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The LIE of 'trickle-down economics' - Republicans fight for tax cuts for the rich

At the expense of the American people, Republicans fight to increase the wealth of the top 1% - their puppet masters.

"Trickle down economics" is a lie and a scam. A way for the GOP to pay their puppet masters. Did trickle down economics work for Reagan?

No:

The UPI headline on 12/30, 1989 - a report on Reaganomics included -

"upper income Americans were the main direct beneficiaries of tax cuts in the early 1980s. there is no evidence in our data that those benefits have trickled down to lower-income Americans."

When Reagan came into office in 1981, he inherited a $994 million national debt. by the time he left, it had ballooned to $2.6 billion.

Reaganomics was a spectacular success for the richest Americans in the country who benefited most from the tax cuts. The top 1% had seen their wages rise by 80%. Average wages in the rest of the country remained flat and the poorest Americans saw their income shrink by more than 10%. That was Reaganomics.

The designer of Reaganomics, David Stockman, declared on NPR that “Reagan would never support extending the Bush tax cuts.” Stockman took this assertion a step further in calling out the Republican leadership for perverting the notions of fiscal conservatism and betraying what the Party used to stand for. He laid blame on the Bush administration. Stockton blames the GOP for "destroying the American economy."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Warren Buffett said that he was taxed at 17.7% on the $46 million he made last year while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30%.

That is what the GOP is fighting for. I think Buffet knows a bit about money. You might care to hear what he has to say.

Trickle down economics is not trickling to American jobs, it’s trickling to China. What percentage of your clothing and manufactured good are made in America and who is earning the money for those goods? The top 1/10 of 1% – the CEOs. Delusional Republicans think the tax breaks to CEO’s and big corporations put Americans to work. No, the big corps instead oursource to improve their profit margin. They don't give a shit about putting Americans to work if they can make a few buck by moving operations to Malaysia.

UPDATE: Obama caves. The puppet masters win again. The GOP push their "Leave No CEO Behind" policy. Bernie Sanders to the rescue?

Some people just don't get it.

George Carlin can explain it to you:
(H/T - Shelly Stone)

Have you looked at your 401k or mutual fund lately? And you want another Republican?

Remember those great Clinton years?

And you want another Republican?

Bill Ayers is a phony issue. Let's talk about McCain 's economic advisers who could shape America's future affecting everyone

Tell the people whose house just got foreclosed, lost their job, and can’t afford gas how Bill Ayers is relevant to them. It's desperate classic GOP swiftboating. Shall we talk about someone who did something radical when Obama was 8 years old or should we talk about the people who are responsible for the US financial situation that, according to the conservative Wall Street Journal, are "the people riding on his [McCain's] campaign bus."

Phil Gramm, McCain's economic adviser pushed through a bill that deregulated swaps - insurance policies covering the losses on securities in the event of a default.

"These unregulated swaps have been at the heart of the subprime meltdown. I happen to think Gramm did not know what he was doing. I don't think a member in Congress had read the 262-page bill or had thought of the cataclysm it would cause."

--Michael Greenberger, former Director of CTFC division of trading & markets

But how did Gramm get this into legislation? He did it deceptively. He bundled it into a must-pass omnibus spending bill and slipped it in at the last possible minute during the Bush v. Gore standoff at the very end of the Clinton Administration.

Gramm was also heavily connected to Enron. Enron was a generous contributor to Gramm. Gramm's bill exempted energy trading from regulatory oversight, allowing Enron to run rampant, wreck the California electricity market, and cost consumers billions before it collapsed. And this is the kicker... 8 years earlier, his wife, Wendy Gramm, as CFTC chairwoman, pushed through a rule excluding Enron's energy futures contracts from government oversight. Wendy later joined Eron's board, and in the following years her Enron salary and stock income brought between $915,000 and $1.8 million into the Gramm household.

Yea, lets talk history.

