Fox news: "we did PR for the tea party"

File under the utterly obvious. I was pondering what would have happened if the anti-war movement got as much profile as the tea parties did. The one problem (there was just one???)during the anti war effort was that what little media coverage we got was generally photos/film of the protests with most commentators on left(sic) and right talking more about the protests than the message. Granted the tea bagging meme was in a similar vien but no where near the level.

Via Media Matters report on the Fox News coverage of Tea Parties:

Examples of Fox News' and Fox Business' April 15 tea party coverage included:

Discussing how to show support for tea parties, Fox & Friends' Gretchen Carlson claimed: "You can hang [a teabag] from your mirror, too, like fuzzy dice."

Fox News host Megyn Kelly claimed that "you can join the tea party action from your home if you go to the FoxNation.com ... a virtual tax day tea party."

Fox Business anchor Cody Willard asked, "Guys, when are we going to wake up and start fighting the fascism that seems to be permeating this country?"

Willard further stated that conservatives and liberals are "both fascists who are taking all of my money and building up corporate America with my welfare."

Fox News host John Gibson expressed "hope[]" that millions of people" would participate in the protests.

Fox Business anchor David Asman told viewers they "need[ed] to go" to the tea party merchandise website "no matter what side of the issue you're on."
Willard asked a protester: "Are you worried about me taking these dollars from you ... or destroying those dollars? I mean that's what the government does anyway."

On The O'Reilly Factor, Fox News contributor Dennis Miller claimed that "the average American taxpayer feels like they've just been shot in the head in a deck chair on a sinking boat."

Fox News host Sean Hannity asked contributor Newt Gingrich "one serious question": "Is this now a battle between capitalism and socialism?"

Hannity also asked: "Why don't we have more anger towards government, or is this the anger that finally is beginning to emerge?"

Discussing the protests on Hannity, RedState's Erick Erickson stated, "[I]f we don't do something, if we don't turn the corner, we're going to be enslaved to the government."

Also on Hannity, radio host Bill "Bubba" Bussey said it was "time for a revolution."
Hannity also featured a Thomas Paine imitator to plug the tea parties.

Granted i'm not as in a huff as others about the astro turf campaign... if people come out, and organize on their own (like Henry's) thats grassroots to me. But the point remains it was astro turf--just like Obama's astro turf election I guess?

But here is a question... did you hear anything about the anti-war tax day protests? Yeah. I thought so.

Middle-Income tax hike possible here in GA

Georgia Legislation Awaiting Governor's Decision Would Raise Taxes on Middle-Income Families to Pay for Capital Gains Tax Breaks for Wealthy Investors

Last Friday, the Georgia General Assembly passed a budget for fiscal year 2010 that includes a major tax cut for the wealthy (an exclusion for long-term capital gains income) and a substantial tax increase for the middle-class (eliminating a state-funded property tax relief program). A new report from ITEP concludes that if this proposal was fully implemented in 2008, the poorest 95 percent of Georgia taxpayers would pay, on average, higher state taxes than they do now. 

The proposed capital gains tax break would allow investors to exclude 50 percent of their long term capital gains income from the state income tax when fully implemented in 2012. If the capital gains tax cut had been fully implemented in tax year 2008, Georgia residents would have seen a total tax cut of about $340 million, and the very richest 1 percent would receive an incredible 77 percent of that. (For more on flaws of capital gains tax breaks at the state level, see ITEP's report A Capital Idea.)

 

The property tax increase used to offset the costs would eliminate the Homeowner Tax Relief Grant (HTRG). Through the grant, the state of Georgia currently pays most property taxes on the first $8,000 of a Georgia homestead’s assessed value. Since Georgia homes are assessed for tax purposes at 40 percent of their market value, this is equivalent to exempting $20,000 of a home’s market value from property taxes.

