Dear reader, as you know, one of our pet issues here at Chucking Rocks, is trickle down, or supply side economics—a theory conceived by conservative (incompetent) economists, and long heralded by conservative politicians and activists as a justification for tax cuts for corporations and the very wealthy. Well, today is a great day for Chucking Rocks, because damning information has just come out proving that supply side economics simply does not work. Rather, it produces exactly what even the most elementary thinker should be able to grasp: government deficits due to a lack of tax revenue, huge corporate profits that in no way translate to more American jobs, and in the end, a massive transfer of wealth from the working poor and middle class to large business owners and the very wealthy.
It is well documented by now that government revenue, both state and federal, is down, and because of this, the federal government is running a large deficit (though this is nothing new), and state governments are being forced to make cuts to schools, public works, aid to the poor and elderly, as well as emergency services, such as police, fire, and health care. While some of the deficit can be blamed on lower income tax revenue because of high unemployment, tax cuts, especially for high income earners, have starved the public coffers. This has been somewhat true since Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, though Reagan and H.W. Bush also passed tax increases, being advised by fiscal advisors that were not idiots (they correctly deduced that if lower taxes equals lower revenues). Unfortunately, ever since, tax cuts and supply side economics has been Republican dogma—the mere idea of even questioning such a notion unthinkable to anyone who considered themselves a conservative. And the predictable result: less government revenue. (1)
Meanwhile, corporations have been padding their bank accounts. According to an article on Bloomberg, corporate profit margins are currently at an 18 year high (2). In fact about a month ago, President Obama paid a visit to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to in effect, beg them to spend some of the billions they are holding in cash reserves on research and development, greater production, basically, anything that would create more jobs for American workers. And yet, unemployment nationally sits just below 9%, while over the past decade, real wages for most Americans have declined. Consider some facts Minnesota Senator Al Franken cited last December, when Republicans were in full tax-cut extension fever: “during the past 20 years, 56 percent of all income growth went to the top 1 percent of households. Even more unbelievably, a third of all income growth went to just the top one-tenth of 1 percent.” (3) Bottom line: the rich have gotten obscenely rich, while the rest of us have been left to languish in a recession that is only effecting the middle and lower classes. (On a side note, you should read this article on Rolling Stone, explaining how Wall Street ruined this economy and got off scott free: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216)
The overall result of these policies is a huge transfer of wealth in America. In 2007, for example, the bottom 50% of households owned 2.5% of U.S. wealth, while the top 10% of households owned 71.5%. Not surprisingly, this is due to the shift in tax policy. In 1944, the richest income earners paid an effective tax rate of 65% (if you made over a million dollars a year—a hell of a lot back then); now, those in the same category pay only 23% of their income to the Feds. (4)
So, at this point, it should be pretty clear that cutting taxes—especially for the rich—does not create more jobs, starves the federal and state governments of money, and effectively transfers wealth from the lower and middle classes to millionaires and billionaires. These are provable facts, and it is your duty, dear reader, to make sure everyone you know—especially Republicans—is made aware of them. Supply side economics is asinine, and anyone who believes that tax cuts are good for job growth is a fool.
(1) http://www.democracyjournal.org/20/the-triumph-of-taxophobia.php?page=1
(2) http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-14/profit-margins-at-18-year-high-signal-bigger-s-p-500-dividends.html
(3) http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/03/the_high_cost_of_a_broken_meta.html
(4) http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#the-gap-between-the-top-1-and-everyone-else-hasnt-been-this-bad-since-the-roaring-twenties-1
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Plagiarizing myself...and slap bets
Every once in awhile, it’s a good idea to take a survey of where we’re at, politically, as a country. So much is said and repeated and spun and edited by the news rooms, pundits, and political machines in our nation (in the case of Fox news, a combination of all three), it’s hard for the many Americans to make sense of it all. Basic questions such as, “who is telling the truth? Who is lying? What are the facts?” and more complex questions like, “what should we do to turn the economy around? How do we really reduce the deficit? How do we improve education in this country while streamlining the efficiency with which it’s delivered?” All are good questions, and I’m here to make it a little easier to understand the answers—but rather than bore you with facts, numbers, and logic (though all will make their relevant appearances), I think it is best to make comparisons; to put things in simple language that is fun to read, and easy to understand.
