- Jun 6, 2007
- 852
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Many rank and file Democrats in Congress need to stop their whining and belly aching over Obama and the Tax Cut Deal he made and do your job and pass the bill quickly. President Obama in making this deal did what is best for the country it was an extraordinary virtuous act because anyone with any legitimate claim of being knowledgeable about politics would know that when the extension of the tax cuts from this deal expires at the end of 2012 this fact will significantly hurt him come his reelection bid because he will have to deal with the label of being a tax raiser for 2013. President Obama was absolutely telling the truth when he said the alternative to not taking this deal would have been worse than taking it in terms of the economy being hurt, the stock markets surely would have dropped significantly with unemployment checks being stopped for two million Americans and people's taxes going up in 2011 for we are a consumer based economy and many middle class and working Americans would have been significantly hurt from their ensuing increased tax bill. This stoning of Obama which has been occurring by liberal Democrats doesn't make any sense for this Tax Cut bill is also a sizable economic stimulus bill which is what liberals in this country have been calling for and if I might add the majority of economists of both Democrat and Republican persuasion have been for to but the Right Wing Conservative Movement in this country has been labeling this as wasteful and very limited in effectiveness but Obama largely got their elk in the Republican caucus to agree with this type of bill, he frankly deserves these liberals praise on this achievement. These critical Democrats are really ridiculous when they say the President should have fought harder, if the President didn't cut a deal with the Republican caucus in office this year his job would have gotten a thousand times harder with the Republican caucus in office next year; as the Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell said it so eloquently prior to the November elections when he said something like these Republicans are nut jobs, they are real "completely out of it" wackos- these Tea Party Republicans would have been demanding dramatic budget cuts for this deal they probably would never have agreed to a thirteen month extension for unemployment benefits these Tea Party Republicans are completely unfeeling toward people that are underemployed or unemployed their attitude toward the unemployed would probably have been like let them all take minimum wage jobs - talk about a fight the fight with the new Republican House would have gone on for months and months! This support and offering of great praise for President Obama for this deal comes from an independent and centrist who believes as outstanding as this bill is the bill doesn't address the subject matter that America needs to address to create the number of good paying middle class jobs that America needs and all good Americans, which includes the vast vast majority of Americans,want! This subject matter that America needs to address is that such middle class jobs can be created only in manufacturing. Manufactured goods such as many home appliances, solar panels, windmills, etc. have a price point which can support middle class jobs for Americans. The Congress should pass laws making grants and low interest loans to businesses that create such U.S. manufacturing, it should pass laws guaranteeing these U.S. businesses at least forty percent of the U.S. market in their industry do it through tariffs, consumer rebates if need be quotas on imports; if need be renegotiate or pull out of trade agreements. The recently in the spot light Federal Debt Commission received a mountain of praise for calling for radical change by the Congress and the President compared to this writers call for radical change this commission's call is a joke, it's penny ante stuff, it is never going to work; you create good paying middle class jobs by creating good paying middle class jobs which the aforementioned offers the only known course for doing so!
Liberal Democrats on this bill could do some things that are helpful to the American people by trying to improve the bill while respecting the essence of the deal. First, the Wall Street Journal mentioned a good point in one of their editorials they said this social security wage tax cut of two percent has as its purpose to create stimulus for the economy by increasing consumption, well for really wealthy people the $2,200 maximum tax benefit from this cut (the SS tax only applies to the frst $100 of a wage earners income) isn't really going to increase their consumption this amounts is peanuts to them - the bill should be drafted to exclude these really wealthy tax payers from this wage tax cut. The estate tax provisions with a 35% tax rate in this bill are excellent and fair, its a shame the media hasn't focused on the fact that in 2009 the estate tax didn't kick in until the amount of an estate reached something like $3 or $3.5 million - this bill is not some earth shattering change in the law from an historic perspective. Estate law should balance the interest that people should be able to pass on their hard worked for wealth which they already paid taxes on the year it was acquired to their heirs (a good society supports people providing for the welfare and well being of subsequent generations of their family) against the government's interest in stopping huge amounts of wealth being passed from one generation to the next for a minor portion of Americans (the Government has a legitimate public interest in creating a society where there is enough wealth in the economy where the vast majority of people can prosper). The legitimate rationale for a $5 million dollar threshold for the estate tax in the bill is to allow American families to pass on family business to heirs. Why doesn't the Congress make the threshold $3.5 million put that threshold on an inflation index and for the additional $1.5 million shelter (also inflation indexed) why doesn't the Congress figure out a way to have that just apply to family businesses. If Congress can do this their generate a little bit more money for the Treasury from the estate tax and I think wise Americans recognize that a necessity for America getting their economic House in order is to take advantage of the many little savings and revenue generation available to the Federal Government!