Let's talk about "Foreclosure Phil" Gramm, Carly "Golden Parachute" Fiorina, and Rick "Freddie Mac" Warren - ALL McCain campaign advisers, the people who will be guiding the McCain economic policy ... because the old man says he doesn't know much about it.

Relevant history.

Before Bush and now

Are you better off today than you were 8 years ago? Is America? The Bush administration has shown unprecedented incompetence in both foreign and domestic policy.

• Before Bush -- Dow: January 19, 2001: 10,587.59


• Now ---------- Dow: September 29, 2008: 10,365.45

• Before Bush - NASDAQ: Jan 19, 2001 = 2770.38


• Now --------- NASDAQ: September 29, 2008 = 1983.73

• Before Bush - Dollar exchange with Euro, January 19, 2001: 1.068


• Now --------- Dollar exchange with Euro, September 29, 2008: .695

• Before Bush -- National Debt: $5.727 trillion.


• Now ---------- National Debt: $9.849 trillion

Bush has made the largest contribution to the national debt than any previous president in American history: more than $4 trillion

US budget deficit: deficit is annual additions to national debt.



Can you imagine being John McSame (McBush) and having to debate Obama on the economy next week... with people like Phil "deregulator" Gramm, Carly "golden parachute" Fiorina, and Marc "Freddie mac" Davis on his staff?

How about Sarah "I can see Russia" Palin debating Joe Biden with 35 yrs foreign policy experience?

Obama's lead grows again today after polls show most thought he won the debate.

McCain's stunt fails - Obama +8 in Gallup Poll

How's that stunt working for ya McCain?

Fox News Sunday - John Kerry tells us what happened with McCain's stunt:

"Barack Obama was in constant touch with Secretary Paulson almost every single day, sometimes several times a day for the last two weeks. Barack Obama was the first person to speak and lay out at that meeting at the White House for about seven or eight minutes the entire parameters of what we had resolved. John McCain, when offered the opportunity to speak, passed, didn’t speak until the very end, and when he spoke, did not offer a solution and did not say what he would support. The fact is that on a Monday of about a week ago, John McCain said the fundamentals of our economy are strong. Within a few days, John McCain was suspending his campaign because of the greatest crisis since World War II. He suspended his campaign and it took him 22 hours to get from New York to Washington, a one-hour flight, had time to go do Katie Couric in an interview, had time to give a speech to the Clinton millennium, and when he got here, he wound up — I mean, he said he was going to interrupt his campaign to come down and save the negotiations. Most people believe what he did was interrupt the negotiations to come down and save his campaign."

Obama is up by 8 in the new Gallup poll.

Dodd, Banking Committee Chair: "a lot of us have been working for 5 straight days around the clock and I haven't heard a word from John McCain."

John McCain - Stunt Man

Obama did the right thing -- showed leadership. At 8:30 AM, Obama reached out to his rival to propose they come up with a bipartisan statement. By making this effort, Obama gave up the opportunity to show just how much better he and his team are responding to this issue, how much more the public blames the GOP for this mess, and instead prioritized finding a solution that would work.

McCain received that offer. And he sat on it. For six hours. What happened in those 6 hours? A call to the White House perhaps? Finally, at 2:30 PM, McCain accepted the offer. It seems that, during those six long hours when McCain was mulling Obama's proposal, McCain was inventing a way to turn this into yet another political gimmick. Twenty minutes after accepting Obama's proposal, McCain pulled this stunt of calling for a suspension of the campaign and postponement of the debate.

Who is gullible enough to actually believe John McCain will be going to DC to "work across the aisle to strike a deal that will save the economy?" You know, McCain - the guy who said 10 days ago - "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." Maybe the same people who thank Bush for a wonderful presidency? Maybe the same people who think "drill baby drill" will help our gas prices?

Chris Dodd is the chair of the Senate Banking Committee. He OWNS this issue. Dodd says:

"I'm beginning to think this is more about a rescue plan for John McCain than a rescue plan for the economy...Candidly, a lot of us have been working for 5 straight days around the clock and I haven't heard a word from John McCain."

