Tax Fight Is Next Big Loss For Conservos

Today's Wall Street Journal minced no words in highlighting the costs in getting Trump's much ballyhooed tax overhaul through. ('Bipartisan Tax Overhaul Has High Price',  p. A4). Bottom line is that opposing factions remain in the R-camp and the Dems are not prepared to let any old tax plan see the light. As the article noted:

"Democrats are starting to settle on a price for participating in any tax overhaul and many Republicans won't want to pay it. Democrats say they oppose net tax cuts and will resist proposals that mainly benefit high income households."

Adding that the Dems' priorities diverge from Trump's promise to 'cut the hell out of taxes', and congressional Republicans' plans to lower marginal tax rates and repeal the estate tax. The first is a non-starter for Dems given there'd be no offsets and hence a net tax cut say if rates are lowered rom 39.5% to 28%.  The second is non-starter on its face, unless the Reepos also propose a countervailing balance tax increase to eliminate the net cut. Say, increasing corporate tax rates by 1 percent.

But let's get real. that's not going to happen, and it isn't likely the Dems will participate in the kind of reverse Robin Hood measures all the GOOps want.

 Given this, the harsh reality is that the GOP House and Trumpites are now set to get splattered in the upcoming tax reform battle as badly as they were with the attempted killing of the ACA. Once again, the delirious Trump has spouted he will "work with the Dems" to get something done but all I can say is 'Dream on!'. The Dems will be in no mood to do squat, especially enabling Trump's tax cut fantasies, after the Senate Repukes altered the filibuster roles to shoehorn Gorsuch into an SC spot. Oh no!

And minus any Dem votes, the 'pukes will have to deal with their own internal schisms, given they will then have to go the narrow budget reconciliation route.  That will be a stupendous barrier to cross without Dem cooperation given the fractious nature of the Republican House and conservatives in general.

Indeed, one conservative group produced colorful flow charts warning millennials that a “border adjustment” tax proposed by Speaker Paul D. Ryan would raise prices on “the Jose Cuervo tequila that’s in your happy hour margarita.”  Bear in mind this tax surfaced after it became patently clear the delusional Trump would not be able to get Mexico to pay for any border wall. So now, his Trumpie followers are faced with having to cough up the tax moola like the rest of us.

Then, 3 days later, a second conservative group kicked off a lobbying campaign saying it would amount to a $1.2 trillion tax on seniors and the working poor.  The next day, still another conservo group weighed in, issuing a news release that highlighted how Latinos would be “among those hardest hit” by the new tax on imports.

All three organizations share a common lineage: They are part of the political network overseen by Charles D. and David H. Koch, the billionaire conservative businessmen. Now they are among a host of conservative organizations mounting a furious campaign against a new tax on imports proposed by House Republicans, imperiling what is supposed to be a centerpiece of the Republican tax overhaul effort.

To be fair to Trump, the idea of a border adjustment tax has circulated among academic economists and in think tanks since the 1970s, as the United States has considered ways of harmonizing its tax code with countries that use value-added taxes (like Barbados does). Central to the plan is a provision that would tax imports at a rate of 20 percent while exempting exports from taxation.  This sounds rational until one realizes that Trump is exploiting it purely as a devious means to get Mexico to contribute to the building of the stupid, 2,000 mile, 30 foot high border wall.

Groups like Americans for Tax Reform — headed by Grover Norquist, perhaps Washington’s most famous anti-tax crusader — have praised the border tax proposal, saying it would put American businesses “on a level playing field” with foreign competitors. Retailers that import many of their goods are lobbying against the idea, while domestic manufacturers like Boeing and Caterpillar — whose interests figure heavily in Mr. Trump’s economic thinking — are supporting it.

The Koch network and groups like the Club for Growth, which for years have targeted what they call “crony capitalism” in Washington, have opposed the border tax as an unnecessary tax increase and a form of favoritism that would hurt the economy. But Trump has pledged to target what he sees as a more insidious kind of cronyism, including unfettered free trade that some Trump advisers say benefits wealthy elites at the expense of American workers

An important point here is that both the Club for Growth and the Koch network also played a critical role in killing a proposal backed by Ryan and Trump to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. In March, as the repeal vote approached, two Koch-aligned groups pledged to spend upward of $1 million on ads defending any Republican who voted against the replacement legislation.

Now, some of the same groups are organizing visits to lawmakers and paying for an online advertising campaign attacking the border tax proposal. The roster includes Americans for Prosperity, the Koch network’s flagship political advocacy group; the Libre Initiative, which is aimed at Latinos; and Generation Opportunity, which focuses on young adults. In 2015, the most recent year for which tax returns are available, the three groups took in a combined $34 million from Freedom Partners, an umbrella group representing the Kochs and other donors who pool money for political and educational initiatives.

Another Repuke shitstorm is about to happen. Buckle your seat belts!

