"Traditional" Marriage

Trillions Hidden In Foreign Bank Accounts

This is a story that should make most Americans (regardless of political party) very angry. If it doesn't anger you, then you are either among the filthy rich or completely brain-dead. The Tax Justice Network has just released a report on money hidden in offshore bank accounts (in places like Bermuda or the Cayman Islands) to avoid paying taxes. The report was written by James Henry, a former chief economist at the international consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Using information from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Bank of International Settlements, and many national governments, Henry estimates that at least $21 trillion (yes, that was TRILLION) is being hidden in secret, tax-free, foreign bank accounts to avoid paying taxes. That's more money than the total economies of the United States and Japan combined. And that may be a lowball number -- the figure could be as high as $32 trillion.

Now all of this money does not come from rich tax-dodgers in the United States (about $800 billion has left Russia since 1990), but a large hunk of it is from this country. Just imagine, if this money had been taxed at a conservative 30% rate it would have yielded an additional $6.3 trillion in revenue for the countries it came from (and taxed at only 20% would have yielded an additional $4.2 trillion), and it could be even more. That money could have kept a lot of countries from having to invoke "austerity" programs, cutting aid to their most needy citizens.

And one of those hiding much of his money in overseas accounts to avoid paying U.S. taxes is Republican presidential nominee Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie). We know he has accounts in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Switzerland, and several other foreign countries in "tax havens". What we don't know is just how much money he is hiding overseas -- he could be worth much more than the $250 million he admits to. And since the accounts are secret, we also have no idea how many millions of dollars in U.S. taxes he has dodged.

Now Romney will claim that he is doing nothing illegal by keeping secret funds in these accounts, and he may be right. But it should be illegal, and it most certainly is unethical -- especially in this recession where millions live in poverty and millions more are in danger of falling into poverty through unemployment (and falling wages). While most Americans declare all of their income and pay their appropriate tax on that income, it is just not right that Romney (and other super-rich people) are able to dodge their taxes by hiding money in overseas accounts.

Remember this when you go to the polls next November. By voting for Romney, you will be saying it is OK for the super-rich to evade paying taxes by hiding money overseas. Is that really what you believe? Do you really want a tax evader (who refuses to release his tax returns) as President of the United States?

Battyman

Political Cartoon is by John Darkow in the Columbia Daily Tribune.

Obama Approval Rises (3rd Straight Quarter)

A new Gallup Poll shows that President Obama's job approval ratings are still rising. This quarterly poll shows that the president's job approval hit its lowest point in the third quarter of last year, when it was 41.0%. Since then it has been rising (now for three straight quarters). In the fourth quarter of last year, it rose to 43.3%. This year it was 45.9% in the first quarter and 46.8% in the second quarter.

Does this mean the president will or won't be re-elected in November? That's hard to say. Gallup generally regards job approval over 50% to be a good sign of re-election and job approval under 40% to be a predictor of defeat. For instance, Reagan (53.9%), Clinton (55.2%), Nixon (57.8%), and Eisenhower (70.8%) all have 14th quarter job approvals of over 50% and all of them were easily re-elected. While Carter (35.8%) and Bush I (39.2%) had 14th quarter job approvals ratings under 40% and were easily defeated.

The closest 14th quarter job approval rating to that of President Obama is the one for Bush II, which was 47.9%. Bush II was re-elected in a close election. This could bode well for the president, especially since the job approval numbers are trending upward (as Bush II's were in 2004).

Of course, all of this could mean nothing since we are still several months from the election. But I thought it was interesting -- and thought you might also.

At Their Feet

Political Cartoon is by Christopher Weyant in The Hill.

Reagan Would Rebuke The Teabaggers

I did not care for the economic policies of Ronald Reagan. I believe history has shown that his "trickle-down" economic theory was a disaster for this country -- creating a vast gap in income and wealth between the rich and the rest of America, and throwing this country into the most serious recession since the Great Depression.

But while his economic theory was deeply flawed, I do believe Reagan loved his country and wanted to see it survive constitutionally. He understood that church and state must remain separate, and that no religion should ever be elevated over any other or given a special status by the government. He also understood that the lack of belief in a religion did not make any American less than a patriotic citizen. In short, he believed in religious freedom.

