The Political Time-Out Chair - Republicans Push Tax Cuts for Wealthy

What is the likelihood that anyone reading this hub is a member of the Other 98% of Americans? Pretty damn good...

What is the likelihood that any of us will catapult our way into the stratosphere of the richest 20 percent who control about 84 percent of wealth in America (while the 400 richest people in America account for about 2.6 percent of the nation's private wealth)? Pretty damn slim...

So why the hell do we vote as though our best friends are millionaires and we are in their will?

Newsflash: Unless you are already wealthy, the heir apparent to wealth, marrying into wealth, or on the verge of becoming the next cyber-genius, or the next top Hollywood earner... tax cuts for the wealthy do not and will not ever affect your bottom line!

Interesting, but not germane: "Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, in 35th place with $6.9 billion, is no longer the youngest billionaire on the list -- his colleagues at Facebook, Dustin Moskovitz (in 290th with $1.4 billion) and Eduardo Saverin (in 356th with $1.15 billion) have joined him. Moskovitz is eight days younger than Zuckerberg. Both are 26."

Really, what is the American Dream myth that we continue to pursue or more importantly believe is available to each and every one of us when the truth is... the rich get richer and the poor get poorer every minute of every day of every month of every year!

"In his recent book, After Shock , former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich argues that the economic downward mobility of American workers, has "to do with power...income and wealth in fewer hands." Apparently, many working class Americans want to keep it that way... about 33 percent voting against their self-interest -- higher taxes on the wealthiest would reduce the national debt, facilitate spending on levies, bridges, schools, health-care, and create jobs. Similarly, an AP-GfK poll found that in the upcoming election, 58 percent of white working class Americans favor Republicans who opposed rescinding the Bush tax cut, and fought every Democratic bill benefiting low income earners including extending unemployment benefits."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/myriam-miedzian/capitalism-uber-alles-how_1_b_775495.html

I find this profoundly disturbing... middle-class, working Americans who seem not to understand that the dichotomy of tax cuts for the wealthy and tax cuts for the Other 98% are disparately different as is their affect on the deficit.

Except for the fact that if we allow the Bush tax cuts to continue for the wealthy; the deficit, the lagging economy, the highest interest rates, the tight money, the foreclosures, the young people forced to drop out of school, the sick, the indigent, the poorest, the weakest and the most vulnerable will suffer all the atrocities of this economic collapse... while the wealthy will be pissed off about not making more millions at our expense.

This needs to be read by every American:

The Nation

by John Nichols

http://www.thenation.com/blog/156569/patriotic-millionaires-explain-tax-cuts-rich-dont-grow-economy

Congressional Democrats have announced that they will organize votes during the lame-duck session on extending tax cuts for the 98 percent of American taxpayers who are not rich.

Will they vote for tax cuts that just about everyone supports? Or will they kill the initiative because it does not preserve tax breaks for the 2 percent of Americans who are rich?

In the real world, that's not a tough call. Mainstream Republicans of the previous generation would have voted with the Democrats. Mainstream Republicans of the generation before that would have led the charge. Remember that during the president of Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican who frequently worked with a Republican Congress, the highest marginal tax rate was 91 percent; most Republicans in those days recognized that they represented Main Street not Wall Street.

It's different now.

There are still a few mainstream Republicans in the House and Senate. But, for the most part, the new face of the Republican Party is much richer—44 percent of members of Congress are millionaires—and much more responsive to the rich.

So it probably won't help to simply suggest to the GOP that they should side with the 98 percent majority of Americans whose tax cuts could be preserved.

Fair enough.

Let's bring in some millionaires.

In a letter to President Obama, members of the group Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength argue that it is time, again, to tax the rich.

"We are writing to urge you to stand firm against those who would put politics ahead of their country. For the fiscal health of our nation and the well-being of our fellow citizens, we ask that you allow tax cuts on incomes over $1,000,000 to expire at the end of this year as scheduled," they write. "We make this request as loyal citizens who now or in the past earned an income of $1,000,000 per year or more. We have done very well over the last several years. Now, during our nation’s moment of need, we are eager to do our fair share. We don’t need more tax cuts, and we understand that cutting our taxes will increase the deficit and the debt burden carried by other taxpayers. The country needs to meet its financial obligations in a just and responsible way."

"Letting tax cuts for incomes over $1,000,000 expire, is an important step in that direction," conclude the more than three dozen millionaire signers of the letter, a group that includes a number of Google executives, active CEOs and philanthropists such as Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen.

