Say It Again

The recent debate over the payroll tax and unemployment compensation extensions made it clear that many of the professed Ayn Rand worshipers on Capitol Hill are also students of George Orwell. The Ministry of Truth in Orwell’s novel 1984 was tasked with repackaging and repeating misinformation until it became reality (by sheer repetition) for those living beneath the watchful eye of Big Brother. We have heard from the Ministry of Truth that the following are truths about the top 1% wage earners in this country:

The top 1% wage earners are paying their fair share of taxes at 38%;
The top 1% wage earners are job creators in this country;
The top 1% wage earners would create less jobs if taxed more.

The Ministry of Truth has been spinning this mantra for some time now hoping with repetition we will forget the reality from which these truths were repackaged. The reality is:

1. According to data compiled from the Congressional Budget Office, the top 1% paid an average income tax of 19% in 2007, less than wage earners making less income annually. The 38% figured used is the statutory tax rate for this income category. By the way, the statutory tax rate for this income group in 1963 was 91% more than double what it is today.
2. Most small business owners are not in the top 1% wage earner category and do not fuel job creation. The corporations paying the top 1% wage earners have in fact, been job destroyers, making significant profits by moving jobs abroad. The top job creators according to US News in the last 30 years are young start-ups like Amazon, Google and Facebook, job creators that would rather do without help from Capitol Hill and the Ministry of Truth.
3. Since the top 1% wage earners aren’t job creators, whether they are taxed at a higher rate or not will have no direct impact on whether or not more jobs are created. It is certainly worth noting however that Bill Clinton increased the statutory tax rate for the top 1% in 1993, in spite of dire warnings of job losses from supply-siders and the Ministry of Truth. The result of increasing taxes on the top 1% wage earners in 1993 was an increase in job creation! In fact, during Clinton’s 8 years with no tax cuts 22.7 million jobs were created; versus the 8 years of George W. Bush’s tax cutting, which created a mere 1.08 million. Today the top 1% is paying much less than ½ what they paid in federal income tax in the 1960’s—where are all the jobs this tax savings should be creating according to the Ayn Rand devotees?

The fact is, we stand a much better chance of creating more jobs and gaining greater fiscal responsibility by taxing this group of wage earners who has benefited most from American capitalism. The top 1% wage earners are not job creators and do not contribute their fair share per capita to the federal income tax pool. Now would be a great time to eliminate the welfare we have extended to this group since the mid-60’s and use the savings to extend unemployment compensation to the people who lost their jobs, in large part, to ensure the continued bonuses and outrageous corporate salaries extended to the top 1% wage earners.

Let's Keep Funding NPR and PBS

[Below is my response added to the petition signature to ask Congress to continue funding PBS and NPR. To sign the petition, follow this link: http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/dont_defund_npr/?rc=fb_share1 ]

No, no, no! Public radio and television is perhaps the only stations worth tuning into these days, and offering the only balanced media coverage. This sort of media coverage has always been valued as a vital part of our democracy, and has always been supported, financially by the Federal government.

If we are looking for savings to balance the budget, may this taxpayer suggest:

1. We reduce our military spending dramatically;
2. Pursue the huge cost savings in the current health care bill recently passed, or;
3. Better still, a universal health care bill;
4. Ensure that those who benefit most from our capitalism, corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes;
5. Keep Congress focused on what they claim they were voted into office to do--reduce the huge budget deficit created during the Bush tenure, create jobs, reinvigorate an economy brutalized by deregulation during the Bush presidency, and not what they appear to be doing now--wasting taxpayers dollars pursuing an agenda few taxpayers are interested in--reversing the health care legislation, reversing women's rights to choose, and defending one of the most critical tools of our democracy.

Please stop wasting our money and get to work on what the voters put you in office to do.

On Abortion: Listen to Palin

Thia morning, after listening on NPR to the craziest GOP rationale for restricting a woman's right to choose and where funding might be coming from to make this choice, I heard the following quote from one of the GOP's spokeswoman, "Instead of a government thinking that they need to take over [and] make decisions for us according to some politician or politician's wife's priorities — just leave us alone. Get off our back" (Click here for the story).

If Palin is this upset about Michelle Obama's program to restrict children from being fed crap for school lunches, imagine how upset she'll be when she discovers that members of her own party want to restrict her right to planning her parenthood!

Winter Hint

Watching the twilight winter sky deepen
from violet to mysterious heliotrope the stars
grow brighter, nearer,
with each passing breath.