Well, finally, finally, something went right for progressives. Oregon voters look to be approving both measures 66 and 67, showing that they value state social services such as education, health care, and emergency services. Which shows us that if you actually leave things up to average Americans (except, apparently, Massholes), they actually make pretty reasonable decisions. And while no one is going to sit here and pretend that it is just totally awesome to have to raise taxes, it is a win for the lower and middle classes, who absolutely cannot afford to take cuts to their only way to reach a higher standard of living: education. So to the businesses and rich assholes who say they are going to move out of Oregon, you better get packing you stupid fucks! Believe it or not, Oregonians will still need to purchase goods and services, and there are still profits to be made from doing so.
Unfortunately, there have been a number of political horrifications that have taken place recently that make the vote in Oregon a little less savory. First, Massachusetts elected Scott Brown, a Republican who ran on the simple premise that he would stop the Democrat's health care reform. What a great guy to be swept into a lucrative (I'll get to this) political office by the promise to ensure that thousands of people, including many children, will die due to a lack of proper health care.
And what a bunch of stupid fucking idiots the voters of Massachusetts are: do you people not forget that the Republican party, not the Democrats, are responsible for two wars, the erosion of civil politics (which has essentially capsized our government's ability to pass almost anything), the housing bubble, the bank bailout, and, ho-hum, the ENORMOUS AND INCREDIBLE DEBT OUR COUNTRY IS IN AFTER 8 YEARS OF BUSH AND REPUBLICAN RULE! All of which, not surprisingly, they are now blaming on the Democrats. Any voter at this point who is willing to support this party is committing the political equivalent of the woman who breaks up with the boyfriend that beat the living shit out of her for 8 years, and then, after 1 without him, decides to give the psychopath another shot.
Speaking of debt, Obama is set to announce, in his state of the union address, that he is going to institute a domestic funding freeze. Is he going to cut the military budget or foreign aid to contribute to this cost cutting measure? Of course not! Like the high school girl that always has a crush on the guys that think she's ugly and tell her so, Obama is falling right into the Republican trap. Does he actually think they are going to help him in anything that he does? What an absolute fool! He's a Democrat, he's well educated (although, we may have to call that into question now), he's eloquent, oh, and HE'S BLACK! Unless he picks up a garden tool and some old overalls, he isn't ever going to see any support from a Republican.
Sorry, I couldn't help myself--I had to save the worst for last. Last week, the Supreme Court announced a decision that reversed 100 years of campaign finance law, basically awarding the keys to our government to the highest bidder. This means that any corporation can spend as much as they want to support or defeat a political candidate, even corporations that are based and pay taxes in a foreign nation. Who can you thank for this? The two recent Bush appointees, Alito and Chief Justice Roberts, who lied to Congress about their view on this matter, as well as their view on overturning established court precedent. Awesome.
I don't know about you, but I've totally lost faith in our political system, and especially in our politicians. Any decent human being has by now written off the Republican party, but at this point, I'm not so sure we can trust the Democrats either. The Democrats are simply too corrupted by corporate money and old politics to be a champion for the middle class. And, as the Massholes have shown, we are likely going to get stuck in a see-saw battle where party majorities change constantly and nothing gets done for the good of the American people. The fact is, we need a new party. The Independents don't really stand for anything, the Greens are dumb, and the Libertarians are a lost cause.
Yes, I am aware that third parties almost never work, but if there was ever a time where one could, it is now. Most people are aware that the Republicans aren't going to do anything but take away people's rights, spout Christian propaganda, discredit science and education, start more wars, spend more money, and support the corporations and banks interest over those of the little guy every time. And if Democrats are in office, Republicans are going to try to shut down government completely.
The Democrats, on the other hand, are masters at waffling, hemming, hawing, and not getting shit done. And because of this kind of behavior, people just don't like them. No one want to elect the big pussy nerd, who only wants to win class president so he can add it to his list of accolades, along with his chess and debate trophies.
