I wrote the following in 1970. Somethings never change.
In the Land of the Free
by Dee Newman
I’m standing here wondering whether to begin,
Knowing that words will never wake you within,
But knowing these faces that cry-out in my brain
Will taunt me and haunt me until I’m insane.
So crawl out of your dreaming, come along with me,
And together we’ll wade through the human debris,
Blessed with the liberty secured by the slave
Here in the land of the free, the home of the brave.
Back to her valleys where she grew as a child,
Down her harnessed rivers that once ran wild,
Deep in her virgin forests that dwindle each year,
Under a bay-brown sky that once was clear,
For the waters run stagnant, clogged with our waste,
And each breath smells putrid, foul to the taste,
Yet carve we must our mark on the wall of the cave
Here in the land of the free, the home of the brave.
Hidden in forgotten serpent pits of despair
The body of a troubled mind is strapped to a chair
As stripped figures of children with sad glaring eyes
Wander aimlessly through echoing halls of disguise
Beyond the hopeless horror of gagged murmurs of fear
Lying spread-eagled and gauzed so no one can hear,
Making one wonder who is really depraved
Here in the land of the free, the home of the brave.
When sentenced to correctional institutions
For society’s protection, the prosecution's
Indictment of a teenager as an adult
Has a tragic yet not surprising result.
After being brutally rape and terrified
By his attackers, the boy commits suicide.
With an eye for an eye for those who misbehave
Here in the land of the free, the home of the brave.
Below exalted altars towering to the sky
A mother offers her body to those who will buy,
Servicing a kindred of unfulfilled men
So that she my feed her poor, deprived children,
While above the congregation’s confirming roar
A pompous clergyman righteously yells, “whore!”
Yet with her confession our Lord Jesus will save
Here in the land of the free, the home of the brave.
There is nothing of which I am more surer –
While the rich get richer, the poor get poorer;
While our lives become more and more austere
The gross national product grows grosser each year;
While children die of hunger throughout this land
Eastland is subsidized a hundred and sixteen grand.
Yet, O say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Fleeing from antiquity we turn to look behind
Tempting our lot and the lot of all mankind
For far beyond the ancient pillar that remains
Shades of the past desparately pull at the reins
And this, it seems, is ironic and sadly strange
For existence is but the result of change.
Yet the course continues to come from the grave
Here in the land of the free, the home of the brave.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
From The White House
President Obama on His Birth Certificate & the Real Issues Facing America
President Obama discusses the release of his long form birth certificate, having long ago released his standard birth certificate, and says that “We’ve got big problems to solve. And I’m confident we can solve them, but we’re going to have to focus on them -- not on this.”
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Now, let me just comment, first of all, on the fact that I can't get the networks to break in on all kinds of other discussions -- (laughter.) I was just back there listening to Chuck -- he was saying, it’s amazing that he’s not going to be talking about national security. I would not have the networks breaking in if I was talking about that, Chuck, and you know it.
THE PRESIDENT: As many of you have been briefed, we provided additional information today about the site of my birth. Now, this issue has been going on for two, two and a half years now. I think it started during the campaign. And I have to say that over the last two and a half years I have watched with bemusement, I've been puzzled at the degree to which this thing just kept on going. We've had every official in Hawaii, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet that has investigated this, confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii, August 4, 1961, in Kapiolani Hospital.
We've posted the certification that is given by the state of Hawaii on the Internet for everybody to see. People have provided affidavits that they, in fact, have seen this birth certificate. And yet this thing just keeps on going.
Now, normally I would not comment on something like this, because obviously there’s a lot of stuff swirling in the press on at any given day and I've got other things to do. But two weeks ago, when the Republican House had put forward a budget that will have huge consequences potentially to the country, and when I gave a speech about my budget and how I felt that we needed to invest in education and infrastructure and making sure that we had a strong safety net for our seniors even as we were closing the deficit, during that entire week the dominant news story wasn’t about these huge, monumental choices that we're going to have to make as a nation. It was about my birth certificate. And that was true on most of the news outlets that were represented here.
And so I just want to make a larger point here. We've got some enormous challenges out there. There are a lot of folks out there who are still looking for work. Everybody is still suffering under high gas prices. We're going to have to make a series of very difficult decisions about how we invest in our future but also get a hold of our deficit and our debt -- how do we do that in a balanced way.
