· "First they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then they fight with you, then you win."
Mahatma Gandhi
Pictures from Occupy Wall Street Protests Across The Country
New York City Times Square
Oakland, California
Note the difference in the Police Response to UNARMED Occupy Wall Street Protestors versus what happened to ARMED Tea Party Rallys!
The crowds scattered as police fired tear gas on the protestors. Several brave citizens ran to help an elderly woman stranded in her wheelchair, stuck in the tear gas clouds.
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A single unarmed U.S. Sailor stands with a Veterans Flag against barracaded police in full riot gear.
USMC Sergeant Scott Olsen, originally from Wisconsin, survived two tours of duty in Iraq, only to be SHOT IN THE HEAD, with a rubber bullet from the Oakland Police. He is in CRITICAL CONDITION, and may become the first fatality of the protests.
Members of the Marines and Navy, are so incensed by this senseless act of violence by the Oakland Police that they have been volunteering to PROTECT THE PROTESTORS AGAINST THE OAKLAND POLICE.
Oakland Police violence against UNARMED PEACEFUL PROTESTORS ISN'T ANYTHING NEW. Look at this picture of an unarmed 14 year old girl who was beaten up by police back on 2003.
You may want to remember that it was Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, who were in the White House from 1980 to 1992, when these massive shifts went into high gear.
"Guy Fawkes" from "V" for Vendetta. It's not just for Halloween anymore.
What's this guy smiling for? He's about to be recalled, but he and his administration are EXEMPT from his own policy of PAY FREEZES for public employees. THEY are getting RAISES!!!!!
How do Republicans "justify" cutting the wages of teachers, who are responsible for giving YOUR CHILDREN the skills they will need to earn a living and have a future, by 20% from a $50,000 annual income, but refuse to allow a 3% increase in taxes on the super rich? How do they slash billions from Medicare and Social Security benefits, while giving MORE than those cuts in TAX BENEFITS to Corporations and the super rich? They haven't reduced the COST of operating government. They only slash the FUNDING OF Government, so that the Rich and Corporations pay little to nothing, while YOU get LESS and PAY MORE FOR LESS, and the Rich and Corporations reap all the benefits!
Think any of that is "over the top"? Remember when REPUBLICANS CHEERED during the Republican Presidential Primary Debates, when Ron Paul was asked if he was okay with letting people DIE if they didn't have healthcare insurance, or the money to pay for treatment, and he said YES?!
These are all DEMOCRATIC policies. Republicans have historically been AGAINST all of them, (except when they claim to be for them, to get you to vote for them, and then GUT these programs).
Republicans have been telling the biggest LIES about how cutting taxes for the wealthy would create jobs. They've benefitted from over $2 TRILLION in tax cuts from the first 6-7 years they were in effect, IN ADDITION to the over $2 Trillion it cost taxpayers because it added to the DEFICIT. The extension of the tax cuts for the wealthy added more than $1 Trillion MORE to the deficit. But where are the JOBS which were promised these tax cuts would create? THEY NEVER APPEARED. It has been TEN YEARS since the first Trillion dollar tax cut under Bush and Republicans in Congress.
Here's WHY THEY NEVER WILL. When the RICH are given TRILLIONS in tax cuts for DOING NOTHING - THAT is exactly what they do - NOTHING! That is why they don't create more jobs! And because there are FEWER jobs, there are FEWER taxpayers remaining to pay for needed infrastructure expenses which are necessary to keep this country running, and the BURDEN on the MIDDLE CLASS gets even BIGGER.
On the other hand, RAISING TAXES ON THE RICH, like CLINTON DID, CREATED 23 MILLION JOBS in eight years, in comparison to George W. Bush's paltry 3 million jobs (the worst job creation record of any President since WWII). WHY? Because, when you raise taxes on the Rich, THEY HAVE TO SPEND MONEY TO CREATE JOBS, AND EMPLOY MORE PEOPLE, IN ORDER TO KEEP THEIR INCOME HIGH. While the costs to them are MINISCULE in comparision to the rates ACTUALLY PAID by the poor and middle class (because the tax code has so many loopholes to allow the super rich and corporations to pay little to NOTHING, even though their published RATES are shown to be higher). And because more people are EMPLOYED, MORE goods and services are purchased, and a higher standard of living is had by all. Even the Richest got RICHER under these circumstances, because they had more people MAKING MORE MONEY FOR THEM. But, that would mean that they would actually have to WORK, and INVEST their money, and even take RISKS. And THAT is what the rich REFUSE TO DO.
Republicans attacked Governor Doyle and Democrats in the State Legislature for "raising taxes" (but they never said upon whom or how much was involved). Democrats raised taxes on corporations from 5% of the total state revenues to 7% (Republicans had previously cut them from almost 12% to 5% under Tommy Thompson and Scott McCallum and a Republican Legislature. That created an OVER $3.5 Billion Wisconsin State Deficit, which Governor Doyle and Democrats INHERITED from Republicans. That's also why YOUR PROPERTY TAXES are so high. YOU PAID for the taxes that THEY DIDN'T PAY.) And, Republicans attacked Democrats for "raising state income taxes" ON THE RICH. Democrats only raised them by 1% for people earning MORE THAN $300,000 or more annually! That only amounts to $3,000 per year.
In comparison, Republicans promoting flat tax ideas, like Herman Cain's (who only last year stated that those same ideas were GIMMICKS and wouldn't work), would DOUBLE sales taxes which would hurt the lowest income wage earners the most, forcing them to pay a HIGHER percentage of their income in taxes. The average middle income family would end up paying an estimated $5,500 MORE in taxes on FAR LESS income. At the same time, they want to drop the top tax rate from 35% to 9%. By the time they got through manipulating the tax loopholes, the Rich would end up paying NOTHING. The more that happens, the more average wage earners end up having to pay for what the RICH AREN'T PAYING!
Ever wonder why Republicans are always talking about "making sure that government doesn't limit YOUR ability to earn money" so THEY can "earn" whatever they want, but they always end up putting limits on how much YOU CAN EARN? It's simple. The less YOU get to take home, the MORE THEY get to take home, at least short term. Eventually, their business crashes and burns, because there isn't anyone left to run the business, or who cares enough to give the customer the best service possible, because the employees are only concerned about getting out of the job they hate, as fast as possible.
An acquaintance of mine told me about how he took over his family's business which was failing because of expenses which he couldn't continue. He said that he had a talk with his employees and explained to them that his business was in jeopardy of closing if he couldn't keep costs down. Now if he would have stopped there, it probably wouldn't have made any difference to his workers. At that time, they could have easily just gone out to get another job (at least back then they were available). But then he took it a step further and offered them all of them an ownership stake in the business based on how long they had been their and on merit. If his business was able to cut costs and increase profits, his employees would all share in it. If his company failed, then everyone would lose their ownership stake in the business.