While there are certainly flaws with any homestead exemption, there are plenty of alternatives for making property tax relief fairer. For example, a property tax circuit breaker can ensure that, for homeowners and renters earning below certain income levels, property taxes do not exceed a certain share of a family’s income. (For more on the benefits of property tax circuit breakers, see ITEP's policy brief.)

 

The repeal of the Homeowner Tax Relief Grant should, in theory, have given lawmakers an important opportunity to rethink its approach to property tax relief. But the budget plan squanders most of the tax savings from HTRG repeal on a poorly-conceived long-term capital gains tax cut for a small number of the wealthiest Georgians. Governor Sonny Perdue should know that approving these changes would amount to a blatant shifting of state taxes from the rich to the middle-class.

Here is a factsheet on Capital Gains from GBPI, which notes:

 

Capital gains tax preferences are costly, inequitable, and ineffective. They deprive states of millions of dollars in needed funds, benefit almost exclusively the very wealthiest members of society, and fail to promote economic growth in the manner their proponents claim.

• Capital gains are the profits one realizes from the sale of an asset, such as stocks, bonds, investment or vacation real estate, art, or antiques.

• The two most common assets held by working Americans – their investments for retirement and their homes – generally are not treated as taxable capital gains when they are sold. Assets held in 401(k)s or Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) – the means by which most households own stocks and bonds – are considered "ordinary" income when they are sold and are therefore ineligible for capital gains tax breaks.

• In practice, very few low- and moderate-income Georgia taxpayers report income from capital gains. Federal data from 2006 indicate that, in Georgia, taxpayers with adjusted gross income (AGI) of less than $50,000 comprised 69 percent of all federal tax returns filed, but constituted just 8 percent of all returns with income from capital gains. Similarly, taxpayers in this income group held 26 percent of Georgia AGI in 2006, but received just 4 percent of reported capital gains income.

   

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on tax reform... which is need in a bad way...

Taxing times for tax policy

It makes you wonder if the tax reform thing is serious.

Moreover, recent history on tax reform panels is not encouraging.  You might recall that President Bush also called for tax reform, and his bipartisan panel produced a pretty good plan.  But Bush pretended that some other president had asked for the report and ignored it. 

Obama's also not making this easy.  For one thing, his tax proposals would further gum up the tax code.  For example, his proposal to limit itemized deductions has gotten charities in a tither because they think it would stifle philanthropy. But it’s also really, really complicated.  Think “alternative maximum deduction,” cousin to the dreaded Alternative Minimum Tax.  Not a good idea.

And Obama would add to the hodge podge of credits and deductions that already mystify the tax system. 

Another problem: Obama keeps promising to never, ever raise taxes on 95 percent of Americans.  That pretty much rules out meaningful reform because you can't replace an irrational system with a rational one without changing some people's taxes.  Unless you're talking about major tax cuts (a bad idea), some people's taxes have to go up.

The president and the country have a unique opportunity to rethink taxes.  The stimulus bill passed in January enacted many of Obama's tax campaign promises through 2010, and most of the Bush tax cuts also run through '10.   If we’re very lucky and the economy recovers over the next year, the president will have a truckload of political capital that he could use to enact meaningful reform.

Meanwhile, let’s take a “time out” from unnecessary tax changes while we figure out how to make the tax system simpler, fairer, and maybe even capable of raising enough to pay for government. 

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How to Destroy the Government in Three Easy Steps

How to Destroy the Government in Three Easy Steps

In eight short years, conservatives have effectively bankrupted many state governments and left the fed in shambles. And now citizens have to “make tough decisions” and share the suffering equally across the land (unless of course, you’re part of that lucky 1% who co-opted the functions of government to serve their own ends… they’ll be cozy with their offshore bank accounts, golden parachutes, and permanent tax holidays).

Are you a teacher who educates our future citizens? Too bad. You’ve got to tighten your belt and let that job go. Manual laborer? Sorry but that job can earn more money for our shareholders if its done in Micronesia. Need a college degree? Prepare for indentured servitude because you’ll be working to pay us off for most of your adult life. Health care? Ha! That’s just a ponzi scheme dreamed up by a bunch of socialists.

