Category: Taxation

The Promise Of Wages

I follow Speaker Ryan on Twitter because his daily Tweets can get a real person laughing for most of the day.  His Tweets since the tax cuts of 2017 are about how much better off the economy is at this point and occasionally he offers some vague promise of wages.

The truth is these cuts have done little to raise the wages of the working class but did everything to raise the wealth of the already wealthy.

The real truth is that all the tax cuts for the last couple of decades have done nothing to raise the wages of the average working stiff.

The graph on wages is flat and has been that way for many decades……follow the graphs on wages……there are 9 of them that prove my point…..https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/

After checking out the graphs……read this report from the Pew Research……

On the face of it, these should be heady times for American workers. U.S. unemployment is as low as it’s been in nearly two decades (3.9% as of July) and the nation’s private-sector employers have been adding jobs for 101 straight months – 19.5 million since the Great Recession-related cuts finally abated in early 2010, and 1.5 million just since the beginning of the year.

But despite the strong labor market, wage growth has lagged economists’ expectations. In fact, despite some ups and downs over the past several decades, today’s real average wage (that is, the wage after accounting for inflation) has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago. And what wage gains there have been have mostly flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/

So to taunt the tax cuts as working for the working class is a damn lie….a lie that the GOP has become master at selling to the unwitting public.

To fight this growing story…the public is starting to see just how much of a lie the GOP is spreading…..the Right needs a theory to explain the lagging wages…..

Once upon time, when the GOP was still attempting to dress itself up as a party of ideas, Yuval Levin was considered one of its star intellectuals. As editor of the conservative policy journal National Affairs, he was a wonkish prophet of fiscal doom, who argued that the U.S. would soon face a reckoning over its national debt, and that the only way to avert catastrophe was to radically curtail the modern welfare state. Levin was once described as Paul Ryan’s own “personal philosopher,” and was the sort of guy who could get David Brooks hot and bothered by writing a long-winded argument for slashing entitlement spending.

If a politician like Sen. Marco Rubio or Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had become president in 2016, Levin might still be playing a starring role in Washington’s policy discourse. But of course, Donald Trump is president, and Republicans have dropped the charade that they sincerely care about the deficit, or whatever the heck got written about in ponderous thinky policy rags. Levin still gets cited by columnists like Brooks, but his star is a bit fallen.

https://slate.com/business/2018/09/wage-stagnation-new-conservative-theory.html

An interesting read and very eye opening……

The GOP has always been a party for liars and when it comes to screwing the public they are masters at making the public smile while getting humped.

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It’s The Economy Stupid! (Again)

Labor Day (that was yesterday) got off to a rousing start with a Tweet from Our Dear Leader…..Trump then touted the economy, tweeting, “Happy Labor Day! Our country is doing better than ever before with unemployment setting record lows.”

I have looked at the economy from several different political points of view……https://lobotero.com/2010/06/28/its-the-economy-stupid/

Dear Leader and the his enabling cowards, the GOP, keep thumping their chests like sex crazed primates over the economy and it is just silly…..maybe it works for a few individuals but nit so much for the country…..

Wages are falling, Wall Street tycoons are swimming in profits from stock buybacks, and the federal deficit is exploding. Every way you slice it, the Republican tax scam is failing spectacularly, falling far short of the blustering promises of Trump, Speaker Paul Ryan, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

When Republicans jammed through the tax scam on a party-line vote, Trump promised it would be “rocket fuel” for the economy, helping families across the nation. Ryan promised tax cuts for everyone. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin vowed the bill would pay for itself.

All lies.

https://shareblue.com/republican-tax-scam-busted-doesnt-promised/

We can keep lying to the people and it will come back and bite someone in the ass….most times the working class are the ones that get bitten while the 1% enjoy the high life.

Closing Thought–14Aug18

Recently the Congress and Our Dear Leader passed and signed into law the large tax cuts for the rich……and now they are talking about another round of tax cuts for those same rich people……

And what if the “Blue Wave” is successful……will the tale told by Dear Leader about the raising of taxes come true?

Whatever happened to the notion that rich people should pay their fair share of the cost for their country’s public programs?

Progressive income taxes―designed to fund government services and facilities—go back centuries, and are based on the idea that taxes should be levied most heavily on people with the ability to pay them.  In the United States, the federal government introduced its first income tax in 1861, to cover the costs of the Civil War. Although new federal income tax legislation in the 1890s was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, the resulting public controversy led, in 1913, to passage of the sixteenth amendment to the Constitution, firmly establishing the legality of an income tax.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/01/lets-tax-the-rich/

Personally I have NO problem with everyone paying the same amount of taxes or the elimination of some of the beneficial deductions of the wealthy…..not to worry these people will pay the taxes and still find a way to turn a profit……then let us do the right thing and we all pay the same amount of taxes….so yeah…tax the goddamn rich!

I have given my solutions for true tax reform and not just a few tax cuts….unlike most bloggers I do not just bitch about something I also offer what I think is a better plan…..(please check out my solutions and see if they are not a better way to tax the people)

https://gulfsouthfreepress.wordpress.com/2017/09/01/tax-reform-2017-edition/

After all there is still “Taxation Without Representation”…….and I have written about this situation as well……https://lobotero.com/2011/05/12/no-taxation-without-representation/

So I Have Written!

