You Bet It's Class Warfare

[kpete]

You Bet It's Class Warfare

Ostroy Report

Its called the "Millionaire's Tax", and its pure genius. Finally, President Obama and Democrats have caught on to the power and importance of branding. My God, it's almost Rovian in its sheer simplicity and potential impact.



Is it class warfare? You bet. But not in the way Sen. Graham and the GOP leadership would like you to believe. The truth is, the rich have been waging war on the poor and middle class for decades now, and it's time the tide turns. Income inequality in the United States has never been more glaring. According to the Wall Street Journal, "the average tax rate for the top 400 earners in the U.S. fell to as low as 16.62% in 2007 from a recent peak of 29.9% in 1995. It ticked up again in 2008 to 18.11%, according to the latest annual Internal Revenue Service analysis of returns. Capital gains represented a very high proportion of the top earners' incomes—about 56.7% on average." And those dividends and capital gains are taxed at a favorably low 15%. The problem is, the poor and middle class are not flush with either, so this is a very generous tax loophole enjoyed primarily by the nation's wealthier earners.

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What's more, according to 2010 Census data, the top-earning 20% of Americans--those making more than $100,000 each year--received 49.4% of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4% earned by those below the poverty line. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968. To be sure, the rich have never been richer, and the poor have never been poorer. So what are Republicans constantly complaining about?

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It's time the rich stop whining about class warfare and start paying their fair share of taxes to pay for this country's essential services and to help reduce its debt. How about we borrow from Sen. John McCain and piggyback the millionaire's tax with the slogan, "America First." The nation's rich needs to stop thinking about their own pocketbooks for a second and show some concern for the country in which they've amassed their colossal wealth. If the Obama administration is smart, it will hammer home this millionaire's tax rhetoric until it becomes the sort of highly effective propaganda Republicans have been successfully regurgitating for years.

MORE:
http://www.ostroyreport.com/2011/09/you-bet-its-class-warfare.html

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Map: U.S. Ranks Near Bottom on Income Inequality

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/09/map-us-ranks-near-bottom-on-income-inequality/245315/

[FarLeftFist]

1. Shame on South Africa.

Canada, right there, just loving life.

[BloomTownie]

2. Needs to be bolder!

I'm tired of cutting around the edges! Get rid of the millionaires and billionaires completely. No one should have that much money. We could get a lot closer to India or Mongolia on the equity scale if it weren't for all the damn wealth!

[Systematic Chaos]

4. Isn't that cute?

:eyes:

[MrSlayer]

6. That is a very extreme position.

The point isn't to eliminate rich people. Rich people are fine, they just need to pay a little more than they do now. No one wants to do what you suggest.

[white_wolf]

7. I think he's being sarcastic.

[BloomTownie]

9. These are extreme times!

these are 'let them eat cake' times my friend - time to put down the bong and man the barricades!

[MrSlayer]

14. This is no time to be putting down the bong.

That's the only thing keeping many of us sane.

[Fool Count]

15. You bet your ass, I want to do what he suggests.

Rich people are not fine. Most of super-rich are just useless blood-sucking parasites
of zero redeeming value or use to the society. They suck up a lot of productive resources
so desperately needed to save and improve real human lives all over the globe. One Wall Street
stock broker, for instance, consumes enough resources annually to feed, cloth, house, provide
health care to and educate three hundred little kids in Africa. What's his value to humankind?
Most likely negative, even leaving aside his exorbitant compensation. Ridding the society of
those assholes? Should be a no-brainer.

[BloomTownie]

16. Every time that stock broker makes a trade commission...

... baby in Africa is crying because of hunger!

[marmar]

18. self-delete

[alfredo]

3. Income inequity will destabilize a society. Look at what

happened to Czarist Russia, Batista in Cuba, and let's not forget the French Revolution.

It best they give a little or risk having it all taken away.

[white_wolf]

8. Yes it will. To quote Steinbeck:

And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression.

[alfredo]

13. So true.

[bakpakr]

5. Dern Tootin It's Class Warfare.

As soon as you mention raising the taxes on the rich you hear well what about the 46% who pay nothing. That 46% they are talking about are lower income people (the poor). I just wish someone, anyone would point out in a big bold statement or letters, "Did you ever stop to think that the reason they do not pay anything is because the rich folk (job creators) are so caught up in feeding their greed that they refuse shake loose any money from their grubby hands to pay them a wage that would allow them to earn enough to pay taxes."

[BloomTownie]

10. Rich Folks ?

Rich folks are job creators? where the heck is that coming from ? The president's bill has the key for job creation - congress just needs to pass it and we will all find out.

[7wo7rees]

11. Yeah, it's warfare between our class and you 1%ers. Scared? n/t

[sfpcjock]

12. Very smart. I was going to call it "class-less warfare" from them, lol.

[kentuck]

17. The rat race is over..?

The rats won?

[Bake]

19. Damn right it is. And it's high time we started FIGHTING like it.

Instead of rolling over and hoping some of it trickles down to us--more like it trickles down our leg.

Bake