Don't Buy the BS: Maddow Shows GOOPs Only Want to "Stop Obama'- AGAIN!

Rachel Maddow: Showed an RNC News Conference proving these turds have no interest working with Obama.

All across the corpora-media the refrain is being heard that the Reepos intend to meet Obama "half way" and do compromise, because well, their long term interests dictate this sane path. The media loves the word "bipartisanship" but we already know to the Repukes it's considered "date rape" (Google Grover Norquist and the term together and learn more).

One notable exception has been MSNBC analyst Rachel Maddow two nights ago, who actually televised clips you will never see on most other stations, including FOX. She noted:

 "If the Republicans REALLY want to do something other than 'stop Obama' here's a chance to actually make policy - to fund a response to ISIS and Ebola- as Obama has proposed.. To decide on a response. Day one, did Republicans go to Washington to make any sort of policy? Or did they just go there to destroy the President. This is a test. This is the first test and it arrived early on day one."

She then  referred to a Reepo Press Conference featuring all the usual top dogs of the RNC and there in the background, a glaring red sign: STOP OBAMA - FIRE REID. She also played a clip from Limburger's show in which he referred to a Republican "mandate" (which is more hog shit) and then showed the porker howling:

"It is very clear what that mandate is: It is to stop Barack Obama. It is to stop the Democrat Party. There is no other reason why Republicans were elected yesterday. Republicans were not elected to govern. How can you govern with a President that disobeys the Constitution?  How can you govern with a President that is demonstrably lawless? The Republican Party was not elected to fix a broken system. The Republican Party was not elected to compromise."

If anyone with half a functioning brain had any doubts that this was how things would play out, they got their wake up call. And it makes total sense. Why the fuck should the GOOPrs change a damned thing when it's already worked so well for them? Why change one tune in their retread, sick obstruction song when it even led them to win likely 54 seats in the Senate when all the dust clears? There is absolutely no reason to change!

So this is how these assholes intend to work with Obama to get something done? STOP Obama, a mild variant of their original pig call from Obama's term one?  Block him at ever turn- no stimulus votes (think of the Depression we'd be in now if that's happened and no Dem majority existed), no energy or infrastructure repair legislation, no food stamps, no nothing!

Look, any sensible person understands, as if Maddow even had to show the evidence, that these mutants intend no compromise and no working with the President on ANYTHING! It will be their way or the highway, including passing the odious Keystone XL Pipeline, lowering all regulations on the banks so they can spread credit default swaps again in bonds to create another financial meltdown, no working on immigration, and hold your breath- REPEALING Obamacare!

The news conference with Boehner was especially laughable when he referred to Obama "playing with matches" if he intends any executive actions to get things done. But the long and short of it, from a strategic perspective, is that this will be the only way for him to get things done because Boehner and his Reepo crazies (some of whom were quoted in the press as saying Hillary was "the antichrist" and "women need to obey their husbands") have no intent to work seriously with him anyway.

Also, as Chris Hayes noted in his own show ('UP'), Obama playing the executive action card is guaranteed to incite the unhinged GOP factions, i.e.  the rabid Tea Party  ("Constitutionalist")  nuts and their ilk, and show Americans again why these fools aren't fit to have the Presidency in 2016. Why the fuck should they be rewarded with the presidency when they can't even cooperate to bring one single positive bit of legislation through? And we know this, in advance, never mind what much of the bought and sold whore media says.

One of the most insightful takes on it all was offered in a salon.com piece by Jim Newell yesterday from which I quote a segment:

"Let’s do a thought experiment. Say Barack Obama dropped his plan to take executive action on immigration in order to foster cooperation with Republicans on passing comprehensive immigration reform. What would happen? He’d be denounced by a significant portion of the Democratic base, perhaps irreparably. And then the Republican leaders in the House and Senate would proceed to do exactly nothing on immigration, because it’s not in their members’ interests to cut a comprehensive immigration reform deal with Barack Obama. And then Obama, because he is the president, would get the blame for nothing “getting done” in Washington. What possible reason is there for him to delay executive action on immigration? He can either improve the lives of millions of people, excite the members of his party, and have Republicans hate him or improve the lives of no one, depress the members of his party, and have Republicans hate him."


Read it carefully, and if you're a Dem especially, or even independent, tell me with a straight face that you disagree with that assessment. If you do, I really want to know what brand of rope you're smoking.  As the author also adds, for good effect:

"the current Republican Party’s identity is forged on being oppositional to Barack Obama. If it were to agree with him on some significant piece of legislation, then that would make Barack Obama something less-than-Satan, which would make the Republican Party … what?"

Read it and weep, my friends, but don't look for anything positive politically to emerge over the next two years. As I said before, Obama needs to have his veto pen at the ready....and now his executive action pen too. Don't give one bloody inch to these rabid refuseniks!