Turn The Page!

The People’s Budget

First those tax cuts that the GOP shoved down the throat of Congress….well these do very little for a peon like me about $35 a month and did everything it was suppose to do…make the wealthy more so and explode the deficit (so much for all GOP crap about fiscal responsibility)…..

Well it was so successful for the wealthy that they are planning another round of help for the Fat Cats……

Despite the profound unpopularity of the Republican Party’s tax law, pushed through last December amid loud protests directed at President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers, party leaders on Tuesday unveiled framework for their “tax cuts 2.0” package—signaling that they are doubling down on their plans to benefit the rich at the expense of working Americans.

The framework, which House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) released, claims that it would permanently extend tax cuts for individuals that were set to expire in 2025, help families to save for college, and help small businesses create retirement plans for their workers.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/07/24/no-evidence-goptaxscam-has-benefited-most-americans-republicans-unveil-plan-double

A subject that gets little attention these days……poverty.  These days it seems the being poor makes one a criminal and most legislation rewards greed and wealth…..

In addition to padding the bottom lines of America’s largest corporations by cutting their taxes and eliminating scores of longstanding regulations, President Donald Trump is also protecting major companies’ profits by refusing to punish them for ripping off consumers and trampling federal rules that safeguard the planet.

That is the central conclusion of a new Public Citizen analysis out Wednesday, which finds that corporate America has largely been exempt from Trump’s so-called “law-and-order” agenda. Titled Corporate Impunity (pdf), the report shows that enforcement actions carried out by major government agencies declined drastically during Trump’s first year in the White House.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/07/25/poverty-criminalized-wealth-immunized-report-shows-corporate-crime-enforcement-has

I brought up this expansion of the deficit because that Progressive Caucus has released the “People’s Budget”…….

Offering an ambitious alternative to the House GOP’s “morally bankrupt” 2019 budget proposal—which demands over $5 trillion in cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, and other life-saving programs—the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) on Tuesday unveiled a budget that calls for massive investments in infrastructure, healthcare, and education while proposing significant cuts to the completely “out-of-control” Pentagon budget.

Titled The People‘s Budget: A Progressive Path Forward (pdf), the CPC’s plan also calls for a ban on “any expansion of U.S. combat troops in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, and many other countries,” demanding an immediate end to “the policy of funding endless wars.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/07/24/putting-common-good-over-billionaires-and-war-profiteers-house-progressives-unveil

This addresses the “Common Good” which any legislation should do…..

Now in reality this “Budget” will go nowhere….simply because it does little to benefit those that own the members of Congress.

Economic News

It is Saturday and I need to report on stuff that is happening and the MSM seems to avoid their inclusion in the daily news reports.

Remember those tax cuts last year and all the promises for the future?  Well here is some news that the GOP does not want the rest of the population to know…..

One of the many things confirmed by the great tax-bill melodrama of 2017 is that Republicans only pretend to care about “fiscal responsibility” when Democrats are in power and tax cuts aren’t on the line. With the opportunity to slash the corporate rate nearly in half, cries of “I won’t endorse a bill that adds one penny to the deficit!” evaporated, and tacking on $1.5 trillion became no big deal. Tax cuts, we will soon be reminded, don’t grow on trees, and the social safety net must be pared back in exchange. For now, though, Republicans are still in the trickle-down honeymoon phase, seeing in every corporate press release more confirmation that America has been made great again. Which makes it somewhat ironic that the Treasury is now burning through its cash reserves at an even more spectacular rate.

the CBO does not agree with the GOP bullshit……

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the federal government will run out of money even sooner than expected, thanks to the new tax legislation, which is estimated to lead to a fall in revenue of $136 billion in 2018. A default on debts had originally been forecasted for late March or early April. But now, because of the new withholding tables, “withheld receipts are expected to be less than the amounts paid in the comparable period last year.” That, combined with the fact that the Treasury generally issues a high number of tax refunds in February and March, means that the $272 billion in cash the Department had on hand as of Tuesday will quickly dwindle. If the debt ceiling isn’t increased by the first half of March, the C.B.O. cautioned on Wednesday, “the government would be unable to pay its obligations fully,” and would be forced to delay payments, default on its debts, or both.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/the-gop-tax-cut-is-draining-the-treasury

Why is it when the GOP does something economic the reserves suffer the worst?  And does no one call them on their bullshit?  Then they are the ones that bitch about the deficit the loudest and instead of responsible spending they want to make up the short fall by screwing the rest of the population?

One more news item and it is one that no one wants to hear…..recession…….

When will the US enter its next recession? Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal are predicting 2020. We’re currently in an economic expansion that started in mid-2009—the second-longest in American history—and 59% of the forecasters surveyed think it is most likely to end in two years due to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. Another 22% predicted 2021; smaller groups predicted 2019, 2022, or an unspecified date beyond that.