And this is going to generate huge and serious debates, important debates. And there are going to be some fierce disagreements -- and that’s good. That’s how democracy is supposed to work. And I am confident that the American people and America’s political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems. We always have.
But we’re not going to be able to do it if we are distracted. We’re not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other. We’re not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts. We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.
We live in a serious time right now and we have the potential to deal with the issues that we confront in a way that will make our kids and our grandkids and our great grandkids proud. And I have every confidence that America in the 21st century is going to be able to come out on top just like we always have. But we’re going to have to get serious to do it.
I know that there’s going to be a segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest. But I’m speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We’ve got better stuff to do. I’ve got better stuff to do. We’ve got big problems to solve. And I’m confident we can solve them, but we’re going to have to focus on them -- not on this.
Thanks very much, everybody.
Correspondence with the Hawaii State Department of Health can be seen here (PDF).
April 27, 2011 | 5:21 | Public Domain
President Obama discusses the release of his long form birth certificate, having long ago released his standard birth certificate, and says that “We’ve got big problems to solve. And I’m confident we can solve them, but we’re going to have to focus on them -- not on this.”
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release
April 27, 2011
Remarks by the President
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
9:48 A.M. PDTTHE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Now, let me just comment, first of all, on the fact that I can't get the networks to break in on all kinds of other discussions -- (laughter.) I was just back there listening to Chuck -- he was saying, it’s amazing that he’s not going to be talking about national security. I would not have the networks breaking in if I was talking about that, Chuck, and you know it.
THE PRESIDENT: As many of you have been briefed, we provided additional information today about the site of my birth. Now, this issue has been going on for two, two and a half years now. I think it started during the campaign. And I have to say that over the last two and a half years I have watched with bemusement, I've been puzzled at the degree to which this thing just kept on going. We've had every official in Hawaii, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet that has investigated this, confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii, August 4, 1961, in Kapiolani Hospital.
We've posted the certification that is given by the state of Hawaii on the Internet for everybody to see. People have provided affidavits that they, in fact, have seen this birth certificate. And yet this thing just keeps on going.
Now, normally I would not comment on something like this, because obviously there’s a lot of stuff swirling in the press on at any given day and I've got other things to do. But two weeks ago, when the Republican House had put forward a budget that will have huge consequences potentially to the country, and when I gave a speech about my budget and how I felt that we needed to invest in education and infrastructure and making sure that we had a strong safety net for our seniors even as we were closing the deficit, during that entire week the dominant news story wasn’t about these huge, monumental choices that we're going to have to make as a nation. It was about my birth certificate. And that was true on most of the news outlets that were represented here.
And so I just want to make a larger point here. We've got some enormous challenges out there. There are a lot of folks out there who are still looking for work. Everybody is still suffering under high gas prices. We're going to have to make a series of very difficult decisions about how we invest in our future but also get a hold of our deficit and our debt -- how do we do that in a balanced way.
And this is going to generate huge and serious debates, important debates. And there are going to be some fierce disagreements -- and that’s good. That’s how democracy is supposed to work. And I am confident that the American people and America’s political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems. We always have.
But we’re not going to be able to do it if we are distracted. We’re not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other. We’re not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts. We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.
We live in a serious time right now and we have the potential to deal with the issues that we confront in a way that will make our kids and our grandkids and our great grandkids proud. And I have every confidence that America in the 21st century is going to be able to come out on top just like we always have. But we’re going to have to get serious to do it.
I know that there’s going to be a segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest. But I’m speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We’ve got better stuff to do. I’ve got better stuff to do. We’ve got big problems to solve. And I’m confident we can solve them, but we’re going to have to focus on them -- not on this.
Thanks very much, everybody.
Correspondence with the Hawaii State Department of Health can be seen here (PDF).
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Soft with Sorrow
by Dee Newman
High above the Harpeth,
I pause to watch, below
a thin grey sheet of rain
sweep across the meadow
through the sycamores
that stand along the river.
Far from this narrow ridge
beyond the low hanging veil
of morning mist
obscuring my despair
a seductive tune
is sung, ever so softly.
Thoughts
without wings
remain silent
hidden, forever
within my heart.
