Recent comments
ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World
Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
Join Thom for his new twice-weekly email newsletters on ADHD, whether it affects you or a member of your family.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
It is easy for us who have a job to get mad at any compromise on no tax relief for the rich. But if you are one of the 2 million who did not get an unemployment check this week and any of the following weeks--than you'd back any compromise for that check. What about those folks--the 2 million without a penny for now, for Xmas, for the New Year????
There should be outrage over the tax plan but aiming it at Obama is not appropriate. The GOP in an example of one of the most immoral maybe treasonous acts ever witnessed held, not only those 2 million who were going to lose their unemployment benefits but the entire country hostage in order to please 2% of the population. The rich folks. It is probably true that to increase the burden on the average american tax payer to the tune of 3,000 dollars next year would have had a very negative effect on the economic recovery. It is also true that to stop paying unemployment benefits to americans out of work would have been bad for the economy and incredibly painful. As it is, the deal struck by the president will keep those negative effects from happening. He also got some other things that will help the economy in the short and near term. Don't forget, the rich would not have been hurt if a deal had not been struck, just the middle class and those out of unemployment benefits and of course the economy. The president had no choice except to do what he did.
Taxes do two things, generate revenue and encourage or discourage behavior!
Give the GOP the rates argument. We can win a tax fight based on behavior!
Example: Capitol gains! If you hold an asset (house, car, factory equipment) for 20 years lower the tax rate to ZERO because your investment has helped your community and the USA economy. If you buy and flip an asset like a company, the short term ownership has a negative effect on the whole community.
The community that supported the company by investing in infrastructure and giving them local tax cuts to help them grow is now stuck with huge cost like unemployment, food stamps and retraining the local workforce. Think about the crushing effect this greedy behavior does to thousands of small business owners that invested their money to create service and niche manufacturing supporting companies.
Here is an example of a crazy NON rate tax problem. If I buy a lottery ticket or place a bet a Vegas you pay the MAX income tax rate. If you’re on Wall Street and you buy a company, strip the assets, outsource the jobs, crush a community and throw thousands of Americans out of work. You pay 15% capital gains! In a free market shouldn’t the community be compensated for there investment?
The capital gain for this type of behavior should be VERY high (60 %?). Drop the capital rate mathematically to zero after 20 years.
Say OK to the GOP about tax rates! Put them in the position of defending bad behavior.
Think about it! We need a tax system that encourages long term investment not short term. It’s time to take action on the behavior argument.
Monza
Failure of Leadership ---------------
In 2008, candidate Obama called passage of the tax cuts for the rich, "a failure of leadership".
McConnell said on Meet the Press last Sunday that Republicans would likely vote to extend unemployment benefits. So this "compromise" is no compromise. They were going to do it anyway. They would of HAD to as the unemployed revolted.
As any child can tell you, "If you want a puppy, start out by asking for a pony." Extending the tax cuts permanently is the GOP's "pony". A "two year extension" until a Republican president can get in and extend them permanently is their "puppy".
The Debt Ceiling ---------------------------
via DailyKOS:
“Before the ink is dry on this deal, the Republican leaders who demanded its passage will vilify the President as a reckless spender who just added a trillion dollars to the national debt. Then they will vote against raising the debt ceiling.” - Rep. Peter Welch.
Republicans are ALREADY refusing to raise the Debt Ceiling in March, negating any "stimulus effect" from this deal.
The White House, including Pres. Obama, keep reciting that if we go back to the Clinton tax rates the average tax payer will pay an additional $3000 per year. An additional 4.5% = $3000?
Average income in this country is $43362 (as of 2008) Median is $32140
15% (+$1065) is $8109, 19.5% (+$1605) is10060. a difference of $1951
Their own numbers don't add up.
Hi Tom
This latest betrayal by President Obama clearly indicates that he will never provided the leadership we need.
When the general fails to lead, preemptively gives up the high ground ahead of each major engagement, makes secret treaties with the opposition behind the scenes to undercut just about everything he promised to defend, and finally adds insult to injury by consistently disparaging the courage, integrity, honesty and dedication of his own troops while almost always supporting the sincerity of the other side, you can hardly blame the troops for not winning the war.
