Obama's 1-2-3 Tax Punch

[georgephillip]

What's worse than a double dip recession?

Obama's "compromise"

"“Monday’s deal to re-instate the Bush era tax cuts for two more years sets up a 1-2-3 punch…enabling the Republicans to legislate the cuts in perpetuity in 2012 – an estimated $4 trillion to the rich over time….

“To ‘save the dollar’ the Republicans will propose to replace progressive income taxation with a uniform flat tax (the old Steve Forbes plan) falling on wage earners, not on wealth or on finance, insurance or real estate income.

"A VAT will be added as an excise tax to push up consumer prices.

Ask yourselves what politician will vote to "raise" taxes in 2012.

"Third, the tax giveaway includes a $120 billion reduction in Social Security contributions by labor – reducing the FICA wage withholding from 6.2 per cent to 4.2 per cent.

"Obama has ingeniously designed the plan to dovetail neatly into his Bowles-Simpson commission pressing to reduce Social Security as a step toward its ultimate privatization and subsequent wipeout grab by Wall Street….

“The bottom line is that after the prolonged tax giveaway exacerbates the federal budget deficit – along with the balance-of-payments deficit – we can expect the next Republican or Democratic administration to step in and ‘save’ the country from economic emergency by scaling back Social Security while turning its funding over, Pinochet-style, to Wall Street money managers to loot as they did in Chile….

“Welcome to debt peonage.

"This is worse than what was meant by a double-dip recession.

"It will be with us much longer.”

The Great Traitor

 

[georgephillip]

The above link is loading very slowly as of 12/10/10 9:53 PM (LA Time).

Maybe this works better?

The Great Traitor

Still taking about 45 seconds to load on my computer.

Hopefully the problem will resolve itself shortly.

There's a potential 2012 presidential battlefield scenario that brings back memories of 1948's four way struggle for the White House. Instead of Truman and Dewey and Henry Wallace and Strom Thurmond, think Obama and Palin and Feingold and Bloomberg.

Four serious candidates in 2012...?

 

[liebuster]

We are so far into a hole right now that I don't know if were able to climb out anymore.

The author of this article is an idiot.
It looks like the author of this article (that happens to have a bad link), seems to have a warped fundamental thinking.

Personally I prefer a flat tax with no deductions or right offs or loopholes or tax returns. Everybody is equal and thus treated equal. Therefor they pay the same percentage of their income equally.

I also noticed that the person who wrote the article thinks that it is a "tax giveaway"
Taxes are not given away from the people that pay them. They are confiscated from people. Simple as that.


The author also thinks that revenue to the government dictates whether there is a deficeit or not and this is truly childish. The spending going on in ALL SECTORS OF THE GOVERNMENT is what is driving these deficits through the roof.


The author also thinks that social security will be scaled back to help manage the deficits when it is social security that will be partly to blame for bankrupting this county.

 

[georgephillip]

I think that slow link will speed up overnight.
This is the first time I've had trouble with CounterPunch.

I also think you're confusing what's meant by "tax giveaway."
It is not that tax payers give their money to the government.
It is a government giveaway of your taxes to the FIRE sector.(Finance, Insurance, Real Estate)
The flat tax falls only on wages and not on wealth.

You might want to check out Michael Hudson's original article for more complete details:

From Hudson's "Obama's Sellout...

"Second, Obama’s Republican act (I hate to call it a compromise) 'frees' income for the wealthiest classes to send abroad, to economies not yet wrecked by neoliberals.

"This paves the way for a foreign-exchange crisis.

"Such crises traditionally fall in the autumn – and as the 2012 election draws near, it will be attributed to 'uncertainty' if voters do not throw the Democrats out.

"So to 'save the dollar' the Republicans will propose to replace progressive income taxation with a uniform flat tax (the old Steve Forbes plan) falling on wage earners, not on wealth or on finance, insurance or real estate (FIRE sector) income. A VAT will be added as an excise tax to push up consumer prices.

Republican or Democrat... either way the rich win.

 

[liebuster]

Yeah I guess I didnt' get all the context of the article. I only had the quoted portions that you posted.

