Republican "Cuts Only" Is an Unpopular, Out of Touch, Arrogant and Corrupt Over Reach, NOT the Will of 'We the People'

From the insight of wonderful local talent, STrib cartoonist Steve Sack:

This seems to be a parallel to the Republican intransigence at the state level, where there seems to be an equivalent disregard for the consequences of the shutdown of the state of Minnesota on the right. 

Since they only really care about 0.03%, the 7,700 who are more likely to put money in the Republican Party pockets, we seem to have not so much an ethical crisis of pay to play, as pay to give a damn.

We are being treated to the inevitable Republican over reach.  AGAIN.  The one that ignores the will of the people, while claiming to be populist.  There have been nearly two dozen polls showing the overwhelming desire for a budget that increases revenue, not all-cuts.  Those polls show the overwhelming support for Dayton's proposal to tax the indulged, tax-protected upper 2%, who would not be adversely impacted.

That is not job killing, regardless of how often the right repeats their false characterization.  It is not class warfare; class warfare is favoring unfairly the wealthy few and special interests over everyone else.

EVERYONE else.

From Bruce Bartlett's blog, by way of  Jason Easly at PolitcusUSA.com (disclaimer - both Pen and I have written for politicususa.com a couple of years ago).

January 2011 - 60 Minutes / Vanity Fair Poll  - 61% would raise taxes on the rich rather than cut defense,  social security or medicare
                      - CBS News / New York Times - 66% would raise taxes rather than cut social security or Medicare;

February 2011 - CBS News - 49% believe that reducing the deficit will require cuts in programs which affect them; 41% do not; 37% believe that reducing the deficit will require higher taxes on them; 59% do not.

March 2011 - NBC News/ Wall Street Journal - 81% support surtax on millionaires to reduce the deficit; 68% support repeal of the Bush tax cuts for those earning over $250,000
                     - NBC News / Washington Post - 64% support higher taxes to reduce deficit rather than cuts-only solutions

April 2011 - Tulchin Research Poll - Californians overwhelmingly support raising taxes on the rich to solve the state's budget crisis.
                  - Gallop Poll - 67% believe that corporations do not pay their fair share, 59% believe the rich do not pay their fair share
                   - McClatchey / Marist Poll - 2 to 1, voters support higher taxes on the rich, including 45% of self-identified Tea Partiers!
                   - Public Religion Research Institute - 2-1 margin, people believe the rich should pay more taxes than the poor or middle class; 62% believe that growing wealth inequality is a serious concern.
                   - Washington Post / ABC News - 2-1 margin people favor higher taxes AND spending cuts over cuts alone solution to the deficit; 72% favor raising taxes on the wealthy, the single most popular deficit reduction solution
                   - New York Times / CBS - 72% favor raising taxes on the rich for deficit reduction; 66% believe that tax increases will be necessary to solve the deficit problem, only 19% believed cuts only proposals were an adequate solution.
                   - USC / Los Angeles Times - 2 -1 favor raising taxes, not cuts alone, to solve the CA budget crisis
                    - Gallop Poll - 20% favor cuts only to solve the deficit; 76% favor higher taxes as part of the solution

May 2011 - Quinnipiac Poll - 69% favor raising taxes on those earning more than $250,000, with 28 percent disagreeing.
                  - Ipsos / Reuters Poll - 3/5ths of people support higher taxes to reduce the deficit
                  - Bloomberg Poll -  2/3rds believe higher taxes are necessary to reduce the deficit.
                  - Lake Research Poll - 44% of Colorado residents support higher taxes on the rich to shore up Social Security finances, while 25% do not

June 2011 - Pew Poll  - strong support for tax increases to reduce the deficit; 67% favor raising the wage cap for Social Security Taxes;66% favor raising the income tax on those earning > $250,000; 62% want to limit corporate tax deductions; a plurality would limit mortgage interest deductions.
                 - Washington Post / ABC News Poll - 61% believe higher taxes are necessary to reduce the deficit.