As Usual - Dems Good At Posturing, Not Delivering!

The news that the US economy is losing up to a billion dollars a week because of the “fiscally irresponsible” decision to end long-term unemployment benefits,  ought to have any sane American's attention - especially those still invested in the bubble (stock) market. What it means is we are looking at a likely major impetus for a new recession and financial meltdown given the current market status is not disposed to any stability.


The news comes from a Harvard economist, Professor Lawrence Katz, who said his assessment is based on official forecasts of the impact to the economy of 1.3 million jobless Americans losing benefits. The benefits, which apply to people who are unemployed for longer than six months, expired last week after a bipartisan budget deal on federal spending for the next two years failed to include a reauthorization of the program.

As I earlier noted, this deal  (named the 'Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013')  was only "bipartisan" in the sense that it provided another opportunity for the Gooprs to do a "date rape" on the Demos - as anti-tax stooge Grover Norquist defined it. The misbegotten deal reduced the blanket sequester cuts by $63bn over two years, split equally between defense and non-defense spending, although Republicans also succeeded in negotiating a further $20-$23bn in  domestic deficit reduction.  In other words, the Reeps succeeded in raping the Demos to the tune of an additional $20-23b on their side, while not paying any new taxes!

Much of this comes by their refusal to extend unemployment benefits at the end of this month - leaving millions in the lurch at the worst time of year. Kids have done without Xmas presents, and now also food - since the SNAP program was cut, and  more food stamp cuts loom over the next ten years (amounting to $40b ). Reepos haven't budged from that.   The purpose was clearly to enable the Reepos to keep an additional $20-23 b for their pet defense projects while kids go hungry.

Of course, those who yap and complain that "any unemployed person who doesn't find work in 6 weeks doesn't want it" are certified idiots. They lack the necessary IQ to grasp that if there are 2.9 people chasing every job there won't be enough jobs to go  around. These are the sort of mentally backward people who can't process that 9 gallons will not fit into a 2 gallon container.

They'd also likely laugh at the plight of one letter writer to the press, who wrote:

"As one who lost his benefits I can tell you one thing, I will be homeless and spiraling downward without an extension. Place as much blame on me as you feel but remember the end result. Just because somebody gets themselves stuck in the mud, it does not mean somebody can't help them out! I've never in 38 years been on unemployment and I am shocked by the hard time I'm having getting a job. NO one will even hire me to dig ditches, collect garbage or clean sewers! What am I to do, starve?"

Needless to say, stupid pig GOOps would merely dismiss the guy's worries and insist he still "isn't trying hard enough".  (Interesting that many who say so are themselves sitting fat and pretty - gorging on gov't benefits!)


And what are Democrats doing about it? 

Democratic leaders in the Senate are planning to fast-track legislation to extend unemployment insurance, a move that would provide a lifeline to more than a million jobless Americans who lost their benefits five days ago.

The bipartisan bill provides a three-month extension the the federal benefits program, a temporary fix designed to allow Congress to work on a solution for the long-term unemployed, who have seen their support vanish.

And what are the chances of passing? Slim and None!

Though Democrats have launched "a sustained push"  to reintroduce the federal program, and a Senate vote on a bipartisan bill to restore the benefits for three months is expected early next week, there  certainly will be no passage in the Tea Party -contaminated House. The time to have fought for preserving the benefits was when the sequester and budget deal were being hashed out LAST month. What the Dems propose is roughly equal to trying to close the barn door after the cows have escaped.

It's stupid, and merely amounts to posturing after the fact, to try to show the unemployed that  this other corporate party still cares for them.  Meanwhile, on Friday, Democrats in the House of Representatives released a state-by-state breakdown of Labor Department figures, showing the number of people who lost federal benefits when they expired on Saturday. The 1.3 million affected Americans are losing on average $305 per week. In total, Democrats said $400m had been “taken out of the pockets” of job seekers across the country.

Dems should have fought for the little guys, the unemployed who likely will now lose homes and reap heartaches when they had the leverage to deal- LAST MONTH.

Now, all they have is  cheap, fulsome rhetoric - and that won't put food on the table!

  .

Dems Get Reamed Again in "Bipartisan" Budget Deal

Paul Ryan, Reep Budget Guru, and Dem Patty Murray introducing 'Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013'

It was permanent tax hater Grover Norquist who some years back defined bipartisanship as "date rape" - i.e. on behalf of the Reepo maggot against the willing Demo. Well, it appears he's been proven correct again, as one inspects the just trotted out 'Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013'. This anomaly of budgeting, which is the most generous way I can put it, virtually gives everything to the GOP without demanding virtually anything in return. It redefines what is meant by the term 'Pyrrhic victory' in the context of enabling some semblance of government stability (avoiding "political gridlock") but at the cost of allowing the putative "rape" of the submissive Dem party.