He was surprised with how quickly the business turned around.
Everyone pitched in. The morale got better almost immediately. And expenses dropped quickly. Things that the employees didn't care about before, like turning out the lights, or making sure that they didn't leave expensive tools behind on the job site stopped, because the workers realized that any of those expenses would affect THEM, rather than just their employer. Their pay, after all, had been FIXED before. Nothing they did, would have affected how much they earned per hour before. Now, it made the difference between getting a profit based bonus at the end of the year, or getting nothing. Now it mattered. And, not only did individual employees change their own behaviour to cut down the expenses they were each responsible for, but they became much more responsible in making sure that younger or newer employees became quickly trained in everything they needed to know to cut any expenses anywhere they could.
At the end of the year, not only had the company reduced their expenses drastically below what they would have normally seen, but the business became very profitable and remained so for years after.
It wasn't just the family that started the company that benefitted, but everyone in the company. Compare that to the Republican Party and corporate executives approach of slash and burn, gutting entire companies and eliminating thousands of jobs to make a quick buck, with no consideration to the long term consequences.
It reminds me of a story that Lee Iacoca told about his experience working as a top executive for Ford Motor Company, when the accountants (he referred to them as the "bean counters"), came into high level meetings with top executives recommending that several manufacturing plants be shut down across the country, because they weren't at 50% profitability. There were too many expenses, they argued, to keep the business profitable. "Why don't we just shut down the entire company? Then we won't have any expenses."
Of course, he was being flippant. But he got the point across to the rest of the management, that you don't just close up shop, just because parts of the business aren't operating at the top profitability rates all the time. You do what you can to make improvements in efficiencies, to get rid of the clutter and the waste FIRST.
We're in the EXACT SAME POSITION with our GOVERNMENT as Ford Motor Company was in THEN. You don't just shut everything down immediately, like Republicans have been doing. That is the WORST thing you could do. You FIRST improve efficiencies and eliminate WASTE. You keep everyone working as much as possible, or you will end up gutting the country. But Republicans don't care about that, because THEY were the ones who were busy spending the country's wealth, shoveling it as fast as they could to give Billions to corporations who were generous donors to the Republican Party, without providing ANY accounting for where the MONEY WENT, didn't care about the fact that they put us over $11 TRILLION in the HOLE during the Bush Administration, and causing another $18 Trillion worth of losses when the Stock Market crashed at the end of 2008.
But they don't want you to remember THAT, now do they?
"All that harms labor is treason to America. One line can be drawn between these two. If any man tells you he loves America, yet he hates labor he is a liar. If any man tells you He trusts America yet hates labor he is a fool".
...Abraham Lincoln
My, how far the Republican Party has strayed from its roots. It is nothing but an empty shell of what it used to represent.
This is a poll started by Republicans and businessmen, sent only to other Republicans and cronies to "show" that most people in Wisconsin support Walker. It'll be released to the public in a few days. Your vote matters!!! Make sure that they don't get a skewed, fraudulent, pro-Walker result.
Html : POLL: Do you approve of the job Gov. Walker is doing?
People have asked for information on where to find buttons, bumper stickers and signs etc... calling for Gv. Walker's recall. Here are a few sites where these articles are available:
http://www.cafepress.com/LeftTease/7748384 http://www.zazzle.com/recall_walker_bumper_sticker-128151305443287198
There are also some "Recall Walker" bumper stickers with the "Sign Display Local 820" logo on them, but I don't have the contact information for them.
David Prosser: The Partisans' Partisan in Six Acts
http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/blog/2011/03/david-prosser-the-partisans-partisan-in-six-acts.html
Consider these six items:
David Prosser was a Republican Assembly representative for 18 years, including serving as the Republican leader and speaker. As the Greater Wisconsin Committee showed at www.ProsserEqualsWalker.com, "As a legislator, Prosser voted to restrict the collective bargaining rights of teachers. As a judge, Prosser sided against collective bargaining rights and against workers who were being deprived of their retirement benefits. Recently, Prosser told a Republican group that there was a "100 percent" chance that Walker's collective bargaining legislation would come before the court. Prosser said to the Republicans that he could not signal his likely position, but criticized his opponent for being supported by unions."
David Prosser served as a mentor for young Republican Representative Scott Walker and shepherded Walker into an unbending Republican partisan - and Walker and Prosser voted together 95 percent of the time when Walker served under Prosser's leadership in the disastrous 1995-96 legislative session. Prosser's campaign manager infamously also said he Prosser would serve as a "complement" to the Walker administration and its unprecedented attacks on workers' rights, education, health care, seniors' access to prescription drugs, recycling and support for local communities.
David Prosser has served the agenda of the Republican money machine at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce including adopting their rule to allow justices to rule on cases in which they've spent money - such as the $5 million they spent to help Annette Ziegler and Mike Gableman get elected - and now WMC has put up ads to support Prosser in his current race.
David Prosser was a failed Republican candidate for U.S. Congress running in 1996 for the seat vacated by retiring fellow Republican Toby Roth. Prosser was a loyal Republican soldier ready to serve the agenda of Newt Gingrich and the attacks on the middle class.
David Prosser has been a featured guest of the Tea Party and his much-publicized appearance at the Koch brothers-financed Americans for Prosperity "Defending the Dream" summit in 2010 in which Republicans assembled to attack in public investment, access to affordable health care and strategize in advance of the 2010 Republican take-over of the Wisconsin state legislature and the election of Walker as governor.
David Prosser touts the endorsements of 69 Republican legislators who voted for the Republican assault on working families and who will help Walker pass his budget which includes the largest cuts to public education in Wisconsin's history -- $834 million in cuts to K-12 education alone; decimates technical colleges, privatizes the UW; includes $84 million in tax giveaways for big business and the wealthy, while at the same time raising taxes by $51 million on the poorest Wisconsinites. Walker's budget will raise SeniorCare prescription drug costs to pay off $1.3 million in donations to Walker and the Republican Governors Association; and even allow health care plans suddenly drop their coverage for contraception.
Quite a list.
But maybe I'm just being a "total bitch" with this analysis. I can only hope Prosser doesn't try and "destroy" me, too, by pointing out the obvious - he is the most unrelenting partisan who has ever been on Wisconsin's Supreme Court.
One Wisconsin Now has a long record of analysis and research on judicial ethics and integrity, including exposing Mike Gableman's pay-to-play contributions which helped get him his judicial appointment and Annette Ziegler's unprecedented scandal and conflicts of interest.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/24/959689/-UPDATE-LAM-RESIGNS-IN-Dep-Prosecutor-Suggested-Gov-Walker-fake-an-attack-on-himself
Thu Mar 24, 2011 at 02:12 PM EDT
by Rock Strongo
Share373 59
I have to put the question mark in the title because the deputy prosecutor suggested that his email account was hacked. But all the indications are that a deputy prosecutor in Indiana allegedly sent an email to Wisconsin governor Scott Walker suggesting that Walker fake a physical attack on himself and possibly use a firearm.