Again, the only solution I can think of is to form a new party, and it should be founded on four basic selling philosophical stances: Socially liberal, Academically conscious, Fiscally conservative, Environmentally responsible. I suppose it could be called the SAFE party--that would appeal to all the nervous soccer moms out there, right? Of course, I have a few more ideas about the parties platform and the planks that it's made of, but I'd like to hear from my dear readers:
1) Is this something that can actually work?
2) What are the issues that you care about (Immigration, Health Care, Education, Defense, Taxes, Etc.)?
3) What other principles should our party promote?
4) Am I wrong about the Dem's?
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Yes on 66 and 67
Well the debate on measures 66 and 67 rages on. Proponents argue that the cuts to schools and other social services would be too great to sustain if the measures don't pass, while opponents say that passage would cost Oregon jobs in an already dire economy. For the sake of full disclosure, I am a teacher, and plan to vote yes on the measures, because the simple fact is that I may not have a job if they don't pass.
What frustrates me most about the dialogue surrounding the measures is that essentially, conservatives, business owners, and Oregon's wealthy citizens consistently threaten to hold voters hostage on the issue. The logic is this: the upper class and business owners provide jobs to Oregonians, and therefore, by taxing them more we would be biting the hand that feeds us, and, taken at face value, this makes sense. We certainly don't want to tax businesses so much that they cannot compete and be profitable, and there is a point at which we would be doing just that.
The problem with this argument is that we are no where near that point. In fact, whereas individual citizens in Oregon pay a 9% tax on income, even if 67 passes, corporations will pay 7.6% on income (after the first $250,000, which is taxed at the current rate of 6.6%). So even if 67 passes, corporations would still pay a lower tax on their income than lower or middle class Oregonians. Moreover, most corporations (90% is a number I've heard thrown around by state economists) would merely pay the minimum tax, which would increase from $10, which I hope we can all agree is absolutely absurd, to $150. And if $140 is going to sink the ship, you're a shitty business person whose time would probably be better spent trying to generate revenue than bitching about taxes.
How about the rich: joint filers who make more than $250,000 a year or single filers who make more than $125,000? Well, if 66 passes their income tax would go from 9% to 11%, and then only for years 2009, 10, and 11; after that it drops back down to 9.9%. The difference? For every $10,000 after the threshold, about $200, or, since Oregon's disinvestment in education, about what it costs for a kid to play on a sports team in high school.
So the idea that these measures are going to somehow put all kinds of corporations out of business, or cause the rich to flee for greener pastures en mass is utterly ridiculous. Not only that, but if you followed their logic through, what conservatives are essentially arguing is that we should decrease taxes on business and the rich, and then let the lower and middle classes pay as much of the tax burden as humanly possible. Does that sound familiar? It should. Its called trickle-down economics and IT DOESN'T WORK!!!
Quick economics lesson: Trickle-down economics is also called supply side economics, in which the idea is to make costs as low for suppliers aka corporations as possible, allowing them to hire more workers and produce more of whatever they're making. The problem is that in order for any product to be sold, there must be a buyer, in other words, there must be demand. Demand is defined as the want to posses a good or service AND the ability to buy it. In short, markets don't work without demand for goods and services, so to simply focus on supply is to see only half of the picture.
The other half? What happens to the economy when thousands of teachers, policemen, firemen, and state workers are put out of work, and those that remain in their positions see their salaries slashed by shortened school years and added furlough days? Short answer: less demand. End result: a less vibrant economy. The fact that everyone seems to be forgetting is that the same state employees that would be effected if 66 and 67 don't pass, are also consumers that need housing, groceries, clothes, transportation, etc.
The big picture here is that this is part of what is wrong with not only Oregon's economy, but the U.S. economy as well. We bail out banks that are "too big to fail." We bail out auto companies that are getting blown out of the water by foreign competition. We privatize here and deregulate there, always making sure to help out the big guys in the hope that it will somehow end up trickling down to the middle and lower classes, and the plain fact is that it doesn't. Everything we do is an attempt to prop up the supply side of our economy, and our answer for demand: credit cards with extraordinarily high interest rates and bad mortgages, that only serve as platforms for the rich to once again fleece the shit out of the little guys. And Obama and the Democrats are in on it just as much as the Republicans, along with the corporate media and the television--closer friends to most Americans than their neighbors.
