Faryn Balyncd

Faryn Balyncd's Journal

November 30, 2012

Bruce Bartlett: Revenge of the Reality-Based Community-My life on the Republican right & and how...

quite a read:

Revenge of the Reality-Based Community
My life on the Republican right—and how I saw it all go wrong.

- Bruce Bartlett

"...As I wrote the book ... my utter disdain for Bush grew, as I recalled forgotten screw-ups and researched topics that hadn't crossed my radar screen. I grew to totally despise the man for his stupidity, cockiness, arrogance, ignorance, and general cluelessness. I also lost any respect for conservatives who continued to glorify Bush as the second coming of Ronald Reagan and as a man they would gladly follow to the gates of hell. This was either gross, willful ignorance or total insanity, I thought.

"The final line for me to cross in complete alienation from the right was my recognition that Obama is not a leftist. In fact, he's barely a liberal --- and only because the political spectrum has moved so far to the right that moderate Republicans from the past are now considered hardcore leftists by right-wing standards today. Viewed in historical context, I see Obama as actually being on the center-right."

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9750

a little more, from the former economic policy analyst in the Reagan & Bush 41 administrations:

"...After careful research along these lines, I came to the annoying conclusion that Keynes had been 100 percent right in the 1930s. Previously, I had thought the opposite. But facts were facts and there was no denying my conclusion," he writes, concluding that George W. Bush's Great Recession made clear that "We needed Keynesian policies again.

"Annoyingly, I found myself joined at the hip to Paul Krugman, whose analysis was identical to my own. I had previously viewed Krugman as an intellectual enemy and attacked him rather colorfully in an old column that he still remembers.

"For the record, no one has been more correct in his analysis and prescriptions for the economy's problems than Paul Krugman. The blind hatred for him on the right simply pushed me further away from my old allies and comrades."

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9750

November 22, 2012

K&R if You Agree with Krugman & Howard Dean on the "Fiscal Cliff"

Let's Not Make a Deal
Paul Krugman, New York Times

Howard Dean: Let's Drive Over the Fiscal Cliff

The "Fiscal Cliff" Hoax
Time for Change, Democratic Underground

A 'Grand Bargain' on the Fiscal Cliff Could Be a Grand Betrayal
Robert L. Borasage, Institute for America's Future
The Nation, December 3, 2012

November 13, 2012

The Real GOP Fiasco: Fairness (from The American Conservative)

a remarkable article:

The Real GOP Fiasco: Fairness

Wick Allison

. . . A capital gains tax rate (making money off money) that is lower than the earned income rate (making money off work) is just not fair. Bestowing that rate on hedge-fund managers through a specially designed loophole is just not fair. Allowing the rich to take mortgage deductions for second and third homes, or for homes worth over $1 million, is just not fair. Allowing business owners like me to take myriad deductions that our employees cannot take is just not fair. But, most of all, allowing the wealthy to pay very low tax rates while interest on the war debt accumulates, deficits continue, and middle-class incomes deteriorate is just not fair.

Perhaps McConnell and Boehner have taken their stand on principle. Or perhaps they are still scared of Grover Norquist. Perhaps they truly believe – in contrast to three decades worth of evidence and a recent study by their own Congressional Budget Office – that lower tax rates on the rich actually produce jobs. Or perhaps they’re just waiting for the kind of face-saving compromise Galupo has suggested (and the president is now unlikely to approve). Or perhaps they’re just not very bright. The reasons don’t really matter...

. . . The GOP can recruit candidates with Hispanic surnames, tone down its platform, prep its members on talking points, and try to duplicate the Obama turnout machine. But if it remains the party of entrenched unfairness, it will never win another national election

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-real-gop-fiasco-fairness/

October 19, 2012

Here's the MATH showing how Mitt has a lower federal tax rate than "non taxpaying 47%ers":

Though Mitt and Ryan are arithmetically challenged, here's the math any fence-sitting independent can easily understand:

- - - showing how a middle class entrepreneur pays 75% higher federal tax rate than Mitt (any other capital gains/carried interest/One Percenter)

- - - how Mitt pays roughly the same, or a slightly lower federal rate than a typical family in the 47% he falsely maligns as "not paying taxes"

and this easily digested information detailing the GOP assault on the Middle Class is just begging to be Emailed, Tweeted, cross-posted or Facebooked to every fence-sitting independent, relative, or co-working interested in the survival of the middle class:

www.Former-Republican.com

Between now and November 6, the lies from the Fox "News"/RW Wurlitzer will be the most intense & brazen we have ever seen. How else can the GOP try to convince independents (as well as 90% of the Republican base) to ignore & vote against their own interests?

