Category: Government

GOP Writes A Tax Cut Bill That Hurts Millions

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GOP Writes A Tax Cut Bill That Hurts Millions

D. S. Mitchell

The GOP #TaxScam will add nearly $2 trillion to the federal debt in just 10 years. The proposed tax cuts will not pay for themselves as the GOP leadership argues that it will. Lies, just blatant lies. In fact, the debt created by the bill will be left for the next several generations to pay off.

Just like Paul Krugman concluded in his great New York Times article last week, this bill will transfer money from FUTURE middle class and poor Americans to giant international corporations and the wealthiest 1% of individuals. In addition, these bills (House/Senate) will create new incentives for businesses to move production offshore and increase the trade deficit. Why on earth, would we want to benefit foreign countries and harm the blue collar workers that President Trump says he is working for?

Trump is claiming there will be an incredible 10% growth over the next decade. This claim is countered by studies from Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and Penn-Wharton Budget Model, both of which indicate that the Senate Bill’s impact would be from 0.3 to 0.8 per cent. Expert consensus have discredited House Speaker, Paul Ryan’s claim that the legislation would energize the economy and make it more competitive globally. In fact, some experts are claiming the tax bill will slow the economy.

At the core of these bills is a cut in the corporate tax rate to 20%, from 35% (before adjustments), that the administration and congressional leaders argue will encourage businesses to invest in expansion, hire more people, and give workers raises. These claims have been largely debunked.

Past cuts to the corporate tax rate in the U.S. & Britain did not ignite economic booms or produce higher incomes. In fact, many business leaders advise that a big tax cut would not propel them to re-invest or give employee’s raises. With the economy at near full employment and corporations swimming in money, it is hard to see a tax cut doing much to stimulate business development.

Experts are sounding warnings. The bills will lower tax rates for foreign earnings. The bills actually encourage businesses to move more of their operations overseas. Yes, that’s what the bills seem to do. The bills exempt some of those foreign profits from United States taxes entirely.  Companies would be able to claim taxes paid in high tax rate countries like Japan, as a credit against profits earned in countries like Bermuda that has no corporate tax. This isn’t keeping the assembly line in Sioux Falls moving. Such blatant and disgusting manipulation of the facts is outrageous.

An article in the New York Times put it this way, “Economists also expect the tax bills to lead to bigger trade deficits because the government would be forced to borrow more to pay its bills, driving up interest rates. Those higher rates would prompt foreigners to buy more United States bonds, driving up the value of the dollar. That would make American exports less attractive to other countries  and imports cheaper to American consumers. American factories and their workers would become less competitive in the the global market, adding new victims to the ‘rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation.’ That last quote was taken directly from Donald trump’s Inaugural Address.

Republicans appear to be hoping that Americans will be so happy to get temporary tax cuts that will kick in next year that they will forget that the 0.2 % of individual Americans will be handed billions of dollars in tax cuts and protection from the dreaded estate tax, and that international corporations will be handed billions of dollars to take overseas.

It will take at least three Republican senators to vote no to stop this GOP created disaster. Many are asking, are there three such Republican lawmakers with the integrity and decency to stop this nightmare. Protestors have appeared on Capitol Hill and demonstrations are beginning to take place around the country in opposition to the GOP #TaxScam. Current public disapproval for the tax bill is running at between 75-83%. With numbers like that, hopefully we can #KillTheBill.

Calamity Politics is an on-line news magazine that confronts the issues of the day with wit and sarcasm. Join me in my Resistance to the Trump dictatorship. Join the Resistance.

Dar

We Can’t Forget Puerto Rico

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We Can’t Forget Puerto Rico

D. S. Mitchell

Two months ago Puerto Rico was hit by a Category Five hurricane. Maria devastated the island.  More than half of the island continues to be without power and hundreds of thousands of residents are fleeing to the American mainland, in what has been described as an “extraordinary exodus.” The early sense of desperation seems to have morphed into resignation.

On October 3, 2017 President Trump visited Puerto Rico and tossed paper towels to a crowd of needy fellow Americans and bragged about how well the administration’s response to the disaster was going. But now two months after the disaster there is little tangible evidence of real progress. Simple things like, running water, and traffic lights remain unavailable to most of Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million citizens. Early on, the Pentagon dispensed emergency troops to the island. Those emergency troops are now beginning to pull out, except for those working on the island’s demolished power grid.