Recessions are difficult to predict, but one economist who took part in the survey says signs are emerging that the current expansion is in the late stages of its cycle, and another says “any year from 2019 onward is in play” for a recession. The last recession began in December 2007; alarms were raised in 2011 and 2016, but the US did not enter a recession either time. The longest-ever economic expansion was in the 1990s, lasting 10 years.

Just FYI so that my readers can make any adjustments that they may need…..

Sorry if I peed on your parade….Have a good day and get some rest!  chuq

Sex, Lies And Bullsh*t

Sex, sex, sex……Flynn, Flynn, Flynn….taxes, taxes, taxes……say goodbye to Al Franken…….that was last year and in the mean time people are dying of disease in Yemen, nukes may go to the Saudis, Jerusalem has been made the capital of Israel……and the world continues to turn…..and in a slow burn thanx to the American president……

Let’s look at say Franken (my example du jour)……he has resigned because of his events prior to his election to the Senate and yet there is a good chance that a pedophile could be elected to the Senate from Alabama(he was not)…..my my how far we have come…..for in 1987 a candidate was forced to resign because of a photo of a young woman sitting on his lap….Don’t hurt yourself….the candidate was Gary Hart.

And today we can just say that it is “fake news” and all is okay and the candidate could skate to a win.

Lies….lies….lies…..our society is awash in lies…..lies about immigrants….lies about sexual antics of politicians…..lies about international situation…..but the biggest source of lies in our society is from the one person that needs to be truthful…..the president.

So far in August 2017 the lies are running rampant……

As of August 7, 2017, Donald J. Trump will have been in office as president of the United States for 200 days. This period of time will largely be remembered for the rancor and distrust sewn between his administration, the media, and the general public, as well as any numbers of investigations, scandals, and gaffes of various size and degree (occurring both on Twitter and in real life), but what stands out in perhaps the highest relief have been the falsehoods. (And his unconscionable perversion of the exclamation point.) Without further ado, a trio of Vogue contributors list what they believe to be Trump’s greatest hits: his most memorable, notable, or otherwise mind-boggling lies, from crowd size to James Comey. Follow along to see if your favorite made the cut!

https://www.vogue.com/article/donald-trump-lies-200-days

Of course the “fake news” machine will have a field day trying to push back on the lies.

Now for the bullsh*t portion of this post…..

The hatchet job that Trump TV (FOX News) is doing on the FBI……while I personally have no love for the FBI I have no doubt that they are honorable and hardworking….the lies about the FBI has been taken up  by the cowards in the House and Senate…..these toads are regurgitating everything thing that FOX throws at the political wall.

The hard working bloggers that carry the torch for Trump continue to make excuses for Trump’s lack of any governing skills…..stock market is the Deep State that is after Trump….there is NO deep state ……..we do have a president that probably cannot pick his nose without doing harm or checking with FOX first.

Watch any “bad” news for Trump and the chorus like a Greek play, starts trying to make the case that someone somewhere is pulling the strings around Trump.

Closing Thought–06Feb18

By now we all know what the GOP thinks of the latest tax cuts, although they like to call their obscenity as tax reform…..whether you are for them or against…the simple truth is that us average worker has cuts lasting 5 years and millionaires will last forever…..equality is a good thing a shame it does not apply to everyone.

Speaker Paul Ryan recently let it be known where his elitist ass stands…..

House Speaker Paul Ryan used Twitter to highlight a school secretary benefiting from the Republican tax overhaul, then deleted the tweet after online criticism that he is cheering an increase of $1.50 a week. The AP reported on Thursday that changes in tax withholding were sparking bigger paychecks, citing as one example Julia Ketchum of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, whose check went up $1.50 a week. She told the AP that the $78 a year would more than cover her Costco membership.

Ryan on Saturday posted a Tweet noting the secretary’s increase and linking to the AP story—which was quickly met with mockery, notes the Washington Post, particularly among those comparing the size of Ketchum’s windfall with that the nation’s wealthy. Typical was Rep. Joe Kennedy III, who tweeted that, “Meanwhile the wealthiest 0.1% of Americans receive an extra ~ $3,000 per week,” while a Post reporter notes that Ketchum’s $78 a year is less than Ryan makes in an hour as speaker. Ryan has posted several other examples of worker pay increases and bonuses since the overhaul, some as much as $1,000. Ryan’s spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gee….a whole $1.50 per week…..I mean really who could bitch about that?

Ryan quickly tried to rid himself of that unfeeling embarrassment….but people like me will not let it go….

It was an incredibly patronizing remark that drew immediate backlash and caused him to delete the tweet in humiliation.

But the internet is forever, and activists promptly made the $1.50 pay raise a rallying cry in favor of his Democratic opponent, Racine ironworker and union leader Randy Bryce.

According to a spokesperson from Bryce’s office, speaking to Shareblue Media, “From Saturday through 1 p.m. on Sunday, we raised $130,000 from 10,600 contributions.” Furthermore, 5,100 of those contributions were $1.50.

It is clear that Ryan’s laughable attempt to pretend the tax scam would benefit the middle class has completely backfired.

Who said the GOP was all about the rich….look at what they gave this secretary…..

I must take my leave…be well, be safe and see you guys tomorrow….chuq