He also understood that taxes were a necessary thing, and he wasn't afraid to raise them when needed (which he did several times during his presidency). He also believed the rich should not pay a smaller percentage in taxes than other Americans, and he said so publicly. And he believed in compromise for the good of the country (and that Democrats were not enemies of America, but simply fellow Americans who believed in a different way forward).

While the modern Republican Party, ruled by the teabaggers, like to mythologize and deify President Reagan, the truth is that they are far to the right of many of his positions. I have to believe that if he was alive today, he would seriously rebuke the teabaggers for their anti-religious freedom, anti-tax, and anti-compromise beliefs.

Reagan was not a great president (in my opinion), but he was no teabagger. He loved his country too much to have been a teabagger.

A False Equation

Political Cartoon is by Pat Bagley in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Tax Rate/Job Creation

Most Expensive Campaign In History

The 2012 campaign for president is shaping up to be the most expensive campaign in the history of the United States. Some has estimated that before it is over around $3 billion will have been spent, and considering the fact that super-PACs have jumped into the spending equation on both sides, I believe it.

Large sums of money keep flowing in to both campaigns and both party coffers. The Obama campaign raised $46 million in June, while the Romney campaign raised $33 million. But when those figures are combined with the amounts raised by the parties, the numbers flip and the Republicans come out on top -- $106 million for the Republicans and $71 million for the Democrats. And those figures don't include any money raised by the super-PACs.

But while the money is rolling in, it is also being spent very quickly. In the past, a campaign didn't really start until after Labor Day, or at least until after the party national conventions had been held -- that was when the big spending started. But the rules seem to have been changed for this election. Here are some campaign spending figures for some states considered to be swing states (states that could go either way) since May 1st:

ROMNEY EXPENDITURES (Swing States)

$3,957,525..........Romney campaign (Colorado)
$701,274..........Republican National Committee (Colorado)
$3,496,245..........Romney super-PACs (Colorado)

$4,181,955..........Romney campaign (Florida)
$14,434,766..........Romney super-PACs (Florida)

$3,732,985..........Romney campaign (Iowa)
$683,915..........Republican National Committee (Iowa)
$4,672,503..........Romney super-PACs (Iowa)

$3,567,762..........Romney super-PACs (Michigan)

$1,143,045..........Romney super-PACs (Minnesota)

$2,286,260..........Romney campaign (Nevada)
$506,536..........Republican National Committee (Nevada)
$3,307,760..........Romney super-PACs (Nevada)

$588,280..........Romney campaign (New Hampshire)
$876,791..........Republican National Committee (New Hampshire)
$4,177,752..........Romney super-PACs (New Hampshire)

$315,047..........Romney super-PACs (New Mexico)

$5,570,451..........Romney campaign (North Carolina)
$1,130,907..........Republican National Committee (North Carolina)
$7,404,332..........Romney super-PACs (North Carolina)

$8,832,935..........Romney campaign (Ohio)
$1,367,136..........Republican National Committee (Ohio)
$8,557,204..........Romney super-PACs (Ohio)

$5,111,896..........Romney super-PACs (Pennsylvania)

$4,820,508..........Romney campaign (Virginia)
$1,245,495..........Republican National Committee (Virginia)
$8,037,751..........Romney super-PACs (Virginia)

$1,870,695..........Romney super-PACs (Wisconsin)

OBAMA EXPENDITURES (Swing States)

$9,569,327..........Obama campaign (Colorado)
$2,375,522..........Obama super-PACs (Colorado)

$17,530,682..........Obama campaign (Florida)
$3,335,304..........Obama super-PACs (Florida)

$8,059,202..........Obama campaign (Iowa)
$304,475..........Planned Parenthood (Iowa)

$7,244,362..........Obama campaign (Nevada)
$222,960..........Obama super-PACs (Nevada)

$5,354,283..........Obama campaign (New Hampshire)

$9,927,176..........Obama campaign (North Carolina)

$21,014,508..........Obama campaign (Ohio)
$3,303,162..........Obama super-PACs (Ohio)

$4,589,044..........Obama campaign (Pennsylvania)
$1,964,278..........Obama super-PAC (Pennsylvania)

$11,466,103..........Obama campaign (Virginia)
$2,353,025..........Obama super-PACs (Virginia)
$672,330..........Planned Parenthood (Virginia)

$48,883..........Planned Parenthood (Wisconsin)

