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ivygorgon · 1 month

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No free rides for old money! - Pass The Billionaires Income Tax Act! (S. 3367)

I am writing to express my strong support for the proposed S. 3367 bill, which aims to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. This legislation represents a crucial step towards achieving economic justice by seeking to eliminate tax loopholes that have allowed billionaires to defer taxes indefinitely. By doing so, we would be ensuring a fairer distribution of wealth and rectifying a system that has long favored the ultra-wealthy. Additionally, the bill modifies over 30 tax provisions, requiring billionaires to contribute annually. It's time to ensure that those with the most significant influence and wealth contribute proportionately to our society's well-being. Therefore, I urge you to support and pass the Billionaires Income Tax Act.

Billionaires have amassed vast wealth, often at the expense of their employees who struggle to make ends meet on minimum wages. It is only just and equitable that they pay their employees a living wage AND contribute proportionally to the betterment of our society.

Furthermore, if billionaires wield significant influence over our government and policy-making, they should demonstrate their commitment by financially supporting the very system that has allowed them to prosper. No longer should they enjoy free rides on the backs of hardworking taxpayers. It is past time to ensure that billionaires are contributing their fair share to the well-being of our country.

Passing the Billionaires Income Tax Act is not only a matter of fiscal responsibility but also a moral imperative. It is time to ensure that our tax system is fair and equitable for all, not just the wealthy few.

Thank you for considering my views on this important issue. I urge you to stand on the side of fairness and justice by supporting S.3367.

No free rides for old money!

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 5 days

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Swing-state voters are open to several ideas to keep Social Security benefits flowing for decades — as long as it’s the wealthy footing the bill, according to the latest Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll.

An overwhelming 77% of registered voters in the seven states that will decide the 2024 presidential election like the idea of a billionaires tax to bolster Social Security shortfalls, the poll found. More than half say they approve of trimming benefits for high-earners, and for taxing wages for Social Security beyond the first $168,600 in earnings as done under current policy.

The poll was conducted among registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin between April 8-15.

Across-the-board changes — raising the retirement age to 69 from 67 or introducing a new formula that results in less generous benefit payments — were less popular. Around one-fourth of poll respondents supported those policies, while about a third support increasing payroll taxes.

The poll demonstrates the difficult task Congress will face in the coming years as it grapples with how to shore up the social safety net program for aging Americans. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that starting in 2034 Social Security recipients will only receive about 75% of their promised payments if lawmakers don’t act.

“A lot of people want the government to take action, but they’re not really sure how,” Matt Monday, a senior manager for Morning Consult, said in an interview. “But the things that they do feel sure about is that someone else should do it,” he said, pointing to the wide popularity of the billionaires tax.

President Joe Biden’s billionaires tax would place a 25% levy on households worth more than $100 million. The plan taxes accumulated wealth, so it ends up hitting money that often goes untaxed under current laws. The president has also proposed higher payroll taxes on those making more than $400,000 as a way to strengthen the Social Security trust fund.

Conversations in Washington about large-scale plans to find new ways to fund Social Security have become more pressing with projections showing the program is becoming increasingly unsustainable. But changes to Social Security are politically risky because older Americans, who are directly benefitting from the payments, are an important voting bloc for both parties.

Benefit programs for elderly Americans are one of voters’ top priorities in November — only the economy, immigration, abortion and protecting democracy were chosen more often when respondents were asked what single issue was most important to their voting decision.

The poll also found that swing state voters trust Biden more than Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump to preserve Social Security and Medicare, with 45% trusting Biden and 39% trusting Trump.

Trump has not articulated a clear vision for the benefit programs. His campaign website says he will “always protect” Social Security without providing details. In a March interview, he said “there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting,” but later walked back that statement, saying he would never do anything to “jeopardize or hurt” the payments for older people.

Republicans in Congress have proposed raising the retirement age and using a new cost of living adjustment metric that would result in lower payments over time. Nikki Haley, who challenged Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, proposed scaling back Social Security benefits for future generations and higher income retirees.

METHODOLOGY

The Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll surveyed 4,969 registered voters in seven swing states: 801 registered voters in Arizona, 802 in Georgia, 708 in Michigan, 450 in Nevada, 703 in North Carolina, 803 in Pennsylvania and 702 in Wisconsin. The surveys were conducted online from April 8-15. The aggregated data across the seven swing states were weighted to approximate a target sample of swing-state registered voters based on gender, age, race/ethnicity, marital status, home ownership, 2020 presidential vote and state. State-level data were weighted to approximate a target sample of registered voters in the respective state based on gender, age, race/ethnicity, marital status, home ownership, and 2020 presidential vote. The margin of error is plus or minus 1 percentage point across the seven states; 3 percentage points in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania; 4 percentage points in Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, and 5 percentage points in Nevada.

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

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Here are just two of the corporate giveaways hidden in the rushed, must-pass, end-of-year budget bill

Yesterday, Congress finally voted through the must-pass, end-of-year budget bill. As has become routine, this bill was stalled right until the final moment, so that Congressjerks could cram the 4,000-page, $1.7 trillion package with special favors for their donors, at the expense of the rest of the country.

This year’s budget package included a couple of especially egregious doozies, which were reported out for The American Prospect by Lee Harris (who covered a grotesque retirement giveaway for the ultra-rich) and Doraj Facundo (who covered a safety giveaway to Boeing and its lethal fleet of 737 Max airplanes).

Let’s start with the retirement scam. The budget bill includes Rep Richie Neal’s [DINO-MA] SECURE Act 2.0, which gives savers with retirement funds until age 75 to cash out their retirement savings — netting an extra three years of tax-free growth for the lucky, tiny minority with substantial retirement savings. This follows on Neal’s SECURE Act 1.0 of 2019, when the age was raised from 70.5 to 72.

The tax-exempt retirement savings account is a Carter-era bargain that replaced real pensions — ones that guaranteed that you wouldn’t starve or freeze to death when you retired — with accounts that let people gamble on the stock market, to be the suckers at Wall Street’s poker table:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/25/derechos-humanos/#are-there-no-poorhouses

The market-based gambler’s pension is a catastrophic failure. Half of Americans have no retirement savings. Of the half that have any savings, the vast majority have almost nothing saved:

https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scf/dataviz/scf/chart/#series:Retirement_Accounts;demographic:all;population:all;units:have

All in all, America has a $7 trillion retirement savings shortfall:

https://crr.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IB_19-16.pdf

But for a tiny minority of the ultra-rich, tax-free savings accounts like ROTH IRAs are a means of avoiding even the paltry capital gains tax that you have to pay if you own things for a living, rather than doing things for a living. Propublica’s IRS Files revealed how ghouls like Peter Thiel avoided tax on billions in “passive income” by abusing tax-free savings accounts that were supposed to benefit the “middle class”:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/26/wax-rothful/#thiels-gambit

Meanwhile, Social Security is crumbling, thanks to a sustained attack on it by the business lobby and its friends in both parties. Progressive Dems had sought to amend SECURE Act 2.0 by inserting some clauses to shore up Social Security, and none of these were included in the final bill.

One of the fixes that died was the Savings Penalty Elimination Act, introduced by Senators Sherrod Brown [D-OH] and Rob Portman [R-OH]. This act would have tweaked the means-testing for Supplemental Security Income, which supports 8m low-income disabled adults and kids. Right now, you can’t collect SSI if you have $2k in the bank, a limit that hasn’t been adjusted for inflation since the 1980s (adjusted for inflation, $2k in 1980 is $7226.00 in 2022).

