Wonder no more. It’s because ‘some people’ are not paying their fair share of the cost of government. Otherwise known as taxes. I know this story has been in the corporatist press but I thought this post:
From NoQuarter had a lot more detail and so link to it.
There is a growing opportunity for those of us who are economically literate, a tiny minority, to take back the high ground in the never ending debate about taxes, government and what should be done by same. The ‘conservative’ shills who’ve been preaching the Friedman Lunacy for decades are gob-smacked that the ‘trickle down’ theory has at last been proved to be the utter bullshit that it is. There is a desperate air of ‘now what do we do…’ as the third artificial bubble of ‘asset building’, housing, pops following the dot.com bubble and ‘financialization’ coming from the morons such as Greenspan who’ve been ‘supervising ‘ our economy. As Ol’ Shakespeare opined, ‘The truth will out…’ and now folks are waking up to the realization that while their real income has declined every year since Nixon under the Republican fantasy machine corporations and very wealthy individuals merely extract whatever amounts of cash they need from the U.S. Treasury, that’s us Homer, in the form of taxes not paid.
This report points a finger at why you, yeah you Homer, ‘can’t’ have healthcare, good schools, well-maintained roads, safe food and on and on…. The next time some low-info fool tells you, ‘Oh, we can’t afford that…’ about some needed social program tell them the following:
‘Of course we can afford that. If corporations and the uber-rich would pay their fair share of taxes instead of bribing Congress to give them a free pass we’d’ have plenty of money to take care of the real, immediate needs of our society.’
And if they start bloviating tell them this:
‘Surely you are not advocating that some, particularly those best able to pay, should be excused from their social obligation to pay their fair share of the costs they helped create are you?’
More on how your are being screwed solely because you are NOT rich in future posts.
…they will just call downstairs and have more printed. And if you don’t think lots of cocaine, high-dollar hookers, booze, private jets and yachts don’t figure into this…
…yer just plain naive.
Have fun spendin’ that $30.00 worth of gas tax savings you are maybe gonna get.
……….it’s about the economy but do not let your eyes glaze over. If you do not want to be living in a cardboard reefer box or have all your offspring camping out in the garage you’d better start paying attention because things are gonna start getting stickier staring right now.
The opening quote:
‘Steps that can safeguard America’s economy: Neither US financial institutions nor the economy are likely to suffer from a lack of central bank liquidity provision. New lending facilities are coming along almost weekly, the safety net has been expanded to include non-bank primary dealers, the Fed has demonstrated a willingness to take on directly the most problematic parts of Bear Stearns’ balance sheet, and the Fed funds rate has been reduced by 200 basis points within 7 weeks…. [P]rocesses are in motion that may lead to new demands for more than $1,000bn in mortgages, directly or indirectly. Recent regulatory actions will enable Federal Home Loan Banks along with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the government-sponsored enterprises) to purchase more than an additional $300bn in mortgage-backed securities… legislation to reduce foreclosures being pushed by Senator Christopher Dodd and Representative Barney Frank could result in the federal government purchasing or providing guarantees that enable the purchase of several hundred billion dollars worth of mortgages.’
Big damn numbers flying around here but not totally out of control. Please read the rest here and consider staying on top of this story with us and as always contacting your representatives about this. Here’s Dodd’s webpage and Barney Frank’s is here. Feel free to manipulate your ZIP codes and do whatever else you need to do to get through to these folks.
They work for us, as long as we got the vote and the bucks to fund their opponents, and they should never be allowed to forget that.
Stormy over at Angry Bear takes a quick look at Paulson and his bloviatiing. Here ‘s the teaser quote:
Foxes in the hen house? And where were the foxes before March 2008? Smiling? Or try this one:
Financial markets in the United States have developed into world class centers of capital and have led financial innovation.
Paulson gives a nice pat on the back for our “centers of capital” that have “led financial innovation.” Wonder what members of the committee inserted that one? Yes, yes, the industry leaders we now have to rescue. But marvel, please, at all those financial innovations. And I just cannot get my head around the next one:
Now, however, maturing foreign financial markets and their ability to provide alternate sources of capital and financial innovation in a more efficient and modern regulatory system are pressuring the U.S. financial services industry and its regulatory structure.
Here is the transcript of a recent interview with Mr. Greenspan by Amy Goodman:
AMY GOODMAN: We’re also joined in studio by Naomi Klein, author of the book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Your response to that, Naomi Klein?
NAOMI KLEIN: Well, I’m just wondering if it troubles Mr. Greenspan at all that wars over resources in other countries are actually illegal. Mr. Greenspan has praised the rule of law, the importance of the rule of law, in his book. But in his statements about the reasons why this has not been publicly discussed, he has said that it’s not politically expedient at this moment. But it’s not just that it’s not politically expedient, Mr. Greenspan. Are you aware that, according to the Hague Regulations and the Geneva Conventions, it is illegal for one country to invade another over its natural resources?
