Obama Gets Angry, Republicans Repeating History
July 23, 2011
By Stephen D. Foster Jr.
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When Americans blamed Republicans for the government shut down in 1995, one would think the GOP learned their lesson. But the eternally short memories of Republicans and their apparent failure to remember historical facts once again compels them to try something that failed. What is it about the GOP that makes them believe that they can hold America hostage?

As the debt ceiling deadline approaches, Republicans are once again sticking to their guns, refusing any and all deals that include tax increases on the wealthiest Americans. Of course, this shouldn’t be a surprise to any of us. We have all known for over a decade that Republicans only care about the wealthiest among us. Their recklessness and general irresponsibility over that span of time has put us in the economic situation we are currently in and once again they are willing to dig us deeper into economic calamity. It’s as if they think that a recession isn’t enough, that what they really want is a second Great Depression. Speaker Boehner has now withdrawn from the debt talks and the Republicans look worse for it. On the other side of the coin, President Obama has finally shown some anger, which should energize his base.

If Americans had no clarity about Republican intent before, they damn well better have clarity now. The Republicans have thrown temper tantrum after temper tantrum over the insistence of Democrats and the American people that closing tax loopholes on the wealthy be part of the debt ceiling deal. Their refusal to agree to tax increases or revenue increases means that they are negotiating in bad faith. President Obama, despite taking heat from his own party, put Social Security and Medicare cuts on the table and that still wasn’t good enough for the GOP. As the President stated earlier, Can Republicans say yes to anything? Republicans expect Democrats to cave in and give Republicans everything they want, and at the same time refuse to give Democrats anything in return. It’s a dishonest and dangerous game.

Republicans are already laying the blame at the feet of the Democratic Party in an attempt to spin away from the fact that they have been intentionally sabotaging the economy for political and personal gain. Eric Cantor is set to gain financially if the economy crashes and it is likely that many other Republicans have something to gain as well. They have made bets that the United States will fail, and they are doing everything they can to bring it to ruin. The Republican Party is using fear over the economy to advance their agenda and gain power. Their main goal is to make President Obama fail and has been since the day he won in 2008. That’s why they can’t say yes.

Their plan is beginning to backfire, however. As things get worse, the American citizenry is waking up to realize that the Democrats are the adults in Washington and that Republicans are acting like children that can’t have everything their way. Speaker John Boehner rejected a grand bargain that would have required compromise from both sides. He has also claimed that Democrats haven’t offered anything, which is a lie. Eric Cantor stormed out of the debt talks simply because taxes were brought up. Mitch McConnell continues to accuse Democrats of not negotiating in good faith. But all Democrats have asked for is that the wealthy pay only a bit more in taxes and that the tax subsidies for Big Oil and other corporate tax loopholes come to an end.

Republicans have continually sided with corporations and the wealthiest 2% of Americans. They have spent all of their time in Congress tearing down programs that benefit the other 98% of the American people. They have managed to spend every single moment in the House of Representatives focusing on their social agenda and have not spent any time on jobs and the economy. In fact, they have contributed to the unemployment rate by slashing government jobs and have destroyed jobs that depend on government funding such as Planned Parenthood. One of their campaign issues in 2010 was job creation, and now they don’t want to take it seriously.

When August 2nd arrives and America defaults, it will be the fault of the Republican Party. When Social Security checks fail to go out, senior citizens WILL notice. When our men and women in uniform go unpaid for their sacrifices, they WILL notice. And when businesses come to a standstill because the government shuts down, small business owners and even greedy CEOs WILL notice. And who will they all blame you ask? Surveys are showing that most Americans will blame the GOP for a government shut down. 71% of Americans disapprove of Congressional Republicans. And even if Congress kicks the can down the road, Republicans will still be blamed for not negotiating in good faith and for their irresponsible political posturing on behalf of the wealthy and corporations that results in no real solution to the big issue. Republicans are ignoring the vast majority of the American people at their own peril and may even take heat from their own masters since their profits ultimately depend upon a stable economy. Default is not good for anyone in these troubled times and Republicans are only making things worse (as usual).

