MOST of our problems can be rolled back to corporate and wealthy influence on our government....Our legislators can't bring the jobs back that were outsourced because some of their biggest campaign contributors are the same people that sent the jobs overseas. Free trade, elimination of tariffs and the tax code have stunted G.D.P. growth. Does G.D.P. have anything to do with revenues?
We have a way to fix it.

www.shutupvotethebill.org

You must be a Dumb-ac-rat.

Saner heads will prevail with Thom Hartmann's lead.

Back in about 2004, they had a "Tax Holiday" for people and corporations that had been sheltering their money and assets outside of the US. The deal was that the USG would forgive the 35-40% taxation...but require about a 5% taxation instead. The deal was ostensibly done with the agreement that these corporations would, in return, hire more employees. Well, after they got their tax breaks, they didn't hire more employees, in fact they laid more people off. This was also touted as being a one-time-only deal...that this was their only chance for such a deal.

Well, now the USG is trying to do the same thing all over again....it was thought that this would be part of the debt ceiling agreement but didn't make it in as part of the deal. But, according to Matt Taibbi, he has his ears constantly atuned to what is going on in Washington and he said that this is not off the table...that it is still being rumored to be quite possible.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/evil-corporate-tax-h...

rasmus11: exactly right you are! And that's why I said that people like Buffet must realize that wealth has no meaning if they have to live in a junk yard. Buffet appears to be one of the wealthy who recognizes the fallacy of the failure of our government to tax and control those who cannot seem to help themselves but to be extremely greedy and selfish. There really are a few rich people who are not comfortable with being the target of all of that hate coming from the masses. Many, not only want wealth but they want to be loved and adored by their lesser fortunate creatures. Vermin like the Koch Roaches seem to be completely devoid of any empathy and continue to plot and control...despite some tidbits they might throw to the dogs, from time to time, in their vain attempt to fool some of their own high-brow fellows in that they are magnanimous and charitable. But of course, many wealthy creatures play these games mostly for the tax write-offs they get.

Like, for example, they may buy a painting at an auction for say $100,000, keep it for a few years...then donate it to a museum with the "estimated value" at say $2 million, so they get a tax write-off of $2 million on a $100,000 investment. They get the publicity and adoration of being generous but in reality they are making piles of money off of it. And the result is that the rich use such trickery to push the tax burden down to hard working people who cannot resort to such tax-cheating games.

Maybe we should all be thinking about the idea that the Donner Party had when crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains....EAT THE RICH!!! Of course, although it wasn't necessarily "the rich" that got eaten back then but if the wealthy push us further into poverty and we wind up hungry in the streets...many just may take the opportunity to pounce upon any wealthy-looking individuals roaming around in their expensive Ferraris. I say that figuratively, of course, maggot soup doesn't sound very inviting...but, then again, if we are starving........!

Grover will not move over WE MUST PUSH HIM OUT

I am sorry I don't read the NY Times regularly. What page was the article on? 10 or 12 . It is sad, but I think unless we stand up this time they will disregard Buffet and every poll or expert that speaks truth to power. What about the millionaire pledge or letter that circulated before the deficit hostage event. If it is front page news, how can it not be given a voice on main stream media, and become part of the crucial discourse. There are other options than what Main Stream Media constantly broadcasts 24/7, misinforming the greater American Public with one side of the story. Why didn't the media report page 4 of the S&P report?

How did we get hoodwinked with the Super Congress. I didn't vote for it. How is developing a new branch of Government ok with out our approval. It makes me sick to think now we have exactly the same corruption as the Supreme Court. If 6 of the 12 have already decided what the raw deal will be, and the other 6 are 50/50 what are our chances of having anything close to a fair deal. We are being taken hook, line, and sinker on the race to the bottom while 1 % laugh all the way to the bank they own. Argh!

Lets be accurate : US lived many years under Reaganomics deregulation of ruling class, corps , Wall ST -energy, trucking,airlines, and more. Reagan Bush GOP wealth favoring policies that tanked our wages, jobs sent overseas with big Bush cuts, Reagans total 1986 amnesty for slave labor. Paulsons 700 billion TARP joke on taxpayers.-we paid 100 cents of the dollar for worthless JUNK , we gave croooked banks AIG - even foreign banks, zero interests loans.. Bush waged 2 long failed wars , Iraq based on fear, lies , war profits, Bush failed at killing Bin laden US # 1 enemy . W even had a GOP congress 6 long yrs 2000- 2006 They gave him ALL he asked for No questions asked. 2 long UNfunded wars Bush did not know how to end, 2 huge corp cuts, subsides, loopholes. Those are the facts not my opinion. Obama has a decent record after taking on several crisis at once. Jan 2009 . Dealing with hate smears demonizing by Fox Beck Hannity Cheney Rove Palen Bachman + 800 con radio talk shows that spew lies- hate every single day . No other Pres ha shad to deal with that Last straw Bagger run GOP forced a very unfair bill under threat of US default Are those the kind of folks you trust with our future ? I think not

Move over Grover and let the People take over!

In response to flyguy, maybe Texas should secede then and Gov. Rick Perry with it.

It is incredibly unnerving to see a growing # of everyday people (such as Iowans) support these radical, dangerous clowns. Are we not at an all-time high in this country for misinformation disguised as fact, where most working people can't keep up and buy the FoxFacts?

Does anyone know of a progressive website *specifically* designed to debunk the BS? I don't mean all the great sites like Truthout, Alternet, Rawstory, etc, but a site that just lays out the nonpartisan facts, on key myths such as: 1) Only 50% of Americans pay taxes, 2) Is the middle class really shrinking, 3) What did the Founding Fathers have in mind in terms of people power vs corporate power (perhaps extracting points from Thom's books, as could be the case with many of these issues), 4) Healthcare stats in this country vs the world (US deaths, bankruptcies), 5) Red state reliance on federal support vs blue state), 5) global warming.

These are issues where Fox and company have twisted the logic to such absurd levels that the truth is reversed. I'm sort of adept at addressing these issues with Tea Partiers and other Righties, but I don't always have a quick link to share with people and don't have statistics memorized in the way that, for example Thom does. I wish there was a site (and there may be, or maybe I should create one), where these trigger, Koch Brothers twisted issues where addressed in a factual yet brief manner.

It's not just the republcians, Thom.