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With or Without a Government Shutdown - Republicans have Already Won the Debate
With or without a government shutdown, Republicans have already won the debate on our nation's budget. Why? Because the corporate media is on their side.
Make the wealthy pay their fair share.
A budget shouldn’t just focus on spending cuts directed at the poor and middle-class - it should also include revenue raisers like closing corporate loopholes and asking millionaires and billionaires to cough up a few extra bucks a year. Let’s cut some wasteful spending, but let’s also raise a few taxes. But this common sense narrative has been lost inside the main stream corporate media - where there’s only one question that’s being asked today, and that is “how much spending needs to be cut?”
Not, "why aren’t some of the most profitable corporations in the history of the world skating by paying zero taxes?"
Not, "why are the wealthiest Americans enjoying historically low tax rates during a historically high budget deficit?"
Did you know that corporate taxes used to account for roughly 30% of revenue collected by the government - and today that number is only 7%? Probably not, because the corporate media, which would prefer not to pay its taxes and only wants us to focus on just how much Republicans and Democrats can cut out of the budget?
So why is the media ignoring these calls?
It’s simple - corporate owned media outlets won’t call for tax hikes on corporations, and rich TV personalities won’t call for tax hikes on the rich. The topic of tax hikes just doesn’t exist in our now-consolidated media. Which is really a shame because the Republicans who seem to have already won the debate have a bad idea - a really, really, bad idea.
Let’s take their road - let’s cut all the programs for poor people in America - let’s throw every middle-class family under the bus - let’s tell poor and sick Americans who rely on the government for health care assistance to, “walk it off.” Let’s do ALL these things that Republicans want to do - and we’d still have a massive budget deficit. Why? Because our government really doesn’t spend all that much money helping poor people - but we do hand off trillions to corporations and their millionaire and billionaire CEOs for buying everything from bombs to fighter jets to Chertof Porno Scanners for our airports.
So if we let the Republicans win this budget fight, as the corporate media seems more than willing to let happen, then a few years from now we’ll be asking these same questions about what to do with the soaring budget deficit - and at the same time wondering why the middle-class seems to have completely disappeared.
The solutions to our budget problems are simple - you wouldn't BELIEVE how simple they are. I can tell you the solution using only 6 words…ROLL - BACK - THE - REAGAN - TAX - CUTS. Heck - roll back the Bush tax cuts, go back to Clinton levels where the wealthiest Americans paid an extra 3% - just 3% - three measly percentage points, and we’d take a huge chunk out of our deficit, just like that.
Remember how the Clinton budget passed without a single Republican vote in the House and gave us not only a balanced budget but a surplus? And if we rolled back the Reagan tax cuts, and made billionaires pay at least 74%, like they did for more than half of the 20th century, when our nation prospered and the middle class grew - then we’d have a budget SURPLUS!
A budget surplus? Can you imagine how different life in America would be with a budget surplus?! We’d be paying down our debt year-to-year. And we’d be able to use that extra cash to do things that our nation hasn't done in generations since Reagan started “starving the beast.”
We’d build new roads and bridges - new schools - build new science programs like NASA from scratch - renovate our national energy grid - invest in clean energy like Denmark did where 19% of their energy now comes from windmills - or like Germany did by putting solar panels on people’s roofs - and now after 10 years solar power is generating more electricity in Germany - the second cloudiest country in Europe behind the UK - making more power than 8 nuclear power plants. This is what America could be doing today - putting people to work - rebuilding the middle-class - and reclaiming the top spot in the world economy.
We need to change the debate in America today.
Unlike the Republican budget proposal passed a few months back that's nearly 200 pages of draconian cuts, after all, we know Republicans hate bills more than a few pages, mine is just 1 page - in fact - it's just 1 sentence. It simply says one thing - Restore the top income tax rate of 74% - as it was the year before Ronald Reagan took office in 1980 and we had no debt crisis. If we can get this bill passed, or even just get it debated, we can fix America's problems today.
