-but-we-suck-lot-less.html
You might recall that the reason why the tax cuts were set to expire in the first place was because they would have completely shattered the long-term federal budget if they were made permanent. The party of the Confederacy figured that they could make them permanent later. But even though they controlled the Congress completely up to 2006 and the White House to 2008, they couldn't ram it through into law.
You also will not find a politician who is willing to tell the truth, and that is this:
The Federal budget will never be slashed enough to balance the budget with the Bush tax cuts in force. The Republicans will never stand for the defense budget cuts necessary to get there and the Democrats will never stand for cutting Medicare (and neither will the older Teabaggers).
So if we are going to ever balance the Federal budget, the tax receipts have to equal the spending. And if that means taxes have to go up, well, so be it.
It is time that people, especially the Right, grew up and realized that shit has to be paid for.