Ever wonder how conservatives did all this?

Well here’s your very own how-to manual for getting Big Government out of the way so you and your buddies can horde all the wealth to yourselves and build your empire.

Step 1: Blame the Individuals

Every battle has to have two sides, so you’ll need to divide the people against each other. This means that you’ll need to declare that “there’s no such thing as society” and focus the entire debate on the faults of individuals.

Enron screwed people over? That’s just a few bad apples. The business news a lap dog for corporate excess? That’s just Jim Cramer doing his thing. The economy in shambles? That’s just George W leaving his legacy.

And of course the housing crisis is the fault of greedy buyers. Industry can’t do right for us because of that welfare queen. And government can’t serve the people because of that corrupt politician and his special interest crony.

Get the people talking about individuals and it’ll be easy to blind them to the public infrastructure they depend on. You don’t want anyone to make a peep when we gut the schools, defund public works, and empty out the treasury. Those problems will just be fodder to throw at the sorry Democrat we’ll blame when the fit hits the shan.

Step 2: Cut Taxes

Now that you’ve gotten everyone bickering about each other (and ignoring us), you can get to work dismantling the government. All you have to do is cut taxes. Yes, it’s that simple. One move and you get all the benefits of (1) weakening every social program; (2) making government services inadequate; (3) setting the stage for calling out “waste” and inefficiencies (more of that blame game!); (4) keeping your richest friends from ever having to pay for the infrastructure they exploit to make all that money; (5) getting nonprofits and opposition leaders in the government (progressives… eck!!) to spend all their precious resources fighting to keep things in the budget; and (6) outsourcing government operations to your buddies in the corporate world so they can profit from them.

This one move is strategic. It does all the work for you.

And when life starts looking dire, you get opportunities you never dreamed possible in a democracy.

Step 3: Exploit Disaster

If you’ve managed to accomplish steps 1 and 2, people will be in a panic. And we all know that panicky people make rash decisions. Now is your chance to push that unpopular agenda through the cracks - disaster capitalism at its best!

Remember how we tricked the populace into an illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq to secure oil revenues? That wouldn’t have happened if people weren’t scared out of their wits by the fright of terrorism. Think people would have gone for No Child Left Behind and allowed tests to replace learning in the classroom? We had to fabricate a crisis (which took years of hard work to create) to push that one through. And you know that there’s no way we could take away so many civil liberties with the Patriot Act if the debate was drawn out for weeks under public scrutiny.

So there you have it. Three easy steps to destroy the government.

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tax day

Via the inbox

As President Obama moves to make significant changes in the Federal budget, we're forever hearing that the rich pay too much, that their taxes should be cut (and cut...and cut...and cut), but the opposite is true. There are some surprises here. See especially Lakoff's article:

"Progressive Taxation: Some Hidden Truths." By George Lakoff, Bruce Budner
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/lakoff/progressive-taxation-some-hidden-truths

"Gilded Age Taxation." By Robert L. Borosage, Eric Lotke and Hillary Hampton. Institute for America's Future. April 13, 2009.
http://assets.ourfuture.org/documents/eco-20090410-gilded-taxation.pdf

"Is 'Tax Day' Too Burdensome for the Rich?: The U.S. Tax System Is Not as Progressive as You Think"
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=z%2FhsrYZ6mJ6AMIC1NyX%2FKJJKeHGRI%2B0D

"Answers to Your Tax Day Questions"
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=oXpaiwWlzynaBXenxDyKTpJKeHGRI%2B0D

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Reagan and the tea party

Tea Parties Forever:

Republicans have become embarrassing to watch. And it doesn’t feel right to make fun of crazy people. Better, perhaps, to focus on the real policy debates, which are all among Democrats. But here’s the thing: the G.O.P. looked as crazy 10 or 15 years ago as it does now. That didn’t stop Republicans from taking control of both Congress and the White House. And they could return to power if the Democrats stumble. So it behooves us to look closely at the state of what is, after all, one of our nation’s two great political parties.

