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Opening Arguments

Freeeee!

Oh, goody, goody, goody, more free stuff. Who doesn't like free stuff? "Free," as in "free for me" because you're paying for it:

President Barack Obama will need the approval of Congress to realize his proposal for making two years of community college free for students.

So far, that plan doesn’t have an official price tag — other than “significant,” according to White House officials. If all 50 states participate, the proposal could benefit 9 million students each year and save students an average of $3,800 in tuition, the White House said.


Well, gee, "no official price tag," but a little simple math should give us a rough idea. 9 million students mutiplird by $3,800 gives us $34.2 billion a year. Well, hey, we're already borrowing 40 cents of every federal dollar we spend, so what the hell. Honestly, his commitment to progressive, redistributionist statism is just breathtaking.

Comments

Joe
Fri, 01/09/2015 - 11:16am

When you look back at our history, this nation was at its strongest during the 50′s and 60′s. You know, when taxes were higher and we cared more about the American worker than the corporation for which they worked.

But nowadays, that’s completely reversed. We have politicians who talk about the “burden” and “plight” of corporations making billions of dollars, while vilifying poor Americans who work full-time jobs – yet still don’t economically reside above the poverty line.

To the Republican party a company like Walmart is the “victim,” while the tens of thousands of workers employed by them, who still rely on government assistance just to survive, are the “greedy moochers.”

It’s absurd.

Every single year this nation loses anywhere between $1-3 trillion in tax revenue due to the most powerful among us using various accounting tricks to avoid paying what they should be paying in taxes. And I’m not talking about legitimate deductions either. These are people or businesses who simply use loopholes that they inserted  in our tax code via payed for politicians to “hide money” so that they don’t have to pay taxes on it (or pay them at a much lower rate). We, all of us, subsidise these corporations paying the bills they won't. I guess thats alright but helping young people educate themselves to become self suffiencent and stay off the public dole isn't.

Just think about this for a moment. For 5 yearss (2008-2012) Boeing, General Electric and Verizon Communications Inc. - paid no federal income taxes. 

Those companies make billions of dollars every year. Yet, they paid nothing in federal income tax.

And that’s the kind of crap Republicans defend. While simultaneously pushing for cuts to welfare programs so children living in poverty have less to eat every month. You know, because it’s those “lazy people looking for a handout” that are ruining this country. The ideology of the right insists babys be born but don't take my tax dollars to feed them.

Meanwhile, big corporations and the wealthy cheat this country out of trillions of dollars every year and that’s apparently just fine. They’re just good, upstanding Americans living “the American dream.”

But there’s something very wrong in this country when we have a company making billions, with high-level executives making millions, while the people who they rely on most to make all this money for them are struggling to feed a family of four. Often living at or below the poverty line

Then when those people need help from the government just to survive, because the greedy ass company for which they work doesn’t pay enough for them to do it on their own, Republicans have the gall to stand there and judge them as lazy moochers while defending the “rights of the job creator.”

And I think the most maddening part to this whole thing is, tens of millions of these people who are struggling to survive are voting for Republicans. The party that’s vilifying them, while doing everything they can to protect the giant corporations that continue to screw over Americans.

Because it’s like I’ve said before, job creation isn’t a problem in this country. The issue we’re facing is wage stagnation.

And it’s not just an issue of the last few years due to “Obama’s economy.” This has been a systemic issue that’s been going on for decades. The rich have been doing great since the 80′s. Better than ever before. Corporate profits continue to skyrocket to record levels. And despite the propaganda that Republicans often push, taxes are still at some of their lowest levels in American history.

So:

Taxes are low The rich are flourishing Corporations are making record profits

Yet wages remain stagnant.

This isn’t rocket science, people it's greed plain and simple.

Corporations see human beings as expenses. And what do businesses often do? They eliminate expenses that they don’t think they need. And often when they can’t flat-out eliminate certain jobs, they simply reduce the benefits given to the employees who happen to work in those positions. Ask almost any mid to low-level employee who’s worked for the same company over the last 20-30 years if their job has gotten easier or harder and if their “perks” and raises have gotten better or worse. I’m going to say at least 80-90% of them are going to say their job has gotten more difficult while the perks they’ve been offered have greatly deteriorated.

I once worked for Sam’s Club, which is owned by Walmart. Well, once upon a time Sam’s Club paid employees overtime pay to work on Sundays. By the time I had gotten hired, employees were only paid $1 more per hour if they worked on Sundays. By the time I left there was absolutely no kind of “Sunday bonus.”

And stuff like that has been happening at almost every company all across the country for decades.

Honestly, it drives me nuts. This isn’t complicated. It’s so blatantly obvious what’s been going on (and the crap the Republican party constantly tries to pull) that it’s just maddening that millions of Americans simply don’t get it.

But it’s like I’ve said about trickle-down economics many times before, it's a scam.  It’s a con that’s managed to convince tens of millions of Americans that they can become wealthy by giving rich people more money.

And I’m sorry, but believing that is just stupid.

What Republicans have done is managed to convince tens of millions of Americans to sell the soul of this nation to the greed of corporate America all for promises that will never be delivered.

So Leo, you can complain that your tax dollars go to help your fellow citizens but never is a word uttered about tax dollars siphoned off to finance the interests of mega corporations. WE pay for the roads they use to transport their goods.  WE pay to subsidize the ports they use to export their goods.  WE pay to maintain a military that protects their interests around the world. WE pay to support a government that protects their intellectual interests around the world but we can't pay to feed starving fellow citizens or help educate them.

And since you are concerned about 40 cents of every dollar spent being borrowed here's an idea.  In 2003 when the Bush Administration extended Medicare coverage to prescription drugs, it stipulated that the federal government could not use its new market leverage to negoitiate lower prices like any corporation would do. Removing this restriction for just low income seniors would save the government $112 billion over 10 years.  Maybe Marlin could introduce a bill to make this happen and apply the savings to the budget, I'm more than sure big pharma would be glad to give back some of the windfall they have enjoyed over the last 11 years

 

Rebecca Mallory
Fri, 01/09/2015 - 2:39pm

Joe , how much are you willing to have YOUR taxes raise to pay for these programs? It seems like you exhaust your yourself and stretch credibility in rationalizing tax increases for others.

And in your temper tantrum against Republicans, you seem to neglect that Democrat President Kennedy and Clinton both cut cap gains tax.  Is it bad for Republicans to cut taxes, but not Democrats?

American corporations pay among the highest tax rates in the world and overseas income is double taxed, but somehow that is not enough.

Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics" 5th Edition puts Joe's tax argument to bed  It is a book worth reading for those whose minds are open to an actual intellectual discussion.

Finger waggers need not apply.

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