The (cough) ‘Grand Bargain’ – ‘Tax Holiday for Overseas Corporate Profits Would Increase Deficits, Fail to Boost the Economy, and Ultimately Shift More Investment and Jobs Overseas’

 

 

We are a ‘demand side economy’. When people have
money (jobs), they ‘demand’ (buy) and that creates jobs.

A ‘supply side economy’ cuts taxes for the
corporations – thinking that with the extra income,
they will create jobs to make products the people
don’t have the money (jobs) to pay for.

Why reward the corporations for using the tax laws?

This from 2011 when Congress was talking about it.

Nothings changed.

‘Nevertheless, the evidence shows that the first
holiday failed to produce the promised results. Its
primary effect was to provide a huge windfall to
the shareholders of a small number of very large
corporations’.

‘Moreover, a new tax holiday would increase budget
deficits by tens of billions of dollars over the
coming decade. And unlike the 2004 repatriation
holiday, which was sold as a “one-time-only” event,
a second holiday would send a powerful message to
corporations to shift investment and jobs overseas
and hold the profits there — until yet another tax
holiday is declared’.
@ :
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3441
————————————–
‘Corporations Say Special Tax Holiday Will Create
Jobs. Don’t Believe Them’

‘Here’s how the nonsense would work, in theory.
Companies doing business oversees pay foreign taxes
(the same way a Mexican company working out of
Kansas pays U.S. taxes). When they bring home
profits, they pay the difference between the
foreign and U.S. tax rates. That is a disincentive
to invest domestically and create jobs. If
Washington announces a brief “holiday” for
repatriated income, every wins. A trillion bucks
comes home, Washington gets a cut to pay off the
deficit, and domestic investment comes roaring into
the economy’.

‘That’s the theory. Here’s the reality’.

‘In 2005, the Bush administration announced a
holiday for repatriated income. Three hundred
billion dollars came back to the United States, but
“92 percent went straight to shareholders in the
form of dividends and stock buybacks,” David
Kocieniewski writes in the New York Times’.

‘A study by the National Bureau of Economic
Research found the program “did not increase
domestic investment, employment or research and
development.”
@ :
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/06
/corporations-say-special-tax-holiday-will-create-j
obs-dont-believe-them/240725/
————————————–

‘Heritage: Repatriation Tax Holiday Wouldn’t Create
Jobs’

‘In a break from many Republican lawmakers and a
host of major U.S. companies including Google Inc.,
Apple Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Microsoft Corp., the
Heritage Foundation said in a new study that a
repatriation tax holiday would not motivate
companies to hire new workers’.

‘While the tax break would likely prompt companies
to bring home overseas profits, those companies
wouldn’t use the extra cash to hire workers, launch
mergers or make other new investments they wouldn’t
already undertake, argue senior fellow J.D. Foster
and senior policy analyst Curtis Dubay’.

‘The 2004 tax holiday prompted 843 corporations to
bring back $312 billion to the U.S., according to
the Internal Revenue Service. But the repatriated
funds were primarily used to reward shareholders,
largely through dividends and stock buybacks,
according to a 2009 study published by the
nonpartisan National Bureau Of Economic Research’.
From :
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/10/03/heritage-
repatriation-tax-holiday-wont-create-jobs/
——————————————

 

‘Chris Christie Blasts Senator Rand Paul, Reminds Him That Kentucky Is A Welfare State’

 

I want this fight and hope that it stays public.

Christie will crush Rand ‘The Bigot’ Paul and most of the ‘libertarian’ crap that is floating around stinking up the Country.

Now am I a ‘Chris Christie’ Supporter?

Don’t even. I’m a ‘Clinton’ Democrat.

And Hillary will run (and win) and I hope go against Christie as the Republican and Paul as the teabagger, splitting the Republican Party and maybe, just maybe – putting the teabaggers where they belong – out of the debate.

I don’t see any other Republican ‘strong’ enough to take on the extreme wing nuts and beat them.
—————————————-

Governor Christie….a word if I may.

You’re trying to have a rational conversation with a libertarian.

You can’t because they have created a reality that if something doesn’t directly affect them – it’s not needed.