The $2k savings cap means that you have to be substantially below the poverty level to receive $585/month in SSI assistance — this being the only source of income for the majority of SSI recipients. Means-testing is a self-immolating fetish for corporate Dems and in retrospect, this betrayal seems inevitable:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/03/utopia-of-rules/#in-triplicate

(Notice how no one proposes means-testing billionaires when they get PPP loans or hundreds of millions in IRS “refunds” — like Trump, who paid substantially less tax than you did:)

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/21/trump-income-tax-returns-detailed-in-new-report-.html

And it was a betrayal: progressive Dems bargained with Neal and co not to publicly condemn SECURE Act 2.0 if they could get some concessions for the 8 million poorest disabled people in America. In the end, Neal rug-pulled them. Of course he did! This is Richie Fucking Neal, the best friend the Trump tax giveaway ever had:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/13/youre-still-the-product/#richie-neal

As with everything Neal touches, this screws poor people in multiple ways. First, it leaves the SSI cap intact. But it also creates a giant unfunded liability in the federal budget. Technically, there’s no reason this should lead to cuts. The US Treasury can’t run out of dollars, and giveaways to the rich are only mildly inflationary, since rich people put their money in the bank and mostly spend it on buying politicians, not goods.

But because of the delusion that currency producers like the US Treasury have the same constraints as currency users like you and me, Congress will need to come up with “Pay Fors” in future budgets to “make up for” the money they’re giving to rich people with SECURE Act 2.0. Dollars to toenail clippings, they’ll do that by hacking away at the tattered remains of the US social safety net.

Fear not, you don’t need to be a desperately poor disabled person or child to get fucked over by late additions to a 4,000 page must-pass bill! If you can afford to get on an airplane, Congress has something for you, too!

Remember when Boeing (the monopoly US airplane manufacturer that squandered $43b on stock buybacks and had to borrow $14b from the US public to survive the pandemic) told the FAA that it could self-certify its 737 Max airplanes, and then killed hundreds and hundreds of people with its defective planes?

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/12/boeing-crashes/#boeing

The 737 Max was unsafe for many reasons, but one glaring factor was the fact that Boeing sold some of its core safety as “extras” — like they were downloadable content for your Fortnite character — leading to multiple crashes in which all lives were lost:

https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-indonesia-accidents-ap-top-news-international-news-140576a8e9d4449eae646c8c479fdc3a

Boeing was forced to take the 737 Max out of service, but it eventually brought the plane back, “fixing” the problems by renaming the “737 Max” to the “737 8”:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/20/dubious-quantitative-residue/#737-8

Supposedly, Boeing has been diligently working on fixing the problems with its defective jets that can’t be addressed by a rebranding campaign. This wasn’t voluntary: the 2020 Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act required Boeing — and every other manufacturer whose aircraft were certified by the FAA — to meet new minimum safety standards by December 27, 2022.

Every manufacturer met that deadline, except Boeing, and someone amended the budget bill to give the company three more years to meet these security standards. Critically, the new security measures, when they come, will be certified by an FAA that Republicans will control, thanks to the House changing hands.

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/government-spending-bill-waives-aircraft-safety-deadline/

Boeing is slated to ship 1,000 new 737 Maxes, which will fetch $50b for the company. Many of these planes will fly directly over my house, which is on the approach path for Burbank airport. Southwest Air flies dozens of 737 Maxes right over my roof every single day.

As Facundo points out, the FAA can ill afford any more hits to its credibility. It was once the case that if the FAA certified an aircraft, every other country in the world would waive any further certification, so trusting were they of the FAA’s judgment. That is no longer the case: today, the European Aviation Safety Agency does its own aircraft testing, holding jets that enter EU airspace to a higher standard than the FAA does for US planes.

It’s just another reminder that the US doesn’t have “corporate criminals” because the US doesn’t have any meaningful enforcement for corporate crimes. In America, we love our companies like we love our billionaires: too big to fail and too big to jail:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/12/no-criminals-no-crimes/#get-out-of-jail-free-card

Image: Ryan Lee (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/190784293@N05/50862532686

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Henry Wadey (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flames_%2858765896%29.jpeg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[Image ID: A living room scene, featuring a sofa in the background and a sofa in the foreground. A man's hand reaches into the frame to lift up the corner of the sofa. A broom enters the frame to sweep a pile of dirt under the rug. Mixed in with the dirt are a crashed WWI biplane with Southwest Airlines livery, and an old lady in a rocking chair.]

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stressed-depressed-and-bored · 1 year

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People always say “who is going to pay for it?” as if it’s some profound “gotcha!”

The rich. The rich can pay for it. They did in the past and they can do it again.

In the 1930s and 1940s the United States was facing a debt crisis much like todays. The government was running out of money coming out of the Great Depression and going into World War 2, and the economy wasn’t doing too well. Everything was falling apart, much like it is now. What was the solution?

And it worked. The US working middle class and the economy did awesome well through the 50s and 60s. The working middle class was wealthier than ever before and wealthier than it’s ever been. Regular people like you and me. Public infrastructure flourished. States had the budgets to build free colleges. College used to be free by the way. It wasn’t until Ronald Reagan’s advisors warned him how “dangerous” an “educated proletariat” was (those are his words), that major universities started to see cuts in public funding and had to start charging tuition.

Today, the top 1% is only taxed at 43% and has been dropping since Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Reagan also set the precedent of ignoring labor and union rights, violating both domestic (NLRA, Wagner Act) and international (United Nations bill of rights) law. This too has only ever been made worse by Republican policy as time has gone on with yet more tax cuts for the wealthy. Look up the actual policies. Don’t take a politicians word, read their actual policy. They will and do lie to you.

Do y’all understand now why the US debt is going up so fast? It’s because Trump cut that tax rate even more, amassing a whopping 20% of our current total national debt within only 4 years. The debt ceiling was raised THREE TIMES during Trump’s presidency, the uppermost tax bracket was cut even more, and massive corporate bailout loans were forgiven. Research the PPE loans. This has been Republican policy for 40+ years.

The systemic deconstruction of the middle class and the government in favor of corporate control. We are living in a repeat of the Gilded Age of the Industrial Revolution. The railroads and the banks own and control everything, including the government.

These are facts. Read it in any history book.

Or you can just ban those books too and pretend it didn’t happen. That would be a mistake though.

If you wanna know how our economy has REALLY been doing for the last 40 years, I suggest looking into the Economic Policy Institute. Or ask any working class American how they have been doing lately, especially those of us who are young, trying to make it.

Our current struggle is not caused by the “Woke Mob” as propaganda outlet Fox News will tell you.

(Do any of you even know what “woke” means? It means you are aware and attentive to the fact that systematic societal issues and flaws exist. Wether it be race issues, income issues, whatever. Being “woke” literally means you’re not a sheep who follows along anything that the media and government tell you. Thats what it means. Literally look it up. I grew up as this word came to popularity. It’s been around for a very long time. The GOP is taking advantage of the fact that you don’t know what it is, and using it as a fear mongering tactic to channel your anger at your neighbor instead of the corporations pulling the strings. It is corporate propaganda).

Our current struggle is caused by the class warfare waged by corporate scum as they buy all of our politicians in return for bailing out the government’s debt. Both left and right, our politicians have been bought. None of them work for you. They work for the big corporations lining their pockets through unlimited lobbying.

So, when y’all say “I don’t wanna pay for it”- don’t worry, you aren’t going to be paying for it. The middle class will not be paying for it. The multi-billionaire corporations stealing your labor will be paying for it. The rich goons who increase the price of your groceries and lay you off all in the name of making a few extra bucks will be paying for it.

Do some research and you’ll see exactly why and when we got into this mess.

It’s not that complicated. It really isn’t.

Tax. The. Rich.

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kp777 · 1 year

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By Jessica Corbett

Common Dreams

May 16, 2023

While congressional Republicans hold the global economy hostage by refusing to raise the U.S. debt ceiling without major spending cuts that would hurt the working class, a federal analysis revealed Tuesday that GOP plans to extend 2017 tax breaks for the wealthy could add nearly $3.5 trillion to the nation's deficit.

The relevant section of the new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report focuses on the potential extensions of policies from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which Republican lawmakers passed and then-President Donald Trump signed in late 2017.

Just extending the TCJA's changes to individual income tax provisions would cost almost $2.5 trillion through 2033, according to the CBO and Joint Committee on Taxation. Debt service costs would tack on another $278 billion.

If three other policies—higher estate and gift tax exemptions, changes to the tax treatment of investment costs, and certain business tax provisions—are extended plus debt service costs are included, the total hits nearly $3.5 trillion.

