Tea Party Protests We Can Believe In
On this Monday, April 15th, we will enjoy both the benefits and detriments of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution which has permitted income taxation by Congress for the last 100 years. Also on this day in all 50 states, “grass roots” tax protests of varying authenticity will occur outside post offices, government buildings and town squares as tens of thousands bemoan the annual freedom killing duty that is the timely filing of our returns. Notwithstanding that these protest folks are in apoplexy over the lowest marginal tax rates since Reagan, that the last GOP POTUS turned a $200 billion…
Let’s Stop the Redistribution of Wealth!
Conservative, libertarian and neoliberal arguments often accuse progressives of trying to “redistribute wealth” by taxing the rich and giving the money to the poor. Let’s be honest, over the past few decades, there has indeed been a redistribution of wealth in USA, based in part on changing tax rates. A Wall Street Journal article from July 23, 2008, explained how there has been a trend in recent years where the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans have seen their income rise faster than any other group of earners in the country while at that same time, the tax rate for the top 1…
Tick-Tock, Ding-a-Lings
As the clock runs off on the castor oil countdown aka sequestration, we find the White House, GOP leadership and the Washington press corps serving up a marvelous tableau of the entire manufactured chocolate mess; they can’t even agree on the date and time when the cuts actually occur. So then, in order to bring order to the tolling of democracy’s death, whenever that truly is, a brief frolic in the shallow end of the pool is indicated. You May Ask Yourself, Well, How Did I Get Here? While it’s a safe bet the POTUS has uttered David Byrne’s question…
The Language War
How an issue is framed in large part determines our attitudes toward it. That seems obvious. But the critical importance of controlling the message by controlling the language is not so obvious. Profound changes to America have occurred, or been attempted, with small changes in the language. The Right has been successful in getting their words and phrases into everyday usage in large part because they are fighting the language wars, and they seem to be winning it. Global Warming becomes “climate change”, the Affordable Healthcare Act becomes Obamacare, common-sense gun laws become an attack on the 2nd amendment, government…
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