As one press release put it:

"Aspects of the deal may alarm both parties, particularly Democrats, who are being asked to accept additional spending cuts, no new taxes and increased pension contributions from public sector workers."

That's putting it mildly! If passed by the House and Senate, the two-year deal would reduce the blanket sequester cuts by $63bn over two years, split equally between defense and non-defense spending, although Republicans also succeeded in negotiating a further $20-$23bn in deficit reduction.  In other words, the Reeps succeeded in raping the Demos to the tune of an additional $20-23b on their side, while not paying any new taxes!

Much of this comes by their refusal to extend unemployment benefits at the end of this month - leaving millions in the lurch at the worst time of year. Kids will do without presents, but also food - since the food stamp cuts over the next ten years (amounting to $40b ) are still to come. Reepos haven't budged from that.

Oh, I forgot, not only did the Dems submit to Norquist -style date rape they willingly submitted the air traveling public to it as well - instead of raising taxes for all. According to this farce of a deal, additional government revenue will be raised  through fees, such as airport charges and by demanding that federal workers pay more toward their pensions. Why should they? Do they not work as hard as any others in this country, and at often thankless tasks - such as collecting taxes from a tax phobic, hysterical public, and inspecting rodent-infested places of business to ensure Americans don't get salmonella poisoning from their peanut butter?

Why is it these public servants are the first ones to have to sacrifice? Well, because the GOoprs demand it that way. And the Dems comply .....submissively. The AFL-CIO, has already hit out at the proposal, arguing that federal workers were acting as a “punching bag” for Republicans. What we need is a group to punch back at these Reepo rats. But who will do it? Not our pussified weasel Dems.

Senator Patty Murray, Democratic chair of the budget committee, admitted much was missing from the deal, as she observed:

"We need to acknowledge that there are long-term structural problems that this deal does not address. This deal does not solve all of our problems but it is an important step.

For far too long here in Washington DC, compromise has been a dirty word, especially when it comes to the budget. For years we have lurched from crisis to crisis. That uncertainty was devastating to our fragile economic recovery.”


This is all true, of course, but a whopping Neville  Chamberlain -scale appeasement of the Right is not the path to go. "Compromise"  yes, but not full retreat, surrender and tossing hard working federal workers under the bus! Especially as our nation -according to recent stats I will show in a future blog - has become just another poverty -stricken casualty of Neoliberal economic engineering.

A real compromise, in other words, would have insisted on those unemployment benefits being extended in return for no new taxes. As it is, if this farce goes through, it will mark another shafting not only of the Dems but the American people.

The Monied Vermin Seeking Government Chaos Via Extortion and Shutdown

As I showed in an earlier blog, i.e. http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2013/09/yes-there-must-be-higher-taxes.html

the liars, thieves and Rightist extremists are on the wrong side of why the deficit has reached $16.7 trillion. In fact, it has been THEIR unpaid for wars and tax cuts that have largely driven us into this position. Also, they extorted the nation back in 2011 and they plan to do it again. This according to a new front page story in The New York Times, exposing who these groups are and how they extort by way of election-based fear of all those House Reepos that don't cooperate.

Consider the case of Aaron Schock, a conservative Republican from Illinois. Schock became a "traitor" when he (sanely) voted to increase the debt ceiling in 2011 (as had been done perfunctorily 7 times in the Bush Jr. years), and, in 2012, compounded his "crimes" by voting for a stopgap spending bill that prevented a government shutdown. Worse, he refused to vote to defund the Affordable Care Act. ("Obamacare"). 

Nor is Schock the only person now in the cross hairs. The Time notes that besides him, "10 other lawmakers considered suspiciously squishy by the Club for Growth were designated as RINO’s (Republicans in name only), and the club has vowed to find primary opponents and support them with cash — a formidable threat considering that it spent $18 million backing conservative candidates in the 2012 cycle." 

Thus, we identify the Club for Growth, as really "the Club for Chaos" who obviously can't wait to wreak havoc not only on health care, but also would have no qualms about suffering vets denied their VA disability checks, or oldsters who can barely scrape two coins together for bread and meds being denied their Social Security. For these assholes, the only thing that matters is making the rich richer and if they have to squash government to do that, so be it.

So who comprises the rest of the monied,  vermin network?

Well, readers won't be surprised, if they have followed my ten or so blogs on the Tea Party, that Americans for Prosperity, a Koch brothers group- is also involved up to its ears stirring the shit storm toward shutdown.  Like the Club for Growth's rich renegades,  the billionaire Kochs are hoping Americans will be stupid enough to screech against a sane debt ceiling increase, in order to make the nation safer for the wealthiest. Never mind, according to the Denver Post yesterday (p. 19A) the nation's billionaires are even wealthier than they were two years ago, with Bill Gates alone worth $72 billion and all of them in concert equal to the net worth of 100 million ordinary Americans. I mean, is this insane or what? How much more are we going to give these people?