The back story of this is that recently through a freedom of information act request, thousand of emails to the WI governor were released. Now news organizations are beginning to go through them.
WisconsinWatch.org picks up the story from there:
Indiana prosecutor denies encouraging Wisconsin violence
By Kate Golden
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
The email came to Gov. Scott Walker from the personal account of a deputy prosecutor and Republican activist in Indiana.
After praise for Walker, the email — sent Feb. 19, during union demonstrations against Walker’s budget repair bill — then took a darker turn. It suggested that the situation in Wisconsin presented “a good opportunity for what’s called a ‘false flag’ operation.”
“If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions’ cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the unions,” the email said.
“Currently, the media is painting the union protest as a democratic uprising and failing to mention the role of the DNC and umbrella union organizations in the protest. Employing a false flag operation would assist in undercutting any support that the media may be creating in favor of the unions. God bless, Carlos F. Lam.”
http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/...
Lam denies that he wrote the email and claims that his account was hacked. Though as the story points out the IP address was from Indianapolis, where Lam lives, and the writing matches that that Lam has left on message boards.
Will anything come of a state prosecutor (allegedly) suggesting a governor fake violence to discredit opponents? Apparently not. Lam's republican boss says in the article that he has no plans to investigate.
UPDATE-WisconsinWatch.org has updated their story saying that Lam has admitted writing the email and has now resigned. Here is a statement from the Johnson County Prosecutor, who as I noted in the original story, said he would not investigate the claim. http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/...
http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Message-From-The-Prosecutor.pdf
Originally posted to Rock Strongo on Thu Mar 24, 2011 at 02:12 PM EDT.
State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, is the Conservative Justice, along with Ziegler and Gableman, all supported by WMC, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, and FUNDED by the Koch Brothers, giving Governor Scott Walker, the majority on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court.
Is this really the kind of behavior we expect of a Supreme Court Justice? Isn't he just showing that he is a shill for the Koch Brothers and their extremist agenda?
I saw the shocking newspaper story this morning and I’m sending this ASAP because I know you’d want to know.
Read about the stunning incident in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Justice David Prosser exploded at Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson behind closed doors, calling her a ‘bitch’ and threatening to ‘destroy’ her.”
Are you outraged? I am. But at One Wisconsin Now we’ve researched his record thoroughly and we’ve seen this total lack of respect for people before. Over and over, Prosser’s put his own narrow interests and support for big business ahead of the needs of Wisconsinites. Sounds like the same complaints we all have about Gov. Scott Walker.
We need to get the word out. Can you help us by making a one-time contribution to our Judicial Ethics and Integrity effort to ensure people know the facts?
http://onewisconsinnow.pnstate.org/site/Donation2?df_id=1464&1464.donation=form1
Here’s just a couple things we’ve seen:
Prosser actually accused rape victims of lying to more easily access abortion services. He said, “People lie and lie ... We can't allow someone who writes a few words on a piece of paper to skirt the law.” (UPI, 1/30/90)
He helped fellow right-wing Justice Mike Gableman avoid responsibility for running a false and racist ad against Louis Butler. (MJS, 7/1/10)
Prosser let Gov. Scott Walker’s bosses at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce rewrite the rules so no matter how much big business spends to elect them, justices don’t have to recuse themselves from cases involving big business. (State Bar, 1/22/10)
It’s chilling conduct. Chilling.
Can you help us by making a one-time contribution to our Judicial Ethics and Integrity issues effort to ensure people know the facts? A contribution today will make all the difference.
http://onewisconsinnow.pnstate.org/site/Donation2?df_id=1464&1464.donation=form1
Thanks for all you do
scot
One Wisconsin Now
PS: The issues of judicial integrity and ethics are vital. When David Prosser said he wants to be a “complement” to Gov. Walker, what did he mean by that? Please support our efforts and we’ll fight to get an answer to that question.
TAKE AWAY WALKER'S RUBBER STAMP ON THE STATE SUPREME COURT on APRIL 5, 2011.
VOTE for JoAnne Kloppenburg for State Supreme Court Justice!
Then sign the petition to demand Justice Prosser recuse himself from cases involving Governor Scott Walker. http://www.prosserequalswalker.com/petition.htm
And VOTE on April 5th 2011, for JoAnne Kloppenburg for State Supreme Court Justice!
VOLUNTEER: Help recall Wisconsin Republicans
Join the recall efforts in three ways!
1. Join a canvass event near you
2. Collect signatures on your own
Can't make an event? Click here to download a recall form and collect signatures on your own.
3. Donate to the recall efforts
Click here to chip in and donate to the PCCC's recall efforts.
Only Wisconsin residents represented by this Senator can sign this recall petition, but any Wisconsin eligible voter or out of state person can volunteer to collect signatures!
NOTE: Wisconsin law says elected officials must be in office a year before they are recalled. The entire state assembly, Gov. Walker, and the rest of the Republicans in the state senate not listed above were all last elected in 2010 and sworn in January, 2011, so none of them can be recalled until January 2012. (Not entirely accurate - Jim Ott out of Mequon was elected a couple of years ago - 2008, so he can be recalled NOW! And his margin of victory in 2008 was only a couple of percentage points.)
From: Tracey Sperko
Cuts to WI Veteran Programs - Some of US Will Die in the Streets Because of This
This quote is from the Capital Times and was taken from the Department of Veterans Affairs of WI from Spencer Black:
"What the budget could mean for the grandfathers, fathers, sisters and neighbors of Wisconsin taxpayers who served in the Armed Services, from what Black says, is reduced access to burial benefits, nursing homes, and assistance programs that provide job training, education, counseling and substance abuse treatment to veterans at risk of finding themselves homeless and those who already have."
I am angry over these cuts because myself (sic) and many veterans in WI worked with Governor Doyle to bring the WI veteran benefits to some of the top in the United States. Doyle had an understanding and commitment to veterans that was communicated by his actions to meet the need of our returning veterans and those that were here already. I was proud of our state and felt we were moving in the right direction to meet the needs OF OUR war veterans we have now.
Walker on the other hand, who NEVER SERVED A DAY IN HIS LIFE, walks in the Milwaukee Veterans Day parade that my Veterans for Peace Post IS DENIED FROM walking in as we are deemed too political. Walker has a Veterans Day at the Mke Public Zoo that is one of the biggest days each for the zoo and they plan for it all year, but it has always been a publicity stunt for him. Honorable veterans that I know, like a Marine and a Mke Cty Supervisor who worked with Walker was ignored time and time again. People on my FB have been asked to leave the zoo on this day. This day leaves thousands of veterans and their families feeling warm and fuzzy because Scotty cares (BS).