Millionaires know how to work with numbers. And the Patriotic Millionaires are sharing a few numbers with members of Congress who might be interested in making policy based on facts rather than a hunch. For instance:

• Only 375,000 Americans have incomes of over $1,000,000.

* Between 1979 and 2007, incomes for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans rose by 281 percent.

* In the 1950s and early 1960s, a period when growth was high and unemployment was low, millionaires had a top marginal tax rate of 91 percent.

* In 1976, millionaires had a top marginal tax rate of 70 percent.

* Today, millionaires have a top marginal tax rate of 35 percent.

* Reducing the income tax on top earners is one of the most inefficient ways to grow the economy, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

* Letting tax cuts for the top 2 percent—which were never meant to be permanent—expire as scheduled would pay down the federal debt by $700 billion over the next ten years.

Those numbers of worthy of note. Worthy enough to suggest that congressional Republicans would be well advised to take their cue from the rich when it comes to tax policy—so long as the rich folks we're talking about are Patriotic Millionaires.

Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, one of the few members of Congress who worked as an economist, started a company that went public and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. He understands the economy, which is why he supported the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

It's all about jobs, jobs, jobs.

Regardless of what Republicans would like you to believe; the Recovery Act has created or sustained millions of jobs, helped provide for basic human needs. It does what a humanitarian and caring society does – it feeds the hungry, shelters the homeless, and heals the sick.

It is the unconscionable crushing of the middle-class beneath the heel of the wealthy and those who would promote wealth for the 2% at the expense of the Other 98%.

If you want to have a tea-party... government is not the enemy!

Throw the bastards overboard who don't give a damn about your health, your home, your civil liberties, your family, your future, your children's education, your parents medicare or social security, your job, your interest rates, your opportunities, your sleepless nights, your value as an American!

And anyone who defends tax cuts for the wealthy top 2% and the addition of $700 billion to the deficit... because it's not about the deficit, but they think we are too stupid to figure it out.

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For decades, the wealthy have grown richer while the middle class shrink and poverty increases exponentially. Most Americans are clueless regarding wealth inequality in this nation. FDR fought off the bankers and corporatist in the 30′s. Yet today, they thrive more than ever, leaving many of us a paycheck away from destitution…

Huffington Post

What will it take to make you understand that the opportunity to win the lottery is not the same as the opportunity to dream and work hard for those dreams to come true.

People who have worked hard all their lives and bounced back from each of life's setbacks are hitting a brick wall this time... and you do not bounce back off a brick wall. You drop like a ton of bricks.

You lose your balance and perspective. You begin to sleep 12 hours a night when you have never slept more than 7-8 hours. You don't shower as often. You don't get dressed everyday and more often than not spend the day in your sleep-ware... worn slippers, a tattered shirt and baggy, flannel pajama bottoms.

You have re-written your resume a dozen times and have one for every job title at every pay level that would allow you to keep your home, your integrity, your pride.

You have lost your sense of humor and if you weren't taking a generic anti-depressant, you would have lost the will to breathe.

You find what might be a tumor and your only thought is that I hope I go quickly without running up hospital bills because my life insurance policy would really help the kids keep the house and pay off some of our debt... and I don't have any insurance.

You pray to win the lottery, apologizing to Him for doing so, explaining that you realize you have a good life with healthy children and a loving family, but really would it matter too much in the scheme of things to stack the deck in your favor... you promise to be generous and help all who are suffering the same destructive, free-fall into the abyss of despair.

You understand making the hard decisions, you have been making them all your life. You don't spend lavishly and haven't had a vacation in 20 years, a new pair of shoes in five, a haircut that didn't look like you did it yourself in six (because you did), a warm pair of boots in ten and you live in the mid-west (gets pretty freakin' cold), real xmas gifts for your family in over ten years (that it's the thought that counts is bullshit), belt-tightening, budgeting is a full-time job, and your sons couldn't finish college which is now more important than ever.

If you are the Other 98% , you probably do get it... but they don't. The people who have never had a car repossessed or home foreclosed, or filed bankruptcy to stall a foreclosure sale date. It takes a very special person to care about things that don't affect them directly... they prefer not to understand, care, or empathize.

If you believe you know people in Congress who do care... write to them... vote for them... support their positions on policy and legislation.

If you believe you know people in Congress who don't care... write to them... vote against them... push them to support positions on policy and legislation that is in your best interest and not theirs.

And really, if you still do not get it...