The Republicans had the spending cuts they wanted on the table and they rejected them solely on the grounds that their corporate masters would see an increase in taxes. The way I see it, Republicans got the spending cuts they demanded, Democrats should get to close some tax loopholes for the rich like they’ve demanded. Of course in a perfect world, Democrats would take Social Security and Medicare off the table, and replace them with cuts to defense instead. The silver lining in all of this is that Republicans will get the blame. They actually believed that history wouldn’t repeat itself and that they could turn the tables on the Democrats this time. But just like they were in 1995, Republicans are being stubborn, uncompromising, and insensitive to the majority of Americans that demand a raise in taxes. As long as Republicans continue to demand spending cuts and reject revenue increases, they are finished politically and THAT is without a doubt something to look forward to.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/07/23/obama-gets-angry-republicans-repeating-history/

I agree.

Their actions make them very Anti-Average American and should be pissing off the normal folks in this country.

so the democrats are right, and the republicans are wrong? no need for a compromise then, if thats the case... i never knew that all republicans could be wrong about everything...

Time for them to end their pissing match and compromise.

Hell the old and disabled people are going to have to eat cheaper cat food if they get their way, maybe the rich should cut back on caviar, just sayin here.

Repubs want the poor to bleed out more blood, they don't have money so it has to be blood.....they have to give a little

i agree, but a compromise is something done by all parties, not just one or the other...

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The 400 Richest Americans Pay An 18% Tax Rate
By Robert Lenzner | Forbes – 3 hrs ago...
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.http://news.yahoo.com/400-richest-americans-pay-18-tax-rate-121952135.html
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The 400 richest Americans used to pay 30% of their income on the average to Uncle Sam. Today, they pay 18% on the average, according to Steve Rattner, a Wall Street financier, who just presented these figures on Mornings With Joe,MSNBC.

The main reason for the drop in their tax rate of some 40% is the tax cuts by George Bush in 2003, taking the rate paid on dividends and capital gains down to 15%. This reduction in the investment class's taxes powered the bull market in stocks from the fall of 2003 until the fall of 2007.

Shockingly, the plan to raise the debt ceiling collects nothing from the wealthiest Americans to reduce our budget deficit. The Republican right wing holds the Obama White House hostage. It's a sad day for the principle of sharing the pain equitably.



http://blogs.forbes.com/janetnovack/2011/05/11/richest-400-took-record-share-of-capital-gains-during-market-meltdown-year/

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Richest 400 Took Record Share Of Capital Gains During Market Meltdown Year
May. 11 2011 - 1:28 pm | 3,719 views | 0 recommendations | 0 comments
By JANET NOVACK

Still paying less than his secretary. Image via Wikipedia

The 400 highest-income Americans reaped a stunning 13.1% of net capital gains reported to the Internal Revenue Service for 2008, a year which ended with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 33.8%, the S&P 500 index down 38.5% and the NASDAQ composite off 40.5%.

That’s just one of the fascinating tidbits in the Internal Revenue Service’s latest annual report on the 400 highest income taxpayers, available here. Still, the new report shows the highest income folk, who are heavily dependent on capital gains, felt the market pain too. Overall, the top 400 taxpayers posted an average of $153.7 million in gains each (or a total of $61.5 billion in gains) down from $228.6 million (or a total of $91.4 billion) in 2007. As a result, the average adjusted gross income of the 400 declined nearly 22% to a mere $270.5 million, from a record $344.8 million for 2007. It was still the second highest on record, topping 2006’s average AGI of $263.3 million. The cut-off for making the top 400 in 2008 was AGI of $110 million, down from $139 million in 2007.

As we’ve pointed out before, thanks to the historically low 15% tax rate on long term capital gains, the uberrich pay a lower effective federal income tax rate than ordinary rich folks, who get more of their money from salary and other ordinary income, taxed at a top 35%. (Warren Buffet has famously complained that he pays a lower effective tax rate than his secretary.) In 2008, the top earning 400 paid an effective federal income tax rate of 18.11%, up from a record low 16.62% in 2007, when an even higher share of their total income came from capital gains. By comparsion, as the IRS report here shows, in 2008, taxpayers with an adjusted gross income between $500,000 and $1 million paid an effective tax rate of 23.4%. Even those earning between $200,000 and $500,000 paid a higher effective tax rate —19.6%—than the plutocrats.
The IRS’ list is different from the Forbes 400 Richest Americans list, which is based on estimated net worth, not reported earnings. But there is no doubt considerable overlap and the IRS has acknowledged it picked the 400 number because of the Forbes list.