Tens of thousands of jobs have been eliminated. Thousands of small businesses remain closed and may never reopen. Two months after Maria, a significant number of Puerto Rican hospitals are still running on emergency generators. FEMA officials report that the conditions on the island are so bad that they are being forced to continue to focus on Phase I, the emergency response phase-providing potable water, roofing tarps, in other words the bare necessities, 60 days after the event.

The storm’s official death toll is 55. Forensic researchers believe that number will increase dramatically, probably into the 100’s when all bodies are recovered. The morale of the islanders has remained low as services remain unavailable and scandal has developed around  the dysfunctional and debt-ridden power authority.

The chief executive of the power authority quit this month as details emerged of a $300 million contract with a small White Fish, Montana company. The contract was canceled when irate islanders learned the power authority had agreed to pay $319 per hour to visiting linemen while comparable contractor’s were being paid as little as $42 per hour.

White Fish Energy has reportedly agreed to resume work in Puerto Rico after the government of Puerto Rico made a partial payment on work done. There is an investigation now underway in the Congress into White Fish Energy and why such a small company was given such a huge contract without a bidding process. Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke is from White Fish, Montana and the connection between the Secretary and the CEO of White Fish Energy has come under scrutiny.

It is estimated that 2,ooo Puerto Ricans have left the island each day, headed to the mainland where they will use their American citizenship to resettle with relatives in New York, New Jersey, California and Florida. By the end of 2017 it is expected that over 300,000 immigrants will have entered Florida. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency to handle the wave of immigrants.  The influx already rivals the Cuban immigration during the 1980 Muriel boat lift.

Governor Ricardo Rossello has asked Congress for $94.4 billion in aid to help the island. So far Congress has approved $5 billion. The underlying question is what leadership role the federal government will play in Puerto Rico’s reconstruction. What is obvious is that there needs to be a comprehensive recovery plan from the Trump administration, and so far it seems that the administration has moved on.

President Trump impressed Puerto Ricans with his rudeness and his scornful critique of the Mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz.  His tweets were considered insulting and divisive.  One tweet, “They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort” was particularly hurtful. It is agreed that Trump has a sworn duty to support  Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans are American citizens trapped in an unprecedented emergency, but Trump does not seem to grasp the enormity of the situation or his responsibility to the people of Puerto Rico.

Calamity Politics is a progressive political on-line news magazine.  Join the Resistance.

Dar

Class Warfare, GOP Style

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Class Warfare, GOP Style

D. S. Mitchell

The NY Times on 11/16/17 published a great opinion piece written by Paul Krugman. If you didn’t see it, I will try to summarize the article as best I can, because the core of the message is worth repeating.

Mitch McConnell & Paul Ryan have been lying when they said the GOP tax plan would not raise taxes on any middle class families.The Congressional score keeper, the Joint Committee on Taxation, reported that approximately 38 million middle-class families would see higher taxes under the Senate Republican proposal.

Both Senate and House bill will offer huge tax giveaways to international corporations and the billionaire class. The Republicans have tried to limit the impacts of these tax cuts on the budget deficit by eliminating tax credits and exemptions that mainly benefit the middle class. As such many in the lower and middle class will see their taxes go up.

“But focusing on how many would face tax increases gets at only a small part of what’s going on here,” Krugman said. Continuing, he pointed out, “It is top-down class warfare, coupled with the false claims that they are  cutting taxes on the middle class, which has been standard GOP operating procedure for a long time.”

Krugman points out that the tactics of the current GOP leaders is not just a replay of the Bush playbook from 2001 and 2003, although there are similarities. Similarities between then and now are: 1.) Tax breaks that phase in and out. 2.) Misleading examples and calculations to give the false impression of a tax cut for the middle class 3.) Asserting that the tax cuts come free, blurring the fact that the cuts will be offset by cuts to popular programs such as Medicaid and Medicare 4.) Continuing to pretend eliminating the “death” tax is about helping the small family farm, or business.

Krugman asserts that there is an ugly twist to the latest GOP robbery scam. In the 2017 money grab, the goal seems to be to favor wealth, especially inherited wealth, over labor. In the new tax bill he notes multiple measures that make it harder for the children of the middle class to work up the golden ladder.

The prime example is the GOP plan to eliminate, or sharply reduce taxes on inherited wealth, which currently apply to only a tiny number of huge estates. The inheritance tax has been morphed by the GOP into a multitude of family farms being sold off to pay estate taxes. Definitely not true. Best estimates indicate only about 80–eighty, businesses or farms pay any estate tax each year. “The GOP tax bill is about making wealthy heirs even wealthier,” Krugman asserts.