I am sick and tired of being implicated in this administration's failures on grounds of not being sufficiently active. I am sick and tired of being told that my poor checkers brain simply cannot compete with his lofty chess ability. I am sick and tired of being told that the fault lies with Republican intransigence or the legacy of the Bush Administration or the Supreme Court. I am sick and tired of being told to hold fast a little longer because any day now President Obama will rise to the occasion and show his true colors. I am sick and tired of being abandoned in the trenches by this president. And finally, I am sick and tired of the spin offering a constant stream of apologia for President Obama's failure to lead.
The truth is, President Obama is nothing more nor less than a backroom bureaucrat governing to preserve the status quo in Washington DC. He is not the leader his campaign portrayed, nor is he the leader we desperately need in these difficult times. He absolutely must be replaced and the campaign to achieve that should start right now.
And this country, of the 2%, by the 2%, and for the 2%, shall not perish from the earth.
Failure of Leadership ---------------
In 2008, candidate Obama called passage of the tax cuts for the rich, "a failure of leadership".
McConnell said on Meet the Press last Sunday that Republicans would likely vote to extend unemployment benefits. So this "compromise" is no compromise. They were going to do it anyway. They would of HAD to as the unemployed revolted.
As any child can tell you, "If you want a puppy, start out by asking for a pony." Extending the tax cuts permanently is the GOP's "pony". A "two year extension" until a Republican president can get in and extend them permanently is their "puppy".
Why not let the tax cuts expire and then pass a "tax rebate" bill via reconcilliation that gives back $500 to every taxpayer (billionaires included). This will counter the problem Obama speaks of that we can't let taxes go up during these tough economic times. The $500 offsets all middle-class American's tax increase with the added benefit of winning their support when they open their mail and say "Wow! Obama gave me $500!".
Betrayal.
Its how the Progressives and the Administration feels toward each other... this is not good, this is definitely going to end badly if neither side works towards a reconciliation soon. Its already going bad, they're already jockeying for the best position to get custody of the kids... er a.. constituents.
N
The tax breaks will end, necessarily, in some years. The real time bomb is the change to the Estate Tax. Tax breaks, as destructive as they are, are just a component of dynasty which is build in the lack of real estate taxes.
I think I need a good fight. After eight years of the Bush administration, war, torture, daily lies in the media, etc., I am all worked up. Some of this energy went towards getting Obama elected, but I'm on a sort of permanent "fight" (as opposed to "flight") setting after all this time. Met a lot of great grassroots groups and folks fighting for progressive causes along the way. Expected to see them get a voice in policy-making once Obama was in office. OFA becomes a re-election engine for Obama rather than an engine for the policies he ran on.
Got geared up for the health care fight, my adrenalin stoked by all the public testimony that pointed to the private healthcare system as the problem. Prepared my arguments for single payer and public option only to find out that those things had been traded away before the grassroots groups got to the table. And no volume discounts on pharma purchases either. I'd been lobbying my representatives for nothing. Was told to get behind the deal that had already been cut. Be quiet, sit on your hands.
Argued with the family at Thanksgiving. Bush-era tax cuts for the rich should expire. Immoral to give to the rich when the poor and losing their jobs and their homes and pensions. Lobbied my representatives and expected the fight to go to the wire. Full of adrenalin and fury. But now the President is lecturing me - be grateful for the deal that has already been cut. Accused of lacking compassion for the poor who get 13 months unemployment under this deal. Told to sit down and shut up when I'm still stoked for a fight. Now is not the time to fight but to compromise, I'm told.
Again and again, the grassroots who sacrificed time, effort, money and other interests to get Obama elected have the rug pulled out from under them before they can even fight. The deal's already been made - what would the deal have looked like if we'd been allowed to fight our fight first? Are these deals made early just so we can't get our side mobilized? Obama acts like he doesn't need our input and doesn't want our fight. Fight is what we know how to do. We can't get any more angry than we are - we need an outlet. Every parent knows that when the kids are acting up in church or school, you must give them something to do. We have nothing to do but to feel defeated. The Republicans are laughing at us. We're caged and pacing back and forth before the bars.
DAMN IT THOM! I'VE HAD IT! I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANY MORE! THIS IS THE LAST STRAW!! I'm so damn hopping mad I can't see straight.
Yesterday I, like many other red blooded Americans, I stopped at a self service gas station on my mission to fulfill my duty as a true American patriot by consuming as much good old all American refined, foreign petroleum as I possibly can. At the station I grabbed a window-washing squeegee out of a plastic bucket and I pulled a paper towel out of the dispenser provided by the owner of the station. And as I looked down at the beautiful blue, crisply folded, paper towel, I was surprised by being overcome with fond memories of a time when the country was united as one. When middle class families could afford a nice home surrounded by a fine white picket fence. When families could expect to send their kids to college and in turn expect to spend their golden years enjoying a meaningful retirement with a generous guaranteed pension.