One way to get a good sense of the current state of the G.O.P., and also to see how little has really changed, is to look at the “tea parties”... antitaxation demonstrations that are supposed to evoke the memory of the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution — have been the subject of considerable mockery, and rightly so. But everything that critics mock about these parties has long been standard practice within the Republican Party. Thus, President Obama is being called a “socialist” who seeks to destroy capitalism. Why? Because he wants to raise the tax rate on the highest-income Americans back to, um, about 10 percentage points less than it was for most of the Reagan administration. Bizarre.

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Tea Party... Reconstruction Party?

Left on Lanier:

[Atlanta Tea Party]…scheduled for April 15th (tax day) at the Capitol building. Hannity will be doing his show live as he protests the “wasteful spending” of the Obama administration.

What if Obama supporters threw a “Reconstruction” party? A protest of a different sort, this would point out Georgia’s failing transportation system, the lack of adequate health care and poor trauma care, and the upcoming hike on property taxes through the death of the Homeowners Relief grant.

Keep it local, specific to Georgia. Make it a celebration of Obama’s adminstration, as we cherish his help in providing much needed funds to alleviate our poor state representation. Point out that Rep. Broun and Rep. Deal refuse to ask for federal funds in their district. Illustrate the bone-headed decision to provide $1 billion dollars in tax cuts to Georgia corporations while we can’t even balance our own budget without federal help.

Rarely does it benefit a Georgia Democrat to tie themselves to the national party, but in this case, it would also be an indictment of the piss-poor GOP leadership that has driven our state into the ground on just about every measurable indicator. SAT scores? Among the lowest in the nation. Life expectancy? Median income? Take your pick, Georgia is near the bottom in everything meaningful to a middle class existence.

 A Reconstruction Party.

I'm still struck by the tea party meme...  that was about taxation without representation.  Aside from D.C. nobdy in the states can argue they have no representation.  They could argue for better represenation and I'd even show up (instant run-off voting!!!).  They could argue money in politics is drowning out the voice of human beings.  I'd show up for that too!  But tea party?

I couldn't believe I actually agreed with Ben Stein this morning:

These tea parties strike me as off-base, in some respects, though they evoke a certain principle that rings true, or at least possibly true.

First, I don’t quite get the taxation uproar. As far as I know, no new taxes of any size have been enacted. The only new tax I can spot immediately in front of us is the “cap and trade” levy on carbon emissions, which would be a tax on energy consumers. And even that, based on a questionable idea, doesn’t seem imminent.

When the recession ends, though, we will be facing very large budget deficits, even under the best projections. Unless the Federal Reserve is just going to print money — usually a dangerous road to inflation — how will we pay for government, except through taxes? And who has the money to pay, except the rich? So unless I am missing something, don’t we have to tax the rich, defined in some sensible way?

That’s just arithmetic. I wish that lowering spending were an option, but it’s not. Politicians talk about cutting spending and going through the budget, line by line, looking for waste. It never happens — except that sometimes, the military budget is cut, which is the last thing we should cut in a world as dangerous as ours. And right now, over all, the military budget isn’t being cut, although some programs are being reduced while others are expanding.

So, I don’t quite get the tea parties, although I do applaud citizen activism.

I'll be covering the Tea Party here in Henry.  Hopefully get some good photos, ideas, and a better understanding of the positions being articulated.  I enjoyed going with Deana and two of our friends who were Huckabee supporters down to Macon during the election, hopefullly this will be productive and useful for me as well. One thing i've learned is that actually observing and listening, helps a person better understand not just the surface issues, but what lies unobserved below the surface.  We can't have productive governance without better understanding.  So i'm giving them a post to make their point.  I might try to snag an interview or two. 

 

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McCain economic adviser points out the obvious...

McCain’s former economic adviser flips on Bush tax cuts.