Maybe you smart people can tell me what exactly McCain is going to do in Washington besides a photo op with Bush? He doesn't sit on any of the relevant committees, the committees are already deep in negotiations for days, pretty much finished with their work. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

What are others saying?

Survey USA:

Immediately after John McCain’s announcement 3 pm ET today, Wednesday 09/24/08, that he was suspending his campaign and seeking to postpone Friday’s schedule presidential debate, SurveyUSA interviewed 1,000 adults nationwide. Key findings:

A majority of Americans say the debate should be held. Just 10% say the debate should be postponed.

WashPost: A Transparent Ploy

Salon: Stunt Man

The only way to understand it is politically: In a presidential campaign, the surest sign that a candidate is playing politics on an issue is when he claims not to be playing politics on an issue... It's hard to believe that McCain's actions would pass his own laugh test.

Boston Globe: McCain's Debate Stunt

altering the debate schedule would hardly serve voters. If anything, debates are most valuable at times of national crisis, because voters need to hear candidates highlight their policy differences.

That's what Obama said.

Republicans lose the blame game

Men and seniors now favor Obama

Game over:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- By a 2-to-1 ratio, Americans blame Republicans over Democrats for the financial crisis that has swept across the country the past few weeks, a new national poll suggests.

And Obama has a 10-point lead over McCain when it comes to who respondents think would better handle the economy overall.

These numbers seem to be affecting the battle for the presidency. Fifty-one percent of registered voters now say they will back Obama, five points ahead of McCain, at 46 percent.

"In two core McCain constituencies: men, who now narrowly favor Obama, and seniors, who have also flipped from McCain to Obama," said Bill Schneider, a CNN senior political analyst.

McCain: “We need to return to the Reagan years… we need less regulation.”

The above quote from McCain was not from his days just after the Keating 5, no... it was in a PBS interview from this year. [PBS “Washington Week,” 1/25/08]

Despite his claim to hate the debt, Reagan instituted unprecedented peacetime deficit spending. This is not partisan politics, this is straight off the White House web site. As the graph shows, Bush II repeated Reagan's performance and turned the debt upward again. (Bush II's own Office of Management and Budget provides all this data).

The Bush II curve on this graph is much less steep than it should be. This data was plotted before the new bailout crisis which will raise the statutory limit on the national debt from $10.6 trillion to $11.3 trillion to make room for the massive rescue ... not to mention the over 600,000 jobs lost this year through August.

Look hard at this graph. Notice which presidents managed America better. Any questions?



And McCain wants to return to the Reagan years.

I think we need a change.

McCain's health care plan: deregulate insurance industry because it worked so well for the banking industry

McCain the deregulator wrote:

"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation. "

Wow. And you think health insurance is expensive now? Wait til President McCain gets in. If you aren't under the state or federal umbrella for your health insurance, forget it... you'll never be able to afford it and if you ever need hospital care or have an accident, you'll spend the rest of your life paying for it.

Newsweek: Raines was never an Obama adviser, top Fannie and Freddie lobbyist is McCain campaign manager

People in glass houses....

McCain's campaign is SWIMMING in Fannie and Freddie lobbyists.

Newsweek:

The McCain campaign launched a broadside at Obama for taking advice from Franklin Raines, a disgraced former chief of Fannie Mae. But Raines was never an Obama adviser and had much less contact with the Obama campaign than a top lobbyist for Fannie and Freddie had with the McCain campaign. That lobbyist's name is Rick Davis and he's McCain's campaign manager. "People with seven glass houses shouldn't throw stones," gibed the Obama campaign.

Well, guess what? Politico reports that at least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pocketing at least $12.3 million over the last nine years. For example -

• Aquiles Suarez, listed as an economic adviser to the McCain campaign in a July 2007 McCain press release, was formerly the director of government and industry relations for Fannie Mae. The Senate Lobbying Database says Suarez oversaw the lending giant's $47,510,000 lobbying campaign from 2003 to 2006.
  

• The lobbying firm of Charlie Black, one of McCain's top aides, made at least $820,000 working for Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2004.