Since the corporate media won't do their job, let's take the math VIRAL.

(Here's a cross posting of the article at Robert Parry's Consortium News:
http://consortiumnews.com/2012/10/16/how-romney-harms-the-middle-class/)

October 13, 2012

Former Republican: "Mitt Romney's GOP & the Decimation of the American Middle Class"

(a good read for some of your independent relatives & co-workers)

While Mitt refuses to do the math on his tax plan, this article DOES the math on what is CURRENTLY being paid...

And shows that Mitt (& fellow capital gains/"carried interest" 1%ers) are paying about 60% of rate than an average middle class entrepreneur....
And that Mitt pays a similar to slightly lower tax rate than a family that he labels "non tax-paying" 47%ers.

Mitt Romney's GOP & the Decimation of the American Middle Class
Former-Republican.com

So why are small business owners rejecting what in 2012 passes for "conservatism" in the GOP?

Could it be that they see through Mitt Romney's arithmetic?

Could it be they are nauseated by a GOP that wants to shift even more of the tax burden to the middle class?

Perhaps tiring of paying significantly higher rates than the historically low rates now paid by billionaires, hedge fund managers, other investment executives, and Republican presidential candidates?

Or might they find it offensive when a politician falsely maligns "the 47%" of fellow Americans for "not paying taxes", when that same politician in reality has an effective federal tax rate virtually the same, or even slightly lower, than some of those he maligns?

. . . . . (snip). . . .

Turning "Progressive" Taxation Upside Down

Let's start by comparing the CURRENT total federal tax rates for a small business owner with the tax rates for Gov. Romney: . . . .

. . . . . (snip). . . .

Let's now consider the taxation of a member of the maligned "47%". . . . .

. . . . . (snip). . . .

. . .this family of 4, part of the "47%" who "pays no taxes", will again have a total effective federal tax rate that is between 0.3% and 1.3% HIGHER than the total effective federal tax rate on Mitt Romney's combined 2010 and 2011 income. . .

. . . . . (snip). . . .

The effective abandonment of the principle of progressive taxation has resulted in a harshly regressive system that taxes financial elites at rates much lower than middle class entrepreneurs (in Mitt Romney's case at rates (13.9% to 14.1%) significantly lower than the federal tax rate (19.1% to 25.6%) of a small business owner earning roughly $100k). . . . . . . and which taxes these financial elites with over $20 million in annual earnings at roughly the same federal tax rate as it taxes a hard working member of "the 47%" who is falsely maligned as "paying no taxes".

. . . . . (snip). . . .

So, now that we have turned tax rates upside down, and created a tax system when the top one per cent are now taxed at:

- - historically low rates (with effective tax rates approximately half of what the most wealthy paid in the 1950's and 60's, during the most sustained period of economic expansion and prosperity in American history), and
- - rates that are much lower than the rates for small business owners and other working Americans, and
- - in the same ball park, or perhaps slightly lower, than the actual federal tax rate for many of the 47% of Americans who have been falsely maligned as "paying no taxes"

what is Mitt Romney's proposed "solution" ? . . .

. . . . . (snip). . . .

. . . middle class Americans are finding no friend in the Republican Party of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

http://www.former-republican.com

March 4, 2012

George Will: "They want to bomb Iran, but they're afraid of Rush Limbaugh."

Has anyone ever more succinctly summed up the current state of the Republican Party than the conservative George Will did today?