Such as Rand ‘The Bigot’ Paul’s response :

‘Paul pointed to Kentucky’s two military bases as reasons why the state may get more money from the government’.

“What does he want to do, shut down military bases in Kentucky?” he said.

‘Fort Campbell and Fort Knox, both Army bases, are located in Kentucky’.

Of course in Rand ‘The Bigot’ Paul’s libertarian World, New Jersey doesn’t have any military bases and that’s why they don’t sponge off the Federal Government.

Opps.

‘New Jersey itself is home to a large joint military base that houses the McGuire Air Force base; Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst; and Fort Dix, an Army base’.
@ : http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/30/paul-christie-is-the-king-of-bacon-on-government-spending/

Rand ‘The Bigot’ Paul just ignores the fact that Kentucky IS a welfare State – a State that is supported by taxes paid by mostly ‘Blue’ State.

‘Kentucky
$1.51’
‘New Jersey
$0.61’
@ : http://taxfoundation.org/article/federal-taxing-and-spending-benefit-some-states-leave-others-paying-bill-1

http://video-embed.nj.com/services/player/bcpid2448849541001?bctid=2575231978001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAAPLMIP6E~,BRrRHTAljlELD08zlMeHyAHjqVCNkbI2

‘During the press conference, Christie blasted Paul for daring to question the fiscal responsibility of New Jersey when he is the Senator of Kentucky, a welfare state’.

“I find it interesting that Senator Paul is accusing us of having a gimme, gimme, gimme attitude toward federal spending when in fact New Jersey is a donor state, we get 61 cents back on every dollar we send to Washington”.

“And interestingly Kentucky gets $1.51 on every dollar they sent to Washington”.

“So if Senator Paul wants to start looking at where he is going to cut spending to afford defense, maybe he should start looking at cutting the pork barrel spending he brings home to Kentucky at a $1.51 on every dollar and not look at New Jersey where we get 61 cents for every dollar. Maybe Senator Paul could deal with that when he is trying to deal with the reduction of spending on the federal side, but I doubt he would because most Washington politicians only care about bringing home the bacon so they can get reelected.”
From : http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/07/31/chris-christie-blasts-senator-rand-paul-reminds-him-that-kentucky-is-a-welfare-state-video/

 

What Congress Does – ‘Food Stamp Cuts Set To Kick In, Congress Not Paying Attention’

The good news is they go on recess for a month. And the House has only delt with 3 of the 12 programs to be funded.

as of now, Republicans have no pending legislation on the Food stamp (SNAP) portion of the Farm Bill they passed.

WASHINGTON — ‘Regardless of whether Republicans succeed in cutting food stamps this year, the 22 million American households relying on the program will see their benefits drop in November’.

‘The looming reduction has received little attention since lawmakers set it in motion years ago. The average household’s monthly benefit from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will drop by $20 or $25, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal Washington think tank’.

‘The November reduction is happening separately from the debate over cutting food stamps as part of a broader farm bill’.

‘The cut is set to kick in because a 13 percent benefit boost from the 2009 stimulus bill is expiring. Initially, the plan was to let inflation catch up with the increase so that SNAP recipients would never see a month-to-month dollar decline’.

‘But in 2010, Senate Democrats and the Obama administration needed money to offset the cost of a series of spending bills. They said at the time they would replace the money later, but they never did’.
From : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/food-stamp-cuts_n_3671142.html

Mitt Romney’s Legacy – The Final Lie – ‘Mitt Romney On 47 Percent Remark: ‘Actually, I Didn’t Say That’ About Personal Responsibility’

Here’s the recorded ‘context’ so that Mitt and Republicans can see nothing was taken out of context.

‘His infamous 47 percent remarks were taken out of context, Mitt Romney told The Washington Post’s Dan Balz in an interview published Sunday’.

