Post by the Scribe on Mar 21, 2020 10:17:48 GMT
The very FIRST thing a Republicon administration AND Republicon congress plots and passes is TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY AND CORPORATIONS. Included in their scam is a shell game tax cut for the middle class that never turns out to be a tax cut at all. They are just rearranging the deck chairs on the middle class Titanic. They have all done it. And when Obama EXTENDED that tax cut Republicon scam his first couple of years in office he PAID THE PRICE and lost congress.
companion thread: conservatism.freeforums.net/thread/513/economy-obama-trump-biden
THE PRICE WE PAY
www.cbc.ca/player/play/2659883678
The Price We Pay is inspired by Brigitte Alepin’s book La Crise fiscale qui vient. Director Harold Crooks (who co-directed Surviving Progress with Mathieu Roy) blows the lid off the dirty world of corporate malfeasance with this incendiary documentary about the dark history and dire present-day reality of big-business tax avoidance, which has seen multinationals depriving governments of trillions of dollars in tax revenues by harboring profits in offshore havens. Tax havens, originally created by London bankers in the 50s, today put over half the world’s stock of money beyond reach of public treasuries.
Nation states are being reshaped by this offshoring of the world’s wealth. Tax avoidance by big corporations and the wealthy – citizens of nowhere for tax purposes – is paving the way to historic levels of inequality and placing the tax burden on the middle class and the poor. Crusading journalists, tax justice campaigners and former finance and technology industry insiders speak frankly about the accelerating trends that are carrying the Western world to an unsustainable future.
PRODUCED by Nathalie Barton, InformAction Films
www.democracynow.org/2015/11/5/the_price_we_pay_inside_the
The Corporation - Full Movie
Among the 40 interview subjects are CEOs and top-level executives from a range of industries: oil, pharmaceutical, computer, tire, manufacturing, public relations, branding, advertising and undercover marketing; in addition, a Nobel-prize winning economist, the first management guru, a corporate spy, and a range of academics, critics, historians and thinkers are also interviewed.
The following story is disturbing because Trump seems to be on the same page as Sam Brownback regarding tax reform. Brownback's effort to prove Reaganomics, Friedmanomics, Laffernomics, Supply Side Economics, Voodoo Economics, which is all one in the same thing has been a total disaster for Kansas. Trump is even considering making Brownback into an ambassador before he is run out of Kansas by people chasing him with torches.
Before Reagan stole his way into office by trading arms for delay of the hostage release with Iran in 1980 the USA was a creditor nation. It didn't take long after their cutting taxes on the rich trickle down policies turned the USA into a debtor nation where we have stayed ever since. I fully expect an economic crash like never before towards the end of this year.
If the Trumpublican Healthcare bill is any indication of what they are planning for tax reform then we are all in deep doodoo. It should be noted that Sam Brownback is a Koch Bros. corporate whore and lackey as these Libertarian brothers are based in Kansas.
I also need to inform everyone if you don't already know it that the Koch Bros. octopus political organization is LARGER than the Republican Party.
Koch brothers set $889 million budget for 2016 - USA Today
www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/01/26/koch-brothers-network-announces-889-million-budget-for-next-two-years/22363809/
Jan 26, 2015 ... WASHINGTON – Top officials in the Koch brothers' political organization ... ranging from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to smaller Tea Party groups. ... more than double the nearly $400 million the Republican National ...
kochcash.org/the-kochtopus/
Friday, Dec 23, 2016 02:20 PM -0700
Sam Brownback urges Donald Trump to replicate his Kansas disaster on a national scale
America's least-liked governor hopes Trump will mimic the tax and spending cuts that has led to fiscal meltdown
Sophia Tesfaye Follow Skip to Comments
Topics: Donald Trump, economic policy, GOP, Gov. Sam Brownback, Kansas, Republican Party, Republicans, Stephen Moore, Taxes, Trump Administration, Trump transition, Politics News, Business News, News
Sam Brownback urges Donald Trump to replicate his Kansas disaster on a national scale
(Credit: AP/Charlie Riedel)
When recently asked what was the matter with Kansas, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback ignored the steaming pile of economic wreckage that his supply-side experiment has caused in the state, and suggested that President-elect Donald Trump should take the Kansas model nationwide.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Friday, America’s least popular governor urged Trump to mimic the massive spending and tax cuts he implemented in Kansas — which have led to growing budget gaps, missed growth projections and two credit downgrades for the state.
