The measly amount of money in the "payroll tax" debate is just Good Cop/Bad Cop again

[Bonobo]

Last edited Sun Mar 17, 2013, 01:51 AM - Edit history (1)

START RANT:

Yeah, I know. $1,000/ year is a lot of money for a lot of people.

But don't let that distract you. Don't let that tired old good cop/bad cop routine deceive you.

If the money that was being spent to subsidize the war industry, the prison industry and the militarization of domestic law enforcement were spend on the citizens of the US, you would see how paltry and unsubstantial that number is.

Frankly, it is an insult. If you want to save the average guy, stop kicking people out of their homes and at the same time save home values from dropping to historic levels. It could be done. Easily. Fuck trickle down. Trickle the fucker UP by hiring people to do infrastructure work or give them money to earmark for mortgage payments or home improvements that will keep them in their times, improve the value of their homes AND save the banks from the consequences of bad loans. But it wasn't really about the bad loans themselves, was it? It was really about the bets, the speculation, the commodity trading of the little slices of mortgages that were sold off and then insured for by the fucking fat cat bastards like Goldman Sachs. Still the US public got stuck with the bill and this $1,000 is nothing but a cheap giveaway to distract. It is peanuts compared to the TRILLIONS given to the banks and financial institutions.

Remember, just one family in the US, just 6 members of the Walton family, is wealthier than 30% of the bottom US incomes COMBINED.

So you are not only fighting for crumbs, you are praising the fat cats that are tossing them down to you.

Good Cop - Bad Cop. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Nothing up my sleeve.

It is not that there is no difference between Dems and Repubs. It is that the difference is so slight as to be barely worth mentioning from the big perspective. And with the shit state the US and the World is in, the big perspective is the only one worth looking at. Unless you're just in this to put a meaningless "W" in your column that is, ho ho.

Republicans pretend to be reluctant to give it. Democrats pretend to fight hard to get it and no one notices that it is chicken feed. The smallest possible scraps to keep you alive while they empty out the refrigerator. Once the refrigerator is empty, you will notice that the furniture has already been sold and the nails and screws holding the house together have been melted down for scrap.
remdi95

But you will keep finding hotspots in the world to direct US military power -the only thing the US can really compete with China against anymore. The people that run the US have given up on its long term prospects quite some time ago. They have divested and globalized and they are gone. What is happening now is the beginnings of the riots in the middle of an empty, abandoned, post-apocolyptic supermarket. Even the owners have left. And you are fighting over the last few packages of hamburger helper.

END RANT

[hfojvt]

1. Chicken feed?

For one thing, why are you talking about $1,000?

Because you have bought the lie - the Bush tax cut lie.

Here's what CTJ said about the 2% payroll tax cut

For the bottom 20%, their average payroll tax cut was $145
for the next 20%, their average payroll tax cut was $320
for the middle 20%, their average tax cut was $579

http://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxcompromise2010.pdf (see the table on page 3)

so convert that to 3.1%, multiply those amounts by 1.55

the poorest 20% of Americans do not pass go, do not collect $1,000. On average, they get $225. If you thought $1,000 was chicken feed, well $225 is less than 1/4 of that.

The next poorest 20% of Americans also do not pass go, nor collect $1,000. On average, they get $496. Well, TANJ, that's still less than half of $1,000.

The middle class, the middle 20%, also do not collect $1,000. They only get an average of $879. So there's 60% of America getting well less than $1,000. Where then does that $1,000 average come from. Just like with George W. Bush, it comes from all of the rich people who are included in the average.

Take the top 1% (please). With the 2% payroll tax cut, their average tax cut was $2,328. Multiply that by 1.55 and Obama is out there fighting to give the top 1% an average tax cut of $3,608. Cha-ching!! That really makes the $225 that the poorest 20% gets look small.

But let's not forget top 4% either. Their average income is $256,500 and Obama is fighting to give them an average tax cut of $3,312.

There's no good cop here. There's a horrible cop and am even worse cop. $1,000 my Aunt Petunia.

[scarletwoman]

2. Thank you for stating "the big perspective" so well.

Wonderful rant.

sw

[RobertBlue]

3. +1 n/t

[EFerrari]

4. "They have divested and globalized and they are gone."

Yes, and the rest is our denial that they would leave us after everything we "shared". It's the break up from hell.

[Fumesucker]

5. K&R