"MAGA Republicans don't give a damn about the deficit, and today's estimate of the cost of kickbacks for their friends and donors is further proof," said Senate Budget Committee Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). "Republicans racked up the national debt by giving tax breaks to their billionaire buddies, and now they want everyone else to pay for them. It is one of life's great enigmas that Republicans can keep a straight face while they simultaneously cite the deficit to extort massive spending cuts to critical programs and support a bill that would blow up deficits to extend trillions in tax cuts for the people who need them the least."

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destinyc1020 · 8 months

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I think people would be able to have more savings if wasn't for student loans tbh. That whole thing is so predatory to me as an outsider. Also don't actors have to pay managers, publicists, agents etc? Its not as simple as just getting paid 1M and keeping all of it from an acting job. Then the taxes come in, where the billionaires get loopholes and those in the in the middle and lower income brackets are paying more than their fair share because of it. Bottom line everything seems to lead back to greedy ceos tbh

THANK YOU! 👏🏾

Student loans are for sure predatory! 🥴 I didn't realize it when I was going to University at the time, but after you graduate and see your paycheck get eaten up for years having to pay student loan debt, you start to recognize. 👀

Thankfully, I didn't have to incur nearly as much student loan debt as some of my peers since I had a few scholarships and govt-funded programs, but I still incurred debt!

It seems silly that the group of ppl that are just now getting out into the work force with the least amount of experience, so the least amount of pay is also the group that is already starting BEHIND the start line cuz you're getting out of college with debt. 🙄😒

Makes no sense whatsoever.

You spoke a word with this entire ask Anon. 💯

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militantinremission · 1 year

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Biden's State Of The Union: a bridge to bipartisanship?

Joe Biden's 2nd State Of The Union Address seemed to be about checking boxes. 1st, Biden attempted to check the 'Fit for Duty' box. He appeared to be his snarky self, channeling the old persona of Blue Collar 'Joe from Scranton'. He took a few jabs @ Republicans, starting w/ his introduction of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He also instigated a kerfuffle w/ Marjorie Taylor Greene & others over Social Security & Medicare. Throughout his address, Biden tried to emote the swagger of that Senator from Delaware, who had the ear of Reagan, Bush, & Gingrich.

In his Address, Biden said that America is about 'possibilities'. He touted the accomplishments of his Administration over last 2Yrs, & made his pitch for Congress to finish what he started. Joe Biden ran on a platform of bipartisanship; to back this up, he touted 300 Bipartisan Bills passed since he took Office. He expressed his plan to 'Restore The Soul of America', starting w/ The Middle Class. He spoke of building an economy from the bottom up, & the middle out. Like Donald Trump, he supports a Made In America Campaign where Our supply chain begins @ Home.

The Star of the 'Made In America' Campaign, is 'The Chips & Sciences Act'. Biden touts how it will create hundreds of thousands of 6 figure income jobs, that WILL NOT require a College Degree. The expectation is that these Chip Production Sites will bolster & hopefully restore the Communities around them. Presently, the National Unemployment Rate is @ 3.4%- a 50Yr low; this (supposedly) includes lows for Black & Latino Communities. On top of recent job growth #s, Biden also touted 10 million New Business Applications.

He pointed out how 30 million Employees have to sign Non Compete Agreements, & how Workers deserve 'Dignity @ Work' that gives them a Right to a Living Wage, Affordable Housing, & Affordable Child Care. Biden took a couple of jabs @ Republicans, while speaking on the Debt Ceiling. Speaker McCarthy already appeared on News Shows to say that he supports taking Social Security & Medicare off the Table; why did Joe Biden linger on the subject? McCarthy can do his own wrangling.

The Biden Administration were the 1st to say their Fiscal Budget is non-negotiable; how can they fault Republicans for crying foul? Ultimately, Biden agreed to compare Plans. His Plan for Restructuring the Tax Code entails no Tax Increase for families making below $400K, a Billionaire's Minimum Tax of 15%, & quadrupling Corporate Buy Back Stock Fees. Biden touted how his Administration reduced the Deficit by $1.7T, & how Programs like the 'Junk Fee Prevention Act' will spur economic growth.

The subject of Infrastructure gave Joe Biden another opportunity to take a jab @ Republicans. He remarked how Red States will get Projects earmarked, just like Blue States. Members Of Congress may not have voted for his Infrastructure Plan, but 'i'll see ya at the Groundbreaking'. Under this plan, Biden highlighted:

Bridges, Tunnels & Roads

Lead Pipe Removal

Affordable High Speed Internet for All Americans

ALL Construction Materials used for infrastructure must be Made In America

Biden's 'Inflation Reduction Act', is basically a Plan to use restructuring the Tax Code as an excuse to reform Prescription Drugs & Climate Change initiatives. No one (in their right mind) disagrees w/ $35 Insulin, Fentanyl Prevention, or Clean Water efforts; that said, politicians have been slow to act on these measures. The manufacturing angle of this Act sounds promising, as it rewards Companies for buying American made components for their operation. Education, Immigration/ Border Security, & COVID Protocols rounded out the balance of Biden's State Of The Union Address.

Biden stressed the need for quality Public Education for grades Pre-K through 12. He also expressed a need for access to Local/ Community Colleges, & College Debt Reduction. He split COVID fallout into 2 categories: Economic Fallout & Public Safety Concerns. Under Economic Fallout, Biden reiterates his Made In America Agenda to bolster job growth. He again touts Job Growth #s as an indicator that America is getting back to business; pointing out how We are outperforming the rest of The World.

Under Public Safety Concerns, Biden spotlights the family of Tyre Nichols. He goes on to speak about the need for better Police Training/ Reform, more Community Programs, & Gun Reform. He talks about 'Brown & Black' families having 'The Talk', but I don't know of ANY 'Brown families' having that 'Talk'. Joe Biden's ease @ changing 'Black American Struggle' into 'Black & Brown Issues' is becoming an Art. His short memory is already legendary. He speaks about implementing Community Programs, but he was an architect of Benign Neglect Policy that eliminated these Community Programs over 40Yrs ago.

I found it ironic how Joe Biden could invite Tyre Nichols' family to The State Of The Union Address, but didn't mention the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act. He spoke about funding for better Police training, but the combined budgets of the Nation's Largest Police Departments likely rivals the Defense Budgets of NATO Countries. There's already enough $$$ being spent on training. Why is training not a factor when Police are somehow able to apprehend armed White assailants w/ little incident? It was interesting to watch both Sides of the Aisle show sympathy for Tyre Nichols' Mother in one moment, & applaud an increase of Police Budgets in the next. I made note of the CBC Members that applauded.

Gun Reform, like Abortion, is an ongoing issue. The REAL problem, is how to restrict Blackfolk, while respecting everyone else's 2nd Amendment Right. Gun Control wasn't an Issue, until The Black Panther Party protested in Sacramento nearly 60Yrs ago. White Americans have an Inalienable Right to bear Arms, & always will. Gun Control is not a real thing; Society needs the same personality types that are misbehaving w/ firearms to protect them from 'The Big Black Boogeyman'... It's a strange dance.

On the subject of the Southern Border & Immigration Reform, Biden spoke about resources for Border Control, & a pathway to Citizenship for Migrant Workers & Children of Illegal Immigrants. Border States have been literally begging for help; the Texas Governor has been busing Illegal Immigrants to Northern Cities for months. A bus went to Kamala Harris' residence, so The White House had to know things were critical on The Border. It is estimated that over 2 million Illegal Immigrants have entered America on Biden's Watch; not counting tens of thousands of Ukrainians & Afghans entering from Tijuana. How was Barack Obama able to keep Border Crossings low, while Joe Biden seems overwhelmed?

Biden's International focus was on Ukraine & China. According to him, Ukraine is fighting against 'Putin's Tyranny', & We as Americans, should do everything possible to support their fight for freedom. I would personally like an accounting of what 'We' gave, & where it went. Redacted has reported on Al Qaeda & ISIS Soldiers being paid $2,500/ Week to fight w/ Ukraine- is this true? What are Our Tax dollars paying for? Redacted, The Grey Zone, & Jimmy Dore have all talked about high level theft of funds & Black Market activity in Ukraine.