The bloodroots
have appeared and gone
from the forest floor.
Before long, the blue
and violet hue
of the crested dawfs
will wither and die.
With time and distance
as when your eyes
were soft with sorrow
I will say, goodbye.
High above the Harpeth,
I pause to watch, below
a thin grey sheet of rain
sweep across the meadow
through the sycamores
that stand along the river.
Far from this narrow ridge
beyond the low hanging veil
of morning mist
obscuring my despair
a seductive tune
is sung, ever so softly.
Thoughts
without wings
remain silent
hidden, forever
within my heart.
The bloodroots
have appeared and gone
from the forest floor.
Before long, the blue
and violet hue
of the crested dawfs
will wither and die.
With time and distance
as when your eyes
were soft with sorrow
I will say, goodbye.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Remembering My First Love
By Dee Newman
My eyes fill with sorrow as I remember when
I loved you like no other, or I ever will again,
But that was long ago when love was young and new,
Nothing last forever, 'cept my mem'ries of you.
In the shadows of moonlight, beneath bright skies of blue,
I’ve had my share of lovers, and more than just a few.
One day there may be others who I may well pursue,
Yet, nothing will ever alter my desire and love for you.
My eyes fill with sorrow as I remember when
I loved you like no other, or I ever will again,
But that was long ago when love was young and new,
Nothing last forever, 'cept my mem'ries of you.
In the shadows of moonlight, beneath bright skies of blue,
I’ve had my share of lovers, and more than just a few.
One day there may be others who I may well pursue,
Yet, nothing will ever alter my desire and love for you.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
It is Time to Find Some Time
by Dee Newman
It appears there is not enough time
For all the things I would like to do,
For all the mountains I’ve yet to climb,
For all the sights I would like to view,
For all the rivers I’ve yet to cross,
For all the races I haven’t run,
For all the horseshoes I’ve yet to toss,
For all the things I haven’t done,
For all the thoughts I’d like to ponder,
For all the books I would like to read,
For all the trails I’ve yet to wander,
For all those slopes I haven’t skied,
For all the photos I’ve yet to take,
For all the songs I have yet to sing,
For all the sculptures I’ve yet to make,
For all the day and nighttime snoozing,
For all the many things I have missed,
And all the places I haven’t been,
For all the women I haven’t kissed
And those I would like to kiss again,
Yes, for all those things I’ve put on hold,
It is time to find the wherewithal,
Before its too late and I’m too old,
To find some time to do them all.
It appears there is not enough time
For all the things I would like to do,
For all the mountains I’ve yet to climb,
For all the sights I would like to view,
For all the rivers I’ve yet to cross,
For all the races I haven’t run,
For all the horseshoes I’ve yet to toss,
For all the things I haven’t done,
For all the thoughts I’d like to ponder,
For all the books I would like to read,
For all the trails I’ve yet to wander,
For all those slopes I haven’t skied,
For all the photos I’ve yet to take,
For all the songs I have yet to sing,
For all the sculptures I’ve yet to make,
For all the day and nighttime snoozing,
For all the many things I have missed,
And all the places I haven’t been,
For all the women I haven’t kissed
And those I would like to kiss again,
Yes, for all those things I’ve put on hold,
It is time to find the wherewithal,
Before its too late and I’m too old,
To find some time to do them all.
Friday, April 22, 2011
From Public Citizen
| ||
|
From Jonathan
Dear Servants of the People,
Why are we so openly and callously kowtowing to the rich folks of this state with an income tax ban bill?!
Are we not already ashamed and embarrassed enough being one of the poorest, least educated, unhealthiest, most obese, most polluted, and one of the most crime-infested states?
Who are we kidding? Tennessee ranks at or near the bottom in infant mortality. This fact alone should inspire us to do something positive for our state.
Permanently relieving the top 5% of income earners of their responsibility for shared sacrifice (as per taxes) is grossly unethical and immoral.
Why did we send you all to the Capitol? To give more relief to the richest among us when so many in our state are suffering?
How many of you would personally benefit from such a ban?!
How about growing the middle class, not growing the poor with more ideologically-driven, regressive tax policies?
For shame!
STOP THE INCOME TAX BAN BILL now!!!