So call your congressman and tell him to vote for the simple solution, the right solution, and roll back the Reagan tax cuts.
Comments
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73 Comments so far
Show AllPreemptive surrender!
What's really needed is for Obama to keep a few campaign promises, eg. rolling back the Bush tax cuts.
And, hey, Thomm, when are you going to start holding Obama responsible for his many failings & stop supporting his second term. If he has been this far to the right in his first term, how much further would he go when he no longer needed to worry about running again? It's frightening to think about.
WE NEED A TRUE PROGRESSIVE ALTERNATIVE TO OBAMA IN 2012!!!
I worked for his election ; I will not vote for him again.
Obama and the Democrats are on the same side here. They're just pretending to oppose.
The Black Wall Around Barack Obama: Who Does It Protect Him Against?
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/black-wall-around-barack-obama-who-does-it-protect-him-against
Obama gave the class warfare victory to the economic elites and big business interests in his State of the Union, speech to the Chamber of Commerce and the budget he submitted to Congress. It is not a Republican victory but a victory of the wealthy. But, there is not really a fight in Washington, DC -- elected officials agree on the basic philosophy it is only a question of degree.
Obama's budget focused on cutting the deficit at a time when we need stimulus. He promised a budget "freeze" but he excluded the security state budgets from the freeze and let their budgets increase -- military, war, intelligence, and domestic security. The security budget is 66% of discretionary spending. Everything else in Obama's budget would be cut or kept at their current level. The Republicans just pushed the same agenda further in favor of the wealthy, militarists and corporatists.
In addition to not cutting the bloated security state budget, Obama has taken discussion of taxing the wealthy, making corporations pay their fair share and taxing purchase of stocks, bonds and derivatives off the table. Big businesses that received hundreds of billions in bailouts after crashing the economy are getting billion dollar tax refunds instead of paying taxes. Obama is silent on this economic theft (he wrote the laws that allow it!).
If you are not going to face up to security state spending and the wealthy not paying their fair share, then there really is no debate. It is all imaging and positioning by the Dems. In the end, they push a "Republican" agenda. After-all, Obama wants to raise a billion for his re-election. That is not coming in $25 donations!
Join us in revolt this Friday: www.ItsOurEconomy.US.
KZ
If the possibility exists that the Democrats and the Republicans are on the same side, then we are in "deep kimchi." We know that paying our fair share of taxes is moral. Jesus said, in the Bible, to "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's." So, we just have to pray and have faith that the moral, just way will win. Dr. King said that the "Moral arch of the universe bends towards justice."
Make the "wealthy pay their fair share[?]" dah...
Maybe Hartmann was sleeping when the Dems conspired with the Repuds to extend the tax cuts to the richest pond scum on the planet while finding ways to cut Head Start, and Home Heating assistance to the poorest of the poor and funding the wars in three countries to record levels..
Hartmann continues to see the world through his rose colored glasses: when it comes to Obama, 'see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil.'
I have tried to listen to his show several times, but i can't take him. He is a Democrat spokesperson, primarily. And hard to take as a personality to listen to.
right! I've said it many times, the posters on this site offer more profound insight on politics than most of the contributors but this is especially true for the Dem enablers like Hartmann. A couple of days ago one poster noted, "Hope and Change are so yesterday."
Hartmann is the Obama Admins trojan horse inside public broadcasting.
I find Hartmann very informative when he speaks. Actually the word is "Democratic". It was always "Democratic" until recent years when conserviatives like to use that other word, I guess it is a way to disparage the Democratic party in some subtle way. I can't help but notice that Repubs often use that term and other terms that probably come from propaganda experts who have all these kinds of psychological manipulation worked out.
Actually, the real Left uses the same word too: like, Democrat, it really is intentional use to characterize the posers. :)
All the "lefty" talkers are just shills for the Democratic Party and Obama. Every so often, recently, I've noticed one or another step slightly out of line on Obama's performance, but they pretty quickly run to heal the next day or so. I really don't know why as I can't see that their advertisers would care either way.