On the issue of China, Biden said that We seek Competition, not Conflict. The U.S. helped China rise- from a 3rd World Nation, to a legitimate World Economic Power in under 50Yrs. America's ongoing meddling in Hong Kong, along w/ rising tension in Taiwan has apparently struck a nerve in Beijing. The recent drama of balloons violating U.S. Airspace are merely another round in a Marathon Dance Competition. America's dependence on China for basic Staples, is the Real Issue.

According 2 Biden, we're in Our strongest position to compete w/ China, & Anyone else. We will work w/ China, but WILL defend Our Sovereignty. He went on to say how No other World Leader wants to trade places w/ President Xi, going against America. Biden ultimately says that The State Of The Union is Excellent. He emphasizes a Nation built on ideals, not geography, collectively working together- sounds promising. Gov. Sarah Huckabee- Sanders delivered The GOP Response, & didn't waste time picking Biden apart.

According to Gov. Huckabee- Sanders, Joe Biden inherited:

The fastest economic recovery On Record.

The most secure Border in History

Cheap, abundant 'home grown' Energy

Fast rising Wages

A rebuilt Military

A World that was stable & @ peace.

Over the last 2Yrs, Joe Biden & The Democrats have spent Trillions in reckless spending, while creating the worst Border Crisis in History. 100,000 Americans are dying from drug overdoses annually- mainly fentanyl. Domestically, criminals roam free, while Internationally, We have been unable to stand up to China... Joe Biden has been unwilling to protect Our Border, Sky, & Our People- he is not fit to serve as Commander In Chief. She deadpans that Biden is caught up in 'Wokeism'.

Huckabee- Sanders goes on to repeat several GOP talking points that date back to Newt Gingrich's 'Contract w/ America'. She says that giving every child access to quality education is the civil rights issue of today. To that end, she proposes an 'Educate, not Indoctrinate' Agenda, that eliminates Critical Race Theory (CRT), & use of the label 'Latinx'. She closes by saying that America is Free, but this Freedom is under attack & America is in danger. The Biden Administration has failed Us, but the GOP has America's future in mind. They are still the place where Freedom reigns & Liberty never dies.

Clearly, Gov. Huckabee- Sanders is towing the Party Line. As Biden tried to build himself up as a virile, stable, & capable Leader, Huckabee Sanders tried to paint a picture of someone old, feeble, & out of touch. The GOP sees Biden as Dems saw Ronald Reagan. The Country was literally more 'Black & White' back then, so Reagan was able to get away w/ more than Biden can. As for 'The Future', how can Republicans truly believe this, when their base is quickly becoming a Minority?

All of this plays into an ongoing narrative, where Democrats & Republicans take turns assuming Leadership. In theory, One leans Left, & the Other leans Right. In practice, Both Sides find consensus on issues that promote the continuance of White Supremacist Policy, by way of Institutionalized Systemic Racism. Minority Groups understand & accept AmeriKKKa's 'pecking order', in return for resources & privilege. The GOP tend to use 'Non- Racial' language to filter out Black America, while Democrats use 'Liberal- Progressive' language to do the same. Both depend on Black America's sense of 'fair play', & equality for Everyone.

As ADOS, We rationalize why a Group should get resources ahead of Us, while Everyone Else behaves like they have some inherent Right to be ahead of Us. We know that some Immigrants & Minority Groups have prejudices against Black Americans; Joe Biden's lack of concern for 'Black specific Policy' in effect, tells them that they're justified in their thinking. If he doesn't care, why should they? To them, America is a 'Grab Bag'. When you consider the fact that Joe Biden showed more concern for Migrant Workers, than taxpaying Black Farmers who have been victimized & oppressed for generations, it's pretty easy to see how his State Of The Union Address condones an Anti Black Agenda- I call it: Benign Neglect 2.0

-Just My 2 Cents

#WingsOfTheSameBird #AntiBlackRacism #NoPolicyNoPeace #ADOS #B1

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theculturedmarxist · 2 years

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Nearly a decade ago, tech entrepreneur Nick Hanauer warned his fellow billionaires that “the pitchforks are coming.” The economy was still reeling from the financial crisis, and for the vast majority of Americans the policy response had been a near total failure. There were too few jobs, too many foreclosures, and way too much inequality. Eventually, Hanauer wrote, the masses would rise up.

If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.

Instead of fixing the glaring inequities, Republicans used their majorities to deliver huge tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited people like Hanauer.

It was on the heels of the Trump tax cuts that billionaire hedge fund investor, Ray Dalio, started to worry that the pitchforks were coming. Capitalism, he argued, “was not working for the majority of Americans.” Unless policies were put in place to generate better economic outcomes—including a better distribution of wealth and income—a “revolution” was coming.

Around the same time, fellow billionaire Jamie Dimon wrote in his annual letter to shareholders that “far too many people were living on the edge.” He described a system in crisis and urged “a call to action.” Like Dalio, Dimon stressed the urgent need to build a more “inclusive economy.” Keeping the pitchforks at bay meant improving life—if only modestly—for those who might otherwise take to the streets.

Instead of taking to the streets, COVID kept many of us home. And while the pandemic caused immeasurable harm, the policy response was so much better that life did improve—at least financially—for millions of ordinary people.

The financial lifeline that started with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in March 2020 culminated with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act in March 2021. The ARP was intended to put a punctuation mark on the economic recovery, not to permanently tackle the sort of inequities Hanauer described in his “memo to fellow zillionaires.”

To deal with the more structural problems, President Biden offered his Build Back Better agenda, explaining that “for too long, the economy has worked great for those at the top, while working families get squeezed.” No more tax breaks for billionaires. Instead, Biden wanted to tax them. In addition to a slew of other taxes, Biden proposed a “billionaire’s tax” on the top 0.0001, those with annual incomes over $100,000,000. The pitchforks were coming, and the rich were in the crosshairs.

It was time to rebuild the economy from “the bottom up and the middle out,” the president said in his State of Union address. To wring some of the inequality out of the system, he offered a plan that would have raised taxes on those at the top while investing trillions in child care, elder care, housing, education, climate, and more. For a while, Congress seemed poised to act on a $3.5 trillion package.

And then this happened.

Senator Manchin (D-WV) refused to vote for a package that wasn’t “fully paid for,” while Senator Sinema (D-AZ) refused to vote for the sweeping tax hikes that Biden insisted were necessary to “pay for” the spending. I wrote about the whole saga at length last year.

Anyway, the media teased us (again) last week, reporting that constructive negotiations with Senator Manchin were underway and democrats might yet pass portions of what was once part of the Build Back Better agenda. And then Lucy yanked the football once again.

As Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent reported on Friday:

This will surprise only people who haven’t paid even cursory attention to the last year of Democratic politics, but Sen. Joe Manchin III may have just killed any hopes for a resuscitated version of the Democratic agenda. The West Virginia Democrat reportedly told party leaders late Thursday that he won’t support any new incentives to combat climate change or any new tax hikes on corporations or the wealthy.

So there you have it. The pitchforks aren’t coming. At least not the way some had expected. The top marginal tax rate isn’t going back up to 39.6 percent. We are not going to tax capital gains at the same rate as ordinary income. The corporate income tax rate isn’t going up. We’re not ending the step-up-in-basis or closing the carried-interest loophole. There will be no “billionaire’s tax.” None of it is happening.

President Obama once told a room full of bankers that his administration was “the only thing standing between [them] and the pitchforks.” Today, there’s a tendency to paint Senator Manchin as the lone obstacle. But for that single missing vote, action on climate, prescription drugs, and more would sail through Congress with higher taxes to “pay for” it all. I doubt it.

I think Jonathan Chait is probably right about this:

A key faction of Democrats in the House, along with Senator Kyrsten Sinema, blanched at the tax hikes. Moderates have been privately coordinating their opposition, and it seems very likely that Manchin’s sudden opposition to raising taxes on the rich comes not from him, but from them — he sometimes takes the heat for fellow Democratic moderates. In this case, he is likely channeling their concerns and passing them off as his own.