EXPENDITURE TOTALS

TOTAL FOR ROMNEY CAMPAIGN..........$33,970,899
TOTAL FOR RNC..........$6,512,054
TOTAL FOR ROMNEY super-PACs..........$66,096,758
TOTAL EXPENDITURES FOR ROMNEY..........$106,579,711

TOTAL FOR OBAMA CAMPAIGN..........$94,754,687
TOTAL FOR DNC..........0
TOTAL FOR OBAMA super-PACs..........$13,554,251
TOTAL FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD..........$1,025,688
TOTAL EXPENDITURES FOR OBAMA..........$109,334,626

TOTAL SWING STATE EXPENDITURES FOR BOTH..........$215,914,337

Remember, this is only the spending done in the swing states. It does not count the national advertising or anything that might have been spent in other individual states -- and the campaign hasn't even officially started yet. You can imagine what it's going to be like after the conventions, when the spending really kicks into high gear.

Bachmann & McCarthy

Political Cartoon is by Steve Sack in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

U.S. - Only 46 Countries Have A Freer Press

Reporters Without Borders has been issuing a report for the last 10 years that ranks countries on how free their press is, and they have just put out their latest appraisal. It ranks the press freedom of 179 countries. Here is part of the statement they released with the report:

“This year’s index sees many changes in the rankings, changes that reflect a year that was incredibly rich in developments, especially in the Arab world. Many media paid dearly for their coverage of democratic aspirations or opposition movements. Control of news and information continued to tempt governments and to be a question of survival for totalitarian and repressive regimes. The past year also highlighted the leading role played by netizens in producing and disseminating news.

“Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011. Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous. The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them.

“It is no surprise that the same trio of countries, Eritrea, Turkmenistan and North Korea, absolute dictatorships that permit no civil liberties, again occupy the last three places in the index. This year, they are immediately preceded at the bottom by Syria, Iran and China, three countries that seem to have lost contact with reality as they have been sucked into an insane spiral of terror, and by Bahrain and Vietnam, quintessential oppressive regimes. Other countries such as Uganda and Belarus have also become much more repressive.

“This year’s index finds the same group of countries at its head, countries such as Finland, Norway and Netherlands that respect basic freedoms. This serves as a reminder that media independence can only be maintained in strong democracies and that democracy needs media freedom. It is worth noting the entry of Cape Verde and Namibia into the top twenty, two African countries where no attempts to obstruct the media were reported in 2011."

I'm sure most Americans think the United States is somewhere near the top of these free press rankings. After all, don't we pride ourselves on have a free and unfettered press? But if that's what you think, then you are sadly mistaken. The United States ranks a pitiful 47th among the world's countries in press freedom -- tied with Rumania and Argentina. And that's certainly nothing to be proud of. 

Why is the United States so far down the list? Well, they slid further down the list this year because of the beatings and arrests of reporters by police -- especially reporters trying to cover the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations that swept across the country last year. The beatings and arrests were uncalled for and just go to point out that the police, in too many instances, are a tool of corporations and the rich -- and protecting the power structure is deemed more important than protecting the general public.

This should not come as any surprise to us. Nearly all news outlets in this country are owned and controlled by a handful of corporations, and the only "news" that gets reported anymore is what the corporations want Americans to see. For news that's not corporate-approved, you have to search the internet (and that's why we must jealously guard internet freedom, because it's all we really have left -- and the corporations and governments would love to bring it under their control). Here are the ranking of the top 51 countries in press freedom:

1. Finland, Norway

3. Estonia, Netherlands

5. Austria

6. Iceland, Luxembourg

8. Switzerland

9. Cape Verde

10. Canada, Denmark

12. Sweden

13. New Zealand

14. Czech Republic

15. Ireland

16. Cyprus, Jamaica, Germany

19. Costa Rica

20. Belgium, Namibia

22. Japan, Surinam

24. Poland

25. Mali, OECS, Slovakia

28. United Kingdom

29. Niger

30. Australia, Lithuania

32. Uruguay

33. Portugal

34. Tanzania

35. Papua New Guinea

36. Slovenia

37. El Salvador

38. France

39. Spain

40. Hungary

41. Ghana

42. South Africa, Botswana

44. South Korea

45. Comoros, Taiwan

47. United States, Rumania, Argentina

50. Latvia, Trinidad and Tobago

Hiding The Awful Truth

Political Cartoon is by Kevin Siers in The Charlotte Observer.

