Less tax breaks for "Big Oil" and about 4% higher tax rate from the wealthy--doesn't that make sense?

"Every Member of Congress is going to go on record. And if they vote to keep giving tax breaks to people like me – tax breaks our country can’t afford – then they’re going to have to explain to you where that money comes from. Either it’s going to add to our deficit, or it’s going to come out of your pocket. Seniors will have to pay more for their Medicare benefits. Students will see their interest rates go up at a time when they can’t afford it. Families who are scraping by will have to do more because the richest Americans are doing less." "That’s not right. That’s not who we are. In America, our story has never been about what we can do by ourselves – it’s about what we can do together. It’s about believing in our future and the future of this country. So tell your Members of Congress to do the right thing. Call them up, write them a letter, pay them a visit, and tell them to stop giving tax breaks to people who don’t need them and start investing in the things that will help our economy grow and put people back to work. That’s how we’ll make this country a little fairer, a little more just, and a whole lot stronger." —-President Barack Obama

Quote of the day--on our national spending

"The truth is that as far as straight economics, America's longer run fiscal problems shouldn't be all that hard to fix. An aging population and rising health care costs will, under current policies, push spending up faster than tax receipts. But the US has far higher health care costs than any other advanced country and very low taxes by international standards. If we could move even part way toward international norms on both these fronts, our budget problems would be solved." --Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist, writer and columnist for The New York Times.

Republican leaders fighting to keep tax cuts for keeping manufacturing offshore

One of the things the Republican leaders are fighting for right now in Washington for their corporate overlords, in the budget negotiations, is for corporations to keep tax incentives to take and keep manufacturing offshore. Yeah. Seriously. If President Obama and the Democrats take this away they call it "increasing taxes." It's crazy. Truly insane. If you totally ignored that we need the revenue, how about the fact that we need and want the jobs back here in the States, back here at home? Shouldn't that resonate with them? To go along with this (I've written on this before), there is a story out today on The Daily Ticker blog, reinforcing this: "America needs to get back to the basics of creating things of value and there is no better time than now, says Bob Lutz, former vice chairman of General Motors. 'There is a dawning awakening on the part of most Americans that we cannot maintain the wealth of the nation by being bond traders [and] lawyers,' he tells Aaron in the accompanying interview. 'At some point the country has to get back to work and create wealth through mining, agriculture or manufacturing.'" We need to ramp up and keep up pressure on Congress--and right now--to take away tax credits that take and keep manufacturing offshore. Nothing else makes sense. Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/bring-home-no-excuse-not-manufacuture-u-bob-130200387.html#more-id

Robbing hoods

We have it backwards in America.  We take from the poor--and middle-class--and give to the rich.  To with, from Truthout and Alternet today:

7 Examples of How the Poor Are Being Robbed to Give More Wealth to the Rich

For years, the rich have been getting richer and the poor and the middle class have been getting poorer.  (But we knew that)

--Between 1948 and 1979, the richest 10 percent of families in the US claimed 33 percent of average income growth. Between 2000 and 2007, the richest 10 percent claimed a full 100 percent of average income growth in the US, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

--Business taxes were cut from 46 to 34 percent 25 years ago, according to ProPublica. But today, 115 of the big 500 companies listed on Standard and Poor's stock index paid federal and other taxes of less than 20 percent over the last five years, according to David Leonhardt of The New York Times.

--General Electric's tax rate for last year was seven percent, according to ProPublica.

--The top five percent of US households claim 63 percent of the entire country's wealth. The bottom 80 percent hold just 13 percent of the growth, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

--Last year, John Paulson, a hedge fund manager "earned" $4.9 billion, according to The New York Times. Ten years ago, it took 25 such managers to collectively earn that much. Last year, the top 25 hedge fund managers pocketed (a much better word) a total of $22 billion. It would take over 440,000 people each earning $50,000 a year to match that amount.

--A federal development program intended to help poor communities, the New Market Tax Credit, instead funnels up to ten billion taxpayer dollars to big corporations like JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs and Prudential to build luxury hotels, office buildings and a car museum. Bloomberg Markets Magazine pointed to the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, which was renovated for $116 million. Prudential got $15.6 million in tax credit from the US Treasury for helping fund the project because the hotel was in a census zone that included two colleges that housed a lot of lower income students.

--According to the Financial Times, there are now more people living in poverty in the US than at any time in the last 50 years. Foreclosure filings were nearly four million in 2010, up 23 percent since 2008, according to RealtyTrac.

Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. He is also a member of the legal collective of School of Americas Watch.

Link to original posts:  http://www.alternet.org/economy/150543/7_examples_of_how_the_poor_are_being_robbed_to_give_more_wealth_to_the_rich;   http://www.truthout.org/

For once and for all, shouldn't we have a minimum tax?

There's a report out in the last few days about taxes paid in America.

And it shows we're kooky.

46 million of us pay no taxes at all?

I've reported a bit on this before.

Does this make any sense?

Shouldn't we ALL pay at least something on our taxes, so we can keep our infrastructure and schools--everything--running?

Wouldn't that make sense?

But no, we let corporations and wealthy people, mostly, pay for tax breaks--mostly by buying their Senators--and then jockeying up the books.

I've proposed this before--why don't we put in place a, say, 10% minimum tax that EVERYONE has to pay, for being a citizen and for having access to this country of ours and our markets?

Doesn't that make sense?

Oh, and, finally, check out the byline of the original article: "Surge of “Nonpayers” Will Be Part of Bush Tax Legacy."

One more way George W. screwed up the country and the world, with what time he had.

Note: Thanks to the Kruse Kronicle for bringing this to our attention, via Tony's KC Blog.

Original link: http://krusekronicle.typepad.com/kruse_kronicle/2009/12/almost-4-out-of-10-americans-pay-no-income-tax.html#tpe-action-posted-6a00d83451b14d69e201287631af3b970c