Monday, May 4, 2009

Tax Havens, Bachmann, and Grumpy Old Franken


Paul Krugman
Robert Bryce

"Falling wages are a symptom of a sick economy." - Paul Krugman

"We are the party of the revolutionaries, they [Democrats] are the party of the monarchists." - Mitt Romney

"We're seriously tempted to stop doing any work and simply replace our blog posts with an RSS feed of stories about Rep. Michele Bachmann." - Dylan and Ethan Ris


Today's most contentious headline will be over the proposed elimination of tax breaks for money in offshore tax havens. People like you and me say its been a long time coming, while our multi-millionaire friends will whine and protest. From the NY Times: "Several large businesses have opposed the proposal, telling Congressional leaders in March that the provisions would make U.S. companies less competitive. About 200 companies and trade associations, including Microsoft Corp., General Electric Co. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, signed a letter stating that the proposed changes to the tax code would put them at a disadvantage with their rivals.

In his presidential campaign last year, Mr. Obama often criticized provisions in the tax code that allowed American firms with overseas operations to defer paying taxes on corporate profits, providing that they placed the money back into their foreign subsidiaries.

The President called for an end to that practice, as well as seeking to close the loopholes that allow companies and individuals to legally avoid paying billions in taxes through hidden accounts.

The White House said that Mr. Obama also will call for a crackdown on the abuse of tax havens by wealthy individuals. Officials said the president will propose making it more difficult for financial institutions and wealthy Americans to evade their taxes." You know what Obama is doing is neither left wing or radical. He is making common sense changes that are honest and fair, and our generation hasn't had the balls to address them. The amount of wrong-headed policies implemented by greedy and malicious people calling themselves Republicans over the last 30 years is staggering, and I applaud the cool, even-handed way that this administration is tackling the room full of manure...

You know the definition of the eternal optimist, right? It's the story of the little boy who was optimistic no matter what, so his family decided to teach him a valuable lesson. On his birthday they gave him a room filled with manure. Laughing, the boy jumped right in and began digging away... "How can you be so happy?" they asked him.

"With so much shit, there must be a pony in here, somewhere!" the boy replied.

When I want to get cheered up on a slow news day, I turn to the antics of Michele Bachmann. She never disappoints, and is part of the reason that room is so full of manure. I don't know where her district dug her up, but then we'd have to invent her, and reality is always so much stranger than fiction...Eric Alterman in the Daily Beast on Michele Bachmann: "But my question is, does anyone in Republican Party—or the district in Minnesota that apparently elected her—know that this person sounds batshit crazy? I see that her party’s leadership recently picked Bachmann—a global-warming denier—to be part of a the GOP’s Energy Solutions Group. (Sample quote: "The big thing we are working on now is the global-warming hoax. It’s all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax.")
Seriously, folks. I sort of get why most conservatives say the things they do. I know why Dick Cheney and Karl Rove want to blame Barack Obama for the consequences of their mistakes. It gets them off the hook. And I get why Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin want to blame swine flu on undocumented aliens; it’s because there are racist demagogues and alas, there are ratings to be earned and money to be made there. I even sort of understand why Michael Steele says he wants to give his party a “hip-hop makeover" because, really, what else he is going to say? But why do voters in the sixth district of Minnesota want to be represented by a madwoman?
I mean, politics ought to be entertaining, I agree. That’s why we sent you Al Franken. Now send him to the Senate already and cut this ridiculous crap. We got the joke…

I'd like to welcome Al Franken to the Grumpy Old Man Club, a rarefied stratus indeed. Eric Kleefeld wrote in TPM: "Al Franken did an interview with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, where he discussed the very unconventional transition process that he's gone through without being an official Senator-elect.

His recently-hired staffers, a state director and a chief of staff, are actually working for free, because Franken has no office budget. When Franken has travelled to Washington, he's either paid out of his own pocket or from the campaign's legal fund -- which itself has been the focus of a lot of fundraising activity. And he really does wish he could be involved in the important decisions being made in Washington.

Franken had a funny take on it, saying it was odd but not the worst personal crisis that can happen. "And every once in a while I'll find myself, I'll get grumpy," he said. "And I'll go, why am I grumpy? Oh, I know why -- waiting for five and a half months to see what happens! (laughing) That's why."
Isn't it about time we got on with resolving this issue, so we can then take Norm Coleman to trial on criminal charges? Restore the natural scumbag balance of the Universe...

No comments:

Post a Comment

Hi! Thanks for commenting. I always try to respond...