As tears streamed from my eyes and down my cheeks my euphoric nostalgia came to a crashing halt. Suddenly my mood gave way to blinding rage and uncontrollable anger. As I looked down at the blue, crisply folded paper towel, I realized what saps we are. What fools we've been. How naive we've been. How completely we've been duped!
When, I want to know, did gas station owners insidiously initiate the use of alternative colored paper towels to replace the time honored tradition of using BLUE paper towels for cleaning car windshields? When did it become OK to use brown paper towels or red paper towels or white paper towels? Everyone knows that BLUE is the one and only proper color for paper towels used for cleaning the windshields of autos in the United States of America!
Could this treasonous assault on one of Americas' most sacred traditions be an unholy anti American alliance by the multitudes of foreign gas station owners that have quietly infiltrated the nation? Or maybe it's some misguided, politically correct, anti global- warming extremists seeking to impose some deranged new world order on the United States of America? Or is it, more likely, the conspiracy of greedy multi-national corporations trying to condition us to accepting even more sinister methods of dividing us and usurping our will while they plunder our treasury?
Whatever the case, I for one will not stand by any longer and watch the country I love sink further into moral depravity. If this is not a disaster of epic proportions. Then what is?
It should be apparent to anyone that this most evil disgrace is clearly responsible for all the ills that have befallen our great nation. We can now plainly see what is bringing our beloved homeland to the very brink of imploding under the weight of false values. Will we sit by as the greatest nation the world has ever known disintegrates into chaos? Is it any wonder that our great and most holy home land seems to have been so forsaken by the almighty?
I must admit to sharing much of the blame for this terrible tragedy. I should have spoken up sooner. I should have been less gullible and more suspicious when I first saw the introduction of shop-rags that were not the time honored, traditional color of brick red, at garages throughout the country. I shuddered at the first sight of a blue shop rag. Before long, there were brown shop-rags and all too soon, other colors too. There were even white shop-rags! How sick is that?
Still, I remained silent while each new colored shop-rag slithered onto the scene. I took a personal oath to boycott any garage or even a friends garage, that used these tawdry substitutes. But, before you knew it; the wonderful brick-red traditional shop-rag was in the minority in its own land. Deeper and deeper our nation sunk further and further into the moral dilemma that we now find ourselves in. I pretended that it would end with shop-rags and it would not spread further. How wrong I was! I too was lulled into complacency as blue paper towels were discreetly replaced by other colors. Was it for for expediency or just some cheap sensory thrill? Can it be any more shameful?
But, no more! I asking everyone to join me in rectifying this ungodly transgression. I'm sure that my brothers and sisters in the Tea Party will join me as they can easily relate to the something that is so visibly obvious to any true American. I have no doubt that Sarah Palin will, upon learning about this great crusade, take up the cause as this is surly an issue that would once and for all sweep her into the White House. She has without a doubt proven at the turkey farm and on hunting and fishing trips; she can be relied or to dispense with quick and sure justice to any infidels that would defy us.
No doubt, there are those that will see this as an issue of race. I say: Nonsense! Pshaw! And Pshaw again!! Don't try to muddy the water with your own personal misconceptions. The scope of this issue could not be clearer.
Also, there are those that will see this as the ravings of an ideological lunatic. Well we'll see who has the last laugh. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Go ahead. Mock me at your own peril. Ha ha ha.
I could go on and on describing how this demented curse has almost destroyed our great nation. But, now is the time for action! Now we must go forth, marching to renew the American promise as we dream of the day when each and every sacred tin or plastic towel dispenser at every service station across this great land proudly offers a clean, crisp, blue towel gallantly wafting in the breeze. And each mechanic at every garage has a classic brick red, shop-rag dangling like a squirrels' tail out of the back pocket of his or her grease stained coveralls. Then America will once again be restored to the status of "Greatest Nation In The World"!
Took me a couple hours to expunge paypal from my movie's website. Now I have to cancel the Visa card too. Assange, why can't you just be a Good American and not inconvenience me so much? I have comments to write on HuffPo.
We are NOT going to trade the cowardly republicans 2 years of unfunded tax cuts for the rich just to extend unemployment 1 year!