Whether it’s Manchin or Manchin & Co., it’s looking bad for millions of Americans, the future of the democratic party, our democracy, and life on earth.

There’s a lot we can’t predict in life. But one thing is for sure. Climate change is an accelerant on inequality. Within a few decades, billions of people will be forced to migrate due to extreme weather, rising sea levels, and damaged ecosystems. Fires will continue to ravage communities, rivers will swallow more homes, heat-related deaths will mount, and food shortages will lead to mass starvation. That is not a world in which the pitchforks can be kept at bay.

We need to act now!

#joe manchin #climate change #economics #class warfare #democrats #joe biden #build back better #kyrsten sinema #us politics

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 9 months

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Public-school students in Massachusetts are set to get free lunch and breakfast thanks to a new 4% tax on people's earnings above $1 million.

Massachusetts in 2022 voted for a constitutional amendment to tax high earners. It went into effect at the beginning of 2023.

State House News Service, an independent news wire, reported that $1 billion of the state's record $56.2 billion fiscal budget for 2024 will be funded by its new 4% tax.

Gov. Maura Healey signed the budget on Wednesday, making Massachusetts the eighth state to adopt a plan for free school lunch since the expiration of federal free school lunches that had emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The outlet reported that a portion of the $1 billion expected to be gathered from the new income tax would be used to provide all public-school students in Massachusetts with free breakfast and lunch, if they want it.

WCVB reported that state lawmakers agreed to allocate $523 million of anticipated revenue from the new tax on education and set aside $477 million for transportation.

In February, President Joe Biden urged lawmakers to pass his billionaires' tax proposal, which would impose a minimum 20% tax on households with a net worth of more than $100 million.

Unlike Massachusetts' new tax, which is on income, the proposed billionaire's tax is aimed at wealth.

Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told CNBC the proposal would target "big corporations and the wealthiest Americans," while protecting people who made less than $400,000 a year from tax increases.

Biden also signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in February, which included a 15% minimum tax on corporations earning more than $1 billion.

#us politics #news #business insider #2023 #massachusetts #tax the rich #tax the 1%#tax the billionaires #tax the wealthy #billionaire's tax #biden administration #president joe biden #free school meals #State House News Service #Gov. Maura Healey #Jared Bernstein #White House Council of Economic Advisers #cnbc

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years

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McKinsey and Providence colluded to force poor patients into destitution

Providence is a health giant whose anchor is a network of Catholic hospitals. They colluded with McKinsey to steal from their poorest patients, by deceiving them about their eligibility for free care, saddling poor, sick people with crushing debts:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/business/nonprofit-hospitals-poor-patients.html

Though Providence is nominally a nonprofit, but it sits atop a $10 billion private equity fund that it invests in unrelated sectors. Its nonprofit status lets it evade $1.2 billion per year in federal and state taxes. The company stole $500,000,000 in US covid relief intended for hospitals in danger of closure. Its CEO makes $10,000,000 per year.

As a nonprofit, Providence is required to provide free care to low-income patients. In 2018, the company retained the services of McKinsey and Co, a scandal-haunted global consulting firm with a long track record of designing criminal strategies for its clients. There are many ghastly examples of this conduct — for example, helping the Saudi government hunt down, torture and murder dissidents:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/business/dealbook/mckinsey-saudi-dissidents.html

Closer to home, McKinsey crafted ICE’s immigration sweeps and helped design the notorious kids-in-cages detention centers, counselling the Trump administration to control costs by denying detainees adequate food and health care:

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-mckinsey-helped-the-trump-administration-implement-its-immigration-policies

(McKinsey then lied about this)

https://www.propublica.org/article/mckinsey-called-our-story-about-its-ice-contract-false-its-not

All these failures and scandals are even more infuriating when you learn about McKinsey’s internal mythologizing. The company tells new recruits that they are a global force for good, comparing their consulting work to the Catholic Church and the US Marine Corps.

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-mckinsey-makes-its-own-rules

This is an obviously absurd claim — no matter how many people McKinsey helps murder, they’ll never come close to either institution’s body-count. But McKinsey has a comprehensive plan to sell this image to its “associates,” starting with a curriculum to help very young children learn to act like McKinsey consultants:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/15/management-jesuits/#pmc-jr

But a recurring motif in the long symphony of McKinsey scandals are those involving health-care. They made $100,000,000 in failed, idiotic, bumbling covid initiatives:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/15/3-frauds-in-a-trenchcoat/#failing-up

They designed Big Pharma’s price-gouging program:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/25/strikesgiving/#cool-story-pharma-bro

They helped the Sacklers — a multigeneration crime family of pharma billionaires whose Oxycontin set off the opioid epidemic — design their sales program, suggesting that pharma distributors be paid cash bounties for each fatal opioid overdose in their sales territory:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/business/mckinsey-opioids-settlement.html

They helped pharma companies design programs to convince doctors to overprescribe opiods:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/30/mckinsey-mafia/#everybody-must-get-stoned

Then, after the Sacklers declared their pharma company bankrupt, protecting their billions from their victims, McKinsey helped craft their bankruptcy strategy, ensuring that they could vaporize their victims’ claims while holding onto their fortune:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/29/impunity-corrodes/#morally-bankrupt

As all this was coming to light, a senior McKinsey specialist drafted a plan to hide the company’s role in the opioid crisis, illegally destroying internal memos relating to litigation:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/business/mckinsey-purdue-oxycontin-opioids.html

In light of all this, it’s only natural that Providence would turn to McKinsey when they needed help committing crimes and destroying thousands of people’s lives. McKinsey helped Providence craft a program to coerce poor people into paying for care they were entitled to get for free. They called it “Rev-Up.”

Writing in the New York Times, Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Katie Thomas reveal the full depravity of “Rev-Up.” McKinsey advised Providence to train its staff to avoid truthfully answer poor patients’ queries about whether they were eligible for free care.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/business/nonprofit-hospitals-poor-patients.html

When patients asked if they were eligible for free care, Providence employees were trained to answer “Payment is expected.” Staff were told “Don’t accept the first ‘no.’” Rather, they were told to reply, “How would you like to pay for that today?” If patients still pressed them on their legal entitlement to free care, Providence employees were told to ask if the patients’ employers would pay for half their care.

When patients asked why a nonprofit hospital was asking them to pay more than they could afford, reps were counseled to reply, “We are a nonprofit. However, we want to inform our patients of their balances as soon as possible and help the hospital invest in patient care by reducing billing costs.”

After saying this, reps were supposed to add, “how would you like to take care of this today?”

If patients continued to press Providence reps on their eligibility for free care, then, finally, could the reps discuss the hospital’s legal obligation to wipe out the bills for those in need.

Charity care costs the average US nonprofit hospital 2% of its total expenses. For Providence, it’s less than 1%. In 2018, when the company hired McKinsey to design Rev-Up, it was 1.24%.

In pursuing a <1% reduction of expenses, the “nonprofit” ruined the lives of thousands of poor people, including its own employees, who are so badly paid that they qualify for free care. The Times quotes Bev Kolpin, a Providence Oregon sonogram tech who paid her own employer $8,000 to have a cyst removed (she had to take unpaid leave for the procedure).

Michael Hudson tells us that “debts that can’t be paid, won’t be paid.” Poor people can’t afford to pay the sticker price of care at Providence, so Providence sent thuggish collection agencies to hound patients (including Medicaid patients) to pay the balances that should have never been assessed.

The Times spoke to patients who were taken to collections by Providence and thereafter avoided seeking care for themselves and their children, even for urgent conditions. Dean A. Zerb, a former congressional staffer who investigated nonprofit hospitals, said “That is the outcome that hospitals like Providence may be hoping for.”

One of the most haunting details in the Times report is the story of Vanessa Weller, a single mother in Alaska, who delivered a premature baby at the Providence Alaska Medical Center. The baby died five days later, but Weller was pursued for $125,000 in medical bills by Providence. As a manager at a local Wendy’s, she was entitled to have her bill erased. Instead, she was relentlessly chased by bill-collectors and her credit rating fell from 650 to 400.