• The McCain campaign's vice-chair Wayne Berman and its congressional liaison John Green made $1.14 million working on behalf of Fannie Mae for lobbying firm Ogilvy Government Relations. Green made an additional $180,000 from Freddie Mac.

• Arther B. Culvahouse Jr., the VP vetter who helped John McCain select Sarah Palin, earned $80,000 from Fannie Mae in 2003 and 2004, while working for lobbying and law firm O'Melveny & Myers LLP.

Still want to talk about Raines?

Documentary: "Third Term" - McCain's culpability in American economic failure

I love documentaries and here's one you'll all love: "Third Term" - available Sept. 25.

This film is completely pertinent to the news of a trillion dollar government bailout we are reading about this morning. The film focuses on how we got where we are.

Check out this clip.

It’s the same thing that’s happening now, as banks fail, and as our housing market collapses. And the people responsible for this new crisis are the ones McCain has surrounded himself with, men like Phil Gramm and his banking lobbyists. He will offer the same kind of deregulatory policies that led to the banking collapse of the early ‘90s.

John McCain was implicated in the biggest S&L scandal of its time back in ’80s –The Keating 5:

Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan, was making a lot of risky investments, and the government was investigating. So Keating called some of his old pals in the Senate to put a little pressure on the government regulators and get them off his back. McCain accepted. Keating raised $1.3 million for them. They challenged regulators who were investigating his operations. Lincoln collapsed, leading to a bailout of $2.8 billion in taxpayer money. Keating went to prison for four years. McCain should have joined him. McCain was the closest of any of the Keating Five to Charles Keating.

John McCain has built his political career on deregulation and now we see where it has gotten us. Look at John McCain's record and statements from the 2008 campaign:

• McCain Said The Difference Between Obama & Himself Would Be “More Regulation Or Less Regulation.” [McCain Media Availability via CQ Transcriptions, 3/3/08]


• "I don’t think anyone who wants to increase the burden of government regulation..." - John McCain [Town Hall in Inez, Kentucky, 4/23/08]


• “I understand why the AFL-CIO and maybe other unions may oppose my free market less regulation" - John McCain [Fox News,” Special Report with Brit Hume,” 3/12/08]


• "Let’s reduce regulation.” - John McCain [CNN, “Ballot Bowl, 3/15/08]

• "We need less government. We need less regulation..." - John McCain [PBS, “Washington Week,” 1/25/08]

THIRD TERM - WATCH THE TRAILER

Bill O'Reilly on the legacy of GW Bush: "poor leadership...and now Americans are getting hurt."

We knew this presidency would be a disaster and we were right, and now the reality is even too obvious for Bush supports to ignore.

Bill O'Reilly:

He’s done. He’s through. … He will now go down in history…as an ineffectual leader. And I’ll tell you the reason why, it’s poor leadership on his part. The people that he picked to run certain things have been disastrous. And no leadership and now Americans are getting hurt.

LISTEN HERE

And these 30%ers.... you know who they are, they support Bush and then say McCain is their candidate for "Real hope and change". Sounds like a contradiction. What does this say about the judgement of such people? (mostly authoritarian religious gun owning white guys with kids)

McCain spent his career pushing for deregulation - what is now causing America's financial institutions to collapse

John McCain is confused about the economy. As the NYT reported yesterday, John McCain "...is scrambling to adjust" his prior staunch pro-deregulation stance.

He has spent his career as a deregulator:

– “I am a deregulator. I believe in deregulation.” [CNN, 7/13/03]

– “I have a long voting record in support of deregulation.” [St. Petersburg Times, 6/5/03]

Until his comments today calling for more regulation, it seems that John McCain's solution to an era in which financial deregulation set the stage for federal bailouts, rampant speculation, and reckless lending is ... less regulation.

"Our financial market approach should include encouraging increased capital in financial institutions by removing regulatory, accounting and tax impediments to raising capital."