How many MORE of these $65,000 all copper bath tubs :
do these fuckers need? Ten? Twenty? Can Bill Gates or the Kochs sit in all of them at once? How many 150,000 sq. foot homes do they need? Ten? Fifty? Why isn't there a rational limit to the money - property, that they can own in order for those with less to have a roof over their heads and some food? What kind of nation are we to allow such inequity?  But I digress. Sorry, after being privy to REAL poverty - seen in places as remote as the villages near the Pitons in St. Lucia - where women are infested with schistosomiasis parasites merely from washing clothes in the river - I have little patience or tolerance for people with excess wealth. I do not suffer them kindly, or the fools that seek to defend them. There it is. What can I say?


Anyway, the Koch brothers group has already spent millions on ads fighting health reform,and (as the Times reports) is beginning a new campaign to delay the law’s effects. Why can't ordinary people - families struggling with stagnant wages- have what these rich turds have: decent health care? And by that I mean access to care without going bankrupt.

But this is what we've come to expect from the economic barbarians. But who are the rest of these extremist vermin? Vermin who, while puffing "patriotism" out of one side of their mouths, have no problem destroying the basis of positive government with the other - by defunding it - unless they get their nefarious ways. And in so doing they spit on the will of the people and the general welfare held up in the Preamble of the Constitution.

Add to the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity, the National Liberty Federation, (amazing how many of these right extremists appropriate the term 'liberty') another “social welfare” group that- as the Times notes-  "sees dollar signs in shutting down the government." In other words, they see dollar signs in depriving impecunious seniors of their Social Security, and paralyzed vets of their disability benefits. Some Americans these! They sound more like Nazis, and no, that's not overblown. Not from where I sit.

How determined are these traitorous vermin to take down the government if they don't get their execrable way? According to The Times,  very determined - citing a Republican operative (Brian Walsh) who recently noted in U.S. News and World Report that the Right is now spending more money attacking Republicans than the Democrats are. He said: “Money begets TV ads, which begets even more money for these groups’ personal coffers. Pointing fingers and attacking Republicans is apparently a very profitable fund-raising business.”

The idea is clearly one of blackmail and extortion. Vote the way we demand, to defund or shut down the government (sending vulnerable citizens down the crapper) or we will take you down from the Right. We will get an even more extremist (but cooperative) pawn to help us achieve our goals. And the Devil take the hindmost or most of the nation!

Citizens need to be aware of the forces at work at this new debt ceiling crisis unfolds, and a government shut down becomes more imminent. Know who the enemy is, and in the next cycle of elections, i.e. next year, refuse to vote for any of the extremists' pawns!

Guest Blog: "I HATE this deal!" - Joshua Holland

So, we have a a modest deal in place to avert the contrived crisis known as the fiscal cliff. Washington is celebrating the fact that Congress averted the disaster that it created out of thin air last year.

Some say that it's not a bad deal on its merits, but we'll have to await final judgment until we see what happens with the debt ceiling, which has to be raised in the next two months. If the White House stands firm on its refusal to negotiate over the debt ceiling again, and doesn't give any more concessions, then we can look back at this deal as a pretty good one, on balance.

I suspect this will become the center-left conventional wisdom, and only dirty hippies will be bitching. So pass the patchouli, because I hate this deal.

It's simply a hostage exchange. The Republicans gave up the fiscal cliff, and will now take the debt limit, the federal budget and automatic across-the-board cuts to discretionary spending (the sequester), and have another standoff in 2-3 months time. The deal wouldn't have gotten 85 GOP votes in the House without the leadership giving right-wingers ironclad guarantees that they'll have another hostage soon.


What leverage will the White House have at that point? They've already rejected the "constitutional option" to avoid the debt ceiling -- and won't mint  a big platinum coin. The Bush tax cuts on high earners will be off the table. That leaves cuts to defense -- which Republicans hate -- and public opinion, to which the GOP doesn't seem terribly responsive when its base is screaming murder and threatening primaries (which is always). That's pretty thin gruel given that the "austerity caucus" thinks it has a good shot at cutting Social Security and Medicare as part of a "grand bargain" with Obama.

Other than that, we'll only have the Democrats' legendary iron back-bone on which to rely. Nobody's ever gotten rich betting on that.
After the bill's passage, Obama swore he wouldn't negotiate over the debt ceiling again. That's an important principle to establish for the years ahead, but it's irrelevant to the deal at hand. Because the debt ceiling needs to be renewed at about the same time that the stop-gap measure funding the government runs out and the sequester kicks in, we'll have another hostage situation very soon.

So while progressives are celebrating Grover Norquist's ugly black eye, the can has only been kicked a short way down the road. Dems will have a poorer hand to play in the months to come. If cuts to popular retirement benefits end up in the mix of a budget deal, then this deal would have paved the way for a bad outcome.


