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My goal is to post liberal talking points to combat those from the right.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Top Corporations Pay Little or No Taxes

“Most corporations, including a large majority of foreign companies doing business in the United States, pay no income taxes, according to a report released today.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that two-thirds of both American and foreign companies doing business here end up avoiding all income tax obligations to the federal government, despite corporate sales totaling $2.5 trillion.
According to the GAO, each year from 1998 to 2005, an average of 68 percent of the foreign companies operating in the United States paid zero federal income taxes. During the same period, 66 percent of U.S. domestic corporations paid no federal income taxes to the government.”

Some of the corporations not paying any taxes in the U.S. were Bank of America, General Electric and CitiBank.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/08/12/we-pay-taxes-most-corporations-dont/

http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/01/ge-exxon-walmart-business-washington-corporate-taxes_slide_8.html

Sunday, April 18, 2010

How's That Trickle Down Workin For Yeah? You Get Trickled On Yet?

For almost 40 years every President, from Truman thru Carter, reduced our national debt. Bringing it down from 120% to approx 30% of GDP. But the Reagan and Bush I years saw the national debt skyrocket from 30% to about 65%. Clinton successfully reversed the trend and reduced the debt down to about 55%. Then Bush II drove the debt back up above 70%.

Two things are certain to grow when a Republican is in the White House, unemployment and the National Debt. Yet the Republicans accuse the Democrats of over spending.

These huge debts run up by the Republicans are a result of the infamous “Trickle Down Economics” theory. This theory claims that by giving the wealthy large tax breaks, they will invest that money into factories and production thus creating jobs. Well Republicans, how’s that working for yeah? If failed for Calvin Coolidge and now also for Reagan and the Bush’s. It’s been shown that the results of “Trickle Down”, is the redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the super-rich.

Clinton balanced the budget five times. Reagan, Bush I and Bush II never had a balanced budget.

Thanks to Mike Kohl who posts on DU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=271842&mesg_id=271842

and:

http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com /

Friday, April 9, 2010

GUANTANAMO PRISONERS

After the disaster on Sept 11, 2001, the Bush administration needed to be perceived as tough and effective in finding and punishing those responsible for the attacks of 9/11. Close to 800 individuals were picked up in a short period of time without any due process and shipped to Guantanamo prison. These prisoners were initially called detainees then enemy combatants so the Bush administration could rationalize not treating them humanely, as required of prisoners of war.
Colonel Wilkerson, who was General Powell’s chief of staff when he ran the State Department, claimed that the majority of detainees — children as young as 12 and men as old as 93, never saw a US soldier when they were captured. He said that many were turned over by Afghans and Pakistanis for up to $5,000 each. Little or no evidence was produced as to why they had been taken.
Colonel Wilkerson was most critical of Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defense Secretary knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were innocent but believed that it was “politically impossible to release them”. They feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times.
Referring to Mr Cheney, Colonel Wilkerson, who served 31 years in the US Army, asserted: “He had absolutely no concern that the vast majority of Guantánamo detainees were innocent ... If hundreds of innocent individuals had to suffer in order to detain a handful of hardcore terrorists, so be it.”

The above was from:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7092435.ece

In my opinion, Dick Cheney and the Bush administration had no respect for either national laws, international laws, the Constitution, or human decency. They rounded up approx 800 people, not caring that most were innocent. They treated these people, including children, horrible and tortured many. This is what tyranny looks like.