To borrow from the format of those horrible Geico commercials: “Do Republicans politicians tell the truth? (downturn of face to showoff the greasy hair, then look up and turn stupid face to the side) Does Satan like Girl Scout cookies?” (Pause for dramatic effect, followed by the Lord of Darkness burning down a church) Of course not—Girl scout cookies are wholesome, support a good cause, and they are downright delicious—divinely delicious in fact.
Anyway, take the union issue in Wisconsin, where Republicans just pushed through a bill to strip collective bargaining rights from public employees. Up to this point, they’d been claiming that their efforts in this endeavor were merely budgetary. Well, it appears that it must not have been, since in order pass their erroneous bill, they had to strip all the budgetary language from it to skirt around the law in Wisconsin requiring a quorum (at least 20 Senators must be present to vote on any bill pertaining to the budget). They also held this vote in about 15 minutes, and violated the rule that any bill must be announced to the citizens of Wisconsin 24 hours prior to a vote being held.
It’s a play taken right out of Senator Palpatine’s playbook, and we all know what happens to Mace Windu, longtime Union advocate, when he confronts him: betrayal. In fact, the embodiment of the Republican party might be best captured when Anakin is battling Obi Wan, on a planet closely resembling hell, a longtime conservative stronghold, when he angrily screams, red eyed, “I hate you!” Can you feel the hate? Don’t be too surprised if you here that as the rallying cry at the 2012 Republican convention.
Who is lying? As usual, Fox News. During “The O’Reilly Factor” (also known as “A Crotchety Old Man Lies His Ass Off”), they displayed footage of a union rally that got out of hand, supposedly in Wisconsin. The only problem was that there were palm trees in the back ground…pretty sure those don’t grow in places that far North. Who watches that stuff anyway and remains an intelligent, thinking person…it’s like Gollum when he sees the ring: I can picture it now, Fox viewers in wheel chairs and retirement homes, crusty investment bankers, and racists everywhere, huddling around their televisions, chanting, “yes, precious, tax cuts for precious, we hates those unions and teachers, yes precious…and women, precious, women are tricksy and false, gollum!”
The facts? The facts are these: Bush and his Republican congress turned a budget surplus into a massive deficit by cutting taxes for the very rich (not only income—more important were the cuts to capitol gains), starting two completely unnecessary wars, and passing all kinds of bills that created loopholes and welfare for large, multinational corporations. And now after these actions have bankrupted our country, your 2010 Republican house has proposed to make 100 billion dollars in cuts to pay down the deficit. But have they chosen to cut funding for the largest programs like the military, social security, or Medicare? No. They’ve chosen both to cut out every possible government program that supports the poor or creates jobs, as well as any agency that enforces corporate regulations or provides information (ala NPR). So in a nutshell, the Republican party stole money from the government to give to their political donors and benefactors and now they want people in the lower and middle class to pay for the ensuing financial disaster of their malfeasance.
The facts? Every Republican has six fingers on their right hand. The Republican party rubs Survivor Russell’s bald head and round belly for good luck. The Republican party was glad that Crystal Bowersox lost American Idol. The Republican party doesn’t have a dream where their children are judged by the content of their character—they have a nightmare where all children are enslaved to serve the needs of rich, which men. Charlie Sheen is probably a Republican.
I just wish people would get the point I’m trying to make, and that is so abundantly clear to anyone who is willing to open their eyes and think: the Republican party does not want to serve America or Americans—it exists only to serve itself. Their political platform is: cut taxes at all costs—especially for the rich, oppress people of color and the female gender, deny education to anyone who can’t afford private school, end all restrictions on the power of corporations, deny and obfuscate science and reason, and fix the court systems and political rules to get our way. And their one overarching rule: do and say anything to get re-elected.
If Americans have any sense of purpose, and actually want to keep the democracy and freedoms we value so much, we've got to vote these guys out of office in 2012. And in the meantime, you have to confront your Republican friends, and decry them publicly. Supporting the Republican party should be an embarrassment at this point.
If you want, make a slap bet with a friend. Every time you can prove the Republican Party is doing something heinous, or their pundits lie, you get to slap the shit out of their face. And they get to slap you when the Democrats lie.
I'll take this challenge up publicly--anyone want to take me on. Provable lie by Democrats equals a slap for me...provable lie for Republicans equals a slap for you.