Corp. Whines About Taxes (It Doesn't Pay)

(The cartoon above is by Dan Wasserman in The Boston Globe.)

Last week, Susan Ford (a senior executive at Corning, Inc.) testified before the House Ways and Means Committee. She was there to complain about the high rate of taxes for United States corporations. Here is some of what she said:

American manufacturers are at a distinct disadvantage to competitors headquartered in other countries. Specifically, foreign manufacturers uniformly face a lower corporate tax rate than U.S. manufacturers, and virtually all operate under territorial systems which encourage investment both abroad and at home.

After listening to that, a person might think that Corning had paid an enormous amount of taxes to the U.S. government -- an amount so large it is making it hard for the company to compete. She even went on to say that Corning had paid an effective tax rate of about 36% in 2011. To put it bluntly, that is an outrageous lie!

Corning did make a really nice profit between 2008 and 2011 -- about $3 billion. And they should have paid a nice chuck of that in taxes, but they didn't. The truth is they were one of several American corporations between 2008 and 2011 that paid no taxes at all -- that's right, not a single penny. In fact, it's even worse than that. From 2008 to 2010 they actually got a $4 million refund from the U.S. government. And their actual tax rate for 2011 was a negative 0.2%.

The 36% taxes she referred to the company paying is what the company might owe if they brought their foreign earnings back home to this country. But those taxes have not been paid because the money is still languishing in foreign bank accounts (to prevent having to pay any American taxes on it).

Frankly, I'm having a lot of trouble feeling sorry for a corporation that pays no taxes. And until it does start paying some taxes, I'm not sure they even deserve to be heard on how onerous the American tax system is. Bring those foreign profits home, pay taxes on all of the profits, and then we can discuss whether the tax rate is too high or not.

P.S. -- That "territorial system" of taxing corporations that Ford (and Mitt Romney) would like to create is estimated to cost this country another 800,000 jobs.

Tolerance Is Not A Scouting Virtue

Political Cartoon is by Lee Judge in The Kansas City Star.

Bradley Wiggins Wins 2012 Tour de France

The 2012 Tour de France is over, and for the first time in its history it was won by a rider from Great Britain. Listed below are the winners of the final stage in Paris, and the podium finishers in all of the race's categories:

STAGE 20 WINNERS
1. Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) Sky Procycling
2. Peter Sagan (Slovakia) Liquigas-Cannondale
3. Matthew Harley Goss (Australia) Orica Greenedge

2012 TOUR DE FRANCE PODIUM FINISHERS

YELLOW JERSEY (Overall Race Winners)
1. Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) Sky Procycling
2. Christopher Froome (Great Britain) Sky Procycling
3. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) Liquigas-Cannondale


GREEN JERSEY (Best Sprinters)

1. Peter Sagan (Slovakia) Liquigas-Cannondale

2. Andre Greipel (Germany) Lotto-Belisol

3. Matthew Harley Goss (Australia) Orica Greenedge

POLKA DOT JERSEY (Best Climbers)
1. Thomas Voeckler (France) Europcar
2. Fredrik Kessiakoff (Sweden) Astana
3. Chris Anker Sorensen (Denmark) Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank


WHITE JERSEY (Best Young Riders)
1. Tejay Van Garderen (United States) BMC Racing
2. Thibaut Pinot (France) FDJ-Bigmat
3. Steven Kruijswijk (Netherlands) Rabobank Cycling


TEAM STANDINGS
1. Radio Shack-Nissan (Luxembourg)
2. Sky Procycling (Great Britain)
3. BMC Racing (United States)

The Bible

You're Either Rich Or Screwed In The U.S.

I have written before about how census figures show that half of the people in America live on incomes of less than 150% of the poverty level. That means if they are not already living in poverty, they are in serious danger of dropping into poverty. That's a pretty shocking statistic, and it shows that we need to do more than just create some minimum wage jobs. We need to seriously consider how we are going to bring some economic justice back to this country.

Now we have more proof of just how economically out-of-whack- the United States really is -- just look at the chart above. This country has been sliding downhill economically for most Americans for several decades now -- ever since the Republicans were able to institute their "trickle-down" economic policies (cutting taxes for the rich, deregulating banks and Wall Street, cutting education funding, diluting union strength, and suppressing wage growth for working Americans). But after the mismanagement of the Bush administration, throwing the nation into recession and the government into deficit spending, things have gotten much worse for 90% of Americans. Consider the following wealth distribution:

Bottom 50% of Americans control only 1.1% of the nation's wealth.

