King of Tax Cuts = Pain for Everyone Else

Just got this info from MoveOn.org. Oh sure, people can insist that therefore it's biased in favour of Obama, in favour of the "liberals." Whatever, these are facts, plain & simple.

Do you know what tax rate the wealthiest Americans paid on the top portion of their earnings at the end of Ronald Reagan's first term? 50%.

Under Richard Nixon? 70%.

Under Dwight Eisenhower? 91%

And for all the whining about rolling back Bush's irresponsible tax cuts, the truth is that Obama's plan cuts taxes for 95% of working Americans. Further, it closes huge tax loopholes for oil companies, hedge funds and corporations that ship jobs overseas so that we can invest in the priorities that will get our economy back on track.

We saw a great chart in The Washington Monthly3 that shows just how absurd Republican complaints about Obama's budget are. Check it out and pass it on:

Sources:

1. "A socialist? Obama calls back to insist no," The International Herald Tribune, March 8, 2009
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/08/america/barack.php

2. "Tax Cuts," The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/washington/27web-tax.html

3. "Soaking the Rich (Redux)," The Washington Monthly, March 8, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51234&id=15734-5563390-y.KyUSx&=2

_______________________________________________________

Under Bush II, tax cutting became a key policy of the administration whereas under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, only one modest tax cut bill was signed into law. Thus, when Bush came to power there was a pent-up demand for tax cuts, and the administration soon delivered.

Some key elements of Bush's 2001 tax cut, according to the CATO Institute, which incidentlly was the largest tax cut since 1981 were:

• A reduction of individual income tax rates from 15, 28, 31, 36, and 39.6 percent to 10, 15, 25, 28, 33, and 35 percent;
• An increase in the child tax credit from $500 to $1,000;
• A phased-in reduction in estate taxes, and a one-year repeal in 2010;
• A big expansion of tax-favored retirement savings plans.

Now what did all this "giving the wealth back to the owner" do for America? Taxpayer bailout of banks, i.e. rich CEO's & their families, men like Bernie Madoff managed to steal billions of dollars. Taxpayer bailout of insurance companies, i.e. rich CEO's & their families. Lack of American government support for the Kyoto Protocol because according to Bush and his Environmental Protection Agency, they concluded that the climate changes observed over several decades "are likely mostly due to human activities, but we cannot rule out that some significant part of these changes is also a reflection of natural variability".

Tell that to the polar bears. Even IF global warming were entirely man-made, why does that mean that we as inhabitants of this planet shouldn't attempt to take care of what we have here? I had a friend once quote me a part of the bible that says God gives man dominion over the animals, etc. So I asked him, does that mean we should then just continue that dominion until everything and everyone is dead, doing absolutely nothing to fix things? He never responded back to that question.

Small business owners suffered immensley under Bush, a group of individuals that Republicans are constantly raving about as the key to the American dream.

Since 2003, 15 federal investigations have found that Bush Administration officials have diverted billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and thousands of other large businesses in the U.S. and Europe.

From the American Small Business Website:

GAO-03-704T | TESTIMONY BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES | May 7, 2003

Contract Management: Reporting of Small Business Contract Awards Does Not Reflect Current Business Size
Summary: According to FPDS, five large companies that the GAO reviewed received contracts totaling $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2001, including $460 million as small business awards.

ANALYSIS OF TYPE-OF-BUSINESS CODING FOR THE TOP 1,000 CONTRACTORS RECEIVING SMALL BUSINESS AWARDS IN FY 2002 | December 2004

“Of the top 1,000 small business contractors in FY 2002, Eagle Eye Publishers' analysis found 44 parent companies it identified as either large firms or 'other.' Contracts to these two groups taken together had a total value of $2 billion.” “As a result of this lack of transparency, many awards that should be reserved for small firms . . . go to large firms unchallenged.”

An unemployment rate of 8.1 as of February, a level not seen since 1982's 10.8%. 9,000 new unemployment insurance claims as of March 7th which brings the number of Americans unemployed to 654,000, according to the Labor Department.

So for all those who scream and rant against tax increases, that such a move will lead to a Socialist American government, that people have the "right" to keep all their money to themselves, I say to you...Go ahead and keep your head in the sand while the rest of us choose to move forward and step off the cliff of uncertainity in search of a better America for all.

"My Name Is Bocephus" Hank Williams Jr.