Providence professes to be shocked, shocked that all this happened. Providence CFO Gregory Hoffman told the Times that the news that his company had failed in its legal obligations after paying a consultant to teach them how to do this “very concerning,” adding that these victimized patients “have our attention.” McKinsey made at least $45,000,000 for designing Rev-Up.

I have my own experience with Providence, though not nearly so disturbing. In 2018, my parents came to stay with me in Burbank. My father fell gravely ill — he had kidney stones and a septic bladder infection. He went to the local Providence ER and nearly died. He was in a coma for two days. As my mother stood at his bed-side, not knowing if he would live out the day, a billing agent for the hospital came into the room and began to pester her about how she would pay his bill.

Thankfully, my parents are retired, unionized schoolteachers from Canada, and they were fully insured. But insured or not, it was such a disgusting, filthy, callous thing to do that I have never forgotten it. Thankfully, my father made a full recovery but I have no interest in ever visiting a Providence hospital

[Image ID: A collage. On the left is an image of a cigar-chomping plutocrat in a top hat. He stands at a control box whose lever is fashioned into a dollar-sign. The control box bears the logo of McKinsey and Company. In one gloved hand, he holds aloft a sad, cloth-capped young man on crutches. On the right is an ogrish thug wielding a club and holding out his free hand in a 'gimme' gesture. He wears a doctor's reflector around his head. Behind them is a hospital ward. On the wall of the hospital ward is the logo for Providence hospitals.]

#pluralistic

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the-jam-to-the-unicorn · 2 years

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Wonder how many times you had anon messages about Ze being fucking rich / a billionaire and stuff like that?! 😂

Waaaaay to many times.

For some reason some people act like it's a crime that they have money (and it's far away from being a billionaire). And somehow people are also quite angry about that and assume they only have money because Zelenskyy was involved in corruption and crime (like...they completely forget there are others ways to earn money?! Like...working hard?!)?!

I mean...that man was (is) one of the most popular actors in his country, was (is) one of the most successfull comedians and was boss of one of the most successfull production companies in Ukraine (not to mention they also work internationally...).

So...yeah...he hardly only got 1€ / $ for his work.

And Olena was successfull, too.

And obviously, with a look in their tax declaraction, they're also smart enough to invest their money successfully.

Somehow most people think they actually have millions and billions in their bank accounts. Hardly. They may have millions, but most of it is invested somehwere and only a small percentage will be on their bank accounts.

People need to understand the difference between income and assets.

Side Fact: according to Forbes Ukraine he is worth roughly 20$million (everything combined).

#volodymyr zelenskyy #volodymyr zelensky #wolodymyr selenskyj #president zelensky #president zelenskyy #selenskyj #volodomir zelensky #president volodymyr zelenskyy #vladimir zelensky #volodimir zelenski #zelensky #selenski

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yourreddancer · 2 years

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Dems risk a crushing defeat this year. They must change course now. By Bernie Sanders

Dems risk a crushing defeat this year. They must change course now.

By Bernie Sanders Thursday, June 16, 2022

At a moment in history when the leadership of the Republican Party is undermining democracy, ignoring the climate crisis, trying to overturn Roe v Wade, opposing a minimum wage increase, embracing more tax breaks for the rich and the growth of oligarchy, and stopping us from passing serious gun safety legislation, it would be a disaster for this right-wing extremist party to gain control of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. Unfortunately, it appears that the current strategy of the Democratic Party is allowing that to happen.

According to numerous polls, the Republicans stand an excellent chance of winning this coming November. The main reason: while the Democratic Party has, over the years, been hemorrhaging support from the white working class, it is now losing support from Latino, Black and Asian workers as well.

Further, in terms of the 2022 elections, the enthusiasm level within the Democratic base is extremely low. It is not only working-class support that is fading away but it is also that young people, who helped elect Biden and other Democrats in 2020, are becoming increasingly demoralized and are not likely to vote in large numbers in this coming election.

Why is this happening? Can this trajectory be changed?

During his campaign, Biden promised to be the most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And during his first few months in office, with the strong support of Democrats in Congress, he kept that promise. At a time when COVID was wreaking havoc on the health and financial wellbeing of the American people, under President Biden’s leadership we passed the American Rescue Plan, the most consequential piece of legislation in modern history. This $1.9 trillion bill was effective in providing financial support to tens of millions of American families and businesses, stabilizing the economy and improving our response to COVID.

After the passage of this popular legislation in March 2021, President Biden had a 59% favorability rating, the highest of his presidency, and there was widespread support for what Democrats were doing. There was also a strong understanding that we had to go even further. The American Rescue Plan was an emergency bill that addressed the COVID-related problems facing the country. Now, with a new administration in office, the American people wanted us to address the long-neglected structural crises facing the working families of our country.

Amid grotesque and widening income and wealth inequality and decades of wage stagnation, the existential threat of the climate crisis, a rigged tax system and crises in health care, childcare and housing, the American people wanted Congress to finally stand up and represent their interests, not just the greed of wealthy campaign contributors. And that’s what the Build Back Better Act was about. Poll after poll showed overwhelming support for virtually every provision in that legislation.

Yes. The American people want the rich to pay their fair share of taxes. They want to lower the outrageous cost of prescription drugs, expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing aids and vision, address the crisis in home and health care, make childcare, pre-K and higher education affordable, establish a paid family and medical leave program and build the millions of units of affordable housing we need. Yes. The American people want us to invest heavily in combating global heating by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels.

Unfortunately, despite strong support from the American people, despite the support of the president, despite passage in the House of Representatives, despite the support of 48 members of the Senate, two corporate Democrats – Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema – both of whom received millions of dollars in campaign contributions from billionaires and corporate interests – decided to sabotage that legislation. We needed 50 votes to pass Build Back Better. We had 48.

And it has been downhill ever since for the Democrats. After nine months of fruitless “negotiations” with Manchin and Sinema, the time is long overdue to realize that this is a path that leads to nowhere except defeat at the ballot box and the growing perception that the Democrats have turned their backs on working families. We need a new strategy. We need to take on Republicans. We need to fight back.

In an extremely difficult and unsettling time – inflation, the pandemic, the heating of the planet, gun violence, attacks on abortion rights, the war in Ukraine – the American people want their elected officials to stand up to powerful special interests and fight for them. Well. The Democrats control the White House, the Senate and the House – and yet that is not happening. They are being held accountable for their inaction, and they’re losing.

Is the situation hopeless? I don’t think so. But in order to turn the situation around, Democrats need a significant course correction. And, in doing that, they can learn a lesson from the 1948 campaign of Harry Truman. In 1948, nobody believed Truman had a chance to win that election. Strom Thurmond and the segregationists had bolted the party and Henry Wallace, a third-party candidate, was taking progressive votes away from Truman. Truman responded with a simple and straightforward strategy. Unlike today’s Democrats, he took the fight to the Republicans. He didn’t let them hide behind their whining and “do-nothingism.” He exposed them for what they were – tools of special interests. He made them vote on critical issues. And, time and again, they voted against the interests of working families. Truman showed the very clear difference between the parties – and he won.

What the Democrats need to do, right now, is to make it clear: they may have 50 votes in the Senate, but they do not have 50 votes to pass the legislation that the American people want and need. They have no Republican support and there are two Democrats who will vote with Republicans on important issues.

Now is the time to make democracy work. Let us bring to the Senate floor the crucial issues affecting working families and vote, vote and vote again. Even if we lost these votes, which is likely, the American people have the right to see where their elected officials stand. Make them vote!

In a given year there are billionaires and large, profitable corporations that do not pay a nickel in federal taxes. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote for real tax reform to end these loopholes.

Millions of workers continue to earn starvation wages. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.

We pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to have Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices and cut drug prices in half.

Many seniors are unable to afford the outrageous cost of dental care, hearing aids or vision care. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to expand Medicare to cover these basic health care needs.