‘Asked about the oft-cited quote that 47 percent of Americans can’t be persuaded to take personal responsibility, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee said, “Actually, I didn’t say that …That’s how it began to be perceived, and so I had to ultimately respond to the perception, because perception is reality.”
From : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/mitt-romney-47_n_3670600.html

One man’s Trash…… – ‘DREAMS FROM OBAMA’S MOTHER: F.B.I. MOST WANTED FUGITIVE DOMESTIC TERRORIST ELIZABETH ANN DUKE’

F.B.I. Most Wanted Poster images of F.B.I. Most Wanted Fugitive Domestic Terrorist “Elizabeth Ann Duke” flanking her son, “BHO II”

Although I’d like to think that I’ve become fairly jaded to how and how much some people hate President Obama……every once in a while……they surprise me.

‘On the lam since 1985, F.B.I. Most Wanted Fugitive Domestic Terrorist “Elizabeth Ann Duke“ is the living, biological mother of United States President “Barack Hussein Obama II“. “Elizabeth Duke” is one of her multiple known identities’.

‘In early October 2012, Private Investigator Neil Sankey identified F.B.I. Most Wanted Fugitive Domestic Terrorist “Elizabeth Duke” as likely the same person as the woman identified at Terrible Truth as Jo Ann Newman the actual – and living – mother of the man who fraudulently presents as “Barack Hussein Obama II”. [See Stan The Sham, And True Love ]’ http://terribletruth.marthatrowbridgeradio.org/blog/2011/11/15/stan-the-sham-and-true-love/

‘Terrible Truth Investigative Report II reflects ten months of dedicated research into Ms. Duke and her interconnections with Jo Ann Newman and “Stanley Ann Dunham”, the synthetic mother presented by “Obama” to occlude his mother’s actual identity, political posturing, and criminal history’.

‘Self-proclaimed revolutionary “Elizabeth Duke” is a known long-time comrade of Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers and co-founder of May 19th Communist Organization [May19CO], a Weather Underground splinter group. Originally the NY Chapter of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, May19CO was a New York City based communist organization dedicated to Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh that advocated violent overthrow of The United States Government’.

‘Along with six co-conspirators, “Duke” – arrested along with co-conspirator and 1981 Nyack New York Brinks Heist accessory / fugitive Dr. Alan Berkman, 23 May 1985 in the Eastern District Of Pennsylvania – was charged with multiple violent acts against America, including the bombing of the United States Capitol and several additional Washington D.C. sites’.
From : http://beforeitsnews.com/politics/2013/07/dreams-from-obamas-mother-f-b-i-most-wanted-fugitive-domestic-terrorist-elizabeth-ann-duke-2537948.html

 

 

Blog Running – ‘What Would Ted Cruz Do’?

A FANTASTIC piece by Steven D. over at Booman Tribune.

This describes the ‘New’ Republican Party perfectly.

‘Imagine if you will a country where the government does nothing to prevent “austerity” measures from being imposed’.

‘You know, like drastically altering the protections of Social Security, Medicare and – of course – eliminating any services for the poor, including housing, unemployment insurance, food stamps, and especially Medicaid’.

‘A country where the stock market just happens to take a big time dive because all the free money pumped into it by the Federal Reserve finally isn’t enough to keep that “bubble” afloat’.

‘A country where no one wants to buy its debt anymore, or invests in infrastructure upgrades’.

‘A country where there is no trickle down and never has been any’.

‘A country in dire economic straits just in time for the 2016 election for President’.

‘And a right wing extremist, riding this wave of economic misery and Koch Industries’ SuperPac money is elected president with solid Republican majorities in the House and Senate’.

‘President Ted Cruz, say’.

‘I know, this is mere speculation on my part, but humor me. Let’s consider this hypothetical for a moment. What would Ted Cruz do if he became President in 2016’?

‘We have a pretty clear idea of what Republicans want to do. It’s not like they haven;t been hiding their agenda from us. Let’s make a short list’:

1. ‘Imagine the elimination of the EPA and the Clean Air and Water Acts. Imagine fracking everywhere a piece of oil/methane enriched shale exists, even in the Monterrey shale under the largest earthquake zone in the United states, the San Andreas fault in California’.

‘Imagine the cost of fresh drinking water skyrocketing. Imagine states like Michigan and Wisconsin selling off the rights to their share of the Great Lakes to private industry’.

2. ‘Imagine no more “public schools – only charter schools, with differing tiers for one’s ability to pay. Guess who would get left with the worst of the worst? Imagine what sort of people would even want to be teachers under such circumstances’.

