CHANGE OF FUTURE

by Ruth A. Sheets

We need a very different future than was on the drawing board before COVID19 hit.  Our representatives and fellow Americans need to take a variety of actions to change the trajectory of this nation and the world.  COVID19 has clearly pointed out problems our leaders have chosen to ignore in the past.  The time of ignorance is now gone and we must step up to meet the challenges facing us.

The following are some actions we can take to reshape the future in ways that will benefit everyone.

1. Global warming will move front and center in our thinking and every action.
a. we must become less of a super consumer society and more a reduce, reuse, and recycle kind of folks, with recycling plants all over the place.
b. Everyone will need solar panels and electric vehicles should become the standard.
c. Burning coal, except at limited levels will be outlawed,
d. Massive funding of renewable energy sources will take place, like the “man on the moon” efforts of the 1960s.

2. The flora and fauna that share our planet will have a more prominent place in our thinking and planning.  –

3. Our oceans must stop being our dumping place and our places for drilling and destruction.

4. Health care in this nation should be universal and supervised by the government.  No one should be making money on the suffering of others beyond salaries and general expenses.

5. Education should be funded at levels sufficient to provide children and young adults with the knowledge they will need to effectively maintain a career, participate actively in the life of the community in which they live, and be active informed citizens in the society.

6. The United States Postal Service, which is called for in the Constitution should be appropriately funded and should be able to perform basic banking  activities, particularly for lower income persons who may not be able to afford a bank.

7. Our prison system needs to be revamped so rehabilitation and treatment are the goals rather than just hiding away people of color in private for profit institutions.  No prison should be run by any entity but the local, state, or federal government who sentenced the prisoners.

8. Immigration will be addressed.  We need the general public to understand that refugees would not
be leaving their homes unless circumstances forced them to do so.
a. There should be a path to citizenship for all who were brought to or came to this country as children and it should not cost them a fortune.
b. The detention/concentration camps for immigrants will be closed and those imprisoned in them will be quickly and properly processed, most allowed to stay here.
c. Anyone who is a parent of US citizen children should have a path to citizenship too so they can stay and provide for those children.
d. In short, deportations need to stop.
e. Bans on citizens of other nations unless we are specifically at war with that nation or face a pandemic must stop permanently and not be allowed to be manipulated by a president or political party for its own edification.

9. Voting at all levels should involve automatic registration upon reaching 18 and mail-in options for anyone who chooses that, particularly during a natural disaster.
a. Voting security will be a priority.
b. voter suppression and gerrymandering will be permanently disallowed.  

10. Congressional procedures must change.
a. No one person in Congress should be able to block all legislation and votes on issues critical to the people of the nation and use extortion as Mr. McConnell has done for the past 5 years.
b. There should be a 60 vote majority in the Senate or a +5 votes to the number of senators in the majority to approve anyone for a lifetime appointment to a court.
c. Lobbyists must be removed from central positions in our government and lobbying should be a volunteer activity in which no favors or gifts can be passed to or from government officials.  Corporations and individuals with huge money pots should not be able to have more governmental influence than less wealthy individuals and groups.

11.  -Women and men will be legally recognized as equals and people will be respected and heard no matter their race, age, gender, LGTB status, political party, or any other factor.
a. Women will have the right to choose what happens to their own bodies
b. All kinds of reproductive health care will be available to all persons on request, including contraception and pregnancy services.  
c. LGTBQ citizens will have the full rights of any citizen without exception.
d. A committee will be assembled to begin addressing issues of reparation for African-Americans related to slavery and the racism that followed.

12. Workers will have basic rights and a living wage through a “workers’ bill of rights which will include paid sick leave, child care, and other needed services and protections.

13. Taxes on the wealthiest will be considerably higher than pre-COVID19, after companies are up and running and workers are back on the job, perhaps, a 2-year window after the crisis is past).

14. We will become more prepared for everything including natural disasters, pandemics, and more through appropriate funding.

15. We need to employ experts to get these actions going and share findings with everyone who can help.

16. We need to set ethical standards for whom we will nominate for public office and hold them to those standards.  The “lesser of two evils” should no longer be an acceptable means for judging a person’s ability to govern.  This one can’t be legislated, but it can be promoted through all media.

17. Dividers among us need to take a back seat for a while so others can succeed in bringing us together to accomplish this work.

This is an ambitious agenda, but we will need an ambitious agenda if we are to have a prosperous nation and a livable world, and we are running out of time to get this going.  This time of “sheltering in place” may give us all time to think about how we will live the next few years, what kind of world we will leave our children and grandchildren, what kind of people we will become through and beyond this crisis.  We have the time, let’s use it wisely.

WHAT HAVE REPUBLICANS DONE FOR US? (revisited)

We all hear Republican candidates claiming they want to “Make America Great again,” and before that "Take America back again."  They seem to want to return our nation to some mythical time when things were better.  I can’t help but wonder, better for whom. 

If we look at what Republicans have done in the past few decades, it is not clear what that mythical time looks like to them.  It certainly is not a place most Americans would like to live in.

I have been trying to think of one thing the Republicans have done for America in, let's say, the past 40 years.  That should be long enough for a party to do something positive for the nation.  It is true they have made the rich richer, given tax breaks to the wealthiest, started a few wars, tortured a lot of prisoners, vastly increased the prison population of the country, ran a completely incompetent "war on drugs," but what was gained by  any but the top 1%?

I have only considered contributions by Republicans to American society since 1980 or so.  Going back further would have been too painful.  Check out these important categories that touch the lives of most Americans and Republican contributions.

Education:  Republican education reformers came up with vouchers which take tax payer money and give it to private and religious schools while neglecting the public schools as much as possible.  Charter schools were introduced, a vehicle for giving public money to private companies and individuals to provide educational services, whether or not those people or companies are competent.  The current Secretary of Education is totally behind these measures and contributes part of her fortune to promote them. 

Health care:  Republicans tore down every attempt to introduce programs that could assure each American of affordable medical services.  They convinced many Americans that “Obamacare/socialized medicine” would be terrible for Americans when what they meant was it would be terrible for the wealthy medical insurance companies who sponsor their campaigns. (It actually  did not.)    Even extending insurance to poor children involved a fight.  They are still working hard to get rid of the Affordable Care Act that provides many millions with coverage they can afford, through sneaky underhanded means, tucked in bills passed at midnight.

Jobs:  Republicans say they create jobs, but they are not too interested in the quality of those jobs and whether or not those jobs provide a living wage.  They work constantly to break unions and to fight raising the minimum wage.  Most Republicans barely blink when a presidential candidate tells poor people that their kids should be hired as janitors so they can learn to “show up on Monday,” as Mitt Romney did in 2012.  The unemployment rate is going down, but wages are barely rising. 

Family Values:  Republicans would have us believe they have a lock on what it means to be family while ignoring their own principles.  It is OK, though since they ask forgiveness after they are caught and are immediately assumed to be repentant.  Some of the most prominent among Republicans speak of the sacredness of marriage while not honoring it very well themselves.  Their hatred of immigrants allows them to break up well established stable families so one or some of the members can be deported.

Women's Rights:  I know this is not really a Republican issue, but since nearly 50% of Republicans are women, it automatically becomes one.  Many of not most Republicans want to prohibit use of all birth control as well as abortion but do not want to provide assistance after the baby is born. "That would foster dependence on social programs."  The Republican  position should accurately be called “Right to Birth,” not “Right to life.”  It is not sufficient that they choose not to use these family planning techniques themselves, they want to dictate what everyone else is allowed to do. Republican state legislatures work very hard to criminalize abortion and the women who choose to have one.  At midnight they pass laws that outlaw abortion before most women are even aware they are pregnant.  They would prefer that abortions never be granted, that is, of course unless their life or their wife's life is at risk.  

Government Programs:  Republicans don’t want to have Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, Social Security or other Government programs, yet these are often the only safety nets that stand between citizens, even Republican citizens, and disaster.  Republicans do not create better programs, they just put barriers in front of people who need what currently exists.  Why, In their minds, of course there should be work requirements for those receiving Medicaid, the poorest, most struggling people among us.
  
Civil Rights:  Most bills that have come before Republican Congresses and presidents related to civil rights have been either ignored or watered down to mean essentially nothing.  Police are being militarized and that equipment is often used against people of color.  Segregation in our communities, schools, and other public places is nearly as strong as ever.

Size of Government:  Republicans claim Government is too large, and should be "drowned in a bathtub."  But under every Republican administration, our government grew significantly, particularly in the areas of the military, the war on drugs, homeland security.  Growth is good as long as the right people benefit.

Tax Reform:  Republicans HATE taxes.  They want all the benefits of having decent roads, police, fire, and deportation services, safe bridges, airports, sports stadiums but they don't want to have to pay for, and will work hard to avoid paying for them.  Companies are permitted to take profits off-shore, and for quite a while, companies were given tax breaks for moving abroad.  Any tax breaks go mostly to the wealthiest 1%.  Republicans think that's fair.

Environment:  President Nixon signed the Environmental Protection Agency into law in the early 1970's, but despite the amazing clean-up it has overseen, current Republicans are working very hard to dismantle the regulations that protect our air and water, so even the one really positive thing Republicans have done is being corrupted.  Make as much money as you can and to hell with the destruction caused.  Someone will clean it up later. 

So, what do Republicans have to offer America?  It is certainly not anything to benefit average Americans.  If the past is any indication, unless we can get some Republicans out of office, our nation will continue on this destructive course, and the rich will get richer and the rest of us poorer.

WHEN ALMOST NO ONE WANTS IT

By Ruth A. Sheets

Since the election of Donald Trump, by Electoral College, the Trump administration thinks that somehow they have a mandate to do anything, and I mean anything.

When a candidate loses an election by 3 million votes, yet still "wins," it does not indicate any kind of mandate.  It is a time when the elected official should be trying to court the American people and learn what they, more than the 25% or so who put Mr. Trump over the top,  feel they need and want.  This has not happened. 

Net Neutrality?  There is no evidence that a majority of Americans want to end net neutrality and want a few corporations to have a say as to what and how much goes over the internet, and for how much.  Congress has passed a law giving permission to corporations to even sell your personal information to other companies if they choose.  I did not see/hear anywhere that Americans want that, yet, Congress and Mr. Trump did it anyway.

Tax Reform?  Has anyone officially weighed in on whether they are in favor of the huge tax cut for the richest Americans proposed by Mr. Trump's tax reform plan (the (ACHA as well)?  Do Americans want the largest corporations to have such a low tax rate that they will hardly be obligated for taxes to cover the public resources they use up?  Of course not.  Does anyone believe these corporations will in a positive way, invest the windfall in more jobs?  Not likely. 

Health Care?  When the ACA was being worked out, many individuals and medical organizations, as well as the insurance industry were asked for their input.  There were public hearings.  However, citizens were told by people with bigger mouths than the average that this law would be tragic and would bankrupt us all.  Of course there was no evidence, but so what.  The people, mostly Middle America bought the lies and no Republican lawmakers voted for ACA (Affordable Care Act).  They named it Obamacare and dismissed it at every turn, trying to repeal it 60 times and parts of it even more often.

Something strange happened when coverage began, though, people started to like what it offered them:  lower premiums, health care they had not had for a long time (if ever), the ability to have their children on their plans to age 26, pre-existing conditions covered, contraception covered, assistance with maintaining better health through regular monitoring, prescriptions covered, Medicaid expanded to help more of the "least of these.".  You get the picture.  People were actually being served.  Now, who wants it eliminated?  Who wants it changed to uninclude the aspects mentioned above?  Mr. Trump, of course, and the House of Representatives who have already voted to do just that. 

The Senate currently has 13 men meeting together in secret to make up a new health care law to please a small sector of their supporters to "Repeal and Replace."  They call their work in progress "the American Health Care Act."

Like nearly everything else the Republicans in Congress come up with, the bill's title means exactly the opposite of what the law will actually do.  It will not provide health care to any but those who already have it through their jobs.  It will lower or eliminate the number of people served by Medicaid.  The House bill allows insurance companies to determine who and what will be covered.  Pre-existing conditions will only be covered if the company says it will be.  Serious, potentially expensive health care will be handled by some kind of inadequately funded state pool for those horrible sick people, implying they are sick by their own actions. 

If you want maternity care, or reproductive health care of any kind and you are not covered on your job, too bad.  That's on you.  Nearly everything is a pre-existing condition, even having had a C-section in the past. 

Who came up with this appalling bill (which, of course, we have not seen yet), 13 white men who could not possibly care less about people's health care.  They care only that they help the corporations who support their campaigns and look like they are cutting money from the budget.  (Even the insurance companies are not pleased with the House bill.)

Mr. Trump and his few supporters have way too much power and influence.  They are trying to push through legislation to please a particular minority who will, alas, be hurt by it too.  

The one thing that is certain.  If the bill were going to be good for all Americans, it would not be drawn up in secret by a few Senators who really don't know much about health care.  Something that might help here would be a law stating that the Congress must participate in whatever bill they pass.  They would get no other financial support for health care, and have to use their "hard-earned" bucks to pay out of pocket the thousands of dollars many health conditions cost.

If they have a disabled child, they will have to pay the cost the way any other citizen without another plan would pay.  You or your wife pregnant, no problem, you pay for all of it.  You can't afford another child, pay for the contraception.  Shot while practicing for a baseball game, no problem, pay out of pocket the percentage you must pay for the deductible and whatever percentage you agree is the one insurance companies can charge.

If you put yourself in the place of the people being served by the health care programs in this country, you will ditch the plans you are working on, and start over with hearings, a variety of people in the room helping to develop the legislation.  Serious discussion and input from a wide range of Americans of all backgrounds would take place, and you would welcome it because that is how a democracy should work. 

I don't see this happening, but  I hope your actions and the people you injure by your indifference and need to bow to Mr. Trump, who knows nothing about health care and cares less, will, in time, come back to bite you and you will feel some of the pain they have been feeling.  Americans don't want your brand of health care. 

Tax Political Advertising

by muon

If we learned anything from this election, it's that obscene amounts of money that could have been better spent elsewhere went to put ads on TV, radio and the Internet, to put mounds of junk ads into our mailboxes, place billboards and signs all over our towns and highways, and of course, shower us with lovely, unceasing robocalls. Shedon Adelson alone spent $57.7 million on super-PACs.

Everyone says we ought to curb campaign spending, but it's not going to happen, not as long as the politicians on the receiving end of the funds, or who benefit from super-PAC support, are the ones who need to figure out how to reform the way they campaign.

So, while they're spinning their wheels, let's try a stop-gap measure. Impose a federal tax on all political advertising that supports federal candidates, pans their opponents, or where money changes hands so that a political view can be expressed to, say, more than 500 people at once. This would include advertising by lobbying groups trying to influence legislation.  State taxes could be imposed on advertising for state office candidates or lobbyists trying to influence state legislation, like all the pro-fracking ads on TV. I'd even be make an exception for bumper stickers and campaign buttons, so regular citizens could express their views without being taxed. (But not lawn signs, which are as ugly as billboards. You want a lawn sign, fine, but you ought to at least pay something to your town for ruining the scenery.)

I think I'd mind the ads and billboards and robocalls a smidge less if I knew a percentage of the megabucks spent would be used to, say, fund election reforms, or help pay off the deficit.

Think Republicans Won't Raise Your Taxes?

by muon

We've all had the experience of walking into a grocery store and finding that some favorite food is now in a smaller container.  Pounds of coffee are now 13 ounces. Half gallons of ice cream are now 1.5 quarts. Did they lower the price? No. Or, even if they do temporarily, the savings doesn't cover the reduction in size. Per ounce, you're paying more.

Grover Norquist is a lobbyist. In a kind of protection racket designed to keep certain kinds of Republicans in office and weed out anyone who doesn't toe the line, Grover has made elected officials sign a pledge never to raise taxes. It's the main reason nothing has gotten done in the US House the last two years. Republican congresspeople won't fund anything, because, they say, they'd be voting to raise taxes.

The Paul Ryan Budget, in essence, pulls the same kind of a switch certain brands in grocery stores have pulled. He and his GOP cohorts want to reduce the amount of product you get for your money. They say this isn't increasing your taxes. Technically, no, but I guarantee you're going to feel as gypped as you do when you pick up that new tube of Colgate, only to find that it's gone from 6 oz. down to 4.

Grover Norquist has said he wants to shrink government down to the size where it can be drowned in a bathtub. Even if Congress lowers your taxes a bit, you'll still be paying more than the shrunken services will be worth. Like the groceries, you'll be paying more for less. Get used to rutted highways and dangerous bridges, at the same price.

For corporations, sometimes the money they save by giving you less of a product goes to cover the rising costs of doing business. More often though, it gets diverted to increasing profits and executive compensation. According to the Ryan Budget, the extra money from cutting government services, used by the poor and middle classes, will go to the wealthiest people in America, by extending the Bush tax cuts.

Bottom line: you'll be getting less for your tax money. And that, pledge or no, is a tax increase.

DEEPER CUTS!!

by Ruth Sheets

Every news report this week has begun with the information that no compromise has been reached in raising the debt ceiling and the economy.  And, every report has an interview with at least one of the “Tea Party” congressmen who just keep saying that the spending cuts need to be deeper with no tax increases of any kind.