But I'm equally amazed at the number of their callers who are still total Obamabots.
Headline this morning:
"Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chief, Gets A $19 Million Raise"
Oh the Humanity! Shouldn't Jamie Dimon get another tax cut? I feel so bad for him!
(most emphatically NOT)
The Banksters are the most powerful of the 5 families of the corporate Mafia that own our country. JPMC is a constituent bank of the Fed Reserve system. Notice that Tony Blair works for Dimon and gets paid a few million for few hours of "consulting" ?
Republicans blah blah blah. Democrats blah blah blah. The peons scramble around squabbling over propaganda points while the Oligarchy behind the curtain continue to rape and pillage.
The USA has the most expensive and slowest "broadband" internet in the developed world. The USA has the largest Prison Industrial Complex in the world; The USA has the most corrupt and expensive "health care system" in the world. The US spends more on military and related activities than the rest of the world combined; the USA commits war crimes and crimes against humanity with impunity; the US govt. kleptocracy is busy stealing our money and giving it to the Oligarchy (which is exactly what they are supposed to do) and all we can talk about is this superficial BS?
It is time to rebel en masse, or flee the country.
Agreed.
What you say is true, Socialist. The US has become the modern embodiment of Mussolini's definition of fascism as the unity of corporate and governmental power. I can't take any of these rabid 'budget balancers' from either side seriously when they fail to mention not only raising taxes for the wealthy, but paring down the bloated Pentagon budget as well. And few of them talk about ending subsidies to profitable corporations, especially oil conglomerates, who are supposedly avid promoters of a free market economy. It's a farce wrapped in a comedy and staged by buffoons, but only the rich are laughing -- all the way to the banks they own.
I think a rebellion, as evidenced by the marchers in Madison, is in progress, but when will our modern neo-Nazis 'unleash the hounds' on the crowds and will law enforcement or the military actually take arms against cops and teachers and firefighters? (That's a question that I hope will never be answered, but it may have to be to get rid of the pestilence of state-sanctioned corporatism.)
Speaking of Wisconsin, we have a plainly purloined judicial election -- enough votes to score a victory were 'found' by Kathy Nickolaus, a former staffer of conservative Republican justice David Prosser and close ally of Scott Walker, on her personal computer after the statewide vote went against Prosser, and Kathy has a shady history of doing such things as releasing ballots wth the GOP candidate's name already checked and hiding votes from her colleagues --- but the MSM, with the exception of Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz, were too busy panting over a shutdown to mention anything about it.
Well, the Koch Bros. didn't spend over $2 million aboveground (and, no doubt, at least that much under the radar) to get this toad Prosser reelected, just to see him lose it to some mildy progressive woman. After all, Prosser's fourth vote on the 4-3 Wisconsin Supreme Court is vital to making sure Walker's anti-union corporate agenda is enacted. Somewhere, Il Duce is laughing his ass off.
Thom, you're an awesome historian and researcher, but have you noticed that our elected officials are NOT listening to us? And that Obama himself helpfully offered to reduce the deficit by cutting heating assistance for the poor and elderly?
It isn't just the corporate media and their mouthpieces who aren't listening. The politicians are also completely corrupted. Both parties.The few who aren't are marginalized, and if they become a threat, assassinated. The only reason we don't look like a police state is because the public isn't making trouble. But all the laws and infrastructure are in place in case it does.
Why not a an annual "licensing fee" for our illustrious press, and the rich corporations that own them? They've use the public airwaves forever and never paid ONE PENNY.
We all know they use their frequencies/spectrum to enable the two-parties and their rich friends in Hollywood, at 30 Rock (GE), DC and professional sports. Its way past time to start charging 'em for the Great Job their doing.