On average, the cost of childcare in this country is an unaffordable $15,000 a year, if parents can find an available slot. Let’s see how Republicans will vote to lower the cost of childcare and make pre-K free.

We are the only major country not to guarantee paid family and medical leave. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to provide at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for the working families of our country.

We have the highest level of child poverty of almost any major country. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to continue the $300 a month child tax credit, which cut child poverty by over 40%.

Millions of seniors are struggling to survive on their inadequate Social Security benefits. Yet, the cap on Social Security taxation is $147,000. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to lift the earnings cap and increase Social Security benefits.

The scientists tell us that time is running out to combat climate breakdown. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to create millions of well-paying jobs transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel.

Workers who want to join unions are often unable to do so because of the illegal actions of their employers. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to give workers a fair chance to unionize.

And that’s not all we must do.

We cannot allow murderers with AR-15s to continue to massacre children in schools or grocery stores. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to pass strong and meaningful gun safety legislation.

The Democratic Party cannot continue to ignore the needs of the working class of our country and expect to retain majority control in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

It’s time to show which side we’re on. It’s time to start voting.

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christowill · 2 years

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Australian 2022 Election -Senate Parties Described in 10 Words or Less

Sometimes party names are not a true reflection of what a political party represents. To try to help navigate, I have put together a simple, and hopefully bias free, guide to all on the senate tickets across the states (except the ungrouped)

Source: ABC Election Guide and Candidate Websites

Animal Justice Party: More regulation protecting animals & reducing conditions that cause pandemics (ACT, NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA)

Australian Christians: Promoting linkages of laws to Judeo-Christian beliefs and personal freedom (WA)

Australian Democrats: Evidence based governance, integrity in government, and sustainable planet platform (NSW, QLD, SA, VIC, WA)

Australian Federation Party: Protecting individual freedoms. Promoting small government and government accountability (QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA)

Australian Labor Party: Bolstering services like health, childcare, national broadcasting. Alternative to Liberals (ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA)

Australian Progressives: Seeking to abolish poverty, end climate emergency, and dismantle corruption (ACT, VIC)

Australian Values Party: Individual freedoms, rule of law, Equality of opportunity. Leadership integrity (NSW, QLD, VIC, WA)

Citizens Party: Banking reform focussed on community needs instead of market speculation (NSW, NT, QLD, SA, VIC, WA)

David Pocock: Community led government and ACT Rights focussed (ACT)

Derryn Hinch's Justice Party: Victims' rights. Justice that is more reflective of communality views (VIC)

Drew Pavlou Democratic Alliance: Human rights (esp. in China), anti-corruption, climate, end poverty (QLD, SA)

Federal ICAC Now: Establish a federal independent commission against corruption (NSW, QLD, WA)

FUSION: Science, Pirate, Secular, Climate Emergency: Climate action, anti-corruption commission, investment in technologies (NSW, QLD, SA, VIC, WA)

Indigenous - Aboriginal Party of Australia: Indigenous rights, ecology, significantly reduce indigenous incarceration, better indigenous housing (NSW, QLD)

Informed Medical Options Party: Remove all restrictions based on vaccination. Investigate vaccination damage impact (ACT, NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA)

Jacqui Lambie Network: Veterans' rights, anti-corruption, Australian jobs and Australian sovereignty (TAS)

Kim for Canberra: Political accountability, Climate Action, women's safety, ACT Rights (ACT)

Legalise Cannabis Australia: No cannabis arrests and expunging personal use convictions, legalise growing (ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA)

Liberal or Liberal / National or LNP: Facilitation of wealth, strong families, rule of law. Small government (ACT, NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA)

Liberal Democrats: Individual freedom, personal responsibility, private property rights, and voluntary association (NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA)

National Party: Investment in regional communities. Strong forestry and mining industries (SA)

NT Country Liberal: Strength in mining, forestry. Surveillance, policing to reduce youth crime (NT)

Pauline Hanson's One Nation: Less refugees, increase Australian ownership, climate change scepticism (NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA)

Reason Australia: Rights of indigenous, refugees, LGTBIQ, prisoners. Secular politics, climate action (NSW, QLD, VIC)

Rex Patrick Team: SA regional issues. Save the Murray-Darling River (SA)

Seniors United Party of Australia: Aged and retiree issues. Servant leadership -leader there to serve (NSW)

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party: Responsible firearm use. Expand local fishing. Expand farmland (NSW, TAS, VIC)

Socialist Alliance: Revolutionary change away from ruling elite. 100% renewables. Tax billionaires (NSW, QLD, VIC, WA)

Sustainable Australia Party - Stop Overdevelopment / Corruption: Reduce rate of population growth. Cap immigration. Citizen initiated referenda (ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA)

The Great Australian Party: Abolish income tax and super. Anti-globalisation. Zero immigration (NSW, NT, QLD, SA, VIC, WA)

The Greens: Treaty, 100% renewables, expand Medicare, affordable housing, free education (ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA)

The Local Party: Reconciliation, climate action & corruption. Issue and scientific based voting (TAS)

TNL: Incentive based economic development, climate action, anti-corruption commission (NSW, QLD)

United Australia Party: 15% Export Licence. 3% interest rate cap, remove Covid restrictions (ACT, NSW, QLD, SA, VIC, TAS, WA)

Victorian Socialists: Democratic control of the economy, equality, social justice. Wealth Tax (VIC)

WESTERN AUSTRALIA PARTY: WA regional issues. Greater share of federal tax revenue (WA)

Unregistered F NSW: Max Boddy lead candidate: ‘Socialist Equality Party'. Overturn capitalism. Anti-militarism/ war (NSW)

Unregistered A QLD: Len Harris lead candidate: Wants to revert to paper deeds, not electronic ones (QLD)

Unregistered H QLD: Steve Dickson lead candidate: Local issues. 'Putting the people’s interests ahead of all else' (QLD)

Unregistered I QLD: Mike Head lead candidate: ‘Socialist Equality Party'. Overturn capitalism. Anti-militarism/ war (QLD)

Unregistered E SA: Bob Day lead candidate: 'Australian Family Party'. Ban on gaming ads, pornography, abortion, euthanasia (SA)

Unregistered M SA: Harmeet Haur lead candidate: SA based independent. No available detail (SA)

Unregistered O SA: Nick Xenophon lead candidate: Greater regulation on gambling. Funding for health, aged care (SA)

Unregistered B VIC: Damien Richardson lead candidate: Government, media, big pharma are not truthful. Likes cash economy (VIC)

Unregistered R VIC: Morgan C Jonas lead candidate: Ban Jab mandates, less government, direct democracy (VIC)

Unregistered T VIC: Susan Benedyka lead candidate: Climate action, better disaster response, better CSIRO funding (VIC)

Unregistered Y VIC: Peter Byrne lead candidate: ‘Socialist Equality Party'. Overturn capitalism. Anti-militarism/ war (VIC)

Unregistered K WA: Gerry Georgatos lead candidate: Social justice, prison reform, homeless rights, suicide prevention (WA)

Unregistered P WA -Cam Tinley lead candidate:

'No Mandatory Vaccination Party'. Remove vaccination laws in WA (WA)

#auspol #election 2022 #democracy sausage #senate

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ivygorgon · 1 day

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An open letter to the U.S. Congress

Expand Social Security by Taxing the Rich!

1,122 so far! Help us get to 2,000 signers!

If nothing is done to strengthen Social Security’s finances, starting in 2034, Social Security will only be able to pay roughly 80% of benefits owed. Thankfully, there’s a fiscally responsible easy solution to this future shortfall that doesn’t impoverish seniors or their families: Make the wealthy pay their fair share! Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced the Social Security Expansion Act of 2023, which would increase benefits by $2,400, extend the lifespan of the Trust Fund by 75 years and do much more to solidify this bedrock of working-class prosperity. And, it’s completely paid for by scrapping the payroll tax cap on incomes over $250,000―meaning that millionaires and billionaires would finally start paying more of their fair share. In the House, Rep. John Larson has previously introduced the Social Security 2100 Act: A Sacred Trust, which would affect just the top 0.4% of wage earners. It would fulfill the promise of our Social Security system by improving benefits for millions of seniors living in poverty and extending the lifespan of the Trust Fund―once again, paid for by making the wealthy pay more of their fair share. Instead of Republican proposals to raise the retirement age or directly cut benefits, Congress needs to scrap the Social Security payroll tax cap on the wealthy. That means that while working people won’t pay a dime more in Social Security contributions, millionaires and billionaires will finally be paying their fair share all year long. Good!