Well veterans of the VFW and American Legion, good job, you elected a right wing conservative nut job who just cut a great deal of the benefits to the veterans of WI. We Veterans have failed our brothers and sisters. We veterans have failed the citizens of our state by NOT upholding the Constitution of the United States.
Right this wrong and come out into the streets. Help us to RECALL the people who would do this. Some of those cuts mean some of us will die. Some of us will die in the streets. This doesn't have to be. We can change this. Rise up and fight this. Our bothers and sisters need us. WI needs us to fight. We are not REPUBLICANS and DEMOCRATS- WE ARE VETERANS!!!
Massive Earthquake and Tsunami hits Japan (8.9 on Richter Scale) Fifth largest earthquake in recorded history since 1900 hits Japan at 2:46 in the afternoon, measuring at least 8.9 on the Richter Scale lasting for about 7 minutes, with a resulting 30 ft Tsunami leveling the entire city of Sendai. More than 4 million people are without power. This earthquake is estimated to be more than 8,000 times larger than the one that hit New Zealand.
At least 100 aftershocks with a magnitude of 5.0 or greater have occurred since the main earthquake.(over300 aftershocks reported)
A huge oil refinery fire in Tokyo. At least 80 fires burning.
A Nuclear Reactor cooling system failed in Fukushima. 1000 times the normal radioactive level was measured currently, and it will get worse, because the radioactive vapors are going to be released in order to try to cool down the reactor so it doesn’t completely melt down.
3 Nuclear Reactors are in trouble.
No nuclear regulations are in place, anywhere in the world, to build the plants to the level that they can withstand an earthquake anywhere near this level of intensity.
Two different power plant locations, with 3 and 2 reactors affected, respectively are dealing with overheating issues, because of lack of power and therefore lack of circulating water for coolant of those reactors. They are now dealing with pressure twice what the reactors were designed for. Radioactive steam has had to be released into the atmosphere, and people within a 6 mile radius were told to evacuate.
Japan has the toughest earthquake and tsunami preparedness and building codes in the world. 4 million are without power. Where do you think we would be, if it hit California or the East coast of the United States? We aren't anywhere NEAR as prepared as they are.
But Republicans in Congress want to slash funding for NOAA, the U.S. National Weather Service, and build new nuclear power plants, instead of investing in SAFE, RENEWABLE energy like solar and wind turbines.
Remember how Senator John McCain told everyone that the "U.S. economy was strong" in the morning, before the stock market crashed, and he revised that to "The U.S. is in an economic crisis" in the afternoon? Remember how Bush told us for years that the U.S. economy was strong, even when they were privately "working on a financial solution to the crisis" for months BEFORE September 17, 2008?
Ya think this just might be another one of those times, when Republicans are lying to us again just to advance their political agenda?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/11/tsunami-relief-gop-budget-cuts_n_834479.html
Wendell Phillips: "The labor movement means just this: It is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth."
Dwight D. Eisenhower:
"Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice."
Does ANYONE OUT THERE ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT REPUBLICANS HAVE INTEGRITY or can be TRUSTED after the THREE ILLEGAL VOTES THEY SLAMMED THROUGH THE ASSEMBLY and STATE SENATE? By the way, the reason Republicans HAD TO PASS, these bills right AWAY, RATHER THAN SUSPENDING DEBATE AND reconvening LATER was because (in the case of the Assembly), they just HAD to get this passed before the Ronald Reagan Dinner that evening; and for the Republican State Senators, they just HAD to have a WIN in their pockets before going to Washington, D.C. for a big $1,000 a plate fundraiser. So, even if the bill is ruled to have been passed illegally, they can STILL raise buckets of money from their donors before they realize that the bill shouldn't stand.
After voting to eliminate collective bargaining and giving the Governor the right to dissolve local governments and elected officials whenever he chooses to do so, can you REALLY believe that what they are doing is reflective of a representative government?
If you've been paying attention, I'd think you would say NO to that last question. So, if you don't want Walker to have a rubber stamp to do whatever he wants, I certainly hope that you will take action and join in our efforts to recall Republican State Senators who support Walker, (and Walker as soon as his one year is up), as well as Republican Assembly Representatives who support Walker, and even those who don't support Walker, so that Democrats have the opportunity to gain enough votes to override Walker's vetoes.
You can also join in the boycotting of any and all companies that support Walker, and any other Republicans. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-Scott-Walker-Contributors/101624709918554?sk=info
And, most importantly, you need to show up to VOTE to prevent pro-billionaire rubber stamps from being elected or re-elected.
On April 5th , 2011 you will have the chance to choose between Wisconsin State Supreme Court Justice Prosser, who is supported by the same unions that supported Scott Walker in 2010, and has his TV commercials paid for by Wisconsin's Club For Growth (a front group for the Koch Brothers, who are the puppet masters behind Scott Walker), or Joanne Kloppenburg.
A vote for Kloppenburg is a vote AGAINST Walker and his rubber stamp. http://www.kloppenburgforjustice.com/index.html
You also have a choice between Chris Abele and Republican Jeff Stone, Walker Clone for Milwaukee County Exec. You should know already what a mess that Walker left behind in Milwaukee County, and what he is doing to the state of Wisconsin so this should be a no-brainer.
Chris Abele has been endorsed by City of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D). http://www.chrisabele.com/
By the way, in case anyone is truly interested, you can look at the budget numbers, from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, dated March 9, 2011, based on numbers originally reported on January 31, 2011, proving that there WAS NEVER A FISCAL CRISIS as REPUBLICONS had fraudulently claimed!!!
http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/2011-13%20Budget/2011_03_09%20Modification%20to%20SS%20SB%2011_AB%2011.pdf
And, if anyone wants to claim that there is a greater surplus after the Republican poilcies are implemented (by about $40 million), well DUUHHH!!! They are cutting $1.5 BILLION in spending to do that!
But by doing that, the result is that they lose Federal funds to help pay for many necessary programs which many citizens depend on for SURVIVAL. And most of the jobs that the programs fund, and the public employees that work for a living, pay a good chunk of that money BACK to the State and Federal Government in the form of income taxes. And the money they spend, supports hundreds of thousands of other jobs, which also pay taxes. You eliminate those jobs, and you create a domino effect, that creates an even larger revenue shortfall, and an even bigger debt which you can't pay off, because of the lack of cash flow. And that hurts companies which depend on them for their discretionary spending. Have you forgotten what we just went through with automobilew manufacturers who couldn't sell their vehicles?