Perhaps I'll be proven a pessimist. I certainly hope so. But I don't quite get the value of evaluating this deal in a vacuum, as if a showdown over the debt ceiling or a potential government shutdown isn't all but assured.

And someday you'll be able to tell your kids that you remember a time when Congress didn't need a phony crisis to pass laws.

See also:  http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/biggest_fiscal_cliff_lessons/

'Taxes are Much Higher Than We Think?'- HARDLY!

According to Edward C. Prescott and Lee E. Ohanian ('Taxes are much higher than you think', WSJ, Dec. 12, p. A19) the average American is being taxed senseless.  The authors assert:

"Taking into account all taxes on earnings and consumer spending- including federal, state and local income taxes, Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, excise taxes, and state and local sales taxes,....the U.S. average marginal effective tax rate is around 40%. This means that if the average worker earns $100 from additional output he will be able to consume only an additional $60."

Well, that's assuming of course that the worker isn't made to work all or most of those extra hours off the clock....as at Walmart. More seriously, the authors throughout their anti-tax rant make no mention of the benefits that accrue from the taxes paid!

Hence, in accounting for said benefits - say Social Security monies - which surely assist and fuel consumer spending (at least of oldsters, as well as many on disability), they are off the mark! In truth then, the 6.2% payroll taxes ought not even be part of the mix because it's more a defined contribution plan paid back to beneficiaries. Contributions paid in (with more than a gov't 'match') and later received as benefits go for groceries, health care (e.g. prescriptions) and other components that drive aggregate demand.

Thus, knocking off that 6.2% defined payroll contribution puts the proper tax rate at less than 34% while eliminating sales taxes takes it down even further (given sales taxes are really optional and imposed only on certain consumption transactions). When I therefore use the term "effective marginal tax rate" I apply it to income taxes exclusively, not optional taxes which one avoids by not undertaking the specific transaction (or undertaking it online). This leaves even lower percentages.

The fact remains that even if such adjustments aren't made, Americans are currently taxed at the lowest percentage of GDP for the past 40 years. This as our domestic needs have expanded, including infrastructure repair and alternative energy investment.

Compared to the marginal tax rates of 91% in the 50s, an era which also saw only one parent having to work, and bank interest rates approaching 4-5%, Americans are getting off Scot free. Indeed, if Americans value their future benefits, such as Social Security and Medicare, they ought to be the first to be standing in line to pay HIGHER taxes, and especially to come out both barrels blazing against any further postponement of full payroll taxes- which pay the freight on those benefits!

Bottom line? We simply cannot afford any further extensions of payroll tax cuts, for "stimulus" or any other absurd reasons! The Social Security Disability funds are already bleeding down to zero and while Social Security can't go bankrupt (it has no external creditors) we don't want future seniors to have to live on only three fourths of what current seniors receive!

The authors also claim (ibid.):

"High tax rates, on both labor income and consumption, reduce the incentive to work by making consumption more expensive relative to leisure, for example. The incentive to produce goods for the market is particularly depressed when tax revenue is returned to households either as government transfers-in -kind, such as public schooling, police and fire protection, food stamps and health care that substitute for private consumption."

But it's important to understand what these guys are saying here: To wit, that it's better for each 'Murican to use more before tax income to buy even more cheesy crap to fill his home or storage unit (and that he likely will never use more than once....like that 20-year old 'Tickle Me Elmo' or  Mark McGwire bobble head collection) than it is to put that money toward the common good!


Thus, these two numbnuts rate the consumption -purchase of cheesy crap over paying for police and fire protection, public schooling or food stamps - which actual stats (e.g. by the Economic Policy Institute) show drives aggregate demand and betters the economy far beyond tax cuts.

To put a finer point on it, there is already TOO MUCH private consumption in the U.S. which is infantilizing all of us (See e.g. 'CONSUMED: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults and Swallow Citizens Whole' ). The book depressingly details how private consumption is feeding the capitalists' coffers while converting us all into selfish infants who gotta have their own toys!

One thing that can't be defended, therefore, is enabling more disposable income to dispose of in junk! Taxes therefore provide the incentive and basis for genuine economic growth and quality jobs - as opposed to generating twenty million Bloomingdales' clerk, sales serfs and burger flippers.

Authors James Medoff and Andrew Harless (The Indebted Society, 1995) indeed show that as tax rates increase, aggregate demand is enhanced and job output grows. This is in direct opposition to the specious claims of the tax cutter fetishists like the two WSJ authors. As EXHIBIT A, one need look no further than the 20 million-plus jobs created over the Clinton years when the marginal tax rates were at 39.6% - which we are told now will bring us over a "fiscal cliff".