Critics “won’t look with any depth or detail at the impact on small business growth or private-sector job growth,” Brownback said, brushing aside the evidence that his policies have failed disastrously. “That’s the target, that’s what we’re after.”
When Brownback eliminated the state income tax for partnerships, limited liability corporations and other similarly structured entities in 2012 and 2013, he promised it would act “like a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy.” Now Kansas is experiencing such massive revenue shortages crisis that earlier this year Brownback quietly discontinued quarterly reports intended to highlight the state’s rapid economic growth. He has also been forced to raise the state sales tax, one of the most regressive ways of collecting revenue. The devastation of Brownback’s Kansas experiment is described by the Journal:
The tax-cut plan was paired with other policy changes, and the top individual income-tax rate dropped to 4.6% from 6.45%. Kansas also reduced growth in state spending to an average of 1.5% a year under Gov. Brownback, compared with 6.6% under his predecessor, due to cuts in higher education, Medicaid and other programs.
To fill budget holes, Mr. Brownback also won legislative approval to take about $2 billion from highway funding, delaying more than 30 transportation projects, according to the state transportation department.
Kansas has lost jobs this year, even as the U.S. as a whole has seen 1.7 percent job growth, according to the Labor Department. Brownback insists, however, that the state has “never had more private-sector jobs.” Confronted with surveys indicating that 70 percent of Kansans think the state is now on the wrong path and 74 percent disapprove of his job performance, Brownback claims that the voters simply don’t understand his policies.
“Change is a difficult thing in the body politic,” he told the Journal, faulting his elimination of teacher tenure as the main culprit for his low approval rating.
www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/us/koch-brothers-donate-heavily-in-kansas.html?_r=0
www.politico.com/story/2015/12/koch-brothers-network-gop-david-charles-217124
www.salon.com/2016/02/13/how_the_koch_brothers_hijacked_the_gop_im_not_sure_they_actually_could_do_anything_if_they_wanted_to/
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/06/11/could-the-koch-brothers-swallow-up-the-gop/?utm_term=.c636467d4e66
www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2015/nov/06/bernie-s/sanders-says-koch-brothers-are-outspending-either-/
Capital Rivals: Koch Brothers vs. George Soros
by Spencer MacColl on September 21, 2010
Note to readers: This post, from September 2010, does not reflect the state of play in 2016; in fact, it has been out-of-date for some years. Soon after the Citizens United decision (the same year this post was written) and other legal developments, the Koch brothers became very active at the center of a network of conservative, politically active 501(c) groups that aren’t required to disclose their donors. The groups, including Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, have collectively spent hundreds of millions of dollars working for or against candidates and/or giving money to other groups doing that kind of work. Nobody knows how much money the Kochs themselves are providing to this network. George Soros, on the other hand, has been very generous to Democratic super PACs, such as Priorities USA Action, which must publicly list their donors. Because we don’t know how much money the Kochs are providing, it’s virtually impossible to compare them with Soros or anyone else. A list of top contributors is here — but again, the list doesn’t include the Kochs because many of their checks are written to groups that don’t have to tell us where their funds are coming from.
We encourage you to read the following post from 2010 with this in mind.
— September 2016
www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/09/opensecrets-battle-koch-brothers/
www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/30/covert-operations
KPMG and Tax Havens for the Rich : The Untouchables - the fifth estate