The worst part is that so many Americans and Oregonians buy the bullshit, and the one tool that we have to combat this modern day Goliath, education, is being attacked and belittled as I write. Give David a fighting chance: vote yes on 66 and 67.
What frustrates me most about the dialogue surrounding the measures is that essentially, conservatives, business owners, and Oregon's wealthy citizens consistently threaten to hold voters hostage on the issue. The logic is this: the upper class and business owners provide jobs to Oregonians, and therefore, by taxing them more we would be biting the hand that feeds us, and, taken at face value, this makes sense. We certainly don't want to tax businesses so much that they cannot compete and be profitable, and there is a point at which we would be doing just that.
The problem with this argument is that we are no where near that point. In fact, whereas individual citizens in Oregon pay a 9% tax on income, even if 67 passes, corporations will pay 7.6% on income (after the first $250,000, which is taxed at the current rate of 6.6%). So even if 67 passes, corporations would still pay a lower tax on their income than lower or middle class Oregonians. Moreover, most corporations (90% is a number I've heard thrown around by state economists) would merely pay the minimum tax, which would increase from $10, which I hope we can all agree is absolutely absurd, to $150. And if $140 is going to sink the ship, you're a shitty business person whose time would probably be better spent trying to generate revenue than bitching about taxes.
How about the rich: joint filers who make more than $250,000 a year or single filers who make more than $125,000? Well, if 66 passes their income tax would go from 9% to 11%, and then only for years 2009, 10, and 11; after that it drops back down to 9.9%. The difference? For every $10,000 after the threshold, about $200, or, since Oregon's disinvestment in education, about what it costs for a kid to play on a sports team in high school.
So the idea that these measures are going to somehow put all kinds of corporations out of business, or cause the rich to flee for greener pastures en mass is utterly ridiculous. Not only that, but if you followed their logic through, what conservatives are essentially arguing is that we should decrease taxes on business and the rich, and then let the lower and middle classes pay as much of the tax burden as humanly possible. Does that sound familiar? It should. Its called trickle-down economics and IT DOESN'T WORK!!!
Quick economics lesson: Trickle-down economics is also called supply side economics, in which the idea is to make costs as low for suppliers aka corporations as possible, allowing them to hire more workers and produce more of whatever they're making. The problem is that in order for any product to be sold, there must be a buyer, in other words, there must be demand. Demand is defined as the want to posses a good or service AND the ability to buy it. In short, markets don't work without demand for goods and services, so to simply focus on supply is to see only half of the picture.
The other half? What happens to the economy when thousands of teachers, policemen, firemen, and state workers are put out of work, and those that remain in their positions see their salaries slashed by shortened school years and added furlough days? Short answer: less demand. End result: a less vibrant economy. The fact that everyone seems to be forgetting is that the same state employees that would be effected if 66 and 67 don't pass, are also consumers that need housing, groceries, clothes, transportation, etc.
The big picture here is that this is part of what is wrong with not only Oregon's economy, but the U.S. economy as well. We bail out banks that are "too big to fail." We bail out auto companies that are getting blown out of the water by foreign competition. We privatize here and deregulate there, always making sure to help out the big guys in the hope that it will somehow end up trickling down to the middle and lower classes, and the plain fact is that it doesn't. Everything we do is an attempt to prop up the supply side of our economy, and our answer for demand: credit cards with extraordinarily high interest rates and bad mortgages, that only serve as platforms for the rich to once again fleece the shit out of the little guys. And Obama and the Democrats are in on it just as much as the Republicans, along with the corporate media and the television--closer friends to most Americans than their neighbors.
The worst part is that so many Americans and Oregonians buy the bullshit, and the one tool that we have to combat this modern day Goliath, education, is being attacked and belittled as I write. Give David a fighting chance: vote yes on 66 and 67.
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