The true fact is that if the Bush tax cuts (more and more now the Obama tax cuts) aren't fully repealed soon, rampant inequality will continue to grow across the board. How much has it already grown? An Economic Policy Institute  Study reported in today's New York Times (p. A22)  found that between 1983-2010 three quarters of all new wealth accrued to the wealthiest 5 percent of households. Over that same period the bottom 60% actually become poorer.

If we want this travesty to end, we have to be prepared to cough up more of our paychecks for higher taxes....for the common good, and ultimately our own welfare! This is also exactly why ALL the Bush-Obama tax cuts must be sunset at the end of this year - as they were originally intended to when passed in 2001 (actually after ten years) because of the toll taken on the deficit!

We need NOW to get out of this tax phobic state or reap the consequences very soon!

The Wacko Who Has Washington's Balls in a Sling

If you're wondering about the causative agent responsible for heaping a world of hurt on millions in this country come day after Thanksgiving, look no further than Grover Norquist, the anti-tax wacko that has a majority of the D.C. Beltway's balls in a sling thanks to his anti-tax pledge. As of this writing, it is estimated some 89% of the GOP-ers in congress have taken Norquist's misbegotten pledge never to raise taxes. This even includes voting down the repeal of the existing Bush tax cuts (again, another good reason for the Dems - while they still cling to a majority - to just let them ALL expire without regard to income class.)

As I noted in an earlier blog:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2011/11/unconstitutional-committee-poised-to.html

a "Joint Deficit Reduction Committee" which is a creature not of a legitimate constitutional process, but rather political expediency, is poised to end up in a quagmire with automatic cuts triggered including $600 billion for social programs, and $600 billion for defense. This quagmire is a result of none of the 6 members of the GOP side being able to budge on allowing higher revenues via taxes, on account of being held hostage to Grover Norquist's ridiculous pledge.

Meanwhile, the Dem side of 6 has virtually proposed the social domestic kitchen sink to try to snare a deal before the Nov. 23 deadline. They are - get this - prepared to:

- Exact massive cuts to Medicaid (ensuring the states will have to lower thresholds even further to qualify)

- Increase the eligibility age for Medicare to 67 or 68

- Allow a change in the inflation -adjustment formula to "slow the growth of Social Security benefits" - an abomination on which I previously blogged, noting it would rapidly translate into increased poverty among the elderly by essentially removing one whole month of (currently) received benefits every few years.

Even with all this on the table, perhaps the largest proposed social benefits cuts ever, the Reeps are stonewalling - always fearful of Grover calling them on the carpet. In other words, Norquist- an unelected twerp- has our whole government and nation by the proverbial balls.

Though I hold no endearing brief for Alan Simpson (he of the "sucking 300 million teats" description for those taking Social Security) I do concur with him when he recently commented:

"If Grover Norquist is now the most powerful man in America, he should run for President. Let me tell you, he has people in thrall."

Yeppers, Mr. Simpson, and by the balls!

The sad thing is all of this deficit humbug the past year could have been avoided with just one single good faith move by the Repugs on taxes. One little bit of willingness to raise them, just to the marginal rate during the Clinton years. This would not only have solve the deficit riddle, but also spurred more economic growth, and jobs. It would have occurred by energizing the weakened aggregate demand.

Economic author Matt Miller, in his book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas, showed that tax cuts "are amongst the most dead ideas of them all". In terms of economic growth over time, it is in fact the European "welfare" states which beat the pants off the tax-phobic U.S. of A. The reason is simple: the people in those nations haven't had their brains subverted against higher taxes, and understand they are part of a commonweal whose shared interests those taxes support.

They also get it that the spending generated by that "welfare" side of the economy is what props up the demand side of the macro-economic equation, and preserves growth while the "supply-side" economies (like the U.S.) suffer. Why do people think Germany has done so much better than the U.S. in weathering this recession?

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert also gets it:

"All we are good at is bulldozing money to the very wealthy, no wonder the country is in such a deeep slide....America will never get its act together until we recognize how much trouble we're in and how much effort and shared sacrifice are needed to stop the decline. "

The trouble is, as long as Grover Norquist has all the Goop-ers balls locked up in his 'no taxes' chains, the national economic malaise will continue because the political system will remain paralyzed.

Just remember who to blame when your Medicaid gets drastically cut in a few more weeks and your Medicare benefits are cut by providers, faced with cuts in federal funding!

Why None of the Repuke Clowns is Electable

It is a sad thing when a major American political party, attempting to ascertain a presidential candidate for one of the most important elections in a quarter century, comes up with nothing but clowns. But alas, this is truly the case. The GOP, or "Grand Old Party", aka the Republicans, has managed to field a majority of clowns - excepting Jon Huntsman - who at least is one candidate with his head screwed on straight (though he has zero chance of getting the nomination).

