The way to get corporations to pay their fair share in taxes, is to have them pay in taxes what they do not pay their low-skilled workers in income that get’s passed down to middle class taxpayers. To pay for low-income workers Food Assistance, Public Housing and Medicaid. Have them pick up half of the costs for these public assistance benefits. And workers of all income levels pay the other half sort of like another payroll tax. But we would be talking about one-two percent tax to pay for these benefits. And tell corporations they can get that money back by paying it to their workers instead.
I’m not a Socialist or a Social Democrat unlike Thom Hartmann here. And I’m not anti-capitalist, anti-for-profit, anti-private-enterprise either. But it is completely unfair for corporations or any employer to be able to past their employees cost of living on to middle class taxpayers who work very hard for a living just to pay their bills. Especially as the big employers are making record profits while everyone else is struggling to pay their cost of living.
I’m not interested in taxing business’s out of business either. And would like to see a much lower tax rate in this country on private enterprise. But not as long as we are paying out all of these subsidies to American business’s and being stuck with the bill to cover their own employees cost of living as well.
I blogged last night that best ways to fix Washington as far as the national political scene goes, is first by fixing Congress. And that starts in the upper chamber the U.S. Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives has a lot of issues as well that contributes to the over partisanship as well. But the Senate is supposed to be that Congressional chamber where both parties are supposed to work together. At the very least get along after both sides get their say and can offer their ideas and plans to address whatever the issues are in the country. And currently the Senate is not like that.
Keep in mind here I’m a proud loyal partisan when it comes to ideas and philosophy Liberal Democrat. And my party is in charge in the Senate and I hope it remains that way in the next Congress as well. So I believe I have some credibility when I talk about too much partisanship in the Senate. Because it is in my party’s best short-term interest to keep things as they are and even advance them. And turn the Senate into the House as far as rules are set up until Senate Republicans win back the Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is one of the last people to be talking about too much Senate partisanship. Since he became Minority Leader back in 2007 has utilized every rule known to man, or least people who report on the Senate, to obstruct Senate Democrats and President Obama. And when he was Assistant Majority Leader from 2003-07, he and then Leader Bill Frist used every rule they could find to prevent Senate Democrats the minority party back then from offering amendments and alternatives to bills. And from even being involved in committee hearings. And Congressional conferences between the House and Senate.
But Minority Leader McConnell is right when he says that the Senate has become too much like the House. And it needs to be better and more like the old Senate. Where both sides can offer their own bills and amendments to the issues that the Senate Leader decides the Senate should focus on. The problem that the Minority Leader and why he has a credibility gap on this issue, is that he’s been a big part of the problem. And a big reason why Leader Reid has moved to more majority rule in the Senate. Since Mitch McConnell became Minority Leader back in 2007.
Just when I thought the American Thinker couldn’t be more neoconservative and big government enough. I read an article on their blog today from writer Peter Skurkiss who I’m sure means well. But a lot of bad things come from good intentions and his plan to outlaw tobacco in the United States is a perfect example of that. And why would we do it now when first of all it is already legal. Second we already tax and regulate the hell out of it and perhaps we should do even more short of outlawing it. