The Republican “Tax Reform” Boondoggle

Eric Cantor is the Majority Leader of the House of Represenatives from the 7th District of Virginia.  His elitist left wing horn rimmed glasses belie his aggressive attitude on Tax Reform and anti-Obama perspective.  The story is always the same:  “We need a simpler, more equitable tax system in this country!”  “The 44,000 pages of sweetheart tax write-offs for special interests are patently unfair!”  “We can’t continue to  stiffle innovation with excessive regulation with a high or higher Corporate Tax structure!”

His appearance on C-Span today was right out of the “stuck in the 60’s” Republican playbook!  They haven’t changed their act in all these years.  The sad part is  they actually had an opportunity to change things back in the Reagan and Bush the Younger years.  Instead in 2012,  a spirit of bi-partisan rape exists, as citizens again we  find ourselves on the brink.  Remember 1986?  That was the year that Tip O’Neil told Reagan that he had to screw the middle class or the country would go bankrupt.  Reagan fought and fought and held off for only half of what O’Neil wanted.  The black economy, waiters and waitresses, single moms and small business got the royal weenie.  Then came the Bush the Elder pledge:  “No New Taxes!” in 1988, and sure enough in 1990, the big lie came to pass and everyone that Reagan had not screwed in 1986, got screwed big time in 1990.  Then came Clinton!  The fix was in from the beginning and in 1994 was one of the biggest tax hikes in American history.  The middle class was really put against it.  Clinton, wanted to make sure he did it good and in 1998….this was the final, final answer when the Glas-Steagal was thrown out and futher tax hikes occurred to our last remnants of the middle class.  Clinton, dared not touch the upper 1%….he knew better.  They could put up with Lewinsky and even his lost Nuclear Football codes…but never raising the tax on the upper crust.

Then in 2000, came George and Laura and all the above was suddenly swept away for everyone.  Hey, the 1% were assured and the 99% were given the eight year ride to lower small business taxes, tax credits and the like.  Thank you George and Laura….you did good.  You made our lives worth living and our feet were not buried in the hot coals of Federal and State taxes.  Things seemed to be going great.  Real Estate values were ramping up faster than a speeding bullet, State and Federal borrowing were totally unfettered, 3% at 50 became a regular practice for all public employees, retirement benefits, medical insurance, bonuses ….what could go wrong?  So, we had a couple of major wars to contend with?  So, we spending like drunken sailors (with all due respect for drunken sailors) with an open credit card that was making those Masters of War, billions and billions and billions of Carl Sagen bucks!

“Something happened on the way to the Forum” was about Rome.  Well, something happened along the way, in the name of a Global Debt Crisis and Real Estate Bubble from hell.  All those phony instruments that someone was trying to lip sync to, either broke, fell apart or never worked in the first place.  The giant collapse ushered in the end of “the Bush dynasty” and brought in “the Obama by day and night” constituency.  When Bush left office our staggering $6 trillion dollar debt, plus the $3 trillion bailout funds provided to banks, companies and foreign banks brought the total to just about $9 trillion.   It was much akin to trying to hold back the tide and Obama and his team of proven “Banking Team Players” had to bail out Fanny, Freddie and of course General Motors.  Today that debt number has reached closer to $16 trillion, just to keep the doors open.  The rumor mill has it that the real number for next year will raise the debt ceiling to $23 trillion dollars.

Enough of this nonsense regarding debt.  We have an election this year.  Either Romney or Obama is going to win.  But, as people might say:  “How is that going to effect me!”  Well folks it goes like this:  All the Bush Tax Cuts expire this year.  All those reductions in payroll holding tax are also going to expire.  That means that unless some is done – an average family of four making $50K a year,  is going lose $5,000 to $6,000 dollars in income for 2013.  Eric Cantor, remember him?  He wants the taxes to go up for EVERYONE…not just the upper one percent that make over a million dollars a year, as the Obama Administration wants.  Rand Paul also wants those taxes to go up for everyone.  What other Republican Majority Members want taxes to go up for EVERYONE.  Almost EVERYONE of them.  What are these Republican great minds thinking?