Any idiot can cut spending by slashing programs, but it takes considerable thought and effort to cut costs while IMPROVING services that benefit us all, and making services more efficient and cost-effective.
The fact is that too many wealthy individuals and corporations are paying far less than their fair share of income taxes, or in many cases NONE AT ALL. Eliminating the loop holes that allow them to evade taxes would not only balance the budgets of states and the Federal Government, but it would ELIMINATE the DEBTS ENTIRELY!
But Republicans have always refused to even consider raising taxes on individuals and corporations who/which aren't currently paying their fair share, but who benefit at YOUR EXPENSE.
Haven't you had enough yet?
From: torrey@wi.rr.com
To: torrey@moderntravel.net
Subject: We need YOU to Recall Grothman and Darling
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2011 23:21:38 -0600
Hi Everyone,
As many of you have already heard, various Wisconsinites have filed papers to recall certain members of the state legislature. We have 60 days to collect enough signatures to force a special election. THIS CAN BE DONE! But, we need YOUR help and we need your help more than once in order to be successful in this recall! The recall lays entirely within how many signatures you can get in the next 58 days left.
Of interest for Washington County are the recall of State Senator Alberta Darling and State Representative Grothman. You are free to pick which of these you want to concentrate your efforts on, but my personal opinion is that we need to concentrate in West Bend to recall Grothman. That isn’t to say that we won’t need volunteers knocking on doors in Darling’s district which includes Germantown, Menomonee Falls, parts of the North Shore and Milwaukee.
Please sign up for canvasses that are happening THIS WEEKEND by going to www.recalltherepublican8.com for information on all the canvasses this weekend.
Also, check out www.recalltherepublican8.com for information on canvasses this weekend.
I want to stress that we will ONLY succeed in the recall if everyone gets involved and knocks on doors. The time to make a difference is now.
The number of signatures that we need are approximately 450 per day!
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Lastly, please forward to everyone you know so we can get the maximum number of doors knocked and complete the recall well before the 60 days ends!
In solidarity,
Torrey Lauer, Chair
Washington County Democratic Party
www.washingtoncountywisdems.org
Here is a message from Lee Gierke regarding a Saturday rally. Contact him for any questions: gierke48@sbcglobal.net .
Lee Gierke
Also, for those of you who are represented in the legislature by Alberta Darling, here is information on the recall effort:
From: Kristopher Rowe < recalldarling@me.com >
Date: March 2, 2011 4:26:56 PM CST
To: recalldarling@me.com
Subject: We Are Live
It is with pleasure I can formally announce the campaign begins. The papers have been filed and our clock is ticking. (You only have 60 days from the date of filing to collect the required number of signatures.)
I want to clear the air right away before this goes into full swing.
We have been working with the Democratic Party as well as some non-profit organizations to coordinate this huge undertaking. Having said that--this is till our movement. They are working with us. They stand beside us--not in front of us.
Also--if you have experience canvassing and would like to lead one of the groups let me know that in the email.
To those of you who are unsure--you don't have to be a District 8 resident to help collect signatures--you only have to be eligible to vote in the United States.
So--come one--come all.
This is our time. This is it. Together we will succeed.
In solidarity,
Kristopher M. Rowe
Darling Recall Campaign Organizer
recalldarling@me.com
From Perry Duman:
All politics is local.
So let's make sure the Democrat who lives and works in the 60th Assembly district gets on the ballot.
I know many of you are feeling compelled to go to Madison again this weekend and many want to get involved with the recall efforts.
But first things first. We have only four days left to collect nomination signatures for the special election for the 60th Assembly district (versus 60 days to circulate recall petitions).
We need you right here, right now. Please help put Perry Duman on the ballot.
We will be meeting on Saturday (3/5) and Sunday (3/6) at 9 am at Alterra Coffee in Grafton (1211 Washington at 12th Ave). From there, we'll fan out in teams to high traffic areas throughout the district. Please let us know if you can participate, so we can have enough clip boards and papers available. (If you can't make it right at 9 am, please come anyway. Someone will be posted at Alterra throughout the day.)
Your help is truly appreciated!
Perry Duman
Duman for Assembly
www.dumanforassembly.org
info@dumanforassembly.org
262.268.6642
And regarding a recall:
The recall effort for Sen. Grothman has begun as well. See: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Recall-Glenn-Grothman/192474544106428.
More information on Perry Duman's campaign can be found here: http://dougiecyanide.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/perry-duman-the-right-choice-for-the-60th-assembly-district/
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
Could Scott Walker's virtual blackmailing of the citizens of Wisconsin end up costing Badger State taxpayers millions of dollars?
Quite likely.
As BuzzFlash pointed out in an earlier column, "Walker Whacks Wisconsin Taxpayers With Bill for Wackenhut After Illegally Asserting Powers", Walker used the time-pressed coercion technique to fire union security guards at the Milwaukee County Court House and two other buildings. As executive director of the county, he bypassed the board to crush the union, claiming a fiscal emergency.
Sound familiar? Well, as we noted (hat tip to Rachel Maddow), an arbitrator has subsequently ruled against Walker. As a result, the taxpayers of Milwaukee will have to pay half a million dollars in back wages to the union security guards, who were ordered reinstated. That's on top of the money wasted on the union-busting Wackenhut firm, whose Milwaukee supervisor was allegedly a convicted criminal.
Fast forward to 2011 and we have another potential situation of claiming an emergency, taking precipitous ideological action, and the state taxpayers potentially ending up paying the bill as they are doing in Milwaukee County.
Already, at least one Wisconsin labor union has filed a formal complaint against Walker, charging him with refusing to bargain with them, in violation of current law.
Meanwhile, as Ruth Cuniff reports in The Progressive, fear of Walker's thuggish efforts to enrich wealthy backers at the expense of public workers is driving state employees to retire early at a record pace, causing confusion and disruption in state services.
Walker leaves a trail of bills and chaos in his wake. Unfortunately, the taxpayers will likely have to pay the debt down the road for his high-handed, high-pressure tactics.
The Institute for Wisconsin's Future at WisconsinsFuture.org has a number of different publications about how we can balance the budget and eliminate our state debts. One of their publications addresses this $1.3 Billion shortfall of taxes THAT ARE KNOWN TO BE OWED, by companies that just don't pay them.
What this doesn't touch on however, is the fact that tax loopholes created by Republicans while in office, over a decade earlier, make it legal for huge Multi national, Multi billion corporations to not pay any State Corporate Income Taxes on BILLIONS of dollars worth of income from EACH COMPANY. 2/3rds of Corporations operating in Wisconsin (and in the Nation for that matter), don't pay ANYTHING in Corporate Income Taxes.
Taking that into account brings the state shortfall closer to $6 Billion annually. That is almost twice what the total state DEBT is projected over the next TWO years.