-- John McCain, March 25, 2008

Headline of Phoenix Business Journal, Feb. 6, 2008:

McCain points to support of low taxes, less regulation in wake of Super Tuesday wins

Salon:

Reading McCain's economic agenda and listening to his speech, it appears that the problem with the last eight years is that we haven't seen enough tax breaks for the wealthy, that economic royalism hasn't been pursued with sufficient vigor, and that the middle and working classes haven't been stiffed sufficiently.

McCain wants to extend the Bush tax cuts, which he once opposed as a needless sop to the rich in a time of war.

More on McCain's confused and wavering economic policies: here, here, here

American economics: Republicans are the party that wrecked America

C&L:

John McCain’s long history with bank failures and financial scandals makes him uniquely ‘qualified’ to speak to the current crisis.

McCain blasts Wall Street's failure but neglects to mention his advisor Phil Gramm helped cause it. While chairing the Senate Banking Committee, Republican Sen. Gramm slipped a 262-page bill into a gargantuan, must-pass spending measure. Gramm's legislation, written with the help of financial industry lobbyists, essentially removed newfangled financial products called swaps from any regulation. Credit default swaps have been at the heart of the subprime meltdown because they have enabled large financial institutions to turn risky loans into risky securities that could be packaged and sold to other institutions.

John McSame has the former lobbyists of AIG, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Bank of America on his campaign staff. Individuals associated with Merrill Lynch, which sold itself to Bank of America in the market upheaval of the past weekend, have given the McCain campaign nearly $300,000, making them collectively McCain’s largest contributor.

Republican Mike Oxley, the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee noted that the House passed a bi-partisan bill in 2005 that could well have prevented the current crisis by issuing stronger regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but the Bush Administration failed to support the bill:

“All the handwringing and bedwetting is going on without remembering how the House stepped up on this,” he says. “What did we get from the White House? We got a one-finger salute.” […]

What does McCain say about the economy since Bush took office... the American economy that spends nearly a $ trillion in Iraq and has seen it's worst crash since 9/11, possibly since the Great Depression?

"There’s been great progress economically over that period of time... the fundamentals of America's economy are strong"

-- John McCain

Alan Greenspan: America can't afford McCain's massive tax cuts for the rich

[TP]

On Bloomberg Television this weekend, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told host Al Hunt that the country can’t afford John McCain’s massive $3.3 trillion tax cuts - mostly for the wealthiest Americans. Greenspan said this was the worst US economy he'd ever seen in his career "by far... outstripping anything I've seen and it still is not resolved..."

Fact check: A McCain ad claims Obama plans "painful tax increases" for working families, and "raising taxes on the middle class."

FALSE

Cutting to the chase:

About 85% of Americans will pay lower taxes under Obama:

• If you make $18,981 or less - you will SAVE 29 TIMES more tax money under Obama ($19 vs. $567)
  

• If you make between $18,982 and $37,595 - you will SAVE nearly 8 TIMES more tax money under Obama ($113 vs $892)
  

• If you make between $37,596 and $66,354 - you will SAVE more than 3 TIMES more tax money under Obama ($319 vs $1042)


• If you make between $66,355 and $111,64 - you will SAVE .4% more tax money (about $281)

Unemployment rises to 5 yr high, stocks plummet

So much for the Bush economic stimulus bribes. For the eighth straight month, unemployment is up, now to 6.1%. CNN reported that over 600,000 jobs have been lost this year.

Despite higher food and energy prices, falling retail sales, and a plummeting stock market, it's amazing that some Bushies think the economy is doing very well... despite the fact they can't afford health insurance and are not doing nearly as well as they did in the good ole Clinton years. Denial is an important part of being an authoritarian Bushie.

America needs change.

McCain and TN GOP prey upon the ignorant on offshore drilling issue

If you've seen the TN GOP ad, or this McCain ad, you'd think Obama was responsible for high gas prices.

Why this issue is a red herring and is designed to persuade the ignorant to capture votes:

1) There are 172 US offshore drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, and 26 off of southern California. These rigs cover 77.3% of the known reserves or 68 billion barrels where drilling is already allowed.