It is time to hold these cowards out in the light of day and have single-issue roll-call votes on each and every item.
Best regards,
Charles, in California
Sssssst !
Hey barliman, the best way to spread a story is to designate it as a secret .
For anyone who still thinks that democratic political entities are truly that, get a clue. A democracy is the most easily corruptible state. All a corporation has to do is buy it . Many corporations own several..The population is enslaved by debt legislated by banks , funded by the elected state governments. The more expensive/profitable states are split up and owned by cabals. The occupants are anesthetized by the corporate media and sweetheart deals . The political leaders (corporate sock puppets, carefully groomed and vetted , able to act out scripted dramatizations and sound bite succinct photo ops, are installed like the chocolate chips in a delicious cookie). Democratic style states involve the dominated population by convincing them that their participation is effectual in their self governance, and a numbing bombarge of media broadcasts of sports,social hype and religion. The scope of the choices should be a sufficient clue to the oxymoron of this premise. Look at the U.S. today." Of the ...by the..for the..." ,, gimme a break. An Aussie got a "gimmee" citizenship, bought a boatload of broadcasting bandwidth and started his takeover of the corporate states of amerikkka via the airwaves, and everything under the sun as well.If we are to believe the stats, how does 2 percent of the population control the other 98percent? They take control of the military via the presidency (any body seen obama?) . The real corporate agenda is to move public acceptance of nuclear technology forward.
There is way too much secrecy in government. Secrecy is essential to maintaining an "us versus them paradigm" that is so important in maintaining the power that seem along with money, the only thing that is worshipped nowadays.
Julian Assange should be honoured for his work towards restoring participatory democracy.
This isn't complicated.
1. The Wealth in this country is controlled by 1%. They now control OBama.
2. Whatever happened to "We the People?" - The other 99% of Americans? Don't WE count?
3. The expression, put your money where your mouth is, should be for OBama, Talk is Cheap and so are you. Blah, Blah, Blah! Really! You are all talk! What a pick-up line!
4. I could have just voted for a Republican and had the same results.
5. The morale in this country is terrible, and President Obama, you just added to that! Congratulations!
6. Thom, people are not going to go and vote the next time. We now know, what our mothers always taught us, "Boys Lie."
Sincerely,
Becky Gilberto
This episode reveals clearly what a dangerous imperial power the United States has become. No citizen is safe anywhere in the world in his or her own country. The whole world has become America's war zone. If Americans ever wondered how it was that Hitler rose to power and why the masses marched lockstep to his war drums, they need only look around them now. Germans nursed grievances against enemies real or imagined. Germans believed in their own mythology. Germans fervently promoted a deep-rooted social philosophy that can be traced back through leading intellectuals and philosophers, among them Nobel peace prize recipients, going back to Nietzshe, 33 years before Hitler rose to power. Germans believed that they were making a better world in search of the übermensch (superman aka Zarathustra). Germans had their own version of manifest destiny. America is now a dark mirror image of another world order run amok.
If he had published Russian or Chinese secrets he would have disappeared.
I worked in gov't for 34 years. I and others had opportunities to expose waste and abuse. It never worked when going through "normal chain-of-command channels". Secretly meeting with a news reporter, or "dropping" off some documents in an unmarked manila envelope was necessary to try and get the info out to the public....and that method wasn't a sure thing either.
We punish those who try to help expose wrongs, and reward / honor those who undermine what's left of our democratic society.
I wanna see President Obama bestow the Medal of Freedm to Julian Assange.
If there is some juicy stuff concerning Australia's previous conservavite government I hope wikileaks lets it rip!
I'm torn... on the one hand I want to know what's going on with my government, and on the other hand I also know that for any country to be effective in foreign policy it has to be able do some things in secret.
And is it me or is it that the US government is being targeted here? Where are the Chinese secrets, or the British or the Russians? If we are going to have sunshine on Government secrets then we need to do it for everyone, and not just the US.
So I don't really see anyone as heroic here. I see a group who think they are right and want to change the way things are done by exposing secrets, but I don't see them applying their zeal in a way that is doing any real good at the moment. I also think that there is some real harm in exposing everything all the time. We all wear clothes to cover some things up. Governments need to have the same right to keep some things under covers.
As for the arrest, Who Knows? It could be retaliation but I don't go in for conspiracies unless it involves Republicans and Sarah Palin.