"Suddenly, America’s Top Corporate Leaders Are Shunning Tea Party Extremism"

[applegrove]

Suddenly, America’s Top Corporate Leaders Are Shunning Tea Party Extremism

by Joe Conason at the National Memo

http://www.nationalmemo.com/suddenly-americas-top-corporate-leaders-are-shunning-tea-party-extremism/#.UMHezpGSFqk.reddit

"SNIP.............................................

Leaders of the American business community, who have long indulged the Republican far right as an instrument toward their own ends, seem to be growing weary of its political excesses. Recognizing the public verdict of last month’s election, corporate officialdom is moving toward moderation on taxes and other issues, showing support for the Obama White House and edging away from congressional Republicans.

The latest top executive to endorse the president’s position on rescinding the Bush tax cuts for the top two percent is Fred Smith, CEO of Federal Express and a former economic advisor to Senator John McCain — who denounced as “mythology” the notion that raising the top rate would damage the U.S. economy.

Smith joined a lengthening queue of business leaders from all sectors who have stepped up over the past week to voice their acceptance of increased taxes as part of a budget agreement to break the stalemate on Capitol Hill — not only to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff on December 31, but because fairness requires the wealthy to pay their fair share. Randall Stephenson, chief executive of AT&T, the nation’s largest telecom company, told Business Week that higher taxes and more revenue must be part of any budget agreement. So did Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs. And so did a group of defense industry executives from companies such as United Technologies, RTI International, TASC and Northrop Grumman.

Income tax rates “need to go up some,” said David Langstaff, the CEO of TASC, at a Washington press event organized by the Aerospace Industries Association, a defense lobby. “This is a fairness issue — there needs to be recognition that we’re not collecting enough revenue. In the last decade we’ve fought two wars without raising taxes. So I think it does need to go up.”

.............................................SNIP"

[libdem4life]

1. Thinking that they got a clue from the shareholder/customer response to the restaurant CEOs.

Not to mention the re-election of a popular Democrat. These guys are naturally partisan and conservative, but not congenitally stupid.

Seems to be something going around these days...backtracking, mellowing, re-imaging, etc. Grover who???

[Ikonoklast]

28. It's fear.

If this country actually embraced Teabagger ideals, the economic disaster that would follow would be devastating to their bottom lines.

Their little empires of greed might not survive, and none want that to happen.

[libdem4life]

37. I think you're being optimistic as to their intent or understanding. Seems more like the finger in

wind sort of thing...weathervane cock...sort of influence rather than a intellectual assessment of human nature, i.e. their customers. The speed within which these fair-weather idiots have backpedaled following the re-election of Obama, is dizzying...and fun to watch.

[catbyte]

47. If nothing else, they're probably OK at math and discovered that over 65,000,000 people voted for

The Democrat, over 4.5M more than who voted for The Stiff in the Suit. Multiply that number by roughly 3.5 for an average family and you've got one heck of a large potential market you risk alienating by pandering to the teabaggers. It's just self-preservation and greed, but if it works, I'll take it.

[Turbineguy]

2. Well, let me be succinct:

You can't sell stuff to dead people.

[dballance]

5. You also can't sell much stuff to people who have no income or no discretionary income.

Are they finally getting the clue that there must be demand for their goods and services and for there to be demand people must have jobs that pay a wage high enough that allows them some discretionary spending over and above just trying to pay basic bills and buy food?

[freshwest]

3. HA! Define *some* for us here, Mr. Langstaff...

[ReRe]

11. Exactly...

...my thought when I read it. "Some" don't work.

[freshwest]

12. I suggest Eisenhower tax rates and send all of the money straight to infrastructure! Whoopee!

Because I'm sorta socialist. But even FDR gave a lot of those contracts to private firms. Just get it done!

Or pay off the national deficit with it and free education, health care and housing for all.

[secondwind]

14. I'm with you on this... if this means I'm a Socialist, then yes, I am.

[freshwest]

19. Don't tell anyone. The government is baaad, you know. But seriously, logic shows us some things are

better handling by government. The problem I see is that people have forgotten intentions. Do we want to find solutions to problems or do we want to make money not finding solutions and making the problems go on forever - the intent being - to serve who?

I suggest that some things are quite simple, if you just get agreement on a few simple facts of life. Agreeing first of all, what are the necessities, such as food, water, air, etc. Then the bigger decision comes into play. Who is the rightful owner of said things, or do they belong to every living thing?

Democrats have been making just the case against an entrenched, regressive belief system for many years, but instead of convincing our political opposites, they have grown stronger. Because they also know what is essential to life and want to control it. But the second issue, ownership, is where we differ so much.

Democrats, or at least the ones I grew up with and still work to keep in office, believe those essentials belong to everyone and everything. We got the Endangered Species Act passed, which in a way enshrines that belief system - its intention being to protect life from economic forces. For years we've been fighting the same foes, who see everything in terms of money. Healthcare, education and other social democratic ideas are something they don't regard as a human rights, but a chance for profit.

The ultimate in profit is to impoverish the work force, make everything had and costly to obtain, and then the icing on the cake, shove the tax burden on other people and never pay any.

We are approaching the installation of an aristocracy here. In those older societies, the rich never paid, they were always paid by the others. Since they were considered by reason of birth and inheritance worthy of owning everything.

In Norway, the government owns almost everything. And they do everything primarily as a unified society, with the goals of sustaining not the wealth of a few, but the well-being of many and their environment. Surely, they are not perfect. No country is. And they have their disagreements and troubles. But the second issue for them is settled.