INSTITUTE A PROGRESSIVE INCOME TAX now!!!
Fairness in taxation is the way to prosperity, not huge tax relief for the wealthy.
Why are we so openly and callously kowtowing to the rich folks of this state with an income tax ban bill?!
Are we not already ashamed and embarrassed enough being one of the poorest, least educated, unhealthiest, most obese, most polluted, and one of the most crime-infested states?
Who are we kidding? Tennessee ranks at or near the bottom in infant mortality. This fact alone should inspire us to do something positive for our state.
Permanently relieving the top 5% of income earners of their responsibility for shared sacrifice (as per taxes) is grossly unethical and immoral.
Why did we send you all to the Capitol? To give more relief to the richest among us when so many in our state are suffering?
How many of you would personally benefit from such a ban?!
How about growing the middle class, not growing the poor with more ideologically-driven, regressive tax policies?
For shame!
STOP THE INCOME TAX BAN BILL now!!!
INSTITUTE A PROGRESSIVE INCOME TAX now!!!
Fairness in taxation is the way to prosperity, not huge tax relief for the wealthy.
From Tennesseans for Fair Taxation
 |  |
 | |
| Revenue with Justice for All! | |
 TFT Update, April 22nd 2011
| ||||||||||
 To learn more about Tennesseans for Fair Taxation and our efforts to create a fair and progressive tax system that invests in and strengthens the common good, visit us at www.fairtaxation.org. | ||||||||||
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
A Scheme of Greed and Deceit
By Dee Newman
While the press focused on tabloid scandals
And sports rivalries, Wall Street financiers
Switch from being investors to vandals –
Unregulated, ruthless profiteers.
While a Republican controlled Congress
Borrowed and spent nearly two billion bucks
A week on an undeclared and endless
“War on terror,” giving massive tax cuts
To the rich which not only failed to spur
Growth, but also allowed austerity
Measures to be passed that have further
Increased income disparity,
As well as, the national debt – threefold,
The puppets of the plutocrats, against
Their own int’rests, continue to extol
“Voodoo economics,” with an incensed
Rage. As these fear-distracted populists,
Led by their demagogues, attempt to frame
Unions and immigrants for the long lists
Of crimes for which they, themselves, are to blame,
Congress turns a blind-eye to our despair,
Cutting programs for all us common folk
In order to fund corporate welfare,
Bailing out all those banks as we go broke.
By far, the most effective deception
Promoted by the filthy-affluent
Is the persistently false perception
That opportunity is pursuant
To will, hard work, and capitalism.
In truth, the wealthy are compensated
In direct proportion to the “gross” sum
Of the suffering they’ve administrated.
This system – where “one percent” can amass
Nearly half of our nation’s wealth,
While the distressed hard-working middle class
Struggle to survive the exploitive stealth
Of the privileged and moneyed elite,
Is a scheme – promoted as “supply-side
Economics” – of greed and deceit,
That cannot be ethically justified,
Or, for that matter, fiscally sustained
When unregulated and unrestrained.
While the press focused on tabloid scandals
And sports rivalries, Wall Street financiers
Switch from being investors to vandals –
Unregulated, ruthless profiteers.
While a Republican controlled Congress
Borrowed and spent nearly two billion bucks
A week on an undeclared and endless
“War on terror,” giving massive tax cuts
To the rich which not only failed to spur
Growth, but also allowed austerity
Measures to be passed that have further
Increased income disparity,
As well as, the national debt – threefold,
The puppets of the plutocrats, against
Their own int’rests, continue to extol
“Voodoo economics,” with an incensed
Rage. As these fear-distracted populists,
Led by their demagogues, attempt to frame
Unions and immigrants for the long lists
Of crimes for which they, themselves, are to blame,
Congress turns a blind-eye to our despair,
Cutting programs for all us common folk
In order to fund corporate welfare,
Bailing out all those banks as we go broke.
By far, the most effective deception
Promoted by the filthy-affluent
Is the persistently false perception
That opportunity is pursuant
To will, hard work, and capitalism.
In truth, the wealthy are compensated
In direct proportion to the “gross” sum
Of the suffering they’ve administrated.