Here is Bruce Bartlett's bio, for those not familiar with him - and for those who claim that only liberal sources support taxation of the rich:

Bruce Bartlett is a columnist for The Fiscal Times, an online newspaper covering the economy, business and personal finance; and for Tax Notes, a weekly magazine for tax policymakers and practitioners. He was previously a columnist for Forbes Magazine and Creators Syndicate. His writing often focuses on the intersection between politics and economics and attempts to inform politicians about economics and economists about the current nature of politics.

Bartlett’s work is informed by many years in government, including service on the staffs of Congressmen Ron Paul and Jack Kemp and Senator Roger Jepsen; as staff director of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress; senior policy analyst in the Reagan White House; and deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department during the George H.W. Bush administration.

Bruce is the author of seven books including the New York Times best-seller, Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (Doubleday, 2006). His latest book is The New American Economy: The Failure of Reaganomics and a New Way Forward (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Public Policy Polling went further in polling the swing states of Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota and Montana, which showed that not only was there overwhelming support for taxing the wealthy, but that there was also
overwhelming support for keeping the current versions of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. 

AND - TAKE NOTE REPUBLICANS! - creating JOBS was more important than solving the deficit.  Whether at the state level or the national level, quit screwing around, and raise those upper income taxes, and quit trying to choke us on your backward culture wars.  Before you try that stupid mantra that tax cuts to the wealthy create jobs - PUT UP OR SHUT UP!  PROVE IT.

The Evidence is NOT on your side (again):

Per Michael Linden, Center for American Progress, commenting on the above Bureau of Labor Statistics and Tax Policy Center numbers:

In the past 60 years, job growth has actually been greater in years when the top income tax rate was much higher than it is now.
For instance, in years when the top marginal rate was more than 90 percent, the average annual growth in total payroll employment was 2 percent. In years when the top marginal rate was 35 percent or less—which it is now—employment grew by an average of just 0.4 percent.
And there’s no cherry-picking here. Pick any threshold. When the marginal tax rate was 50 percent or above, annual employment growth averaged 2.3 percent, and when the rate was under 50, growth was half that.
In fact, if you ranked each year since 1950 by overall job growth, the top five years would all boast marginal tax rates at 70 percent or higher. The top 10 years would share marginal tax rates at 50 percent or higher. The two worst years, on the other hand, were 2008 and 2009, when the top marginal tax rate was 35 percent. In the 13 years that the top marginal tax rate has been at its current level or lower, only one year even cracks the top 20 in overall job creation.

Attention Wisconsin! Tax Cuts to Corporations Don't Produce Jobs; the Comparison between Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
- George Washington
courtesy of quote of the day, dictionary.com

Ohio is attempting to enact the same kinds of union busting legislation as Wisconsin.

As Wisconsin intends to do, if Governor Walker gets his way, Ohio has already done away with corporate income taxes, and has lower taxes in other categories, like property taxes and sales tax, than the national average.  This presents the question, are the tax cuts really about job creation, or are they just continuing and expanding the income gap between the wealthiest 1%, and the other 99%, with a side-order of union busting to further increase that gap between the very few haves, and the increasingly have-nots and have-less?

Yet their unemployment is HIGHER than the national average, and has been in spite of all the give-aways and the freebies for corporations in Ohio. Low Corporate Taxes are a factor in business relocation, but not the only - or even the most important - factor in job creation. If this was a mechanism for producing jobs, Ohio wouldn't have these comparative statistics:

                                Unemployment Rates         

                                             Dec. '10 
Ohio                                          9.5%

Ohio not seasonally adjusted        9.2%

U.S.                                           9.4%

U.S. not seasonally adjusted         9.1%

While Wisconsin had an unemployment rate of 7.5%, and Minnesota 7.0% respectively for the same time period.