The accumulated World Debt clock is quickly heading for $150 trillion dollars.  When might that happen?  Well, there are only three reasonable and realistic solutions to debt.  One:  You can grow your way out of it, by creating new markets, new products and providing zero unemployment.  (2)  You can borrow your way out of it which immediately creates more printed currency and reduces the value of the accumulated currency in the system – resulting in inflation of a size dependent upon the amount of injected cash into the system.  The good news is that Inflation takes about six months to two years to fully kick in.  However, when it does – it is a mean demanding master that either allows a total crash or provides for serious shortages of products and services.  (3) You can also utilize the final frontier:  Default on all debt!  Nationalize all fundamental industries and commodity businesses.  Regulate folks you don’t like out of existence.  So which solution will the country use?  That all depends on which candidate gets elected in 2012!

Right now, the Republicans are playing the Tip O’Neil, Loyal Opposition…..which are “just doing these things for the good of the country”.  The reality however is nothing of the case, just as it was in 1986.  O’Neil supported Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Agriculture, Big Chemical, Big Banking and Big Military.  Sound familiar?  The players have changed, but the reasons that we have a deminishing middle class have not.  The wonder of the Clinton years and the ramp up of NAFTA made sure that manufacturing and middle class well paid jobs would flee this country in  a heartbeat.  Ross “the Boss” Perot said it best:  “That giant sucking sound…is what you will hear loud and clear when NAFTA passes!”  True Ross – and we are still hearing it.  The only way new manufacturing jobs will come back to the United States is by serious tax breaks for emerging businesses that are truly based here.  Big companies cannot simply put up a Post Office Box address and claim that they are an American based company.  They cannot send their cash to off-shore banks that is untraceable.  They cannot hire Congress folks and Government Bureaucrats to make sure they are protected from their egregious unethical and in some cases criminal activities!

Romney is obviously going support big business, that is who he is!  Obama, is going to do whatever he has to do to maintain power and be re-elected.  It is our hope that our next President protect the small middle class that remains in this country.  It is our hope that the next President does not allow the rich to get richer on the backs of the few working folks left.  It is our hope that the future of the United States will not be determined by sell out politicians from both sides of the aisle.  It is our hope that “the people” will finally understand the duplicity and stupidity that prevails in government and gets the idea, that whatever is being said – by whoever…..needs to be checked and re-checked.

Finally, we need to save the middle class tax cuts.  We don’t need an overhaul of the current tax code – what can go wrong – will go wrong if you mess with it!  We don’t need a Flat Tax that can be jacked up, year after year after year.  We don’t need a VAT that can be jacked up, year after year after year!   We do need a 20% across the board cutback structure for Local, State and Federal Government employees.  We do need to utilize technology to accomplish these goals.  We do not need people just to fill an empty chair without doing anything.  We do need to keep innovation and efficiency for all things related healthcare.  We also need affordable and comprehensive healthcare which encourages providers to keep people alive!  We need affordable pharmaceuticals for those that need them!

The Republican Tax Reform Boondoggle is just that – a boondoggle of astronomical proportions!  Reducing the debt?  Door number 1, 2 or 3?  Before we do that however….we do need to stabilize the Global Real Estate Market.  Until values fall to the appropriate 1995 or 1989 levels……not much good can happen, trying to use any of the proscribed methods available as solutions for the situation.

 

 

 


About Ron & Anna Winship

Independent News Producers/Writers and Directors for Parker-Longbow Productions. Independent Programming which includes a broad variety of Political, Entertainment and Professional Personalities. Cutting Edge - a talk show...is the flagship of over 30 URL websites developed or under development. The Winships have been blogging for the Orange Juice since back when nickels had buffalos on them, and men wore onions attached to their belts, because it was the fashion back then.