Since the Federal Government is so abhorrent to the Tea Partiers, I suggest that the deeper cuts begin in their own districts and states. If these super conservative, government-hating congress people received votes from more than 50% of those voting in their districts in 2010, my modest proposal is as follows:

1. Close military bases in their districts.

2. Cut Social Security payments to everyone in those districts who earn more than $100,000.

3. Increase the amount people in those districts have to pay toward Medicare up to the full cost of the insurance depending on their income.

4. Eliminate all subsidies to farmers, corporations, oil companies, etc. in those districts.

5. Eliminate the pensions, medical insurance, and other perks their retired Congress people and senators receive from the Federal Government.  They should have to be part of the same system everyone else depends on.  This is for every representative from now on.

6. Eliminate most contracted jobs in the military that soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen used to do.  If we don’t have enough military personnel to do those jobs, we can’t deploy.

I understand that none of this is in the “Tea Party” plan because their philosophy is “cut the government, but don’t cut my parts of it.  Everyone else is draining the system, not me or mine.”  This is hypocracy, of course, but isn’t that the subtitle for their whole movement?  We are paying less in taxes by percent than we have in generations, yet they cry “Taxes are too high."  The citizens in their districts benefit significantly from Government services and subsidies, yet they insight fear of the Government in the people

Tea Partiers refuse to see (or, perhaps are even glad to see) that the income gap between rich and poor continues to increase.  They can’t even imagine that fairness would demand the wealthiest Americans help to support the nation that gave them the opportunity to be where they are. 

Of course, it is easier to support the wealthiest and most powerful than to champion the most vulnerable.  You can just guess where the money for their next election is coming from.  And, an unmoving “pledge” not to raise taxes is easier than actually thinking about what is best for America, even what is best for the people of their own districts. 

Maybe the deeper cut we need is to cut them out of the Congress next year.  In the meantime, perhaps the media should place less emphasis on their childish whining and ranting.

Ruth

FOR-PROFITS RUNNING OUR SCHOOLS? ARE WE NUTS?

OK, which fools came up with the idea that for-profit companies should be running public schools, or any schools for that matter?  Do we want companies making profits on the backs of our children.  For-profits deceive the voters with their unfounded claims that running public, tax-supported schools for profit is the American way. 

What are voters thinking?  Do voters know that when for-profits take over, they often lower salaries, decrease benefits, increase hours, and hire and fire at will.  This may sound economical on the surface, but who benefits?   The threat to workers--“If you don’t do whatever we tell you to do, with whatever resources we decide to give you, we will find someone else who will”-- is powerful.  How can employees complain?  The education of the children does not have to improve, but, who cares?  “It’s out of our hands,” the people say, and they are right.  By then, it’s too late.  The companies are accountable to no one. 

It is interesting that friends of legislators manage to open public charter schools and can make profits from running these “public schools.” Is this just another means of thanking campaign contributors?

A large segment of our government’s work has already been turned over to for-profits.  It is called outsourcing, contracting and a few other things, but it is all the same.  We citizens pay for a lot of the profits that go into the pockets of the wealthy.  Why do we allow it?  Why aren’t we screaming at this abuse of our taxes?

We are turning our children’s education over to people who seem to understand their mission as maintaining an American-born underclass to fill jobs they fear immigrants will want to come here to take.  It is also a technique for union busting since few charters have teachers who are part of a collective bargaining unit.  When private companies run charters, everything developed in their schools belongs to them and cannot be shared.  Many of us thought that charters were instituted to try out new teaching and organization strategies to improve education for all.  That’s what proponents told everyone.  I suspect that is one of the reasons the charter school movement had such momentum.

The reality is that charters, for-profit or otherwise,  are generally opened in poor communities who have already gotten the word that nothing they have to say about education or anything else matters.  Parents think they are going to get something better for their children, but that is not what happens most of the time.  Since nothing related to the basic poverty and lack of opportunity in the community changes, parents, their children, and taxpayers in general are just being taken for another ride to nowhere, and paying for the trip.

Ruth

TAXES (scared yet?)

by muon

Republicans love the word "TAXES."  They can scare people with it.

The other day, President Obama gave a speech putting forth his proposal for budget cuts.  He broke down the current government spending this way:

66.6% -- spent on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, national security.
20% -- unemployment insurance, student loans, veterans’ benefits, tax credits for working families
12% -- education, clean energy, medical research, transportation, food safety, keeping our air and water clean.
rest -- interest on the debt

The Republican plan for budget cuts includes a 70% cut to clean energy, a 25% cut in education, a 30% cut in transportation, and cuts in college Pell Grants.  These cuts sound big, but as you can see from above, they'll effect less than 12% of the entire budget.