Update on the Wisconsin Right Wing Crisis in their Attempt to Dismantle Unions

Today (Friday, 2/18/'11) marked the shutdown of the Wisconsin legislature and the largest demonstrations in opposition to Republican lawmakers so far this week.  While democratic lawmakers are ''on the lam'' in the vicinity of Rockford, IL, just over the border (but safely out of the reach of the authority of the state police to compel them to return).

While the state police is unable to locate the absent legislators (supposedly - one wonders how much effort, given the union issues, that they may be putting into the search) it has been perfectly simple for the left wing media to locate them, and for the democratic legislators to do multiple interviews.


There is conflicting information as to the return of the legislators - some reports have them returning for a session on Saturday, other reports have them out of the state, holding up the determination of the legislation indefinitely.  Meanwhile the one independent legislator has indicated he would make up the one additional person that is needed for a vote, conditional on unspecified changes being made to the legislation.  Even if those changes are not made, if that independent legislator, Bob Ziegelbauer, a former democrat until last June (2010) when he won over both a Republican AND a Democratic challenger, returns, the Republicans will be able to pass the opposed legislation with or without making changes to his satisfaction.

It will remain to be seen if Ziegelbauer follows through on his decision to give up his advantage of caucusing with his former colleagues, if the demonstrations and protests continue to expand and intensify.  Meanwhile a variety of religious groups are offering sanctuary to the oppositional Democrats, and the AFL-CIO is promising to continue to fight the legislation, even if it eventually passes.

My best guess is that the voters for these Republicans did not anticipate their actions, and certainly a lot of people in the state, which has a long history of contributing to the development of unions, including for government employees, will not be re-electing them in 2012, given the hostility being expressed now.  Once again, in exceeding whatever mandate they might have genuinely had in the last election, they are over-reaching, and will find themselves back on the outside in the next round of elections (if not sooner). Republicans are waging a misplaced war on the middle class and working classes.  They are likely to regret that action, no matter how much corporate money they take in as payment (or pay offs?)_ for their legislation.

Republican Dictated Tax Policy Results in "Hemorrhaging Revenue", Not a Balanced Budget

"The current state of the tax code is simply indefensible," says Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. "It is hemorrhaging revenue."

Republicans use the same buzz words over and over and over again when referring to the need to cut high taxes.  Except............the taxes AREN'T really high, certainly not income taxes.  Applause to the AP article for this :

Actually, as a share of the nation's economy, Uncle Sam's take this year will be the lowest since 1950, when the Korean War was just getting under way.

And for the third straight year, American families and businesses will pay less in federal taxes than they did under former President George W. Bush, thanks to a weak economy and a growing number of tax breaks for the wealthy and poor alike.

Supplemental to the PSA in Defense of Women's Lives, and Against the Wrong-on-the-Right Extremists in Congress

The previous PSA contained a petition to be presented to Congress, as a whole.  I promised that if the opportunity came for links to individual members of Congress, to facilitate expressing your views to your own individual congressman or congresswoman, I would present it here.  Tell your Representative in Congress to stop waging culture wars, to stop over reaching any mandate they incorrectly believe they have to intrude and meddle in the lives of individual citizens. Tell them to get to the real business of Congress serving the people of this country, not the wealthy few, not the extreme fringe, and not corporations.  Every individual contact like this is a reminder of who elected them - and who cannot vote.

Do it by using the link embedded in the following message from the Center for Reproductive Rights.  You may or may not support any other positions of this organization, but using the link specifically addresses ONLY the issue of abortions to save the life of the mother, something  on which we can widely share a consensus.

NO human being in this country should have to face seeking medical care for a health problem where they could lose their life, only to be denied that care because of the unscientific, religious beliefs of a health care provider or institution being forced on them, or judging their morals.  We have medical ethics committees in every hospital in this country which competently and knowledgeably addresses these issues - and they don't do it like this legislation.