Bottom 90% of Americans control only 25.4% of the nation's wealth.

Top 10% of Americans control about 74.5% of the nation's wealth.

Top 1% of Americans control about 34.5% of the nation's wealth.

This is the reason that this country put controls on capitalism in the past -- because unregulated capitalism benefits only the rich and leaves most citizens fighting for the crumbs that fall from the tables of the rich. It never has, and never will, work for the benefit of all of a country's citizens.

I will shock some right-wing true believers when I say this, but we must re-distribute some wealth and income in this country. For many the words "wealth redistribution" are dirty words. They simply don't understand (or won't admit) that wealth is being redistributed in our economy all the time (and in the economies of all other countries). You can't have a monetary system without wealth being redistributed -- it's just not possible.

The problem is that the Republican policies favored the rich over every other American -- and those policies redistributed most of the country's wealth and income away from the bottom 90% and into the bank accounts of the richest 10% (and especially the richest 1%). It is time to reverse part of that redistribution -- so that some of it flows back down to the 90%. The Republicans had claimed "trickle-down" would do that, but they lied. It never did, and it never will.

But there are time-tested methods of restoring more economic balance in our society, and it is time we used them again.
* We need to strengthen unions (which was the driving force in building the middle class).
* We need to tax the rich more (because they are taxed now at the lowest level since WWII).
* We need to tax all income at the same rate as earned income (with no special rate for capital gains).
* We need to remove unneeded corporate subsidies and make sure corporations pay their fair share of taxes.
* We need to raise the minimum wage to its 1967 buying power.
* We need to create more good jobs in this country, and stop sending American jobs to other low-wage countries.
* We need to put more money into K-12 education, and make it less expensive for students to attend college (because education has always been the best path up the economic ladder).
* We need to create a single-payer government-run health system for all Americans (like Medicare) -- lowering benefit costs for businesses and allowing them to compete on a level playing field with other countries.
* We need to re-regulate banks and Wall Street, and prohibit them from gambling in the stock market with depositor money.
* We need to put more money into social programs to help Americans that have been left behind and are hurting.
* We need to make huge cuts to the military budget (because there's simply no justification for spending nearly half of the entire world's military spending, and this money can be spent better helping Americans).
* We need to eliminate the cap on FICA taxes, and make those who are rich pay the same percentage as workers currently pay.

I'm sure there are more things that can and should be done. But those I listed above would be a very good start toward restoring some economic justice in the United States.

(NOTE -- You can click on the chart above to get a larger and easier-to-read version.)

Sequels

Political Cartoon is by Adam Zyglis in The Buffalo News.

Senate GOP Wants To Raise Taxes On The Middle Class - But Not On The Rich

The above chart shows just how disingenuous the Republicans really are. They claim they don't want to raise taxes, but what they really mean is they don't want to raise taxes on the rich. Senate Republicans want all of the Bush tax cuts (which mostly went to the richest Americans) to be extended, but they have released their own tax plan (the McConnell-Hatch Tax Plan) which would raise taxes significantly on about 20 million mostly middle class families. Here is how Think Progress describes it:

Republicans have consistently denounced President Obama’s plan to allow the Bush tax cuts on income over $250,000 to expire at the end of the year. “We ought not raise taxes on anyone at the end of the year,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said of the Obama plan, which would raise taxes on roughly 2.1 million high-income earners (while still preserving a piece of the tax cut for them).


A new Senate GOP tax plan released by McConnell and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (R), however, raises taxes on nearly 10 times as many Americans by allowing certain tax breaks signed into law by President Obama expire at the end of the year. Putting an end to those three tax breaks — the Child Tax Credit, a tax break on college tuition, and a more generous Earned Income Tax Credit — would raise taxes on 20 million families.

I know the teabaggers won't accept it (because they don't seem to live in the real world of facts), but this is just further proof that the Republican Party cares only for the rich. Raising taxes on the rich is anathema to them, but they don't mind raising taxes on middle class Americans at all. I just don't understand why anyone who is not rich could even consider voting for a Republican.

Demerit Badge

Political Cartoon is by Clay Bennett in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.