-Submitted by David Durmm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Although Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) had initially received praise for his budget proposal, upon more careful analysis, many, like Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, have found it to be Ludicrous and Cruel. A principal feature of his budget is tax cuts for the wealthy, from 35 percent to 25 percent. But not to worry, remember that tax cuts magically pay for themselves. Phase 1, cut taxes for the wealthy. Phase 2, ? Phase 3, prosperity.
Rep. Ryan’s budget relies on economic forecasts provided by the Heritage Foundation showing an unemployment rate of 2.8% by 2021. This seems like déjà vu all over again.
The Heritage Foundation also predicted massive economic gains from President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for the rich. The chart below show the Heritage predictions for employment in blue and the actual numbers in red.
The 2.8% prediction was so ludicrous and subject to so much ridicule, the figure vanished from the Heritage Foundation’s web site. Yet it is the Heritage Foundation’s model that Rep. Ryan cites as the analytical basis for his claims of job growth.
Ryan has been down this road before. In his “Roadmap For America’s Future”, Ryan proposed massive tax cuts for the rich. In a report from the Tax Policy Center, their analysis showed “[f]ederal revenues under the Roadmap would decline substantially as a percentage of GDP.”
To make up for lost federal revenues, tax increases for the middle class, through tax bracket “consolidation,” would be unavoidable.
H/T: Center for American Progress, Michael Linden, Matthew Yglesias.
http://mydd.com/2011/4/11/a-preview-of-things-to The attacks on federal workers are starting.
Thanks for the link, Swarthmore mom.
Also from ThinkProgress:
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/04/05/paul-ryan-budget-medicare-medicaid-myths/
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/10/cantor-sees-current-medicare-and-medicaid-programs-as-a-safety-net-for-people-who-frankly-dont-need-one/ We will all need a nursing degree.
Paul Ryan’s Medicare Plan Worries Local Voters
Huffington Post, 4/11/2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/09/paul-ryan-medicare-plan-_n_847067.html
Excerpt:
JANESVILLE, Wis. — Brian Krutsch has been long one of many automatic votes here for Rep. Paul Ryan. The unemployed warehouse manager, along with a solid majority of other Janesville voters, has helped elect Ryan seven times and watched with pride as he became one of Congress’ leading authorities on the federal budget. But this week, admiration has been tinged with apprehension as one of Ryan’s signature ideas – ending Medicare’s status as a full, guaranteed benefit for senior citizens – suddenly took a step toward reality.
“I think that’s one of the things they should probably leave alone – you know – unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Krutsch said as he took a break from reviewing job openings at the Rock County Job Center. “Old people need help with medical bills. There’s too many people under-insured right now – especially people like myself right now who don’t have insurance.”
Changing Medicare has become a hot topic around town, and the qualms underscore why many officeholders are wary of talking about it.
No one in Janesville can be surprised by Ryan’s ideas for reining in government spending. The cerebral, soft-spoken congressman has been explaining and diagramming his proposals at community meetings for years. But this week House Republicans gave Ryan’s plan a high-profile show of support in a televised press conference, ensuring that it will be a key issue in the 2012 election even if the measure goes no further in Congress this year.
Now, Ryan’s fix for Medicare, as well as Medicaid, has gotten more personal for hometown friends and neighbors who may be thinking as much about their own retirement or medical expenses as about the size of the federal deficit. Under Ryan’s plan, the government would no longer cover seniors’ health expenses as Medicare has since the 1960s. Instead, it would provide a certain amount of money to health insurers, with the exact coverage not locked in.
His plan is dubbed the “Path to Prosperity.” In Janesville, there’s some anxiety.
Howard Gage, a 74-year-old Medicare recipient who owns a three-person video-production company, said he has voted for Ryan in all seven races, still supports the congressman and likes him as a person. But, he added, it’s hard to accept that fixing the budget should mean that his family wouldn’t receive the same Medicare benefits that he relies on.
“It bothers me that my kids or grandchildren might be affected by whatever has to be done” to curb spending, he said.
Like others in Janesville, he’s worried about financial security. Janesville, a town of 61,000 about 40 miles southeast of Madison, is struggling with one of the worst unemployment rates in the state. In February its unemployment rate was 11.2 percent, significantly higher than the state average of 7.4 percent.
Liberal? Guy,
As much as it takes to piss them off! :).
I just discovered the Masters of Science Fiction series….they are pretty good and this 1 seemed appropriate…
well how much is enough for the rich to pay?
lol
Nice video, W=c.
I love Malcolm McDowell. Have ever since his performances in “Time After Time” and “Cat People”. He sometimes chooses cheesy projects, but he’s still a great actor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4kvjyt39II
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4kvjyt39II&w=480&h=390%5D
“how much of their income should they pay? All of it? If I were rich I would move to Hong Kong and tell you and people like you to kiss my big rich ass.”
Thus proving you are not an egalitarian which ergo means you are not a liberal.
In fact, you sound like just another apologist for greed.
Move to Hong Kong.
We’d be better off without you.
And good luck when the Chinese say they want their cut of your pie. They don’t take no for an answer. They often don’t take no using bullets.
The DK article I provided sums up nicely why that Randian threat that the Ubermench will flee is a bunch of bullshit. And even if “they” did? So what? “They” aren’t producing anything anymore in sufficient quantities to offset the damage they are doing – only taking. More and more each day. One of the best ways to get over the negative effects of a parasite is to remove them from the system.
Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way to the airport.