The Republican plan would also do away with Medicare and Medicaid as we know them, so that only the rich would be able to afford to grow old or become disabled.  I took care of elderly parents.  Without Medicare, they would have lost their house and most, if not all, of their savings.  In trying to punish the very people responsible for America surviving every crisis from WWII on, the GOP comes across as bullies picking on the old and infirm.  I'm guessing their own parents and grandparents might like to disown them about now.

The Obama plan calls for cuts in redundant and bloated defense spending.  The Republicans say defense can't be cut.  They puff their chests out and claim they'll protect America with a strong national security.  Yet on April 3rd, the New York Times reported that an audit of Pentagon spending found $70 billion in waste.   The Chiefs of Staff themselves are saying Pentagon spending cuts are necessary.  If President Eisenhower (a Republican) were alive today, he'd be the first to point out that putting money into transportation is more important to the country's security than all the wasteful defense spending in Washington.  National security is the reason we have interstate highways.

However, the biggest Republicans objection to Obama's plan was, as they put it, raising taxes on the American people.  They called this a "non-starter."  What you won't hear any of them mention is what Obama actually said.  Here it is:

"...[itemized deductions in the tax code] provide millionaires an average tax break of $75,000 while doing nothing for the typical middle-class family that doesn’t itemize.  My budget calls for limiting itemized deductions for the wealthiest 2% of Americans – a reform that would reduce the deficit by $320 billion over ten years.  But to reduce the deficit, I believe we should go further.  That’s why I’m calling on Congress to reform our individual tax code so that it is fair and simple – so that the amount of taxes you pay isn’t determined by what kind of accountant you can afford."

The president's plan wouldn't effect 98% of American taxpayers, or in making the tax code simpler, would BENEFIT 98% of American taxpayers.  That's not just Democrats or just Republicans.  It's not even just poor people.  It's 30% more than the number of Americans who voted in the 2008.  98%.   That's almost everyone.

If the GOP balks at that, it can simply mean that they're representing only 2% of Americans.  Perhaps the number of seats they hold in Congress ought to reflect this.  I'm guessing that's what they're afraid of when they loudly imply that all taxes will go up under the Obama plan, and leave out the real details.

muon

Debt & Taxes

by muon
 

(video courtesy of coffeepartyusa.com)

This week we were treated to drama and angst from  Washington.  Congress is, after decades of driving the country into debt, all of a sudden worried about it.  At least, they want to LOOK like they're worried about it.

In any household, the residents can usually break down their sources of income:  wages, bank interest, loans, garage sales, jury duty, etc.

The income of the Federal Government can be broken down this way:

33.7% comes from taxes paid by you and me.
7.2% comes from corporate taxes.
53.2% comes from borrowing.
The remaining 5.9% comes from excise, estate and gift taxes, custom duties and fees and miscellaneous income.

Right away we can see that borrowing more than half of our income each year is going to get us into trouble. Isn't all that borrowing bad?  Well, if you look at the historical data on the Treasury Department's website, you'll see that the United States has been in debt since the Constitution was ratified in 1791.  U.S. debt that year was $75,463,476.52 -- comparable to 2 billion in today's money.  A lot of moolah in 1791.  Except for a brief respite in 1834, when the country came close to paying all its bills, the national debt has been climbing, sometimes slowly, sometimes (especially in war years) very quickly.  As of 4/7/2011, our total outstanding debt was $14,264,245,526,311.58.  I can't even wrap my brain around one percent of that amount.

But U.S. citizens like us are doing our part.  Our income, excise, estate and gift taxes provide over one third of the nation's income.  I'm content to pay my fair share, but I don't think we need to pay more.

Let's look at corporations.  Last November, the New York Times reported that "American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter" and that this was "the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago."

Yet, corporate taxes only make up 7.2% of U.S. total income.  In fact, since about 1940 (when corporations last contributed more to the nation's income than individuals), corporate taxes have been going way down while individual taxes were going up (see graph below).

So instead of cutting the programs that ordinary citizens need--and for that matter, are chipping in one third the cost of--let's bring corporate taxes back into line with individual taxes.  Not only that, but let's get rid of the perks corporations get that they're not paying for.  Things like subsidies, write-offs, deregulation, big government contracts and further tax cuts.  And let's get rid of politicians who take corporate money for their campaigns, then give big business sweetheart deals, driving up our taxes and the national debt.

Congress caused the debt to get out of control.  Now they're punishing us for it.  Time we start complaining.

muon