"Boehner comes out and says Rush’s language was inappropriate. Using the salad fork for your entrée, that’s inappropriate. Not this stuff. And it was depressing because what it indicates is that the Republican leaders are afraid of Rush Limbaugh. They want to bomb Iran, but they’re afraid of Rush Limbaugh.”

- - - - - - George Will, March 4, 2012, on ABC's "This Week"

Really. It's such a succinct summation, it sounds like a bumper sticker!

How about a competition?

Post your suggestions!

February 26, 2012

Romney makes his plan official: Skin the Middle Class (so that the 1% continue their free ride)

Romney has the chutzpah to make explicit who he expects to pay for his plan to continue the free ride for the 1% (with lower federal tax rates than Warren Buffet's secretary pays).

Romney (as with all the Republicans) continues to ignore the shameful reality that the historically unprecedented & unsustainably low tax rates paid by uber-rich plutocrats (even in the face of multiple wars) has been possible only by means of stealing the Social Security surpluses accumulated by working & middle class Americans.

Romney also ignores the reality of the highly regressive nature of our current combined income and payroll tax system:

The net effect of using payroll & self-employment taxes for general expenditures is a HIGHLY REGRESSIVE tax system:

This can be illustrated by the fact that the highest marginal tax rate if felt by middle class Americans with combined family income of under $106,800/year. This middle class American pays a marginal income tax rate of 28%, plus FICA tax of 12.4% (whether this is paid as a 12.4% self-employment tax, or as double 6.2% deductions from wages, the tax burden is identical) and Medicare tax of 2.9% on his/her entire income, for a total federal marginal tax rate of 43.3%.

Meanwhile, those in the supposedly top tax bracket (earning over $373,650/year in regular earned income) pay a marginal income tax rate of 35%, but have a 2.9% Medicare tax and zero% FICA tax on income over $106,000, thus yielding a total federal marginal tax rate of 37.9%.

(And at the same time, interestingly, an American trust fund baby with an income of $1,000,000/year consisting totally of long term capital gains pays a 15% capital gains tax, zero FICA tax, and beginning in 2013, a 3.8% Medicare tax, for a total federal marginal tax rate of 18.8%.)

The net effect of continuing to raid the SS Trust Fund to finance general fund expenditures (including military spending) which rightfully should be paid from INCOME TAX revenues, is a tax system that is mildly progressive IN NAME ONLY, but is, in reality a REGRESSIVE tax system which extracts the greatest tax burden from the middle class in order to avoid taxing the top 1-2%.

So it is no surprise who Romney has in mind to screw, to bear the burden of policies crafted by & for the !%........ so that the !% can continue historically unprecedented income tax rates that can NEVER cover general fund expenditures without being subsidized by the permanent theft of the Social Security benefits of working Americans.

Despite the fact that the Social Security Trust Fund can currently pay FULL BENEFITS through 2037 with NO CHANGES WHATSOEVER (by redeeming the bonds representing the surpluses loaned to the Treasury).....(and despite the fact that this solvency can be made permanent beyond 2037 by such simple measures and raising the FICA ceiling on income over $106,000)....Romney will have none of this.

Romney's explicit plan is to rely on the continued skinning of the Middle Class, by slashing their SS and MC.

Of course Romney does not admit it is the Middle Class he has in his sights. Romney-speak for skinning the Middle Class is to make "adjustments to curtail the growth of future benefits for the relatively well-to-do". Which makes it sound like he'd go after the 1%, which is the exact opposite of his plan.

And, by the way, what is Romney's explicit plan for the uber-rich 1%?

You guessed it: In Romney-speak, "lower all tax rates but make sure the wealthiest Americans still shoulder the same percentage of the burden."

That's Romney's formula:

Cut taxes so that the Warren Buffets of the world continue to pay less than their secretaries.....

Financed by the continued theft of the Social Security surpluses of the Middle Class (who in Romney-speak are labeled the "relatively well to do" to give a false populist spin to Romney's thoroughly plutocrat plot.)

The saddest part is that every single Republican would do what Romney makes explicit (or worse)....and that far too many "Democrats" will remain complicit.

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