This system – where “one percent” can amass
Nearly half of our nation’s wealth,
While the distressed hard-working middle class
Struggle to survive the exploitive stealth
Of the privileged and moneyed elite,
Is a scheme – promoted as “supply-side
Economics” – of greed and deceit,
That cannot be ethically justified,
Or, for that matter, fiscally sustained
When unregulated and unrestrained.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
From CBS News
Were the Details on the Budget Deal Talks Revealed by the President Really an Open-Mic Slip?
President Barack Obama was caught on an open mic by Mark Knoller, a CBS Radio News White House correspondent, making some intriguing remarks about the actions of Republicans in the recent budget negotiations:
Take a listen:
President Barack Obama was caught on an open mic by Mark Knoller, a CBS Radio News White House correspondent, making some intriguing remarks about the actions of Republicans in the recent budget negotiations:
Take a listen:
Friday, April 15, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
From American Progress
Infographic: Tax Breaks vs. Budget Cuts
House leaders are unfortunately restricting their proposed budget cuts for the remainder of fiscal year 2011 to nonsecurity discretionary spending in an attempt to tame a $1.3 trillion deficit. This approach is especially shortsighted since the Federal Treasury loses twice as much revenue due to tax breaks than Congress appropriates on all nonsecurity discretionary spending.
The chart below compares the 10 safety-net programs slated for deep cuts with the cost of the tax breaks that should also be considered for reduction or elimination to bring the budget into balance. The column on the left is a list of safety-net programs that have already been targets of the House leadership’s budget ax. The column on the right is the cost to specified tax breaks (see bottom of page for sources).
Most Americans would be surprised to learn that tax breaks are not on the table during any budget negotiations. In fact, Congress has the Congressional Budget Office prepare an official spending estimate for the cost of all programs or their expansions. Meanwhile, Congress enacts and continues tax breaks without any requirement that the cost of tax breaks be calculated and shared with members before a vote.
That’s why, over the last 16 years, the cost to the Treasury of the mortgage interest tax deduction, for example, doubled from $48 billion in 1995 to nearly $100 billion this year and no one made a peep about getting control of this loss in revenue. The stunning growth in this tax break is unchecked and unquestioned.
This tax break is also increasingly benefiting individuals who don’t need any federal incentives to purchase a home. In 2011 the mortgage interest deduction will help families who purchase a vacation home avoid taxes to the tune of $800 million. Meanwhile, the House Budget Committee chairman’s 2011 budget bill included $730 million in cuts to housing programs for the elderly and disabled.
There are many other examples where the cost of tax breaks are skyrocketing and disproportionately benefiting companies and people who don’t need them (see chart above):
That’s exactly what the Research and Development Tax Incentives or the Renewable Energy Tax Credits provide. Income tax breaks that help keep working families afloat, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, use the tax code effectively to stabilize the economy.
It’s regrettable that the congressional budget process doesn’t permit a robust debate about the choices we can and must make to bring the budget into balance. The Center for American Progress is thus pushing for a process where tax breaks are “scored” so members of Congress know and consider the cost of tax breaks as part of the annual congressional process to pass a budget.
A transparent budget process approach should be instituted now given the enormity of the budget challenge. It makes no sense to eviscerate safety-net supports when billions in unnecessary tax entitlements can be cut to preserve these important and socially responsible federal expenditures. Congress must face up to the cold hard fact that it’s time to make the tough choice to end tax entitlements—such as the one for “NASCAR racing facilities”—so federal funding for critical items such as child-nutrition programs are spared.
Donna Cooper is a Senior Fellow at American Progress.
Row 2: Figure represents 1 percent of the fiscal year 2011 tax expenditure estimate for the mortgage interest deduction, over 10 years. The vacation home deduction accounts for at least one percent of the tax expenditure cost. See: Office of Management and Budget, Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2012 (Executive Office of the President, 2011), table 17-1; Congressional Budget Office, “Budget Options” (2000), REV-02.
Row 3 (now re: estate planning): General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2012 Revenue Proposals (Department of Treasury, 2011).
Row 4 (now re: itemized deduction limit): General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2011 Revenue Proposals (Department of Treasury, 2010).
Row 5: Joint Committee on Taxation, Estimated Budget Effects of the “Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010,” JCX-54-10, December 10, 2010 (subpart F active financing exception).
Row 6: General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2012 Revenue Proposals (Department of Treasury, 2011).