Its an old story Good cop vs. bad cop. Its a game to make the rich richer, at the expense of everything else
1. Don't mention how the democrats enable the republicans and work for the same agenda.
2. Don't mention the warmongering and escalating weaponry production, which uses huge amounts of tax dollars to create huge profits for private corporations and which is proudly supported by both political arms of the "free" market cyclops.
3. Pretend the republicans are the only problem.
Thom Hartmann's cure-all.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but if you work hard enough to insulate yourself (and others) from reality, THEN you can have a talkshow.
Love reading your work, Thom, but "call your Congressman" doesn't work anymore. Our e-mails are barely worth glancing at when you've got a billion dollar brunch (the mimosas are delicious, dahling!) to go to.
That's great. Thank you.
D
Thom, I listen to you daily and have been for years. From a humble "fan" of yours, abandon your delusion about the political and electoral system. It is corrupt to the core and must be overthrown. Another election in a year and half will net the same if not worse results. Obama has sold us all out.
And I confess, I've done my homework on the man. I've read his bio written by a Pulitzer Prize winner, Jonathon Alter's book "The Promise", have kept up with the news cycle from day one of his administration, read the Rolling Stone piece "The Case for Obama" and NONE of this has convinced me that he hasn't completely sold out the public and this country to the fascist business interests "behind the curtain". He allowed Summers and Geitner to convince him that giving the banks and Wall Street everything they wanted in the "bailout" while failing to regulate them, he is now about to commit ground troops in Libya
and some say he has already, making him an outright liar, and the country is headed to an even bigger disaster than the one in '08. You know this yourself! I could go on and on about torture, the lack of prosecution of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld, Gitmo etc etc...
We need voices like yours to start calling it like it is, and snap out of your delusion! It's over. The only response we have left to us is the streets. All else has failed. Come on, Thom.
Fair enough. I won't disagree with you on that point. I didn't vote for Obama because of these same doubts because of who REALLY funded his election campaign. And I surely won't be voting for him in this coming one. If indeed, we get that far.
The Black Wall Around Barack Obama: Who Does It Protect Him Against?
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/black-wall-around-barack-obama-who-does-it-protect-him-against
You call your congressman, Thom, I'm through wasting that kind of time. They emphatically don't give a damn what we think, if it's anything at all outside their comfort zone, which your proposal certainly is. Are you really too slow to comprehend this, after all these years? Or do you just love to cozy up to the "progressive wing" of the Dem party so much that you literally cannot see how so many of us disenfranchised, by both wings of the duopoly, aren't falling for the ruse that the Democrats represent anything substantively different from the Repugs?
You can't be this dense. It's seems pretty obvious you just want to worm your way into the party structure, somewhere. If only we can elect a really progressive Democrat! Then Thom would get his well-deserved sinecure.
"I'm through wasting that kind of time." Yes, the system is completely bought, so trying to work within it is waste of time; the rules of the system favors those on top.
when forced to choose between the truth and supporting democrats Hartmann goes for supporting the dem's Every Single Time.
Therein lies the true problem w/ so-called establishment progressives - they AREN'T progressive when push comes to shove.....
Screw Obama - the fact that Hartmann still supports Obama shows that he's NOT nearly as smart as he and his fans think he is.....
Either that or only in it for the $ - making him no better than rush and beck.....
Hartmann's advice daily is THROW your energies down the black hole of democratic party politics......
Worked so well in 2008 that may as well double down on a failed strategy.....
I have to defend Thom a little here. He IS as smart as we think he is. The problem is he is too much of an optimist and that can only take you so far. He believes strongly in the ideas that the country is founded on. His problem is that he hasn't made the connection that those ideas have now been abandoned completely. His biggest failure up to now is that he still believes that our problems can be solved within a completely broken system. I think he just needs a little push. ;)
Well, as to your asserting that he seeks a place in the power structure of the Democratic party, it's speculation. You might be right, you might not. Either way I support your right to think that.
For sure, people are beginning to shake the bonds of the great left/right paradigm illusion. It can no longer be viewed as such but as the state v. the people, money v. morality, corporate power v. the interests of the people.