The media has been reporting the alarming news that the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" for the U.S. military has a real chance of passing this year. This is truly heart-breaking news. Elected officials that vote for this repeal will be hurting America beyond accurate description! This is not a civil rights issue, this is a military strenght issue for the American people's armed forces. This move will significantly hurt America's military any other opinion is complete dishonesty, is a complete denial of the truth. As an American that recognizes the legitimate power of Washington to make this change I would ask the members of Congress that vote for this repeal to do three things in this repeal bill. First, put a ten year or if you like a fifteen year expiration date on this repeal if your correct that this change won't significantlly hurt the military or there won't be other significant negative fallout from this repeal the proof will be evident and elected officials can then with full knowledge of the issues make the repeal permanent! Secondly, create with this bill an office in the military that will take reports of homosexual abuse, rape, molestation and the like that occurs to members of the military from an other member(s) of the military and this is a critically important feature of the bill put in the bill that this office cannot report the incident or any part of their investigation of the incident to the prosecutors office, any command structure or any public source (grand jury/congressional subpoena can't violate this confidentially- based on national security grounds, government leaders need to know this information to preserve the strength of the military) if the victim request it other than if the office deems the allegation as credible the Secretary of Defense should have an Assistant Secretary of Defense take that report and if he or she deems it credible this Assistant Secretary should have the power and use that power to remove the perpetrator from field duty and give the perpetrator an office assignment where he or she is continually monitored and the perpetrator should not be able to reenlist for future tours; this is a critical power that should be given to this office because victims of such assaults often don't want it publicly known that they were victimized in this way because the public knowledge of it from a practical standpoint amounts to a continual re-victimization so only if reports are kept absolutely confidential will the military high command get this needed information. The bill should require this office to report to Congress on a yearly basis the statistics on such abuse. Thirdly, the bill should mandate an anonymous survey for all military service men and women that don't reenlist to gage to what extent if at all their failure to reenlist had to do with concerns or fears associated with having to live and/or work with gay service members and the results of these surveys should be reported to Congress on a yearly basis. From a human common sense standpoint I don't know how a member of Congress could in good conscience vote for repeal but aside from that even a review of the public evidence available on this subject in time of war would call for refrain from action, I don't recall specifically the statistics but I think it was like 25% of sailors in the Navy surveyed said they would have a problem sharing shower and sleeping quarters with an openly gay service member, America can't afford a reenlistment problems in time of the current war and this statistic makes a compelling case their will be a signicant reenlistment problem if the repeal goes through!
Liberal Democrats on this bill could do some things that are helpful to the American people by trying to improve the bill while respecting the essence of the deal. First, the Wall Street Journal mentioned a good point in one of their editorials they said this social security wage tax cut of two percent has as its purpose to create stimulus for the economy by increasing consumption, well for really wealthy people the $2,200 maximum tax benefit from this cut (the SS tax only applies to the frst $100 of a wage earners income) isn't really going to increase their consumption this amounts is peanuts to them - the bill should be drafted to exclude these really wealthy tax payers from this wage tax cut. The estate tax provisions with a 35% tax rate in this bill are excellent and fair, its a shame the media hasn't focused on the fact that in 2009 the estate tax didn't kick in until the amount of an estate reached something like $3 or $3.5 million - this bill is not some earth shattering change in the law from an historic perspective. Estate law should balance the interest that people should be able to pass on their hard worked for wealth which they already paid taxes on the year it was acquired to their heirs (a good society supports people providing for the welfare and well being of subsequent generations of their family) against the government's interest in stopping huge amounts of wealth being passed from one generation to the next for a minor portion of Americans (the Government has a legitimate public interest in creating a society where there is enough wealth in the economy where the vast majority of people can prosper). The legitimate rationale for a $5 million dollar threshold for the estate tax in the bill is to allow American families to pass on family business to heirs. Why doesn't the Congress make the threshold $3.5 million put that threshold on an inflation index and for the additional $1.5 million shelter (also inflation indexed) why doesn't the Congress figure out a way to have that just apply to family businesses. If Congress can do this their generate a little bit more money for the Treasury from the estate tax and I think wise Americans recognize that a necessity for America getting their economic House in order is to take advantage of the many little savings and revenue generation available to the Federal Government!
The media has been reporting the alarming news that the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" for the U.S. military has a real chance of passing this year. This is truly heart-breaking news. Elected officials that vote for this repeal will be hurting America beyond accurate description! This is not a civil rights issue, this is a military strenght issue for the American people's armed forces. This move will significantly hurt America's military any other opinion is complete dishonesty, is a complete denial of the truth. As an American that recognizes the legitimate power of Washington to make this change I would ask the members of Congress that vote for this repeal to do three things in this repeal bill. First, put a ten year or if you like a fifteen year expiration date on this repeal if your correct that this change won't significantlly hurt the military or there won't be other significant negative fallout from this repeal the proof will be evident and elected officials can then with full knowledge of the issues make the repeal permanent! Secondly, create with this bill an office in the military that will take reports of homosexual abuse, rape, molestation and the like that occurs to members of the military from an other member(s) of the military and this is a critically important feature of the bill put in the bill that this office cannot report the incident or any part of their investigation of the incident to the prosecutors office, any command structure or any public source (grand jury/congressional subpoena can't violate this confidentially- based on national security grounds, government leaders need to know this information to preserve the strength of the military) if the victim request it other than if the office deems the allegation as credible the Secretary of Defense should have an Assistant Secretary of Defense take that report and if he or she deems it credible this Assistant Secretary should have the power and use that power to remove the perpetrator from field duty and give the perpetrator an office assignment where he or she is continually monitored and the perpetrator should not be able to reenlist for future tours; this is a critical power that should be given to this office because victims of such assaults often don't want it publicly known that they were victimized in this way because the public knowledge of it from a practical standpoint amounts to a continual re-victimization so only if reports are kept absolutely confidential will the military high command get this needed information. The bill should require this office to report to Congress on a yearly basis the statistics on such abuse. Thirdly, the bill should mandate an anonymous survey for all military service men and women that don't reenlist to gage to what extent if at all their failure to reenlist had to do with concerns or fears associated with having to live and/or work with gay service members and the results of these surveys should be reported to Congress on a yearly basis. From a human common sense standpoint I don't know how a member of Congress could in good conscience vote for repeal but aside from that even a review of the public evidence available on this subject in time of war would call for refrain from action, I don't recall specifically the statistics but I think it was like 25% of sailors in the Navy surveyed said they would have a problem sharing shower and sleeping quarters with an openly gay service member, America can't afford a reenlistment problems in time of the current war and this statistic makes a compelling case their will be a signicant reenlistment problem if the repeal goes through!