The Koch Brothers own Koch Industries which earns $100 Billion annually, federal and state tax FREE. They also own Georgia Pacific which funneled $11 Billion in profits out of the state of Wisconsin, and paid no taxes. That's $35 Billion in Federal Corporate Income Taxes they AREN'T PAYING, and $6 BILLION in STATE Corporate Income Taxes they AREN'T PAYING, ANNUALLY!
Corporations have been blaming the workers for over a hundred years, while corporations rack in the profits and take all the money for themselves and give the crumbs to the workers to battle over.
The current labor battle shouldn't just be a union collective bargaining issue. It needs to be a Corporations MUST Pay Their Fair Share of Taxes issue as well.
Look at these numbers. DO THE MATH. And then tell me that it is the workers' fault that we are in this recession and we need to slash their benefits to balance the State and Federal deficits and eliminate the debts. This data documents the fact that it is the multi-billion dollar corporations that don't pay their fair share of taxes that are sucking this country dry. NOT THE WORKERS!
And it is the CORPORATIONS who are outsourcing industries and jobs so that 50% of all consumer spending is now purchasing products made overseas, which does NOTHING for our economy and jobs here at home.
Corporations are KNOWN to be siphoning off $100 Billion a year to funnel into OFFSHORE TAX HAVENS.
Republicans ADMITTED on the FLOOR OF CONGRESS in 2009, and Mike Huckabee ADMITTED DURING THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES in 2008, that tax cheats had hidden $12 to $20 TRILLION in secret, illegal bank accounts to EVADE U.S. Taxes. That is 1 to 1.66 TIMES the entire GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT OF THE U.S. for a YEAR.
Don't you think that there would be more business, more employment and more security if we had that money HERE WORKING IN OUR COMMUNITIES? Don't you think that we could have eliminated our entire Federal DEBT if we would have that money here, and the taxes PAID FOR?
Top tax bracket, 35% rate. $12 Trillion = $4.2 TRILLION in FEDERAL TAXES FOR ONE YEAR. That is one third of the total debt.
State tax, 6% rate. $12 Trillion = $720 BILLION in STATE TAXES for ONE YEAR. That is 4.114 TIMES THE TOTAL STATE DEBTS IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY.
Top tax bracket, 35% rate. $20 Trillion = $7 TRILLION in FEDERAL TAXES FOR ONE YEAR. That is TWO THIRDS of the total debt.
State tax, 6% rate. $20 Trillion = $1.2 TRILLION for ONE YEAR.That is 6.85 TIMES the total STATE DEBTS in the Entire Country.
According to a study commissioned by the Department of Energy and published by the Center for Transportation Analysis in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2005, the United States has lost up to $8 trillion dollars of wealth in the 30-years from 1970 to 2004 solely due to oil imports.5 This represents a massive transfer of wealth to oil producing countries. And, keep in mind these numbers do not include the huge energy shock we experienced in 2007 and 2008.
In 2006, Warren Buffett was quoted on the problem of the U.S. Trade Deficit. At the time, he stated "Right now, the rest of the world owns $3 TRILLION more of us that we do of them."
The Trade Deficit we have with China has increased by $226.9 Billion to $273 Billion for every year since then.
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html
2007 $258.5 Billion Trade Deficit
2008 $268 Billion Trade Deficit
2009 $226.9 Billion Trade Deficit
2010 $273 Billion Trade Deficit
That is an ADDITIONAL $1.0264 TRILLION in Trade Deficit added to the $3 Trillion that was there in 2006, for $4.0264 Trillion in Trade Deficits.
50% of all of the money going to corporations in this country goes to corporations which pay NO TAXES. And that is primarily from huge multinational corporations with Millions and Billions of dollars in transactions every year.
That includes ExxonMobil, the number 1 corporation in the world, with reported profits in the Billions every quarter since Bush took office.
Do a Google search on “ExxonMobil Quarterly Profits”
October 2002 quarterly profit report $2.64 Billion
October 30, 2003 quarterly profit report $3.65 Billion
April 30, 2004 quarterly profit report $5.44 Billion
October, 2004 3rd quarterly profit report $5.68 Billion
Feb 1, 2005 quarterly profit report 6.5 Billion Euros=$10.47 Billion
October 27, 2005 3rd quarterly profit report $9.92 Billion
July 30, 2006 2nd quarterly profit report $10.36 Billion
October 26, 2006 3rd quarterly profit report $10.5 Billion
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill urged U.S. oil companies to invest in new refineries – no new refineries were built. No new refineries have been built in 30 years. But refining capacity has increased by 10% in the last decade, equivalent to 7-8 new refineries.
Price Gouging after Katrina
Some lawmakers have even demanded reimbursement for consumers. Last fall, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., proposed a temporary windfall tax on big oil companies -- a 50 percent excise tax on oil company profits when the price of domestic oil is above $40 per barrel. The annual revenues collected from the tax would be returned to individual taxpayers as rebates.
ExxonMobil Profits:
April 29, 2007 quarterly profit report $9.28 Billion
July 2007 2nd quarterly profit report $10.26 Billion on $98.4 Billion in Revenues
(at this point, Exxon has had quarterly profits of $10 Billion for five of the last seven quarters)
Feb 1, 2008 4th quarterly profit report $11.7 Billion ExxonMobil’s profits for the year averaged $4.6 million an hour! Bush asks OPEC to boost oil production and they respond by calling in a reduction in oil production.
(profits of the five biggest international oil companies have TRIPLED since 2002)
May 1, 2008 quarterly profit report $11 Billion
July 31, 2008 2nd quarterly profit report $11.68 Billion on $138.1 Billion in Revenues
October 31, 2008 3rd quarterly profit report $14.83 Billion
July 30, 2009 2nd quarterly profit report $3.95 Billion on $74.5 Billion in Revenues
October 29, 2009 3rd quarterly profit report $4.73 Billion
April 29, 2010 1st quarterly profit report $6.4 Billion
July 30, 2010 2nd quarterly profit report 7.6 Billion
January 2011 4th quarterly profit report $9.25 Billion
In the past decade, the big five oil companies BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell made a total of about $1 Trillion in PROFITS. Yet, tax loopholes are GIVING away at least $4 Billion a year, and that is for the oil companies that are PAYING taxes. ExxonMobil the number 1 largest, most profitable company on the planet, DOESN’T PAY ANY U.S. CORPORATE FEDERAL INCOME TAXES.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/01/oil_lust.html
The current labor battle shouldn't just be a union collective bargaining issue. It needs to be a "Corporations have to be Fiscally Responsible and Pay Their Fair Share of Taxes" issue as well.