When the IRS first reported on the top 400 taxpayers in an analysis here published in 2003, it pulled tax returns going all the way back to 1992. The IRS knows (but won’t publicly disclose) exactly which taxpayers have been on the list for each of the 17 years. According to the new numbers from the IRS, four taxpayers have made the list for all 17 years and another 83 have been on it for at least 10 of those years. Since a wealthy taxpayer can decide when to recognize income through capital gains, there would naturally be more year to year variation on the IRS list than on the Forbes list.

The 400 richest also reported a record share of all income from passthroughs—that is Subchapter S corporations and partnerships which pay no income tax but pass through all their income, losses and credits directly to the tax returns of their individual owners. While the income of Subchapter S corporations is often used by politicians as a proxy for “small business”, there is currently no limit on how big a company organized as a Sub S can be—only a limit on how many shareholders it can have. Indeed, there’s been much public speculation about whether Koch Industries, the private company owned by Charles Koch and David Koch, the conservative activist brothers tied for 5th on the Forbes 400 list, is run as a Subchapter S.

(Update: In an emailed statement Wednesday Koch General Counsel Mark Holden said: “Koch Industries does pay corporate income taxes and is compliant with all its tax obligations.”)

According to the IRS’ numbers, in 2008, 202 of the 400 reported $21.6 billion of net S Corp and partnership income, or a record 3.97% of all such income, up from 3.06% in 2007 and 1.47% in 1999. Meanwhile, 184 of the 400 reported Sub S and partnership losses totaling $4.9 billion, or 2.79% of all such losses reported.

Also notable, given the campaign by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to persuade billionaires to give at least half their net worth to charity: donations by the top 400 taxpayers declined in 2008, along with their incomes. The 400 claimed total charitable deductions of $8.9 billion in 2008, down from $11.1 billion in 2007.

So when the republicans say we want cuts with no tax raises and we will allow you to raise the debt ceiling some and obama says no its the republicans fault? Yea right. When both sides want something and both sides say no to the other they are both in the wrong. Not just the side you don't agree with.

Charitable deductions are used by the rich to reduce their tax burden so it really isn't so charitable.

Obama put the elderly and disables on tne block to eat cheaper cat food already all he asked is that the rich do the same. Well technically it isn't the same cause the rich don't have to eat cat food even if their taxes get raised.

So yea the Repubs were at fault on this one.

Obama is sacrificing the poor.

Soup is cheaper than cat food. More and more lies all around. You can get more taxes without raising them. They are discussing giving less tax breaks on some things.

Catfood is more filling for a longer period of time.

The poor are being sacrificed instead of those who can afford it.

Repubs are not negotiating.

If the poor have to go on the chopping block so should the rich.

why is my tax rate higher than the 400 richest americans?

This makes no sense.

If someone donates $1 million to charity that money is gone.

That same person is only gaining whatever the rate is based on that million. So if they are paying a rate of 20% that means they are saving $200,000 in tax deductions. They are still out $800,000.

So it would actually make more sense for this person to keep the money and pay the $200,000 to the IRS and keep the additional $800,000.

Being greedy and evading taxes by donating to charity is pretty evil.

Look at all the money they are saving.. You would think that they would donate all their money so they could reap the benefits of evading income taxes.

haha

There is no excuse for this brinksmanship at the expense of our
good credit rating. It is unconscionable that they did not resolve
their issues months or at the very least weeks ago.

Now our credit rating is likely to suffer because the dumazzes just
can't ink a deal which shows the world we can keep our finances in
order and plan for a few years in advance.

Useless political bums - throw the whole lot of their buttoxes out
in the ditch.

Believe you me with all the other loop holes and things they get to do, it does work out to their advantage.

So yea ha ha for them.

Of course people exploit the system and use loopholes for their advantage.

Giving money to charity isn't one of them.

Why is it one of the first things a financial adviser will advise to a newly rich person? Find some charities...lol

I guess maybe the financial adviser doesn't want the charities to go without their clients money...lol

The only way you would know that is if you are wealthy or a financial adviser.

Which are you?

It is not what you know but who you know..lol

What is your issue with charities?

If Bill Gates or Jay-Z donates a large sum of money to help fight AIDS in Africa do you really think the people that benefit from that money give a rats a$$ if its tax deductible or not?

Putting ideology ahead of helping the poor is what you are accusing republicans of doing.. You need to look in the mirror.. haha