In this country, we are either going to go toward a fascist or feudal society, and we see some signs of it gaining hold, or we can use the only unified force we have been able to muster against it. Giving up is not an option, the GOP and the reactionaries won't, because, and this is the only thing I will say that they have going for them is a certain belief.

There is a natural progression in human societies as they get older to either go to that social model or fight it out and remain a democracy. They want to go with what they see as natural and a vision they believe God wants. We don't want to live under their vision and have our lives consigned by birth or circumstance.

[Ikonoklast]

29. Turn this into an OP so I can rec it.

Good summary of the battle we are facing...which way are we to go?

[dionysus]

40. great post!

[defacto7]

42. +100

[ReRe]

15. Ha! You and me could invite a bunch of our like-minded friends over and have a blast!!!

I prognosticated on DU somewhere the other day that we need to jack those taxes up to 75%, and make them stay there for the rest of time. Yeah...that's what we are: "Democratic Socialists", American style. Yeah, we could pay everything off in 10 years, employ everyone who needs a job with a living wage, and never look back on this horrible nightmare that Big Business caused.

[freshwest]

20. Yay! We can meet at Red Square at UW. Democratic Socialists!

[ReRe]

21. I'm a dummy...

... where is this? University of Washington? Wisconsin?

[freshwest]

22. Washington. As usual, we're a big vague out here. Lots of punning:

Last edited Sun Dec 9, 2012, 12:07 PM - Edit history (1)

Red Square (University of Washington)

...In 1969, the field was excavated, an underground parking garage was built, and the engineers who designed the garage thought that the rain on the grass would leak into the garage, leading to the choice of a distinctive red brick surface.

Cassandra Amesely, then an editor of the student paper The Daily, convinced the student population to refer to the area as Red Square, presumably in reference to the color of the brick. Whether it was also meant to refer to Moscow's Red Square in an era known for student activism is unclear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Square_%28University_of_Washington%29

You can see it live, it refreshes every other minute:

[ReRe]

23. Ahhh...

...alright. I thought it looked like the top of a building...but knew that wasn't it, because of the tree line in the distance. It would be a grand meeting of the minds wouldn't it? But.... I'm way too far away and will have to cancel out. But we're still DU pals, right?

[freshwest]

27. Yep, still DU pals. And honestly, I don't even go there - no parking!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

4. Laying low til the coast is clear. nt

[northoftheborder]

6. I've been wondering when they would come around..............

[quaker bill]

7. Government will not be buying

if sequestration happens. All of these folks make money off of government contracting.

[gollygee]

8. They've seen which way the wind blows

At least some of them aren't pretending they won the election.

[rhett o rick]

9. So now all they have to do is invest more in Democrats that they can coerce. nm

[factsarenotfair]

10. Fred Smith is Skull and Bones.

Perhaps the REALLY powerful people ARE moving away from the Tea Party.

[Dustlawyer]

13. The Defence Industry needs us to pay more taxes so they don't get their revenue cut to keep up

the fraud and abuse that is our defense industry!

[rocktivity]

16. When they stop shunning paying their fair share of corporate taxes and living wages

and bring their manufacturing job back to America, you can wake me up...


rocktivity

[LeftInTX]

17. How's John Boehner gonna explain this to his crazy Tea Partiers?

[Flashmann]

26. How's John Boehner gonna explain this to his crazy Tea Partiers?

Short sentences,composed of 3 and 4 letter words,while wearing a tri-corner hat....

[underthematrix]

18. Really? PROVE IT!

By publicly supporting raising taxes on top 2%, then follow that by writing President Obama a check for one million dollars for a special access ticket to his inauguration.

[JoeyT]

24. They haven't really come around.

They're just waving their hands to keep people from looking at them too hard.

"Income tax rates need to go up some," said a guy for that gets most of his income in capital gains that isn't taxed as income.

Push for a hike in capital gains to make it the same as income taxes and watch them shit a stupid tricorn hat with teabags stapled to it.

[DinahMoeHum]

25. Yeah, they just don't like hanging around losers.

n/t

[underthematrix]

30. If they are really coming around to the

reality of the results of the election, they can PROVE it by supporting taxing the rich. But if they really want the public to believe they've had a change of heart then they can throw in a million dollars to help pay for the President's inauguration.

[Initech]

31. Yeah they'd rather screw us over themselves.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

32. What took them so long to wake up?

[WillyT]

33. K & R !!!

[byeya]

34. Big Wall Street Finance spoke with their wallets and it was all Romney. So let's ramp up the

Anti-Trust Division of DOJ and start busting the trusts. 5 banks control the majority of of business finance and LBOs, etc, and need to be broken up. Would be a good lesson for them and good for the health of the nation.

[libodem]

35. Wake up and smell the coffee

Come to your senses!!!







See, isn't that better.

[NewJeffCT]

36. We paid off the Depression & WW2 debt fairly quicky

with the top tax rates around 90%...we can start negotiating from there.

[eridani]

38. Unfortunately they are still pushing for "austerity" at the expense of jobs

And are firmly committed to gutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

39. Koch brothers are doing just fine, thank you

They ARE the tea party extremist enablers.

Them and Mr Norquist

[BlancheSplanchnik]

41. Really glad to hear this. Hope the SANITY spreads.

Since we can't banish them from the earth, it would be best if the corporatists start to realize that we ALL have to cooperate. We ALL need to jump on the learning curve right quick and in a hurry!

[AgingAmerican]

43. Apparently "Stupid on steroids"

wasn't so good for business. Just ask the Papa Johns pizza guy...

[BlancheSplanchnik]

46. heh heh! :) n/t

[grahamhgreen]

44. Why? Because the Fiscal Bluff is the best deal we'll get, and they don't want it.

[Scurrilous]

45. K & R