2) The estimates of offshore oil reserves in areas where drilling has not been allowed amounts to only 18 billion barrels.

3) The untapped oil in the gulf would be extremely difficult and expensive to obtain. Most of it is under a mile of ocean, 1 to 2 miles of granite and a mile of salt. It would cost more to produce than it would sell for. In order to make this possible, the government would have to extend to oil companies subsidies and tax breaks. If you factor that in, we'd actually be paying more for the oil than we would have to pay if we just bought it on the world market.

4) The 18 billion new offshore reserves would amount to just over 2 years of US oil demand. This added supply would take 10 years to obtain and only affect global oil prices by less than a nickel.

5) One spill on the level of the Exxon Valdez would cost as much as several billion dollars to clean up, not to mention the possibility of ruining a coastal habitat for a generation.


More

So, don't be led by ignorance, red herrings, or the super stupid TN GOP.

Reminder: McCain, his staff, and other conservatives repeatedly lied by saying that no oil was spilled during hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Even LA Republican Governor Jindal was clueless about the oil spills created by Katrina and Rita. The Minerals Management Service reported that 113 oil platforms were “totally destroyed” — a total of 124 offshore spills. The US coastguard, which is responsible for the marine environment, said more than 6.5 million gallons of crude oil had been spilled - one of the worst spills in US history.

The fact is that Democrats want to see more domestic drilling where leases are already held.

House Democrats are pushing legislation they say would spur oil drilling on already available lands in Alaska, the West and the western Gulf of Mexico. Reserves in shale and land areas in the west hold far more productivity than new offshore drilling.

More

McCain's tax program screws average Americans, benefits multimillionares

If you make $112,000 a year or less, you will do better on taxes under Obama.

McCain says Obama is gonna raise your taxes... yes he will, but only if you make $2.9 million a year or more. Almost everyone else will do better.

Both candidates are proposing tax savings for most Americans. Here it is, cut and dry for 2009:

CNN

Tax savings if you make:
$38-$66,000 a year
McCain will save you -$319
Obama will save you -$1042

Tax savings if you make:
$66-$112,000 a year
McCain will save you -$1009
Obama will save you -$1290

Tax savings if you make:
$112 - $161,000 a year
McCain will save you -$2614
Obama will save you -$2204

Tax savings if you make:
Over $2.9 million a year
McCain will save you -$269,364
Obama will tax you +$701,885

OK, if you're greedy and make $3+ million a year, I can understand why you'd support McSame.

Large opportunities lost, everyday

We didn't hear too much about last week's Joint Economic Committee's public examination of the costs of the war. The witnesses included the Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, and Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International.

Think about this.

For a fraction of the cost of the war, Social Security could have been saved and put on a "sound footing for the next half-century or more."

Money spent on the war each and every day is enough to enroll an additional 58,000 children in Head Start for a year, or make a year of college affordable for 160,000 low-income students through Pell Grants, or pay the annual salaries of nearly 11,000 additional border patrol agents or 14,000 more police officers. Multiply that by 365.

What we’re getting instead is the stuff of nightmares - for America and the Iraqis. Civilian casualties are up 36% in Iraq in Feb. '08, and just today, we hear of another suicide bombing in Baghdad that has killed at least 53 and maimed 125.

Stiglitz notes:

...nearly 40 percent of the 700,000 troops from the first Gulf War, which lasted just a month, have become eligible for disability benefits. The current war is approaching five years in duration.

"Imagine then, what a war — that will almost surely involve more than 2 million troops and will almost surely last more than six or seven years — will cost. Already we are seeing large numbers of returning veterans showing up at V.A. hospitals for treatment, large numbers applying for disability and large numbers with severe psychological problems."

The Bush administration has tried its best to conceal the horrendous costs of the war. It has bypassed the normal budgetary process, financing the war almost entirely through “emergency” appropriations that get far less scrutiny.

Story: The $2 Trillion Nightmare