3. ‘Imagine No more SEC, FTC, or any other agency that might get in the way of our high rollers in the Financial Markets. Imagine those high rollers getting to play with all the FISA taxes we pay for our retirement’.

4. ‘Imagine the First Amendment? Well, I wouldn’t, except for churches – Christian churches, preferably of the Fundamentalist variety. As for free speech, unless you’re a bona fide member of your local Tea Party faction, expect to be arrested if you dare to criticize your dear Republican leaders’.

5. ‘Fourth Amendment? Fuggetaboutit! The NSA has’.

6. ‘Second Amendment on the other hand, well, imagine Florida – on meth. Imagine nightly shootings of anyone considered “threatening” to “Real Americans.” Imagine a raft of “justifiable homicides” under the most lenient gun laws the NRA could ever dream up’.

7. ‘Imagine the police on steroids, too. Well imagine police forces even more militarized than they are now. It isn’t hard to do. People in gated communities of overpriced McMansions might be happy as clams, but what if you don’t fit the profile of one of those people? Consider yourself a suspect of anything at anytime by your friendly neighborhood watch/slash law enforcement agency’.

8. ‘Imagine a Supreme Court now packed with Conservative Justices (even if they have to enlarge the number on the Court upwards to do it). Say so long to anti-discrimination statutes and equal opportunity laws, and the protection of a person’s rights unless you are a corporate person. Say so long to voting rights for millions of the “wrong people” – excuse me, millions more of the wrong people. And most of all, say so long to abortion and contraceptive rights unless you can afford a trip to Mexico, Europe or possibly Canada’.

9. ‘Imagine the death of Labor Unions, and with them labor laws, OSHA and workplace protections, workman compensation laws – basically everything that might give the worker any leverage against his or her employer’.

10. ‘Obamacare will be defunded and allowed to become just another liberal big government policy failure. The slow death, rather than the quick one. And then God help you if you have a pre-existing condition’.

11. ‘Immigrants? All the White people you want will still be able to make it here from Canada or Europe. Africans, Asians (well unless some multinational company insists) and especially “you know who” (i.e., anyone from South of the border) will be persona non grata, even if they may have been born here. Which leads me to my next President Ted Cruz “hypothetical” policy …’

12. ‘Internment Camps for “Undesirables.” That means anyone who is considered an “illegal” alien, of course, but the category is essentially unlimited. Just ask the Greeks. Gays, Lesbians, Trans people, sex workers, scary “Mooslims” (even if they might actually be Sikhs or some other religious minority), homeless people, activists with too many arrests for attending illegal protests – well, the sky’s the limit once you get that ball rolling. Just ask George Takei, or any Native American stuck on the res’.

13. ‘Imagine local communities being permitted to enforce “Biblical Law.” Think I’m nuts? Well, do you think the Federal government under Ted Cruz would lift a finger to enforce constitutional protections if it would irritate his constituents – i.e., the far Christian right? Do you think a packed conservative Court led by a still youthful Chief Justice Roberts would interfere in a whatever the states wish to allow at the local level, such as enforced prayer in school, laws that make women “submit” to their fathers and husbands (easy enough to do if you weaken domestic violence laws even further), etc.’?
From : http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/7/28/114236/703

A ‘Conservative’ vision for America – The Pitfalls of Privitizing Public Education for Profit – ‘AP Exclusive: GOP Donor’s School Grade Changed’

There are a few (very few) things that the private sector can do a better job at then the pubic sector.

Again I stress very few.

Education is not one of those things because the public sectors driving force is profit.

And education, by it’s very nature, will not show a ‘profit’ until after the students have graduated.
***********************************

‘However, the emails clearly show Bennett’s staff was intensely focused on Christel House, whose founder has given more than $2.8 million to Republicans since 1998, including $130,000 to Bennett’.

‘Former Indiana and current Florida schools chief Tony Bennett built his national star by promising to hold “failing” schools accountable’.

‘But when it appeared an Indianapolis charter school run by a prominent Republican donor might receive a poor grade, Bennett’s education team frantically overhauled his signature “A-F” school grading system to improve the school’s marks’.