He's really not that smart. He runs off at the mouth and often makes factual errors. We listen to his show for laughs to see how he will try to defend Obama's daily betrayals. He's definitely part of the problem. Another thing he advises his listeners to do is "take over their local Democratic Party meetings." Ha! Can you imagine how fast anyone trying that would be booted out the door, if not arrested?!
Absolutely. There's more to "smart" than being able to quote bleeding chunks of Federalist Papers from memory at the slightest real or imagined provocation. "Smart" is the ability to make sense, and determine sensible courses of action, on the basis of facts. And in that Thom is an utter failure, as little able to do this as he's able to finish a sentence without stuttering and stumbling.
I don't care at all about Thom.
What I'm wondering, though, is why you wrote " 'Smart' is the ability to make sense, and determine sensible courses of action, on the basis of facts," in regard to this article.
Are you disputing that getting rid of Reagan's tax cuts would lead to the results proposed? If you are, I'd like you to talk about that.
Or were you just here to dump on someone?
Thank you Krycek.
I don't even bother to comment here any more. It's just not worth it. Law of diminishing returns.
Optimism, faith, hope and prayer will usually take you right up to and just past the point where you can effectively deal with the problems that are confronting you! An all to obvious trait of today's Democrats!
When the rich get all the money, then the Monopoly game is over. If people want to play another game, you have take the money from the winner and spread the wealth. This process sometimes is called a revolution.
Gangster tactics are not a "debate". Ever since Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, Carnegie and friends purchased our republic by changing the representative to voters ratio to increasingly favor corporations around 1913, we have had one thug government after another. The only time the thugs were slowed down for a while was between 1929 and 1941. They bounced back and made sure "problems" like stock market crashes and anti-war sentiment would never get in the way of elite fun and games again.
The USA is neither a republic or a democracy. Anyone who thinks the goings on in congress now have the remotest connection to the decisions being made in government is naive.
The only good part is that fascist governments always become empires, always overreach and always crash an burn. We are almost there.
The United States is a "Homeland". For some reason, the American people don't seem to understand the deeper historical meaning of this specific word. I am not calling anyone Hitler. The development of our own "Homeland" has been happening over many years and throughout many presidential terms.
IB
Good ultimately wins and money wins the debate. Does that mean the root of all evil is good?
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall.. think of it, always."
Mahatma Gandhi
Think voters will even think of o, boehner, reid and the whole tea party shutting down the government for petty and deleterious reasons to satisfy their own avarice?
I don't. Those people have the mighty mainstream media's dumbstream garden working for them and that is the major mass of people who by their own volition, covet that 'comfortably numb' feeling they get from watching nothing on the t.v. or listen to shit on the radio or read empty words in a newspaper.
Those same people will get re-elected even if it takes the department of voter fraud to 'git her done'.
In the debate over the Budget the real villains are both parties and a failed government corrupted by lobbyists money and huge amounts of greed.
Get your act together or we will debate throwing all of the villian's on both sides out of office.
Congress gets a F-.
Mr. Hartmann is a wealthy man and therefore a member of a certain class.
His admonitions strike me as trying to calm the masses while his class further
consolidates wealth and power.
Good Point. It's not his a$$ on the line.
I'm with Polarbear4 and davidmc,
I used to respect Thom Hartmann and know he did his homework on most subjects. But I've also grown tired of the unconditional support of Mr. Sellout Obama and the failure to look at the Democrats as equally complicit in the sell out of the poor and middle classes. Barack Obama will NEVER get my vote again. And I don't care if that means I don't vote at all in 2012.
And Mr. Hartmann, please don't say "despair is not an option" anymore. I'm sick of that more than I'm sick of the unwavering loyalty to Obama. There are plenty of us who feel despair because our political system no longer represents "we the people"; rather they genuflect to "they the wealthy corporations". Many of us don't have the resources or energy left to keep butting heads with our elected morons.