A new proposed tax loophole would benefit large business owners–but only as long as they don’t have hands control. So that definitely lets out the little guy. The House bill, according to Krugman, “doesn’t just raise taxes on many middle-class families: It selectively raises taxes on families with children. In fact, half–half!–of families with children will see a tax hike once the bill is fully phased in.”

Krugman offered several examples in his piece, including this one: Suppose a child from a working class family decides, despite financial hardship to attend college. To attend university the student will need a loan to help pay tuition, books and housing. Under the proposed tax House bill, the interest on that student loan would no longer be deductible.  In effect, such action would raise the cost of college. It would obviously narrow future opportunity for young people of limited financial means. In some instances an employer will contribute toward an employee’s educational expenses. The House plan would consider that employer contribution taxable income.

Additionally, when a parent works for a university their children are given reduced tuition. That tuition break will become taxable income. Also, tuition breaks for grad students who work as teaching or research assistants will become taxable.

The pattern becomes obvious, this is a means to “close off opportunities for children who weren’t clever enough to choose wealthy parents,” Krugman snaps.

Funding for CHIPS (Children’s Health Insurance Program) which covers more than 8 million children, expired nearly sixty days ago and the Republicans have made no attempt to restore it. Krugman sees it as “the shape of things to come;”  if tax cuts pass, and the deficit explodes which it is expected to do, the GOP will suddenly decide that deficits must be slashed and at that time the GOP will attack the social safety net and will demand cuts in social programs, many of which benefit lower-income children, disabled vets, and nursing home residents.

This attack isn’t just ordinary class warfare. This legislation appears to be aimed at perpetuating inequality into multiple future generations. Taken together, the House and the Senate bills amount to a more or less systematic attempt to provide benefits to the children of extreme wealth, while making it more difficult for less fortunate young people to achieve upward social/economic mobility.

The tax legislation the GOP is forcing through Congress with unimaginable speed, without hearings or time for any kind of serious study, is not just an attempt to reinforce plutocracy, “but to entrench a hereditary plutocracy.”

Trump and the Trump family, and nearly every one in his cabinet members will see big benefits from this fast moving legislation. Please call, email or tweet Republican senators. We must stop this bill. In addition to Krugman’s comments I suggest the near $2 trillion up front cuts to Medicaid and Medicare will devastate programs for disabled vets, critically ill children and vulnerable seniors. This is wrong.

Giving trillions of dollars to international companies is unconscionable. Make these creeps accountable. They are not invulnerable. The 2018 elections are fast approaching. We must create a Blue Tsunami to take back the halls of government for the 99%, #NotOnePenny for the 1%. Vote Democratic. Stop the GOP tax bill.

Calamity Politics is an on-line political news magazine. Calamity Politics supports a Progressive agenda and offers comment and opinion on the events of the Washington political scene. Join the Resistance.

Dar

**Thanks again to the Paul Krugman for his insight**

Trade In The Era Of Trump

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Trade In The Era Of Trump

D. S. Mitchell

As an epic economic and diplomatic tour, empty-handed. His tactics of insult and bullying did not play well.

Here in the United States there is white knuckle fear that NAFTA will once again become central in Trump’s great trade experiment. Of course, there are valid points made by the administration. There is trade imbalance, but most US industries are looking for a few tweaks, not abolishment of a treaty that has produced many benefits for US industry and farmers.

NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, is a 1994 pact between Canada, US and Mexico. I’m from NW Oregon and many Mexican markets were opened to Northwest wheat growers. In fact, exports increased by 400%. At the same time many of these farmers have complaints about Canadian wheat pricing. You can’t make everybody happy, but that does not mean these folks want to tear up the historic treaty.

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Trump Moves Quickly To Reshape Appeals Courts

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Trump Moves Quickly To Reshape Appeals Courts

D. S. Mitchell

Sounds pretty boring, talking about the US judicial system. But here goes, because what Trump is doing could change court decisions in this country for the next two plus generations.

There are 179 judgeships on the US courts of appeals as authorized. The judges are all nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. These positions have lifetime terms.

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Part VII: Behind The Curtain

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Part VII: Behind The Curtain

D. S. Mitchell

At the end of Part VI it was January 11th and Donald Trump was holding his first press conference since his Electoral College win. Trump stood to one side of the stage, flanked by Donald Jr 39, Ivanka 35, and Eric 33, listening to his tax attorney, Sheri Dillon explain to the audience of reporters and staff, the changes that were being made to the Trump Organization.