‘Emails obtained by The Associated Press show Bennett and his staff scrambled last fall to ensure influential donor Christel DeHaan’s school received an “A,” despite poor test scores in algebra that initially earned it a “C.”

“They need to understand that anything less than an A for Christel House compromises all of our accountability work,” Bennett wrote in a Sept. 12 email to then-chief of staff Heather Neal, who is now Gov. Mike Pence’s chief lobbyist’.

The emails, which also show Bennett discussed with staff the legality of changing just DeHaan’s grade, raise unsettling questions about the validity of a grading system that has broad implications’.

‘Indiana uses the A-F grades to determine which schools get taken over by the state and whether students seeking state-funded vouchers to attend private school need to first spend a year in public school’.

‘They also help determine how much state funding schools receive’.
From : http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ap-exclusive-gop-donors-school-grade-changed-19807123

Bonus Round – The Day in a Picture

The Day in a Picture

Blog Running – Thinking Outside The Box Edition – ‘The Charitable-Industrial Complex’

‘Peter Buffett is a composer and a chairman of the NoVo Foundation’.

‘I HAD spent much of my life writing music for commercials, film and television and knew little about the world of philanthropy as practiced by the very wealthy until what I call the big bang happened in 2006’.

‘That year, my father, Warren Buffett, made good on his commitment to give nearly all of his accumulated wealth back to society’.

‘In addition to making several large donations, he added generously to the three foundations that my parents had created years earlier, one for each of their children to run’.

‘Early on in our philanthropic journey, my wife and I became aware of something I started to call Philanthropic Colonialism’.

‘I noticed that a donor had the urge to “save the day” in some fashion. People (including me) who had very little knowledge of a particular place would think that they could solve a local problem’.

‘Whether it involved farming methods, education practices, job training or business development, over and over I would hear people discuss transplanting what worked in one setting directly into another with little regard for culture, geography or societal norms’.

‘Often the results of our decisions had unintended consequences; distributing condoms to stop the spread of AIDS in a brothel area ended up creating a higher price for unprotected sex’.

‘But now I think something even more damaging is going on’.

‘Because of who my father is, I’ve been able to occupy some seats I never expected to sit in’.

‘Inside any important philanthropy meeting, you witness heads of state meeting with investment managers and corporate leaders’.

‘All are searching for answers with their right hand to problems that others in the room have created with their left’.

‘There are plenty of statistics that tell us that inequality is continually rising’.

‘At the same time, according to the Urban Institute, the nonprofit sector has been steadily growing. Between 2001 and 2011, the number of nonprofits increased 25 percent’.

‘Their growth rate now exceeds that of both the business and government sectors’.

‘It’s a massive business, with approximately $316 billion given away in 2012 in the United States alone and more than 9.4 million employed’.

‘Philanthropy has become the “it” vehicle to level the playing field and has generated a growing number of gatherings, workshops and affinity groups’.

‘As more lives and communities are destroyed by the system that creates vast amounts of wealth for the few, the more heroic it sounds to “give back.”

‘It’s what I would call “conscience laundering” — feeling better about accumulating more than any one person could possibly need to live on by sprinkling a little around as an act of charity’.

‘But this just keeps the existing structure of inequality in place’.

‘The rich sleep better at night, while others get just enough to keep the pot from boiling over’.

‘What we have is a crisis of imagination. Albert Einstein said that you cannot solve a problem with the same mind-set that created it. Foundation dollars should be the best “risk capital” out there’.

‘There are people working hard at showing examples of other ways to live in a functioning society that truly creates greater prosperity for all (and I don’t mean more people getting to have more stuff)’.

‘Money should be spent trying out concepts that shatter current structures and systems that have turned much of the world into one vast market’.

‘Is progress really Wi-Fi on every street corner’?

‘No’.

‘It’s when no 13-year-old girl on the planet gets sold for sex’.

‘But as long as most folks are patting themselves on the back for charitable acts, we’ve got a perpetual poverty machine’.

‘It’s an old story; we really need a new one’.
From : http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/27/opinion/the-charitable-industrial-complex.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0