Throughout the presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) top economic adviser and former CBO director, Douglas Holtz Eakin, argued passionately for McCain’s proposal to extend the Bush tax cuts (and cut some more taxes for the wealthy on top of it). Holtz-Eakin, however, has now come out against making the tax cuts permanent, acknowledging that it would explode the deficit:

Though economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin spent the 2008 presidential campaign advising Sen. John McCain to defend the Bush-era tax cuts, he now thinks they should be allowed to expire on Dec. 31, 2010 due to “the prospect of an Argentina-style fiscal meltdown.” Said Holtz-Eakin: “If you ask: ‘Who pays the taxes?’, it’s the first step toward not having the answer be: ‘Our kids.’”

Recall, McCain also flip-flopped on the Bush tax cuts, but he opposed the cuts in 2001 and argued for them in 2008.

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Wasn't it about taxation without representation?

This is a hoot.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I'm going to be taking photo's for the blog, might try to get an interview or two, at the event in Henry County.

Though it seems weird to connect Liberty and Obedience so directly...

Didn't communist always say that we had to adhere to the doctrine no matter how painful and in spite of all consequences?

Conservatives keep saying things in ways that remind me of Communists I always used to debate. I'm still working on a more coherent explanation of that...

tax-cuts vs. fiscal responsibility

Lincoln’s $250 billion estate tax plan would cut taxes for only 60 ’small businesses.’

Last week, 10 Democrats in the Senate joined all 41 Republicans in voting for a $250 billion proposal to cut estate taxes, designed by Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ). More than 99 percent of this cost would go to the inheritors of estates worth over $7 million. Touting the tax cut in a press release, Lincoln claimed that it was “aimed at farms and small businesses.” However, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, Lincoln’s $250 billion proposal would save just 60 small businesses or farms from the estate tax:

An always charged issue is how the estate tax affects small farms and family-owned businesses. We estimate that under the Obama proposal, 100 family farms and businesses would owe tax…The Lincoln-Kyl proposal would cut the number to 40.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, “almost all such estates are able to pay the tax bill without having to sell business assets.”

Another example of tax-cutting to hurt our long term deficit...

For those of us concerned about the Ocean of Debt these kinds of tax-cuts are not good policy.

As CBPP noted regarding this "say one thing do another" ideological attack from some folks:

Many of the same Senators and House members who launched the sharpest verbal attacks this week on the President’s budget or the congressional budget plans — on the ground that the deficits and debt projected under those plans are much too high — then opposed a number of the tough choices the President’s budget makes to start reducing deficits. Those tough choices include allowing many of the generous tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 to expire for people at the top of the income scale, making the 2009 estates tax rules permanent rather than eliminating still more of that tax, and limiting itemized deductions for families making over $250,000 to help finance health care reform that is intended to reduce costs over the long term.

 

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Another good idea from CBPP

Reforming the Tax Treatment of S-Corporations and Limited Liability Companies

Nineteen states impose only nominal taxes on businesses organized as subchapter S Corporations (S-Corps) or Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) even though these entities — which generate about one-fourth of all business receipts — benefit from state services just as businesses that are subject to state corporate income taxes do. In addition, many of the states that do impose meaningful taxes on S-Corps and LLCs would benefit by updating their tax laws in this area, such as by equalizing their tax treatment of the two kinds of entities. By reforming their policies toward S-Corps and LLCs, states can strengthen their revenue systems to help deal with budget problems states now face.

This makes sense because they recieve the benifits from the court systems and and education system just as much as anyone. Why shouldn't they assist in paying for these services?

House Republican Budget

House Republican Budget Would Aid Wealthy Individuals and Corporations, Cut Public Services, Slow Economic Recovery

The House Republican budget, introduced April 1 by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), calls for a massive transfer of resources from the broad majority of Americans to the nation’s wealthiest individuals and corporations.[1]  It provides the richest households with a new round of very costly tax reductions by extending the Bush high-income tax cuts and adding another set of tax cuts that are particularly large at the top of the income scale (as well as a cut in corporate taxes).  To help pay for these tax cuts, the proposal eliminates Medicare and Medicaid in their current forms, imposes large reductions on other domestic programs, and apparently repeals the Making Work Pay tax credit.