The stage with a center podium was decorated with solemn dark blue drapes and a row of American flags with long gold tassels giving the event a sober tone. On a black shrouded table, to the left of where Dillon stood at the podium, were stacks of manila folders. The stacks were impressively high. Pointing to the stacks of folders, Dillon claimed they were filled with 1000’s of documents proving that Trump was re-arranging his empire to satisfy the growing chorus of critics.

Dillon claimed the Trump “business empire” was “massive”. She emphasized massive several times. A couple of times Dillon tried to draw a correlation between Trump and former Vice President, Nelson Rockefeller as she talked about the changes being made at the Trump Organization. Evidently, she did not know that Rockefeller had released his tax returns and later offered to place his sizeable assets in a blind trust. Neither of which Trump has offered to do.

“The plan” was, according to Dillon, to put the Trump Organization into a trust to be managed by his sons and a long time executive. She emphasized that there would be no more foreign deals, an ethics advisor would be chosen and lastly, Donald Trump would have no involvement in the business. It quickly became clear that Trump was not going to sell his business or put those assets in a blind trust, or release his tax returns.

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I’m A Liberal–And Here Is Why

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I’m A Liberal, And Here Is Why

D. S. Mitchell

The resurrection of the GOP attack on Health Care, Trump’s UN speech, and a nasty Twitter exchange with a rabid Trump supporter, or maybe, a Russian troll, has caused me to sit down and pout for a few minutes, kick my feet and wonder if the fight is worth it.  I, like many of you, get so tired.  Some days it seems like Trump, in 10 short months is on the precipice of destroying the backbone of this country, our laws and our media. In the midst of my pout, I remember what President John F. Kennedy said about his core values and I perked up and finished calling my list of potentially five persuadable Republican Senators; in an effort to stop the GOP effort to repeal the ACA. 

The JFK quote has been seen a million times, but it is worth another view.  If you are a liberal and are taking a breath, forget it. The GOP and all their ‘effing money are out to screw us all. So get up, dust yourself off, drag the sign out of the basement, and hit the streets. Or, the phone. You can have a big impact if you make those Senate office phones ring.

So, my sweet liberal friends, gather courage from the words of one of our greatest presidents, “If by a ‘liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reaction, someone who cares about the welfare of the people–their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties–someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what it means to be a ‘liberal’ then I’m proud to say, I’m a liberal.”

Keep up the fight, the road will be hard and the results slow in coming, but a determined heart will protect health care and the social contract our government has with its citizens.

Join the Resistance

Dar

Part IV: Behind The Curtain

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Part IV: Behind The Curtain

D. S. Mitchell

As we have already seen, Russians have floated in the Trump swamp for decades. The President’s first contacts with Russians came in the late 1980’s when Trump was wooed by the Russian government to look at the prospect of building hotels in Moscow and Kiev.

Trump has had many Russian tenants in the Trump Tower.  One very memorable Russian tenant was alleged Russian mob boss Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov.  An apartment at Trump Tower rented to Tokhtakhounov was the subject of a raid in April 2013 by federal agents as part of an investigation in to two separate gambling rings. Interestingly, Ali Tokhakhounov was, despite being under indictment in the United States for various gambling and corruption charges, made an appearance at Trump’s Miss Universe Pageant held in Moscow that same year.

In addition to Russian tenants, Trump has had several Russian partners, most notably the boys from Bayrock. The Trump Organization has sold an endless stream of condo’s and private residences to Russians. His children have traveled extensively throughout Russia.  In fact, according to recent news stories the Trump Organization was actively negotiating with Russian officials to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 Presidential election.

In January of 2017 Trump tweeted, “I have nothing to do with Russia–NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING.” We now know that was a blatant lie. In separate interviews about that same time Trump said in weird rambling denials that neither he or his campaign had any connection to Russians.  Trump’s praise of Putin, and his refusal to ever criticize the Russian strong man has brought those assertions into serious question, causing many to speculate that Trump has been compromised.

Going back to that 2013 Miss Universe Pageant, prior to the event Trump issued a very strange tweet, “Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow–if so, will he be become my new best friend?”