 

[mdn2000]

Georgee, is that more from chomsky,

The Wit and Wisdom of Noam Chomsky

The Wit and Wisdom of Noam Chomsky
Compiled by Paul Bogdanor
ON COMMUNISM...
“One might argue, at least I would argue, that council communism... is the natural form of revolutionary socialism in an industrial society.”
(Government in the Future [Seven Stories Press, 2005], p. 27)
ON POVERTY...

 

[georgephillip]

No mdn2000, this is from Michael Hudson.

You might want to click on his link if you want a glimpse of what our economy might be like during the next presidential election.

CounterPunch is working very slow right now.
It's taking 35 to 45 seconds for the site to open.

 

[georgephillip]

Yeah I guess I didnt' get all the context of the article. I only had the quoted portions that you posted.

When the site speeds up you might want to check out that second link.

Michael Hudson is not some bomb tossing Marxist.
He worked as a Wall Street economist for years and currently teaches at U. Missouri KC.

From Obama's Sellout:

"Crises usually are orchestrated years in advance.

"Any economic recovery typically is shaped by the way in which its predecessor economy collapsed.

"Medieval Europe’s emergence from the Dark Age, for example, was shaped by ancient Rome’s debt crisis caused by its aggressive oligarchy.

"In a similar fashion, the coming epochal tax shift off finance and property onto labor will be introduced in response to the dollar’s crisis, in much the way that we have seen Ireland and Greece tap their pension funds to bail out reckless bankers.

"In America as in Europe, the large 'systemically important banks' that caused the crisis will be given enough money by the government – at the expense of labor ('taxpayers') to step in and 'rescue' the bad debt overhang (i.e., toxic junk).

"The tactics of this fiscal game sequence are so time-tested that there should not be much surprise. So President Obama’s deal is not only financial and fiscal in scope, it is a political game changer.

"When Congressional Democrats sign on to this betrayal of their major election promise, they will be re-branding their claim to be the 'non-Wall Street party,'”

In a previous article Michael wrote that for thousands of years before anyone coined the word "socialist" all governments served to socialize cost while privatizing profit for the fortunate few.

With each passing week those words are proven and re-proven by Republicans AND Democrats alike.

 

[georgephillip]

From Michael Hudson's "Obama's Sellout...":

"So the game plan is not merely to free the income of the wealthiest class to 'offshore' itself into assets denominated in harder currencies abroad.

"It is to scrap the progressive tax system altogether.

"The Democratic Congress is making only token handwringing protests against this plan, no doubt with an eye looking forward to the campaign contributors two years down the road...

And it isn't likely Obama's "compromises" will stimulate any meaningful economic improvements in the next two years.

"Contra Obama’s pretense, cutting taxes for the rich will not spur recovery.

"The wealthiest 2 per cent do not spend their income on consuming more.

"They invest it financially – mainly in bonds, establishing more debt claims on the economy.

"Giving creditors more money will deepen the economy’s debt deflation, shrinking 'the market’s' ability to spend on goods and services.

"And part of the tax subsidy will be recycled into Congressional lobbying and campaign contributions to buy politicians who will promote even more pro-financial deregulatory policies and tax benefits.

"There still has been no prosecution of banking crime or other financial fraud by large institutions, for example.

"Nor is there any sign of Attorney General Holder initiating such prosecutions."

You might note how Obama's plan works only if you limit your "choice" at the polls to Republican OR Democrat.

It's no choice.

 

[mdn2000]

no mdn2000, this is from michael hudson.

You might want to click on his link if you want a glimpse of what our economy might be like during the next presidential election.

Counterpunch is working very slow right now.
It's taking 35 to 45 seconds for the site to open.

i know what counter punch is, i do not need to read what they say, they are marxist.

Can you admit that.

 

[georgephillip]

I admit CounterPunch publishes Marxists.

They also publish life-long conservatives like Paul Craig Roberts, a former editor of the Wall Street Journal and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during Reagan's reign.

You won't find all of the questions much less the answers if you limit your search to one side of the ideological divide.