Another Public Service Announcement in Defense of Women, Because Joe Pitts and His Legislation REALLY Is 'the Pits'

The 'Stupak on Steroids' redefining of rape and incest to forcible rape ONLY for abortion by the political Right, aka the Political Wrong, has been defeated.  The 'forcible rape' language has been replaced with the wording of the Hyde Amendment which recognizes rape, incest, and the life of the mother for abortions. Why another redundant reiteration of the Hyde Amendment? Just let it go, give up your culture war attack on women, Rightwingers.

Instead, the Republicans and Tea Partiers are declaring another culture war on women in a different way, this time on another of the Hyde Amendment provisions, one on which if there is any compromise, any position whatsoever where we have agreement on the appropriate use for abortion, it is this.  They want to make it an acceptable option to REFUSE to perform an abortion to save a woman's life.

 They want to make it acceptable to let women die who could have their life be saved.   You know - the RELIGIOUS  Right who claim to care about life, but don't, when it comes to women.
The effectivenss of the protest against the Stupak on Steroids legislation was tremendously effective.  We need to let the Wrong-on-the-Right know this is every bit as unacceptable to America. Sign the linked petition. Please contact your members of Congress. I'll update here if there is a similar twitter campaign to the one against the forcible abortion legislation. THIS is not what Congress should be doing; not now, not later, not ever.

Congress Limiting Rape to Forceable Rape ONLY for Abortion: the Republican Culture Wars against Sex and Women

Under Sweden's stringent rape laws, Julian Assange is facing rape accusations, in part for having initiated sex with a woman who was sleeping in the same bed, on the premise that a sleeping woman (or depending on the account you read, half-sleeping or dozing after having gone out to buy orange juice and other groceries for breakfast and then returning to bed) was unable by virtue of her somnolence to give consent to sex.  I find it ludicrous that being half-asleep or even fully asleep in bed, where a man or woman can wake up, and can consent at such an early stage of coitus to equate to a woman (or potentially a man) being incapacitated by either a date-rape drug, or some other pharmaceutical, or alcohol.  I am not a supporter of Assange, but I believe he should be faulted for what he has done wrong, not for a stupid trumped up charge that equates wake-up sex with rape.  That dilutes and  diminishes the seriousness of real rape by making such a charge a joke.

And as the second item of business in Congress, instead of working on legislation relating to jobs or other economic issues, Republicans are addressing rape and abortion in their continuing culture wars, inserting provisions to make rape laws less stringent in the context of abortion funding.

Rape is only really rape if it involves force. So says the new House Republican majority as it now moves to change abortion law.

Buying Guns, or Voting - Which Should We Be Making More Difficult?

After the Virginia Tech massacre, the shooting in 2007, an investigation determined that the shooter had legally purchased a gun, and that he was not in any data base.  Even if he had not been able to legally purchase a gun from a licensed gun dealer where a background check was required, he would have been legally able to purchase a gun at a gun show without a background check.  There is NO prohibition that prevents or even discourages a person who is dangerously insane from purchasing a gun at a gun show.

In the United States, to be prohibited from exercising our rights requires a court decision.  A judge has to rule on removing our right to vote, or removing our right to own a gun.  The right has been very interested in restricting the rights of people to vote, actively acting to disenfranchise tens of thousands who are legally entitled to vote their single vote.  The right has been determined to make it as easy as possible for people to own guns, every possible kind of gun, unlimited guns.  They give lip service to preventing guns from falling into the hands of people who are legally prohibited from owning them, or who should be prohibited from owning guns, but they also do everything possible to make owning and carrying guns as unrestricted as possible. Guns can kill and wound people, innocent people.  In attempting to prevent people from voting the danger that Republicans are trying to prevent is merely the election of Democrats or other liberals - the LEGAL election of representative government candidates.

To put this in perspective, a recent article from article from Reuters reports that the United States has 90 guns per 100 people, more than any other nation in the world.  The next closest country in guns per capita is Yemen, at 61 per person.