The answer to that very strange Twitter inquiry is unknown. Putin did not go to the event, but he did send an expensive lacquered Russian box to Trump. The event venue was the Crocus City Mall.  The Crocus City Mall is owned by Aras Agalarov a Russian oligarch with known ties to Vladimir Putin.  It is common knowledge that Agalarov and Trump discussed the construction of twin adjacent Trump towers in downtown Moscow during that 2013 visit.

Trump bizarrely equating business deals with diplomacy; answered as follows when a FoxNews commentator confronted him on his lack of foreign policy experience. “I know Russia well.  I had a major event in Russia two or three years ago, which was a big, big incredible event,” referring to the Miss Universe Pageant.

Really? Please explain to me, and the 70% of Americans who do not equate running a beauty pageant with running a country, how that answer and that experience would in any way qualify him as knowledgeable of foreign policy. Trump, I believe, is slowly beginning to realize what many of us already knew, that the two are in no way similar, or interchangeable.  In fact, many of the tactics used in business are inappropriate as national political strategy or policy.

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Part III: Behind The Curtain

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Part III: Behind The Curtain

D. S. Mitchell

One thing we have learned over the years is that Donald Trump is very aware of perception, most notably, the size of his fortune. In a 2006 lawsuit Trump sued Timothy L. O’Brien, author of TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald, for $5 million in damages because O’Brien asserted that Trump was actually “worth somewhere between $150 million and $250 million.” This was after Trump had stated in the book that he was worth $6 billion.

Trump claimed that “low ball estimates of his wealth came from guys who have four hundred pound wives and were jealous of his success.” ***(“four hundred pound wives’ sounds eerily familiar. Remember that imaginary “four hundred pound hacker siting on his bed” Trump described during the debates? So, my first twisted thought is that if I hear the “400 pound” line come out of his mouth I will assume it is an outright lie.)

So, what is Trump really worth? We are now entering murky waters. In the O’Brien lawsuit Trump claimed that an unfavorable news story, article, comment, or book in this case, could “psychologically hurt me. I am a billionaire, not a perceived billionaire.”

Court records from that case, based on a Trump Organization financial statement placed his net worth at $3.5 billion, far less than the $6 billion Trump claimed to O’Brien during interviews for TrumpNation. That same year there were many other efforts to assess the size of Trump’s fortune.  North Fork Bank, now Capital One Bank, estimated his total worth to be $1.2 billion, while Deutsche Bank put the estimate at closer to $788 million in 2005.

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Part I: Behind The Curtain

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Part I: Behind The Curtain

D. S. Mitchell

We are now in the midst of the most controversial presidency in our in our country’s history. Trump’s erratic and often bizarre behavior, his Twitter storms, his failing public agenda, his plummeting poll ratings, the mounting pressure of multiple ethics and campaign investigations, his attacks against members of his own party, keep the world riveted to our various media devices.  Sadly, for the country his first 7 months in the Oval Office have been nearly toxic, starting with his dark and angry Inaugural Address has led to anger and violence on “both sides.” There is an uptick of violence by whites against blacks and other people of color.

How did we go from a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican President that had the potential to ramrod through any legislation they proposed has dissolved into the current chaos. What started as whispers over drinks at dinner between Republican party operatives and legislators, moved to the first timid voices, and what now can best be described as a near free-for-all between the varying Republican factions. Louder voices are demanding either changes in his behavior,  or they will use the power of the Congress and remove his spoiled, delinquent ass, from office.

You can almost see the salivating lawmakers as they look to their quiet former colleague, the up-tight Vice President Mike Pence. The visual is all photo perfect, with Pence looking like a TV game host and sounding like a Baptist preacher. That budding love affair between Pence and the Legislative Branch, is at the moment, only wishful thinking, but as Trump becomes more toxic I can see increased support for the presumptive “new” president.  I can see Trump when forces begin to close in on him; Trump will pardon everyone in sight, including himself and resign, leaving us with that devoted conservative Mike Pence.

I promise you, if Trump resigns, or is removed from office and they try to leave us with Mike Pence I will lose it–seriously lose it.  If Russia colluded with the Trump campaign, then Pence was at the very center of the scandal and should never under any circumstances be sworn into the office of the President of the United States.

So, how did it come to pass that a probable losing candidate for a second term as Indiana governor, could now  be standing this close to being sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.  Paul Manafort is the man behind Trump picking Mike Pence for this now pivotal role. Paul Manafort and Mike Pence. What ties did those two have between them, that made Manafort confident enough in Pence that Manafort would push Pence for the Vice President role, working apparently overtime to convince Trump that Pence was the perfect balance to the ticket.

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