Blame Reagan
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
The Aug. 12, 2008, Times-Union printed a report by the government accountability office that stated two-thirds of all U.S. companies and 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. paid no federal or corporate income taxes between 1998 and 2005 while reporting trillions in sales. Now congressional Republicans are hellbent on cutting business taxes as part of the stimulus plan. How do you cut nothing? The billions of dollars going to offshore tax havens and sophisticated tax scams escaping the U.S. treasury would make Bernie Madoff look like a piker.
I can remember a time when corporations invested money back into their businesses instead of paying high tax rates. Then came the Reagan revolution which ushered in the era of tinkle-down economics, greed is good, union busting and war on the middle class since the time of the New Deal the wealthy felt they had lost what rightly belonged to them. The Reagan revolution gave them the chance to get it back. Thirty years later has redistributed their wealth back to them in addition to everyone else's. Those of us on unemployment can thank Reagan for taxes being withheld from our money.
The buy-America provision in the stimulus plan stated that only American-made iron and steel and heavy equipment be used on projects. As usual, Republicans were in a tizzy and as usual Democrats folded like a cheap suit. In fact, the plan didn't go far enough. The tax cuts to ordinary Americans should be issued in vouchers to be used only on American-made products and locally owned businesses.
Cries of trade wars has been the Republican mantra. Trade wars have been waged against American goods for years until about the only things left being exported are financial debauchery that has caused a worldwide financial collapse, and waste paper exported to China, which is then returned to us in the form of packaging for goods we used to manufacture here.
The companies that have exported our jobs thought they were being clever by far when they exploited cheap foreign labor. But in doing so they have destroyed their customer base. Without jobs we can't afford their cheap, plastic crap.
Our government won't help us; we must learn to help ourselves. The next time you go to your local big box store, check labels. Ask yourself do you want to work for 50 cents an hour and live in poverty, or do you want a living wage and decent standard of living?
If this stimulus plan turns out to be a watered-down piece of trash that continues billionaire socialism and refuses to rein in the oligarchy that has destroyed our country and leaves ordinary people with nothing squared, it deserves to fail.
Once again I must take exception to Mr. Gerard's New Views. I don't know what source he used for his allegations that the left is not offended by the sleaziness of some of President Obama's cabinet picks. As a card-carrying liberal, I am sickened with the caliber of his cabinet choices. Play huggy-bear kissy-face with Republicans and veering to the center right will destroy his presidency. There's an old saying that "You dance with the one that brung ya." Americans voted for change, we're not getting it.
Janet Collins
Etna Green
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The Aug. 12, 2008, Times-Union printed a report by the government accountability office that stated two-thirds of all U.S. companies and 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. paid no federal or corporate income taxes between 1998 and 2005 while reporting trillions in sales. Now congressional Republicans are hellbent on cutting business taxes as part of the stimulus plan. How do you cut nothing? The billions of dollars going to offshore tax havens and sophisticated tax scams escaping the U.S. treasury would make Bernie Madoff look like a piker.
I can remember a time when corporations invested money back into their businesses instead of paying high tax rates. Then came the Reagan revolution which ushered in the era of tinkle-down economics, greed is good, union busting and war on the middle class since the time of the New Deal the wealthy felt they had lost what rightly belonged to them. The Reagan revolution gave them the chance to get it back. Thirty years later has redistributed their wealth back to them in addition to everyone else's. Those of us on unemployment can thank Reagan for taxes being withheld from our money.
The buy-America provision in the stimulus plan stated that only American-made iron and steel and heavy equipment be used on projects. As usual, Republicans were in a tizzy and as usual Democrats folded like a cheap suit. In fact, the plan didn't go far enough. The tax cuts to ordinary Americans should be issued in vouchers to be used only on American-made products and locally owned businesses.
Cries of trade wars has been the Republican mantra. Trade wars have been waged against American goods for years until about the only things left being exported are financial debauchery that has caused a worldwide financial collapse, and waste paper exported to China, which is then returned to us in the form of packaging for goods we used to manufacture here.
The companies that have exported our jobs thought they were being clever by far when they exploited cheap foreign labor. But in doing so they have destroyed their customer base. Without jobs we can't afford their cheap, plastic crap.
Our government won't help us; we must learn to help ourselves. The next time you go to your local big box store, check labels. Ask yourself do you want to work for 50 cents an hour and live in poverty, or do you want a living wage and decent standard of living?
If this stimulus plan turns out to be a watered-down piece of trash that continues billionaire socialism and refuses to rein in the oligarchy that has destroyed our country and leaves ordinary people with nothing squared, it deserves to fail.
Once again I must take exception to Mr. Gerard's New Views. I don't know what source he used for his allegations that the left is not offended by the sleaziness of some of President Obama's cabinet picks. As a card-carrying liberal, I am sickened with the caliber of his cabinet choices. Play huggy-bear kissy-face with Republicans and veering to the center right will destroy his presidency. There's an old saying that "You dance with the one that brung ya." Americans voted for change, we're not getting it.
Janet Collins
Etna Green
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