But who else do we have on the GOP side? Well, there's Rick Perry who couldn't even recall (in his last debate) the name of the primary federal agency he wants to abolish once elected, which is responsible for approving most of his state's oil drilling leases and regs. In a horrifically awful 54 seconds captured on Youtube, this guy was not able to name this third agency (Dept. of Energy). Of course, now he's poking fun at his misstep, which I suppose is the only thing he can do - and others are saying he developed "brain freeze" which anyone can. This is where high anxiety in a stress situation disables the prefrontal cortex and causes speech lapses.

I understand all that, but absolutely shudder at the thought of this happening during high stakes, high pressure talks on nuclear disarmament with the Russians, or extending the current treaty provisions to regulate former Soviet ballistic missile sites and materials, warheads. Those are situations where "brain freeze" is simply not an option! Moreover, what if during one of these confabs - and at the most critical juncture - Perry's brain permanently locks up and he can't end negotiations on his own?

Then there have been Perry's other fiascoes, including warning Ben Bernanke to never ever step foot in Texas, or else....comparing the Fed Chairman's quantitative easing policies to "treason" - and we know what happened to JFK in Texas in November, 1963 after most wingnuts there declared him guilty of "treason"!

Perry has also compared Social Security to a "Ponzi scheme" despite the fact the program has been around for 76 years and never missed a payment, and also that everyone who uses the system know that current beneficiaries pay for current retirees benefits. That was how it was set up, like most other national social insurance systems.

Then there is the serial female sexual harasser and erstwhile pizza magnate, Herman Cain. Even after four women have come forward, and Sharon Bialek went into details on how this putz groped her and tried for more, he still denies it or suspects some quasi-liberal "racist" plot. He believes it's all a sordid effort to keep him off message. Well, from what? You mean your "9-9-9" plan, Uncle Hermie, the one that promises to financially ruin this nation in nine months?

After Cain we have the brashly bloviating Michelle Bachman, who really ought to be history by now after Newsweek published that psychotic photo of her on its front cover some months ago. This is a woman who has no clue of basic political or historical facts, and once inadvertently claimed to be from the same little burg in Iowa (during the Iowa caucuses) as John Wayne Gacy the horrific child serial rapist and murderer. Do we really want this quasi-religious fruitcake sitting anywhere near the "football" - the device that receives the codes to dispatch the nuclear missiles?

Then there is Mitt Romney, the guy that was for Obama's healthcare plan before he was against it. He implemented a similar plan in Massachusetts, mandating that all residents buy insurance, but appears to have suddenly developed severe memory lapses. Romney has also openly declared he wants to double the defense budget which is already sucking up 59 cents of every dollar. Hey Mitchie, after you double that Pentagon budget, will you have enough left to provide 190 million Americans with food stamps? Or, will you let them get their eats by dumpster diving?

The Economist ('A Dangerous Game', Nov. 5, p. 31) , was quite correct when it summed all these loonies up as "the new Jacobins" because that's exactly what they are. They all signed pledges from Grover Norquist never to raise taxes and are all trying to outdo themselves to see who can brown nose the most for Tea Party votes. Fortunately, a new book is due and just in time for this next election: The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism, by Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson of Harvard. They show that the emergence of the Tea Party was "just what the doctor ordered" for a group of billionaire ideologues including Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries who "lost no time exploting the movement's anger and energy".

As they note, the aim was to "turn the Tea Party movement into a permanent grassroots army and mount a hostile takeover of the Republican Party".

This is also why the Occupy Wall Street movement, which I agree needs to remain apolitical by composition, nonetheless needs to confront the Republicans and the Tea Party as the front faces of Wall Street and the Globalization mandate.

Finally, it is passing incredible to me that any senior in his or her right mind would cast a vote for the GOP candidate next year, as claimed in the cover story in the recent issue of TIME. (The claim is that 56% of the "Silents" - the generation in the over 65 and under 80 age category, plan to cast a vote for the Repuke candidate next year).

These morons are also undaunted by prospects of Republicans altering their entitlements, benefits because they claim the main candidates don't wish to do anything to affect the program for them - only the age 50 and younger folk. Think again! If Herman Cain is elected and his "9-9-9" flat tax is passed, which includes cutting out Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, there will be NOTHING to support your benefits! Where the hell do you think your S.S. checks are going to come from - on trees?

Ditto if Perry gets in and privatizes the system for the young. That will require, by AARP estimates and TIME's, nearly $6.5 trillion be removed from the existing system to set up private accounts. With that degree of hollowing out, these jokers that put any repuke in as president will see maybe $100 a month, if they are lucky! And that's if a COLA is retained!

Only a senior who's ignorant or in early Alzheimer stages would cast a vote for a Republican next year! And given this current pack of clowns, any one who would is either clown-proofed, or so racist in their reaction to Obama that a no-Obama reaction vote is all they have left in their quiver. And if that's the case, old timer pro-Goopers, be afraid, be very afraid!