The Bush Tax breaks are becoming an issue again, and I wonder what Congress will do. Well, actually it’s pretty much a given with the Tea Party infected House. There’s going to be a lot of talk about taxation and socialism and whatever Koch brother generated talking points are for the week. The facts are that the two biggest contributors to the deficit are the Bush tax breaks and the unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, I don’t believe our conservative brethren will be much concerned about the deficit this week. Preserving tax breaks for the wealthy is much closer to home for the Tea Party representatives of the wealthy. I can hear it now… raising taxes on the rich will reduce jobs. Lowering taxes on the rich didn’t produce jobs, but raising them would cause a loss of jobs?
There are a lot of good people involved with the Tea Party and many of them have pointed out to me that I have more in common with their Libertarian bent than to the current Democratic Party (by the way, I have been flying the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag at my office for over 15 years – long before the Tea Party even existed). The fact is that as well intentioned as the movement was originally, it has been completely co-opted by the Koch brothers and other corporate lobbies. The policies of the Tea Party simply reflect the interests of billionaires. One need look no further than their complete absence in the effort to reverse Citizen’s United, the most urgent threat to our democracy, to understand this fact. Reversing the corrupting effect of Citizen’s United would clearly be in the best interests of restoring a representative government, but totally against the interests of people like the Koch brothers. Hence, the Tea Party silence on that issue, and their outrage over the delay in the Keystone Pipeline.
But, I digress…
This is what I would do with the revenue restored if the Bush tax break for millionaires was enacted. Take half of the revenue and devote it to lowering the deficit. Take the other half and undertake the most massive infrastructure renewal structure since the Great Depression. Modernize the electric grid, repair roads and bridges. Why not even create a natural gas for auto and finally begin to break free from foreign oil? The added jobs would help the economy and the modernized infrastructure would also help.
What would you do?
FiegerTime - Geoffrey Fieger's Blog 
I dont always agree with you, but you could have saved AIR AMERICA.
They already have technology for cheaper fuel and power. Oil pays better. Did you know the Rockefellers, who had oil rigs in Pennsylvania, pressured Henry Ford to make his cars gasoline only. Originally the MODEL T ran on grain alcohol and also gas. If it were not for the BATF, you could run a still in your basement and make all your own car fuel.
Tesla had a blueprint for free energy, but the papers were intellectual property, sold to his sponsor George Westinghouse.. http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2008/01/29/teslas-free-energy-inventions-supressed/
I agree except for the fact healthcare spending (i.e. Medicare) is the largest reason for federal budget deficits (together, debts). That said, the Bush Tax Cuts and the two (at least!) “wars” overseas could offset cuts from the budget.
The problem: Instead of allowing Bush Tax Cuts to expire and reducing our bloated defense budget, we seek balance in the budget through cutting discretionary spending programs (which is obviously worse for lower and middle incomers).
Health Care Spending …. if they knew anything about Heath Care, we would not be in this mess. If the government was not so greedy to line their pockets and the pockets of “others” and steal from the Social Security Funds for our retirement!
Actually, I was looking to comment on the recent commercials about President Obama and Mitt Romney. having found no appropriate blog, I guess this will do.
Saw the ads about President Obama and Mitt Romney. They were very good, short and to the point. Since I doubt you went through all that trouble just for two ads, I suspect more are coming. There are any number of issues that could be used.
It’s seems the format is a 60-second ad. The first part is what Romney said or did. The second part is what actually happened. The third part is you make your point. It’s like guerilla warfare or ad fare in this instance. You show up, make a quick strike and you’re gone. Not having the millions Karl Rove or a couple of Koch heads have, these ads could be effective by their very brevity.
The ads would be short, not sarcastic or negative. Just state a fact or ask a question and let the ad percolate in the audience’s mind. If you plant seeds of doubt now, you could gather votes later.
Where possible, use Romney’s own words or writings to trip him up. A classic example is where someone asked an RNC official “what’s the difference between Romney’s economic plan and George W. Bush’s?” The RNC official stated that Romney’s plan was only an updated version of Bush’s. Another was when a Romney staffer was asked if Mitt supported equal pay for women. There’s dead silence for a few seconds and then the staffer says “we’ll get back to you on that.”
You could do a number of ads on the Ryan Plan alone. If people knew just how terrible this plan was and who would be affected, people would be outraged. Let them know Romney fully supports the plan and then watch the worm squirm. I’ve already seen a number of people refer to it as the Romney-Ryan Plan.
Other issues could be the GOP complains about where are the jobs and then sabotages every job bill put forward. John McCain saw 23 years of Mitt’s tax returns. He then dropped Romney, a known entity, and picked Sara Failin’, an unknown. Why? What was so troublesome in those returns? The 2010 elections and what happened later could be very useful also.
There’s certainly no dearth of material to pick from. These are just some things to consider.
At the end of the occasional day, the more honest of your detractors will resort to the cynical argument: if you raise taxes on the rich, close corporate loopholes, or adopt any income-inequality mitigating measure in general, you’ll just be triggering capital flight. (Ditto for reintroducing Glass-Steagall, beefing up the SEC, enforcing environmental and workplace standards, and on and on.)
And of course, your detractors will be right, the globalization of the market being what it is.
The solution, unfortunately, is a political non-starter, namely: the system of governance needs to be globalized as well.
Anyone seen Obama’s tax returns? How about his college transcripts? Hell it took the Donald to get Obama to release his long form birth certificate. What will it take to un-seal the Obama X files?
I bet Mitt Romney has paid more $$$ in taxes than Obama. Spare me the percentages, dollar for dollar who paid more and who took the most on the public dole? Seems like Obama is insecure about something…
As for globalized governance, well screw that! Although Hillary is spending serious US coin right now trying to do just that! Mind you this is a woman cheated on by her husband.
So who the hell knows? Ill tell you…. The people with all the damn money.