In addition, by cutting spending starting in the fiscal year that begins in October — when the economy almost certainly will still be weak — the House Republican budget would likely prolong and deepen the recession, already the worst since the Great Depression

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Memo to GOP tax credits are spending...

Why Does the GOP Hate Spending But Love Tax Expenditures?

Republicans are perfectly happy to propose spending increases of their own, as long as they are masked as tax cuts.  The House GOP leadership is proposing a package of massive new housing subsidies, including a $5,000 credit for those who refinance their homes and a $15,000 credit for buyers. I hate to break the news, but these tax credits are spending

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Estate Tax

The Estate Tax: Hit and Myth

only about 8,000 bequests would be taxed under Obama's generous estate tax rules. To put it another way, 99.7 percent of those who die in 2011 would be exempt from the tax. Even those making more than $1 million annually would get a tax cut of $8,000 in 2012. Let’s say that again: a tax cut of $8,000. That doesn't slow down the anti-estate tax crowd. They're still spinning this as a tax increase. Orwell would be proud. 

Opponents of the estate tax are the best I’ve seen at this. Their economics may be a little shaky, but they are great polemicists. After all, they are the folks who successfully renamed the levy the “death tax” and conjured up images of an IRS agent in a cheap suit waiting to grab your last dollar as you take your last breath. They even successfully created a new image of the American Gothic—a salt of earth family farmer tearfully watching as the heartless IRS man sold his farm at auction to pay the hated tax. To mix historical metaphors, it was all enough to make us wish for a modern Robin Hood who’d save us from the evil Norman taxman. Imagine Grover Norquist as a latter-day Errol Flynn. Or not.

It is all myth, of course. TPC figures 140 family farms and small businesses would owe estate tax under the Obama proposal. You read that right: 140.  

 

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cut taxes

Stop Taxing the Poorest Incomes at 20 Per Cent

Removal of the income tax from the very poor may mean that the richer would pay ‘proportionally’ more on their much larger incomes, which Adam Smith said was appropriate in other contexts, and not at the expense of the poor, ‘who are least able to supply it.’ [WN V.i.d.13: p 728; Edwin Canaan, 1937 edition, Random House, p 686]

I oppose Obama's taxs cuts as stimulus--because they aren't/won't. But if he's gonna get some republican votes do it... but don't spend such a large chunk of the package on them from thor's sake!

I like this point

Tax and Sales and SPLOST’s OH MY!

I’m generally inclined to support the T-SPLOST, and inclined to oppose the local SPLOST on similar grounds.

A SPLOST is supposed to ignite growth, fund emergency projects, or create a more habitable environment for citizens. It was not meant to be a crutch for local governments to fund their normal responsibilities.

You hear a lot from the right about cuting taxes and cutting spending--but at the same time you hear them decrying vote buying (i.e. representing those who have a certain preference over another--in a democracy we call this an election) and they tend to thereby support underfunding government programs that are needed and/or supported. This works to make government less effective (and there-by less popular) at doing its job of protecting and empowering its citizens. The conservatives then get to point to how terrible government is at "doing business" (which in itself is an interesting framing of an entity that is not intended to make profits) and that we need to cut it even more because of how terrible it is.

His post had nothing to do with most of that... it just got me on a train of thought...

tax cuts vs. government spending...

"Measuring the Effect of Infrastructure Spending on GDP"

300 billion to do next to nothing...

Obama's $300 Billion Tax Cut: Lots of Buck, Not Much Bang

A Taxing Matter...

Economic Stimulus-2009

Most seem to think that some kind of economic stimulus package early in the Obama Administration is a foregone conclusion. The question is, what will it include?

Taxs cuts--the not so magic bullet...

EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT TAX CUTS LOSE REVENUE