GOP class warfare: protect billionaires at all costs
Posted on Monday, September 19, 2011 at 10:04 AM
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Let's start with you.
If you're like most other working Americans now you probably can't get a raise, or you can't get health insurance, or you can't get a pension, or you can't get a 401k, or you can't bargain collectively, or you can't get a mortgage, or you can't get social security, or you can't get Medicare, or you can't get a student loan, or you can't a credit card, or you can't get a vacation - and you sure as hell can't get a financial bailout.
It's like there's no way out.
But the tycoons of Wall Street, the sacred heads of our banking and corporations who can walk between the rain drops on their way home to their gated communities, can get every item on that list - and then to thank us for bailing them out they can award themselves record breaking bonuses.
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Read more:
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America has slipped so far to the right these days that we can't tax billionaires at the same rate as the middle class, without the GOP screaming that we're becoming the Soviet Union.
And in one sense of course, we truly are. Last week, the US Census Bureau released new figures showing that nearly one in six Americans now lives in poverty — that's a record 46.2 million people.
The American poverty rate is the highest of any major industrialized nation, and many experts believe it could get worse.
But the GOP playbook this week will tell you that taxing the rich to address truly insane social inequalities equals class warfare. And bleeding the middle class of their last cent equals freedom, apparently.
The only real agenda in the Republican playbook is to reduce taxes still further for the "job creating rich." Never mind that for over a decade the job creators have not created any worthwhile jobs. The other pressing thing the GOP want to do is to prevent payroll taxes for the American worker.
What's that if not class warfare?
Not every person in the country knows that Americas rich are playing the least amount of taxes now in the history of the Republic. They need to learn this.
Because with help from the GOP Americas rich want your pension funds, your collective bargaining rights, your unions, your health insurance, your Medicare and your home.
And with help from the GOP they are going to get it.
34 Comments
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kaydog1 | Sep 29, 2011, 10:39 PM EDT
Gosh, Cahir, It's very tempting to stand up with you against these "GOP Millionaires" and their rapacious ways. Two things stop me though - first, whenever Obillion talks about raising taxes on "Millionaires and Billionaires and Corporate Jet Owners", the taxes he proposes always start at incomes of *200,000 or $250,000, so doesn't he actually even know what a "Millionaire" is? Or is he just trying to trick us again? My second concern is that despite Obillion harping on "rich GOP supporters", HE is the one raising a BILLION DOLLARS for his re-election campaign, and he's doing it by getting HUGE donations from corporations and fat-cats like George Soros and Warren Buffet. It seems that the Goldman Sachers of this world are Obama's friends even more so than the friends of the Repubs, so why should I listen to Obama? Fact is, every damn one of those Senators and Congressmen, Democrats especially, come out of their time in office having enriched themselves into the Millions. Cahir, this article is a fraud, 'cause no one does "Class Warfare" more than Obama, who seems to love it almost as much as he loves "race-Baiting".
Oh, and Alun, we already do HAVE public funding provisions for Presidential Elections, but the public funds are linked to limits on non-public fund spending. You may recall that Mr Obama TURNED DOWN public funding during his 2008 Presidential campaign because it came with LIMITS on his own non-public funds spending, and he had SO MUCH MONEY FROM HIS RICH FRIENDS that the public funds would only have held him back.
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NARROWBACK | Sep 27, 2011, 04:42 PM EDT
wheres the Irish angle in this article
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seanomelbourne | Sep 22, 2011, 08:40 PM EDT
Alun convince the middle class teaparty if you can,unfortunatley theyn are so bent they just do not understand.
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AlunPalmer | Sep 22, 2011, 02:35 PM EDT
And by the way, it is well established that spending by lower income people drives the economy by boosting demand. Tax cuts for the rich take money out of the economy.
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AlunPalmer | Sep 22, 2011, 02:33 PM EDT
Election reform is long overdue, by which I mean some combination of public funding and spending limits for candidates. The status quo leads to fat cats on both sides of the political aisle. However, with a supreme court that rule that money is speech and corporations are people, it is probably impossible to fix this.
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seanomelbourne | Sep 21, 2011, 07:19 PM EDT
Obama tried on two occasions over the lsat 3yrs.to cancel the bush tax cuts for those earning over $250,000 but was stymied by his own party fat cats.
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Rebelforce | Sep 20, 2011, 11:58 PM EDT
How come it took this Democratic administration 3 years to finally discover that the Fat Cats in America are historically under-taxed? And we're supposed to pretend like this talk of raising taxes on millionaires now isn't all about the upcoming election next year? Talk is cheap. There is little if any political will from EITHER Democrats or Republicans to raise taxes on the wealthy in that infamous "Millionaire's Club" aka the US Senate, so don't worry, higher taxes for the rich ain't likely to happen.
Now if Obama wanted another $600 Billion ($600,0000,000,000.00) from Congress to continue funding the endless Wars for freedom, justice, peace, prosperity, the American way, democracy, blah, blah, blah in the Middle East, that's something he could get passed in the Senate tomorrow.
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maloney | Sep 20, 2011, 07:00 PM EDT
Buffet owes give or take $1 billion in back taxes going back to 2002. Bush spent 1.6 billion a day, the highest amount in history. Obama spends 4 billion a day. Do the math. Taxes are not the problem, progressives are from both parties.
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hollabackgurl | Sep 19, 2011, 10:28 PM EDT
Bush gave the rich record tax cuts then started two wars, the gave the rich more tax cuts - something that the United States has never done before - with disastrous results.
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jamthecat | Sep 19, 2011, 07:55 PM EDT
The GOP has always been for the rich over the poor and middle class. It's been that way since they began as a political party in the 1850s. Jeez, Ulysses S. Grant all but gave them the keys to the treasury during his administration, and it stayed that way till the 20th Century, when Teddy Roosevelt went after the Robber Barons. So now we're repeating history, and there are plenty of idiots willing to protect the rich from having to pay one extra dime in taxes, even as our roads and bridges go to ruin, we're fighting two unpaid for wars and the number of poor and uninsured is skyrocketing. That is diseased.
BTW -- while it's true not all people pay income tax, EVERYONE pays taxes, be it sales tax or property tax or SSI or something like that. To say that some people are getting away with not paying taxes is to flat out lie.
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seanomelbourne | Sep 19, 2011, 06:48 PM EDT
The GOP is conducting class warfare,Tax hikes for the middle class abd tax breaks for the rich.They (the GOP)are conducting a fear and smear campaign against the American worker by demonising unions and glorifing organisations the represent the wealthy, it's dispicable.And the teahadist unchristian Right are cutting their own throats by aligning themseleves with the mega rich.
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wilhoef | Sep 19, 2011, 06:40 PM EDT
This is the biggest piece of BS I have seen in a long time.
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pilib04 | Sep 19, 2011, 05:56 PM EDT
All these Republican millionaires and Billionaires think they should get everything free. They end up paying less taxes than their secretaries. They profiteer off of wars where Americans die but they refuse to pay the taxes to support the wars. Instead rob the Social Security Trust Fund and then have the audacity to call Social Security a Ponzi Scheme.
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EphraimKibbey | Sep 19, 2011, 05:20 PM EDT
@jerrydonovan - did it have anything to do with camels fitting through the eyes of needles?
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