Row 7: Joint Committee on Taxation, Estimated Budget Effects of the “Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010,” JCX-54-10, December 10, 2010 (half of total cost of two-year extension).
Row 8: General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2012 Revenue Proposals (Department of Treasury, 2011).
Row 9: General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2012 Revenue Proposals (Department of Treasury, 2011) (10-year cost).
Row 10: Office of Management and Budget, Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2012, (Executive Office of the President, 2011), table 17-1 (expensing of multiperiod timber growing costs and capital gains treatment of certain timber income).
Row 11: Joint Committee on Taxation, Estimated Budget Effects of the “Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010,” JCX-54-10, December 10, 2010 (half of total cost of recent two-year extension).
See Also:
To speak with our experts on this topic, please contact:
Print: Megan Smith (health care, education, economic policy)
202.741.6346 or msmith@americanprogress.org
Print: Christina DiPasquale (foreign policy and security, energy)
202.481.8181 or cdipasquale@americanprogress.org
Print: Raúl Arce-Contreras (ethnic media, immigration)
202.478.5318 or rarcecontreras@americanprogress.org
Radio: Anne Shoup
202.481.7146 or ashoup@americanprogress.org
TV: Andrea Purse
202.741.6250 or apurse@americanprogress.org
House leaders are unfortunately restricting their proposed budget cuts for the remainder of fiscal year 2011 to nonsecurity discretionary spending in an attempt to tame a $1.3 trillion deficit. This approach is especially shortsighted since the Federal Treasury loses twice as much revenue due to tax breaks than Congress appropriates on all nonsecurity discretionary spending.
The chart below compares the 10 safety-net programs slated for deep cuts with the cost of the tax breaks that should also be considered for reduction or elimination to bring the budget into balance. The column on the left is a list of safety-net programs that have already been targets of the House leadership’s budget ax. The column on the right is the cost to specified tax breaks (see bottom of page for sources).
Most Americans would be surprised to learn that tax breaks are not on the table during any budget negotiations. In fact, Congress has the Congressional Budget Office prepare an official spending estimate for the cost of all programs or their expansions. Meanwhile, Congress enacts and continues tax breaks without any requirement that the cost of tax breaks be calculated and shared with members before a vote.
That’s why, over the last 16 years, the cost to the Treasury of the mortgage interest tax deduction, for example, doubled from $48 billion in 1995 to nearly $100 billion this year and no one made a peep about getting control of this loss in revenue. The stunning growth in this tax break is unchecked and unquestioned.
This tax break is also increasingly benefiting individuals who don’t need any federal incentives to purchase a home. In 2011 the mortgage interest deduction will help families who purchase a vacation home avoid taxes to the tune of $800 million. Meanwhile, the House Budget Committee chairman’s 2011 budget bill included $730 million in cuts to housing programs for the elderly and disabled.
There are many other examples where the cost of tax breaks are skyrocketing and disproportionately benefiting companies and people who don’t need them (see chart above):
- Congress should rein in the $4.6 billion in tax breaks given to companies who move jobs offshore instead of making cuts to the $4 billion in job-training programs.
- Oil companies get more than $2 billion in tax write-offs for drilling expenses yet Congress is considering cutting the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the $2 billion federal program that helps poor families pay their winter heating bills.
- Large biofuels companies, such as Archer Daniels Midland, benefit from the ethanol tax break that now costs nearly $5 billion a year. And oil companies such as ExxonMobil benefit from more than $9 billion in tax breaks for oil exploration.
That’s exactly what the Research and Development Tax Incentives or the Renewable Energy Tax Credits provide. Income tax breaks that help keep working families afloat, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, use the tax code effectively to stabilize the economy.
It’s regrettable that the congressional budget process doesn’t permit a robust debate about the choices we can and must make to bring the budget into balance. The Center for American Progress is thus pushing for a process where tax breaks are “scored” so members of Congress know and consider the cost of tax breaks as part of the annual congressional process to pass a budget.
A transparent budget process approach should be instituted now given the enormity of the budget challenge. It makes no sense to eviscerate safety-net supports when billions in unnecessary tax entitlements can be cut to preserve these important and socially responsible federal expenditures. Congress must face up to the cold hard fact that it’s time to make the tough choice to end tax entitlements—such as the one for “NASCAR racing facilities”—so federal funding for critical items such as child-nutrition programs are spared.