To borrow from the format of those horrible Geico commercials: “Do Republicans politicians tell the truth? (downturn of face to showoff the greasy hair, then look up and turn stupid face to the side) Does Satan like Girl Scout cookies?” (Pause for dramatic effect, followed by the Lord of Darkness burning down a church) Of course not—Girl scout cookies are wholesome, support a good cause, and they are downright delicious—divinely delicious in fact.
Anyway, take the union issue in Wisconsin, where Republicans just pushed through a bill to strip collective bargaining rights from public employees. Up to this point, they’d been claiming that their efforts in this endeavor were merely budgetary. Well, it appears that it must not have been, since in order pass their erroneous bill, they had to strip all the budgetary language from it to skirt around the law in Wisconsin requiring a quorum (at least 20 Senators must be present to vote on any bill pertaining to the budget). They also held this vote in about 15 minutes, and violated the rule that any bill must be announced to the citizens of Wisconsin 24 hours prior to a vote being held.
It’s a play taken right out of Senator Palpatine’s playbook, and we all know what happens to Mace Windu, longtime Union advocate, when he confronts him: betrayal. In fact, the embodiment of the Republican party might be best captured when Anakin is battling Obi Wan, on a planet closely resembling hell, a longtime conservative stronghold, when he angrily screams, red eyed, “I hate you!” Can you feel the hate? Don’t be too surprised if you here that as the rallying cry at the 2012 Republican convention.
Who is lying? As usual, Fox News. During “The O’Reilly Factor” (also known as “A Crotchety Old Man Lies His Ass Off”), they displayed footage of a union rally that got out of hand, supposedly in Wisconsin. The only problem was that there were palm trees in the back ground…pretty sure those don’t grow in places that far North. Who watches that stuff anyway and remains an intelligent, thinking person…it’s like Gollum when he sees the ring: I can picture it now, Fox viewers in wheel chairs and retirement homes, crusty investment bankers, and racists everywhere, huddling around their televisions, chanting, “yes, precious, tax cuts for precious, we hates those unions and teachers, yes precious…and women, precious, women are tricksy and false, gollum!”
The facts? The facts are these: Bush and his Republican congress turned a budget surplus into a massive deficit by cutting taxes for the very rich (not only income—more important were the cuts to capitol gains), starting two completely unnecessary wars, and passing all kinds of bills that created loopholes and welfare for large, multinational corporations. And now after these actions have bankrupted our country, your 2010 Republican house has proposed to make 100 billion dollars in cuts to pay down the deficit. But have they chosen to cut funding for the largest programs like the military, social security, or Medicare? No. They’ve chosen both to cut out every possible government program that supports the poor or creates jobs, as well as any agency that enforces corporate regulations or provides information (ala NPR). So in a nutshell, the Republican party stole money from the government to give to their political donors and benefactors and now they want people in the lower and middle class to pay for the ensuing financial disaster of their malfeasance.
The facts? Every Republican has six fingers on their right hand. The Republican party rubs Survivor Russell’s bald head and round belly for good luck. The Republican party was glad that Crystal Bowersox lost American Idol. The Republican party doesn’t have a dream where their children are judged by the content of their character—they have a nightmare where all children are enslaved to serve the needs of rich, which men. Charlie Sheen is probably a Republican.
I just wish people would get the point I’m trying to make, and that is so abundantly clear to anyone who is willing to open their eyes and think: the Republican party does not want to serve America or Americans—it exists only to serve itself. Their political platform is: cut taxes at all costs—especially for the rich, oppress people of color and the female gender, deny education to anyone who can’t afford private school, end all restrictions on the power of corporations, deny and obfuscate science and reason, and fix the court systems and political rules to get our way. And their one overarching rule: do and say anything to get re-elected.
If Americans have any sense of purpose, and actually want to keep the democracy and freedoms we value so much, we've got to vote these guys out of office in 2012. And in the meantime, you have to confront your Republican friends, and decry them publicly. Supporting the Republican party should be an embarrassment at this point.
If you want, make a slap bet with a friend. Every time you can prove the Republican Party is doing something heinous, or their pundits lie, you get to slap the shit out of their face. And they get to slap you when the Democrats lie.
I'll take this challenge up publicly--anyone want to take me on. Provable lie by Democrats equals a slap for me...provable lie for Republicans equals a slap for you.
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