The Milwaukee TV Station TMJ4 and their Radio Station WTMJ4, have always had a strongly conservative position, and very rarely provided accurate information when it came to reporting on Liberals and Progressives. (Their talking Radio Heads Mark Belling, Charlie Sykes and Jeff Wagner, are clearly extremist right wingers.) John Jagler veteran radio voice of WTMJ Radio AM620, formerly of TMJ Morning News announced his retirement from WTMJ after 15 years on Nov. 22, 2010, and is now the Communications Director for Republican Assembly Majority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald.
1. Standup 4 Wisconsin | GOP says it has the votes to pass budget bill
Feb 16, 2011 ... In the Assembly, John Jagler, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R- Horicon), also said the bill will pass. ...
www.standup4wis.org/?p=1061 - Cached
2. Capitol Report: Former Assembly Dems balk at GOP leader's request ...
Jan 11, 2011 ... John Jagler, a spokesman for Fitzgerald's office, says there is nothing ... "To just do a wholesale data dump to Jeff Fitzgerald and his ...
host.madison.com/.../article_f3ce2be2-1db7-11e0-9f66-001cc4c002e0.html - Cached
3. Wisconsin Republican Governor to eliminate union rights for public ...
10 posts - 4 authors - Last post: Feb 16
In the Assembly, John Jagler, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R- Horicon), also said the bill will pass. ...
catholicforum.fisheaters.com/index.php?topic=3436474.0 - Cached
Get more discussion results
http://politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/jan/14/jeff-fitzgerald/wisconsin-assembly-speaker-jeff-fitzgerald-says-ir/
Even the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Politico (edited by Walker’s old college buddy, Greg Borowski), is back pedaling and “sort of” calling things false when they really ARE. EXCEPT, that you will notice that they like to call Republican claims to be “barely true”, while calling Democratic claims to be FALSE, for the most part. If you are familiar with FRAMING you should be aware that “barely” is a term which is an intangible, complex concept which DOESN’T REGISTER in people who DON’T THINK and can’t REASON, so they don’t SEE the “barely” part and only see the TRUE part, once again, slyly SUPPORTING Republicans, even when they very, superficially APPEAR to be calling them on their lies.
But in the debate between Governor Walker and his Republican Legislative shills for the Koch Brothers and Corporations, have clearly shown their hands and demonstrated that they are clearly biased in their reporting, by failing to report the truth, or show the transcripts of the tape between Governor Walker and whom he thought to be David Koch, his multi-billionaire puppet master.
TMJ4 Television reporters failed to report the part about how the Governor was CLEARLY not interested in negotiating or debating with the State Senate Democrats, but rather had planned to ambush them, by having a vote after they showed up, using the fact that they had showed up at the beginning of the day, so the State Senate would be considered as having a quorum, even if the State Senators were to leave the building before the vote took place.
They failed to report the part about how the fake David Koch had offered Walker a “good time in Cali” after this was all done. That is clearly an offer of a BRIBE in exchange for SERVICES RENDERED BY THE GOVERNOR. That is ILLEGAL, whether the bribe actually had money exchanged hands or not. Remember Rod Blagojevich?
Instead, they repeatedly played Walker’s talking points to make it appear as if he was being reasonable, when the facts demonstrate that what he was doing was anything BUT reasonable.
TMJ4 and their sister Radio Station WTMJ4 should be boycotted and all of their commercial advertisers should be boycotted as well.
CNN, FOX News and MSNBC NEWS (the “News” part of the network, not the “Cable News” part that actually DID cover it with Rachel Maddow and the Ed Show, and Lawrence O’Donnell), IGNORED 100,000 protesters at the Capitol in Madison on Feb 26, 2011. This was a concerted, coordinated MEDIA BLACKOUT.
http://www.politicususa.com/en/cnn-fox-msnbc-ignore-wi
Over 100,000 people in Madison, Wisconsin were joined by thousands of other Americans around the country in protest of Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from the state’s unionized workers, but you would not have known any of this if you watched cable news on Saturday as the coverage of the protests ranged from disappointing (MSNBC) to scant (CNN) to non-existent (Fox News).
By March 1, 2011, the Koch Brothers had spent $400,000 in pro-Walker and anti-Union commercials.
http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/blog/2010/09/koch-brothers-fill-up-walkers-campaign-tank.html
“The Koch Brothers Right Wing extremist Americans for Prosperity front group is there to break the Unions and funnel more money and power to the Koch Brothers, with the assistance of the gullible. The Koch brothers company’s are among the nation’s worst polluters. They are so extreme they want to abolish Social Security, the minimum wage, Medicare, environmental legislation and virtually any other legislation that helps the nation’s working middle class. And today Walker will pursue this agenda by gutting education and local government funding by $1 billion.” Larry Miller’s Blog
Reasons to protest TMJ4:
-The continual usage of “Capitol Chaos” as a headline for EVERYTHING (just look at the website, it’s ridiculous)
-Using right wing conservatives to do reporting
-lack of investigation i.e. when reporting on the Koch brothers
Here’s what one comment reads on the FB event page:
“Charlie Sykes on WTMJ represents the worst of all possible journalistic pretenders. With total disregard for the truth, he used his place of positional power to distort the facts, mislead the voters, and gloat because his friends won.”
Any assistance in compiling a list of their commercial advertisers would be appreciated. Please send the list of advertisers and DOCUMENTATION to Chair5thCDDPW@gmail.com
Republicans love to point out that President John F. Kennedy reduced individual Federal tax rates when he was in office, (the misrepresentation is pushed by the Koch Brother’s financed Heritage Foundation, but they don’t bother to explain WHY. (They also forget that the corporate tax rate during his time in office was 52% versus the current 35%).
They ignore the fact that the President BEFORE HIM, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ( Republican ) had kept taxes on the rich at 91% of earnings! Wow! A Republican President who actually UNDERSTOOD ECONOMICS?
Here’s what they ALSO aren’t telling you. Immediately after World War II, which basically emptied the America’s bank account to pay for the ships, planes, tanks, trucks, weapons, ammunition, oil, rubber, training, feeding and supplying the troops, EVERYONE WAS BROKE, INCLUDING THE BANKS. In fact, they were BROKE BEFORE THE WAR, REMEMBER? We had just come out of the Great Depression, which had lasted for ten years.
The U.S. Government couldn’t tax the poor or the middle class, because THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY MONEY. The ONLY people with money were those who had been born into it, and weathered through the Great Depression and the war, or the war profiteers, who made BILLIONS by supplying all of those materials for the war. Materials which the U.S. TAXPAYERS had paid for.
So, instead of keeping average working people POOR, and the war profiteers RICH, very high taxes were levied against the people who had profited the most FROM the war, so that money could be REDISTRIBUTED back to the working people, who made it possible for us to win the war in the first place, those who PAID for the war in the first place. You know - the troops who fought the war, and the people who worked in the manufacturing plants who MADE everything needed to win the war.