Donna Cooper is a Senior Fellow at American Progress.
Sources for tax breaks
Row 1: Figure represents half of the estimated $23 billion cost of weakening the estate tax for 2011 and 2012. See: Gillian Brunet and Chuck Marr, “Unpacking the Tax Cut-Unemployment Compromise,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, December 10, 2010, available at http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3342.Row 2: Figure represents 1 percent of the fiscal year 2011 tax expenditure estimate for the mortgage interest deduction, over 10 years. The vacation home deduction accounts for at least one percent of the tax expenditure cost. See: Office of Management and Budget, Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2012 (Executive Office of the President, 2011), table 17-1; Congressional Budget Office, “Budget Options” (2000), REV-02.
Row 3 (now re: estate planning): General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2012 Revenue Proposals (Department of Treasury, 2011).
Row 4 (now re: itemized deduction limit): General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2011 Revenue Proposals (Department of Treasury, 2010).
Row 5: Joint Committee on Taxation, Estimated Budget Effects of the “Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010,” JCX-54-10, December 10, 2010 (subpart F active financing exception).
Row 6: General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2012 Revenue Proposals (Department of Treasury, 2011).
Row 7: Joint Committee on Taxation, Estimated Budget Effects of the “Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010,” JCX-54-10, December 10, 2010 (half of total cost of two-year extension).
Row 8: General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2012 Revenue Proposals (Department of Treasury, 2011).
Row 9: General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2012 Revenue Proposals (Department of Treasury, 2011) (10-year cost).
Row 10: Office of Management and Budget, Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2012, (Executive Office of the President, 2011), table 17-1 (expensing of multiperiod timber growing costs and capital gains treatment of certain timber income).
Row 11: Joint Committee on Taxation, Estimated Budget Effects of the “Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010,” JCX-54-10, December 10, 2010 (half of total cost of recent two-year extension).
See Also:
- Government Spending Undercover by Lily Batchelder and Eric Toder
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Print: Christina DiPasquale (foreign policy and security, energy)
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Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
From Tennessee Citizen Action (TCA)
TN Voter Confidence Act News - Another Delay Proposed
I just received the following from TCA:
I just received the following from TCA:
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Monday, April 11, 2011
From RollingStone
Tax Cuts for the Rich on the Backs of the Middle Class; or, Paul Ryan Has Balls
Every few years or so, the Republicans trot out one of these little whippersnappers, who offer proposals to hack away at the federal budget. Each successive whippersnapper inevitably tries, rhetorically, to out-mean the previous one, and their proposals are inevitably couched as the boldest and most ambitious deficit-reduction plans ever seen. Each time, we are told that these plans mark the end of the budgetary reign of terror long ago imposed by the entitlement system begun by FDR and furthered by LBJ.
Never mind that each time the Republicans actually come into power, federal deficit spending explodes and these whippersnappers somehow never get around to touching Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. The key is that for the many years before that moment of truth, before these buffoons actually get a chance to put their money where their lipless little mouths are, they will stomp their feet and scream about how entitlements are bringing us to the edge of apocalypse.
The reason for this is always the same: the Republicans, quite smartly, recognize that there is great political hay to be made in the appearance of deficit reduction, and that white middle class voters will respond with overwhelming enthusiasm to any call for reductions in the “welfare state,” a term which said voters will instantly associate with black welfare moms and Mexicans sneaking over the border to visit American emergency rooms.
The problem, of course, is that to actually make significant cuts in what is left of the “welfare state,” one has to cut Medicare and Medicaid, programs overwhelmingly patronized by white people, and particularly white seniors. So when the time comes to actually pull the trigger on the proposed reductions, the whippersnappers are quietly removed from the stage and life goes on as usual, i.e. with massive deficit spending on defense, upper-class tax cuts, bailouts, corporate subsidies, and big handouts to Pharma and the insurance industries.