I'm also concerned about this: why the move to Washington? Now you're in the thick of it, no longer able to see the corruption objectively or outside of it. Every day I hear the change taking place in your commentary. Frankly, I'm with Chris Hedges, it's well past time to abandon both parties and start anew. Republicans and Democrats have both sold us out! And Obama is done politically as far as I'm concerned. Who would ever believe another word he says? Only a fool would.
Elizabeth Tjader
Yes, Obama has NO credibility, I can't stand listening to him, he lies and lies.
I'd agree that Thom acts as an apologist for the democravens way too much. The reoccurring theme of his radio show goes something like this "Democratz might be bad but republicans are monsters! Imagine the holy hell they will unleash if they put more judges on the Supreme Court!!! Which is why you have to vote for Obama, even though he is a bad negotiator and sometimes makes tactical mistakes he's trying his best ... and if only those damned republicans..."
.
The idea that Obama just might not be negotiating for our interests in good faith is never really explored. The fact that Obama is not capitulating at all, but is actually working hand in glove with republicans to win victory after victory for his primary constituency - big business and the super wealthy elite - is never talked about.
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How many opportunities does Obama get before people realize he is not making honest mistakes - he is throwing the game? I was done with Obama a year ago when he killed a public option, arm twisted Kucinich into voting for his epic FUBAR turd corporate giveaway goodie bag extravaganza call health care "reform", and covered up the oil spill in the gulf.
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Obama's not getting my vote again... and I wonder if it's worthwhile to listen to Thom Hartmann anymore if all he's gonna do is treat Obama with kid gloves in order convince me that he's not as bad as the alternative. Thom Hartmann is an intelligent guy, and you would think he would be able to see through Obama...
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What is it the ratio now for millionaire Congressmen... 60% make more than a million per annum? And you expect that they are going to vote to help poor people? Right ! Look, if you want congress to represent you, and you earn the median income in America, mayBE your Congress should look a bit more like you.
Vote out the millionaires, vote out the 2 party oligarchy, vote for ANYONE BUT A DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN.
Tom -- go after the cause of the financial mess – please!
Neither government spending nor unfair taxation are responsible for our problems – borrowing our own money is. It is very expensive.
The one program that should be cut completely is a nonproductive program, benefitting a very small number of citizens while costing a great deal of money – the national debt. The national debt is a discretionary welfare program benefitting only banks, bankers and Wall Street brokers.
The debt is discretionary because the United States is a sovereign nation, having the full authority that is inherent in nationhood, including the authority and power to issue our nation’s money. When congress faces a budget deficit, it has the option of borrowing money or simply issuing it -- as President Lincoln did during the civil war.
Borrowing Federal Reserve money is expensive, issuing AMERICAN CURRENCY IS FREE.
Interest on the national debt cost the U.S. $7.5 trillion ($7,500,000,000,000) in the past twenty years. Interest payments made up 75% of the $9.9 trillion debt added in that period. This year, 2011, the interest on the debt is expected to add an addition $500,000,000 to the debt. If the government continues borrowing money, we will pay more than $5 trillion for interest in the coming decade.
Had the government opted to issue currency rather than bond, America would not have a national debt, nor interest payments, nor income taxes.
Furthermore, with the exception of coins, the Federal Reserve banking system, including its member commercial banks, creates all the money in the economy as the principal of loans. Creating money out of nothing and lending into the economy does not produce anything of real-world value. The banks do not turn a shovel full of dirt nor provide a brick for any project, yet they double the price of every project they are involved in. People pay as much in interest on their long-term mortgages as they borrow, often doubling the price they pay for a house.
The U.S. government can issue all the money we need or want debt and interest free.
The government is our only hope of stability. It is the only institution that has the authority, power, and flexibility to create a stable currency necessary to generate a sustainable economy. It can create money by fiat, lend money like commercial banks, pass laws to regulate the value of our currency, and it can fine-tune the money supply with taxes. No privately owned institution can do that job.