That redistribution CREATED the middle class, because they were the people who made the products that people around the world needed. Why? Because most industrial capacity had been completely destroyed in most of the countries involved in the war, and we were the only country unscathed enough to still be able to produce those products FOR THEM.
Once the middle class got back on their feet, and were ABLE to pay their share of taxes, A DEMOCRAT, JFK, reduced the taxes on the RICH, TWICE, bringing that top rate down to about 77%, and then again to about 71% (which was enacted after his assassination), and re-distributed it FAIRLY so that the middle class, who were now in a position to pay their fair share, could also pay their taxes.
Ronald Reagan dropped the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 28% and we had several recessions under his administration as a result, job losses and lack of job creation followed, and got so bad that when George H.W. Bush (remember “read my lips, no new taxes”? ), was President he was forced to raise taxes to keep the economy from crashing. He had terrible job creation rates, averaging about 645,000 jobs per year in office. George W. Bush cut taxes TWICE, with the largest tax cuts in the HISTORY of the U.S. and only averaged 350,000 jobs created per year in office. (You need to create at least 150,000 jobs per MONTH to keep up with just the population increase to keep the employment percentage RATES EVEN. By that metric, he lost 11.4 MILLION jobs during his administration.)
Bill Clinton raised taxes and he had the largest job creation rate in the HISTORY of the United States, of 2.9 MILLION per year, or 23.2 MILLION jobs over the course of his eight years in office.
But Republicans didn’t like that, because IT WASN’T ENOUGH FOR THEM.
In the years since, the top tax rate has been dropped to 35% both for corporations and the rich, but if you’ve been paying attention, you should be aware already that 2/3rds of the corporations in the U.S. DON’T PAY ANY FEDERAL OR STATE INCOME TAXES, and many of those who do, have been using accounting tricks to fraudulently reduce their taxes so they don’t pay their fair share either.
The rich also don’t pay their fair share. Even though the very rich have seen their income increase by 4500%, while the working class and middle class have seen NO REAL INCREASE over that same period of time, the Rich have seen their taxes reduced, while taxes on the working class and the middle class have increased in proportion to what the rich are NOT paying. The rich only pay what they CLAIM to have earned, because there are no tracking procedures in place to accurately identify what they actually EARN, unlike what they do with wage or salary earners, who are taxed on every dime they earn. And even on the income that they are KNOWN to have earned, their REAL rate of taxation is not the 35% they complain about, but rather around 6% to 16%. But they want to con you into believing that because SOME individuals actually pay those high rates, that ALL of them do. It is so difficult for the IRS to track the income of the rich, and particularly the super rich, because it is so complicated, that the IRS had to buy a super computer to audit Bill Gates’ income taxes!!!
When George W. Bush was president, he gutted the IRS’s investigative auditors who were directed at studying the income tax returns of the very rich, and then directed that they instead go after THE MIDDLE CLASS.
How many middle class income earners at about $50,000 annual income, would have to be audited in order to find enough taxes owed to make up for those taxes owed and not paid by ONE MULTI-BILLIONAIRE? Let’s make a quick comparison. At a 30% income tax rate, their federal income taxes would be $15,000. So even if all of the middle income earners investigated didn’t pay ANY of their taxes at all, then how many of them would have to be caught to make up for the taxes not paid by just ONE multi-Billionaire?
At a 35% income tax rate for the multi-billionaire, or their corporation, making $100 Billion annually, like the Koch Brothers, who DON’T PAY ANY CORPORATE FEDERAL OR STATE INCOME TAXES, that would make $35 Billion annually for Federal taxes and around $6 Billion for State Taxes or a total of around $41 Billion ANNUALLY.
So, dividing that $41 BILLION owed by ONE multi-billion dollar corporation which funnels most of that income directly to the owners, executives and shareholders while it isn’t being audited or taxed, by $15,000 which each individual earning $50,000 would need to pay in Federal taxes ALONE, would be 2,733,333 taxpayers found to NOT BE PAYING THEIR Federal Taxes AT ALL.
If you look at ONLY the $35 Billion in Federal taxes not paid by the Koch Corporation, you would still need to find 2,333,333 middle class taxpayers who didn’t pay their federal taxes AT ALL, to make up the revenue losses of ONE Billionaire’s corporate shell.
And the Koch Brothers are the third richest people in the United States and 24th richest in the world.
Exxon-Mobil is THE richest corporation in the world and doesn’t pay ANYTHING in Federal or State Income taxes to the U.S., as most of the oil companies doing business in this country or headquartered in the U.S. do not. In the last decade, the top five oil companies have socked away $1 TRILLION in PROFITS, but for the most part, don’t pay ANYTHING in Federal or State income taxes!!!
( And before anyone complains that I’m comparing Billionaire corporate income to individual income taxes, let me remind you that multi-billionaires create layers upon layers of shell corporations to shield their income, so that investigators don’t find out how much they actually earn, and many of those are Subchapter S corporations which take corporate income and funnel it directly into the owner’s individual income, so they can avoid corporate income taxes all-together, just like newly elected Senator Ron Johnson has done with PACUR. His corporation pays nothing in Federal or State income taxes. The income was funneled directly to him, so that the over $9 million in earnings in the past few years, somehow miraculously only resulted in less than a 6% individual tax rate based on what he actually PAID. No federal or state income taxes for the corporation, and only less than 6% tax rate paid as an individual. And he’s complaining that his taxes are too high?)
And how many taxpayers would have to be audited to find that many taxpayers not paying their Federal Taxes at all?
Well there are only about 1.4 million audits performed IN TOTAL each year, only about 310,000 of those are field audits, the remaining are correspondence audits – letters trough the mail indicating that an error had been made on your return. The vast majority of tax returns are honest returns, where the highest majority of tax cheats comes from the very, very rich. The very people for whom George W. Bush took the tax auditors OFF of their cases. Now you know why George W. Bush called the richest of the rich, his BASE.
You would have to FIND TWICE as may middle class tax cheats as all the audits performed in one year, to make up for just ONE multi-billion dollar tax cheat!
Only 1 - 1.5% of all taxpayers at all Federal Tax Brackets are ever audited in one year. http://www.wwwebtax.com/audits/audit_avoiding.htm
IRS Audit Statistics |
Income for Tax Returns | Tax Returns Filed | Tax Returns Examined | Percent Examined |
Less Than $25,000 | 59,211,700 | 1,076,945 | .81% |
$25,000 to $50,000 | 27,263,000 | 259,794 | .58% |
$50,000 to $100,000 | 17,019,200 | 196,582 | .62% |
Greater Than 100,000 | 4,540,800 | 129,320 | 1.66% |
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