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kp777 · 22 days

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By Julia Conley

Common Dreams

April 8, 2024

Trump's backers "are fine with stealing from the poor to give to the rich," said one critic. "And the rich pay Trump off to gain this favor."

At an exclusive fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida over the weekend, former President Donald Trump vaguely told reporters that he's running for president again because "people are wanting change"—but was more specific about the kind of change he plans to spearhead when he addressed some of his richest donors at the event hosted by a billionaire hedge fund investor.

A readout of the Republican's 45-minute remarks showed that Trump called for his supporters to help him "turn our country around" by taking steps including "extending the Trump Tax Cuts."

The cuts refer to those that were included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which Trump and Republican lawmakers pushed through in 2017 and which helped billionaires' fortunes grow by a collective $2 trillion so far.

Many of the law's tax cuts are set to expire at the end of 2025, but the former president has told some of his wealthiest supporters at at least two fundraisers in the past four months that he plans to extend them if he wins the presidency again in November.

"So much for being the party of the working class," said pro-labor media organization More Perfect Union.

Despite Trump's continued attempts to position himself as the solution to the struggles of working Americans who are stretching their budgets to afford groceries, housing, childcare, and other essentials amid rising prices, Securities and Exchange Commission data showed just months after Trump's tax cuts went into effect that a quarter of large companies had returned the benefits of the cuts to their shareholders even as workers' average wages were declining.

Last year, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said that extending a tax break included in the GOP law for owners of so-called "pass-through" businesses, which are not subject to corporate income taxes, would cost the federal government $700 billion in revenue over a decade.

"Trump's base are truly rooting for the reverse of Robin Hood," said Yale University Prof. Howard Forman. "They are fine with stealing from the poor to give to the rich. And the rich pay Trump off to gain this favor."

Trump's promises to his wealthy donors amount to an admission that "the election is an auction and a class war," said journalist David Sirota, warning that the economic impact on working families of a potential second Trump term will likely get less attention than various "culture" wars.

Held at the home of hedge fund investor John Paulson, Trump's fundraiser on Saturday grossed $50.5 million for his campaign and the Republican Party, according to the former president's campaign—but as Rolling Stone noted, the amount "has not been independently verified."

"Reminder: A court found that Trump committed fraud by lying about his net worth," Peter Wade wrote at the outlet.

President Joe Biden's campaign had nearly $100 million more than Trump's at the end of March.

Days before Trump's latest appeal to his wealthy supporters, Biden released a video featuring Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in which the two denounced "what Donald Trump says when he thinks you're not watching."

"When he thinks the cameras aren't on," said Biden, "he tells his rich friends, 'We're gonna give you tax cuts.'"

Trump's promise to the richest Americans is coming "at a time of massive wealth and income inequality," said Sanders.

"The hypocrisy is just outrageous," said the senator. "This is what he says to his billionaire friends. Not quite what he's saying at his rallies."

"You have one candidate who wants to cut Medicare and Social Security, and one who's going to protect it," he added, referring to the GOP's budget proposal released last month that promotes Medicare Advantage plans administered by the for-profit health insurance industry and calls for raising the retirement age.

Trump's speech at his latest fundraiser "just about sums it up," said James Singer, rapid response adviser for the Biden campaign. "Trump wants to cut taxes for his billionaire backers as [he] looks to rip away healthcare and cut Social Security and Medicare from hard working Americans."

#bernie sanders #joe biden #donald trump #billionaires #tax cuts and jobs act #biden tax cuts #tax the rich #2024 presidential race

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kspp · 28 days

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Rich nations and poor governments

Waking up to a headline that read that India is currently one of the most unequal countries in the world, along with Russia and China, didn’t come as a shock. It has become a routine phenomenon to come across articles telling stories of mass poverty engulfing the country, especially post the COVID health emergency which significantly depleted household wealth and savings of people.

The ‘World Inequality Report 2022’ states that the top 1% in India own 33% of average household wealth; the top 10% own 65% and the bottom 50% own only 6% of the pie.

This is not the first of such headlines which indicate that the poor are becoming poorer. UNDP’s Multidimensional Poverty Index 2021, ranks India at 66 out of 109 nations, much lower than other middle-income nations like Brazil (33), South Africa (42), Mexico (43), and China (32). The report states that by using the conventional monetary poverty line of $1.90 per day, 22.5% of India’s population are poor and 19.3% of the population are close to the multidimensional poverty line, and so are very prone to any shocks.

Did this just make you think that India is now a poor country? The answer is no. Our private wealth has increased from 290% in 1980 to 560% in 2020.

The World Inequality Report states in this context, that while “Nations have become richer, Governments have become poorer.” The share of the public wealth, defined as the sum of all financial and non-financial assets, held by the government net of debt, has now dropped from above 50% in the 1970s to close to zero or is even negative for most rich countries.

In India, the government doesn’t seem to have money for paying ex-gratia to the families of COVID victims who were sole breadwinners for their families. The Center’s flagship rural employment guarantee program, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) was allocated 34% less funds for 2021-22. This is despite the pandemic propelling a mass reverse migration and massive unemployment in the countryside. All of the fiscal packages doled out during the pandemic were designed to give support to manufacturing and exports, the benefits of which were expected to slowly trickle down to the common man. No temporary monetary help was given to the unemployed or to the ones who had to return to their villages after having lost their jobs.

While most emerging economies have a government debt of around 40%-50% of their GDP, in India, government debt is almost 75% of the GDP. Elevated taxes on fuel prices pinching the pockets of people and reduced budgetary allocations to health and education have only helped in aggravating socio-economic differences, while our sovereign debt is skyrocketing.

Although the government is reeling under the burden of debt and plagued by a fiscal deficit, India still remains the 5th richest country in the world with a $2.27 trillion economy and with the world’s 3rd highest number of billionaires at 140. The private sector owns most of the wealth and capital in India. The liberalization and deregulation from 1991 which opened up the economy to LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) freed the private sector and led to the creation of more private wealth. But now, we see trends of monopolization of wealth and capital which has been substantiated time and again by various reports.

The World Inequality Report states that in rich countries, public wealth typically amounted to 15-30% of total wealth in the early 1980s but these values have dropped to near 0% in most rich countries, and to around -10 to -20% in the US and the UK. Zero or negative public wealth values mean that private actors control the whole of the economy through their own assets. The higher the debt of the government the greater is the power of debtors over it. Needless to say that the public debt in India is 75% of the GDP.

In August, the government announced a scheme to monetize assets to realize 6 trillion INR by 2024-25 due to revenue shortfall. The sale of the debt-ridden Air India was one of the first assets to be monetized. The fact that it was sold for crumbs indicates how desperate the government was to sell it off. The National Monetisation Pipeline was started to support the National Infrastructure Pipeline, which means we now need to sell public assets to fund infrastructure projects in the country.

However, there is some confusion since the Finance Minister has announced that the assets would still be owned by the government and they have to be handed back after some time. Nobody knows how to practically operationalize something like this, and also who should bear the cost of depreciation of assets built with taxpayer money.

As India marches ahead to realize its dreams of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2025, and realizing its ambitious climate goals announced at the COP26, our rich nation has to step up and support its poor government not just in building infrastructure but also in delivering social and economic justice to the poor. The middle class have always been the backbone of our economy; let us not follow the footsteps of the Central and Latin American Banana Republics or some of our South Asian neighbors where the co-existence of poverty and oligarchy lead to crimes, law & order problems, and social upheavals.

Reference links –

WORLD INEQUALITY REPORT 2022>

The 2021 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

Press Information Bureau

#kautilyaschoolofpublicpolicy #policymakers #publicpolicy

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