First, it is no secret that the bailouts – paid for by tax dollars – have aided in creating the largest gap in income disparity since the 20’s. This is evidenced in stories like this excerpt found here: Income Gap Widens: Census Finds Record Gap Between Rich And Poor
“The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its largest margin ever, a stark divide as Democrats and Republicans spar over whether to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.
The top-earning 20 percent of Americans – those making more than $100,000 each year – received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent made by the bottom 20 percent of earners, those who fell below the poverty line, according to the new figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968.
At the top, the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans, who earn more than $180,000, added slightly to their annual incomes last year, the data show. Families at the $50,000 median level slipped lower.
Three states – New York, Connecticut and Texas – and the District of Columbia had the largest gaps between rich and poor. Big gaps were also evident in large cities such as New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta, home to both highly paid financial and high-tech jobs as well as clusters of poorer immigrant and minority residents.
Alaska, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Hawaii had the smallest income gaps.
“Income inequality is rising, and if we took into account tax data, it would be even more,” said Timothy Smeeding, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who specializes in poverty. “More than other countries, we have a very unequal income distribution where compensation goes to the top in a winner-takes-all economy.”
They get their data directly from the Census Bureau.
Disproportionate taxation in favor of disproportionate incomes is not equal protection as required by the Constitution and effectively constitutes taxation of the majority without representation to the benefit of the minority and the detriment of the majority which is also a violation of the Constitution. The rate of taxation is irrelevant if the rate is inherently unfair and biased.
Drawing money out of the economy in the form of profits without paying your fair share of taxes while showing gains that are essentially tax subsidies is an inherently parasitical relationship. This applies to individuals and corporations. A parasite draws from the health of its host while providing no or limited benefit to the host. In either case, the parasite takes more than it provides.
This story here (in addition to information in the links others have provided here) also has a nice summary of why the 1% enjoy a parasitical relationship to the rest of the economy: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/26/960334/-Why-the-Rich-SHOULD-Pay-Higher-Taxes
If you don’t think the top 1% are parasites?
You either don’t understand what “parasite” means or you aren’t paying attention to the news with its daily stories about how corporate profits are up to record levels while unemployment is an ever expanding problem and that those in the 1# are enjoying ever decreasing relative tax liabilities to the other income brackets as evidence by the growing disparities in net income between them and the majority, all the while seeking more tax benefits and subsidies at the expense of the majority.
how much of their income should they pay? All of it? If I were rich I would move to Hong Kong and tell you and people like you to kiss my big rich ass.
Then where would we be? We would lose 38% of our revenues. Don’t think they wont do it? Look at New York and other high tax states, the rich are moving out.
the reality is that Hong Kong has a 6.8% growth rate with a tax rate of around 16%. That is a fact.
Please prove your assertion with facts that most of the rich are parasites. Without factual proof, your assertions are nothing more than personal opinion.
Fact:
the top 1% of earners paid 38.2% of total income taxes, that doesn’t include property tax, sales tax, state income tax and any other applicable local taxes or use fees.
1% of earners is 1,399,606 returns. As % of total population that is 4%. So 4% of the people in the US are paying 38% of all income taxes not to mentions state tax, property tax and sales tax.
That doesn’t seem parasitical to me.
Buddha wrote:
“Enough of them are demonstrably parasitic in ways that actually damage both the fabric of the U.S. economy and our society as to be a measurable threat to national security in their unfettered greed.”
Very well said…, and the crux of the matter…
Composition fallacy. All isn’t the relevant issue. Enough of them are demonstrably parasitic in ways that actually damage both the fabric of the U.S. economy and our society as to be a measurable threat to national security in their unfettered greed.
A distinction without a difference. Hong Kong continues to exist in the city-state mode created by the British simply because it serves the purposes of the Chinese government. Namely to act as a buffer trade zone between their gradually opening but still mostly command economy to the more fully open socialist economies of Europe and the practically and effectively unregulated free market capitalist economy of the U.S. If they the Chinese didn’t find this distinction useful, they would drop the pretense in a heartbeat for a pretense of distinct sovereign identity is all that it is in reality.
I dont think all the wealthy are abusive parasites. Some actually create jobs which put people to work.
Hong Kong is not China, even though it is owned by China.
The figures presented are specifically for Hong Kong.
Occupation: The distribution of the employed population
in Hong Kong by occupation for Q4 2009 was as follows:
Occupation % of employed population
Managers and administrators 9.5
Professionals 6.5
Associate professionals 20.1
Clerks 15.9
Service workers and shop sales workers 15.8
Craft and related workers 7.3
Plant and machine operators and assemblers 5.6
Elementary occupations 19.1
Others 0.1
–––––
Total 100.0
http://www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/factsheets/docs/population.pdf
An implication.
Correlation is not causation.
Plus you fail to account where these profits are coming from. In China, they are experiencing a manufacturing boom – real wealth. The profits here are largely from arbitrage transactions and not actual wealth as it applies to expanding the GDP. Our declining percentage of GDP relative to tax rates has more to do with the decline of the American manufacturing base than it does with tax rates. Our GDP if falling because we don’t make anything real anymore. Real products that can be sold in real markets. Not the smoke and mirrors things like credit default swaps represent. True wealth (and power) of a country comes from its physical production capacity for real goods. Everything else is a bullshit shell game played on paper and by shoving electrons.
The 1% wealthy at this time in this country are little more than abusive parasites sucking capital out of the system via arbitrage while they concurrently destroy the manufacturing base. Why? WTF do they care if the American economy is left in ruins? They’re super rich and behaving like sociopaths. They have enough money to live wherever they want. Damage done to the whole of society is irrelevant to them.
We should tax the Hell out of them.