Add These Traitorous Dems to the List of Shame

According to this new article on AlterNet, ten Democrats came together to support the wrong side on this issue -- 'Ten Conservative 'Democrats' Vote for Bill that Protects the Children of Multimillionaires". Please read this, note the names, and write to them to protest their total disregard of Democratic ideals, and also write to President Obama to protest this and urge him to veto this bill. It's a horrifying slap in the face of most Americans. With the economy tumbling into hell in the U.S., all these Senators could think of to fight for was the further aggrandizement of the ultra-rich.

Shocking. Disgusting.

Here are the links to the Senators' websites. Don't forget about the two from my previous post.

Senator Max Baucus, Montana

Senator Evan Bayh, Indiana

Senator Maria Cantwell, Washington

Senator Mary Landrieu, Louisiana

Senator Patty Murray, Washington -- what is it about Washington state? Two turncoat Dem women? Ugh!

Senator Bill Nelson, Florida -- and his website is plastered with photos of him and Obama!

Senator Ben Nelson, Nebraska

Senator Mark Pryor, Arkansas -- the article yesterday had his Arkansas colleague fingered, too.

Senator Jon Tester, Montana -- what's with Montana, also?

And here is where you write to President Obama.

BooHoo for the Rich -- Two Senators Trying to Ban Estate Tax for Billionaires

Please take a look at this editorial from yesterday's New York Times -- The Forgotten Rich. It details the ridiculous and unpardonable efforts by two senators -- including a Democrat, shame on her -- to eliminate the Estate Tax for the wealthiest of Americans. It's a disgrace.

Bush's revision of the tax code to benefit the highest income Americans didn't end with basic tax rates, he wanted to eliminate any taxes on the transfer of huge inheritances from one dynasty to the next generation. Read this article from earlier this year to understand the history of this pernicious movement, a favorite of Bush Republicans. Championed by an estate planning advisor under marching orders from the forward-looking and gruesomely greedy Gallo wine family, the Mars Candy Company heirs, and the next generation of Campbell Soup kids, the "Death Tax" -- as Bush renamed it, per his pollsters advice that this would make it seem distateful to everyone -- was one way that Americans with tremendous fortunes could be fairly taxed after a lifetime of avoiding levies through all sorts of financial advantages available only to the very very rich.

Gallo? Campbell's? Mars Candy? I think it's time to give up that canned soup, your glass of cheap wine, and that handful of M&Ms, don't you? I'd say these folks don't deserve your support -- they certainly have shown their true colors.

While it appears that Obama merely wants to freeze the tax at current levels, it should rightfully be pushed back to previous levels, such as during the Clinton years and before. Unless you're a shockingly greedy multi-multi-millionaire without a shred of ethics, decency, fairplay, or sense of realistic payback, and with a pack of trust fund kiddies clawing for their unearned inheritances, you should be in favor of the Estate Tax without question.

It's simply obscene that these two Senators would choose billionaires to be their holy cause.

In fact, here's the link to Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln's website and here's Republican Senator John Kyl's site, where you should drop them a line to tell her how her concern is woefully misplaced. You should also write to your own Senators to tell them that you completely support Barack Obama's Estate Tax reinstatement.

This is a huge issue and don't let the bullshit rhetoric coming from the (mostly) Republicans backers for the elimination of the Estate Tax change your mind. This is all about giving another break to the already-wealthy...just like almost everything else these days. Fight it!

Tax Rates for the Rich -- The Whole Story

Finally, a succinct repudiation of all the Republican nonsense complaining about Obama's slight raising of the tax rates of the richest Americans. As we all remember, our parents paid a LOT more income taxes than anybody does these days, as you can see with this excellent chart from The Washington Monthly which has just been widely distributed by MoveOn.Org.

Move.On challenges the critics calling Obama's plan "socialist" for moving even a bit towards righting the enormous con job the wealthiest citizens foisted on the rest of the country when they got their rates slashed almost in half. Move.On cites the following sources for recent articles about this issue, and all are worth a read. And then look at that chart. History doesn't lie...Republicans do.

1. "A socialist? Obama calls back to insist no," The International Herald Tribune, March 8, 2009 http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/08/america/barack.php

2. "Tax Cuts," The New York Times, February 26, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/washington/27web-tax.html

3. "Soaking the Rich (Redux)," The Washington Monthly, March 8, 2009 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51234&id=15734-4814933-hsbhqhx&t=2

Pass this information along to your friends who don't get it. They're just plain wrong about this issue.

May I Recommend Robert Reich's Views on the Budget?

Please take a look at this terrific post from Robert Reich's blog of Last Thursday. "Finally a Progressive Budget" explains the full impact of Obama's history-making move to restore the economic health of America.

As the brilliant Reich succinctly declares: "It's about time a presidential budget uneqivocally redistributed income from the very rich to the middle class and poor."

The end.

And that's the truth.

Good Column from Canada's "The Globe and Mail"

Excellent article from this past Friday's The Globe and Mail newspaper, by columnist Neil Reynolds, entitled "Obama's tax message has a Reagan resonance." In it, he points out the shocking differences in Obama's tax plan and McCain's, and why Americans ultimately rejected the latter. Not that taxes were the only issue, but the contrasts between McCain's pledge to not raise taxes, but actually substantially lower taxes on the rich, and Obama's to offer tax cuts to help the middle class, point out the clear bias that the Republicans have towards the wealthy. Their tax cuts -- skewed almost entirely towards the rich -- were defended again and again by both McCain and Palin, in a sickening display of perfidy towards the vast majority of their base who would not benefit from the Republicans special largesse to the big income earners.

Just as a for instance, and I'm quoting Mr. Reynolds here: "For people in the top 0.1 per cent of category, the 147,000 families with incomes in excess of $2.8-million, the Obama plan provided a tax increase of $701,000; the McCain plan, a tax cut of $270,000." By what reason, except the inexorable bias of the Republicans to provide special treatment to the wealthy, could McCain justify lowering taxes on people with that level of income? It's obscene, and though many midd-class Republicans continue to believe that the the party leadership has always had their best economic interest in mind, just do the math.

Read the article. It gives a succinct history of the U.S. tax rate ups and down, and should be required reading for anyone who may come up against a Republican apologist who's still fuming that McCain won't be getting into the White House. It also paints Obama as a well-read student of history who knows how to use the past to plan a better future.