This is a political game that gets played out in the media over and over again, and everyone in Washington knows how it works. Which is why it’s nauseating (but not surprising) to see so many commentators falling over themselves with praise for Ryan’s “bold” budget proposal, which is supposedly a ballsy piece of politics because it proposes backdoor cuts in Medicare and Medicaid by redounding their appropriations to the states and to block grants. Ryan is being praised for thusly taking on seniors, a traditionally untouchable political demographic . Here is how old friend David Brooks, taking a break from his authorship of breathless master-race treatises, put it in a recent column called “Moment of Truth”:
Over the past few weeks, a number of groups, including the ex-chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers and 64 prominent budget experts, have issued letters arguing that the debt situation is so dire that doing nothing is not a survivable option. What they lacked was courageous political leadership — a powerful elected official willing to issue a proposal, willing to take a stand, willing to face the political perils.Brooks sums up the Ryan proposals this way:
The country lacked that leadership until today. Today, Paul Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, is scheduled to release the most comprehensive and most courageous budget reform proposal any of us have seen in our lifetimes…
The Ryan budget will put all future arguments in the proper context: The current welfare state is simply unsustainable and anybody who is serious, on left or right, has to have a new vision of the social contract. The initial coverage will talk about Ryan’s top number — the cuts of more than $4 trillion over the next decade. But the important thing is the way Ryan would reform programs…Brooks then goes on to slobber over all of Ryan’s ostensibly daring proposals, from the Medicare block grants to the more obnoxious Medicare voucher program (replacing Medicare benefits with vouchers to buy overpriced private insurance, which Brooks calls the government “giving you a sum of money” to choose from “a regulated menu of insurance options”).
What he doesn’t mention is that Ryan’s proposal also includes dropping the top tax rate for rich people from 35 percent to 25 percent. All by itself, that one change means that the government would be collecting over $4 trillion less over the next ten years.
Since Brooks himself is talking about Ryan’s plan cutting $4 trillion over the next ten years (some say that number is higher), what we’re really talking about here is an ambitious program to cut taxes for people like… well, people like me and David Brooks, and paying for it by “consolidating job-training programs” and forcing old people to accept reduced Medicare benefits.
We are in the middle of a major national disagreement over budget priorities, and that debate is going to turn into a full-scale cultural shooting war once the 2012 presidential election season comes around. It is obvious that we have a debt problem in this country and that something needs to be done about it. But a huge part of the blame for the confusion and the national angst over our budget issues has to be laid at the feet of media assholes like Brooks, who continually misrepresent what is actually happening with national spending.
The last ten years or so have seen the government send massive amounts of money to people in the top tax brackets, mainly through two methods: huge tax cuts, and financial bailouts. The government has spent trillions of our national treasure bailing out Wall Street, which has resulted directly in enormous, record profit numbers – nearly $100 billion in the last three years (and that doesn’t even count the tens of billions more in inflated compensation and bonuses that came more or less directly from government aid). Add to that the $700 billion or so the Obama tax cuts added to the national debt over the next two years, and we’re looking at a trillion dollars of lost revenue in just a few years.
You push a policy like that in the middle of a shaky economy, of course we’re going to have debt problems. But the issue is being presented as if the debt comes entirely from growth in entitlement spending. It’s bad enough that middle-class taxpayers have been forced in the last few years to subsidize the vacations and beach houses of the idiots who caused the financial crisis, and it’s doubly insulting that they’re now being blamed for the budget mess.
But the icing on the cake comes when a guy like David Brooks – like me a coddled, overcompensated media yuppie whose idea of sacrifice is raking one’s own leaves – comes out and calls Paul Ryan courageous for having the guts to ask seniors to cut back on their health care in order to pay for our tax breaks.
The absurd thing is that Ryan’s act isn’t even politically courageous. It’s canny calculation, but courage it is not. It would be courageous if Ryan were, say, the president of the United States, and leaning on that budget with his full might. But Ryan is proposing a budget he knows would have no chance of passing in the Senate. He is simply playing out a part, a non-candidate for the presidency pushing a rhetorical flank for an out-of-power party leading into a presidential campaign year. If the budget is a hit with the public, the 2012 Republican candidate can run on it. If it isn’t, the Republican candidate can triangulate Ryan’s ass back into the obscurity from whence it came, and be done with him.
No matter what, Ryan’s gambit, ultimately, is all about trying to get middle-class voters to swallow paying for tax cuts for rich people. It takes chutzpah to try such a thing, but having a lot of balls is not the same as having courage.
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