ALAN GREENSPAN: No. What I was saying is that the issue which, as you know, most people who were pressing for the war were concerned with were weapons of mass destruction. I personally believed that Saddam was behaving in a way that he probably very well had, almost certainly had, weapons of mass destruction. I was surprised, as most, that he didn’t. But what I was saying is that my reason for being pleased to see Saddam out of office had nothing to do with the weapons of mass destruction. It had to do with the potential threat that he could create to the rest of the world.
NAOMI KLEIN: Yes, I realize that, but he was not simply deposed. The US invaded Iraq, occupied it and took control over its resources. And under international law, that it is illegal to wage wars to gain access to other countries’, sovereign countries’, natural resources.
ALAN GREENSPAN: Yes. No, I’m fully aware of the fact that that is a highly, terribly important issue. And as I said in other commentaries, I have always thought the issue of what essentially amounts to what is often called pre-emptive, preventive action on the part of some countries to secure resources or something else like that, it’s an issue that goes back to the Cold War, when we had the very difficult moral dilemma of what do you do when you think a missile is coming in our direction and you’re not sure whether it’s an accident or not an accident. And that is a problem which I think is a deep moral problem in civilized society. And the issue is one which I don’t think we’re going to resolve very easily. And as you point out, yes, I am a believer in the rule of law, and I think it is a critical issue, not only for domestic economies, but for the world economy as a whole.
I found this on the internet somewhere, and wanted to reprint it as originally written:
“do you really think the “powers to be” are going to let the people in this country elect anyone who will have the courage to disband the Federal Reserve, truly investigate the perpetrators of 9/11 and insure that each vote cast is counted as it was cast.
the system is so corrupt that the only possible meaningful change would be to vote out of office all incumbents. Then to institute term limits and public funding of all federal elections.”
I just saw this movie. This is right up Malcontent’s alley, but I think many, many Americans would find this movie to be… I don’t know… infuriating, enlightening, inspiring?
If you want to see the whole thing on YouTube, click HERE.
Learn that you are NOT required by law to pay income taxes. Learn how the Council on Foreign Relations is creating a New World Order with the help of BOTH Democrats and Republicans. Makes me glad that I am a member of the Green Party – the party that stands for principles not power. Learn about the power of the nongovernmental organization the Federal Reserve Bank and how they are printing our money and profiting from it, how they control the media in this country, and how they run the government… and much more.
Then, as always, feel free to comment. We can talk about it…
This suggestion and analysis from former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter was taken from Booman Tribune which was in turn taken from The Nation:
If I were to address [the Democrats in Congress], I would focus my effort on trying to impress them with the issue that will cost them political power down the road. This issue is Iran. While President Bush, a Republican, remains Commander in Chief, a Democrat-controlled Congress shares responsibility on war and peace from this point on. The conflict in Iraq, although ongoing, is a product of the Republican-controlled past. The looming conflict with Iran, however, will be assessed as a product of a Democrat-controlled present and future. If Iraq destroyed the Republican Party, Iran will destroy the Democrats.
I would strongly urge Congress, both the House of Representatives and the Senate, to hold real hearings on Iran. Not the mealy-mouthed Joe Biden-led hearings we witnessed on Iraq in July-August 2002, where he and his colleagues rubber-stamped the President’s case for war, but genuine hearings that draw on all the lessons of Congressional failures when it came to Iraq. Summon all the President’s men (and women), and grill them on every phrase and word uttered about the Iranian “threat,” especially as it has been linked to nuclear weapons. Demand facts to back up the rhetoric.
Summon the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), or any other lobby promoting confrontation with Iran, to the forefront, so that the warnings they offer in whispers from a back room can be articulated before the American public. Hold these conjurers of doom accountable for their positions by demanding they back them up with hard fact. See if the US intelligence community concurs with the dire warnings put forward by these pro-war lobbyists, and if it doesn’t, ask who, then, is driving US policy toward Iran? Those mandated by public law and subjected to the oversight of Congress? Or others, operating outside any framework representative of the will of the American people?
If a real case, based on facts as they pertain to the genuine national security interests of the United States, can be made for a confrontation with Iran that leads to military conflict, so be it. America should never shy away from defending that which legitimately needs defending. The sacrifice expected of our military forces, while tragic, will be defensible. But if the case for war with Iran is revealed to be as illusory as was the case for war with Iraq, then Congress must take action to stop this conflict from occurring. This is the Democrats’ issue now, the one that will make or break them in 2008 and beyond.
If hearings show no case for war with Iran, then Congress must act to insure that the United States cannot move toward conflict with that nation on the strength of executive dictate alone. As things currently stand, the Bush Administration, emboldened with a vision of the unitary executive unprecedented in our nation’s history, believes it has all of the legal authority it requires when it comes to engaging Iran militarily. The silence of Congress following the President’s decision to dispatch a second carrier battle group to the Persian Gulf has been deafening. The fact that a third carrier battle group (the USS Ronald Reagan) will probably join these two in the near future has also gone unnoticed by most, if not all, in Congress.
The time is now, right now, to call for these hearings before it is too late. Before Bush decides to pull the trigger, or allows Israel to pull the trigger for him. Before the initial strikes occur. Before whatever excuse for war can be concocted by Cheny’s fertile imagination and sold to the lapdog media by Karl Rove’s spin.
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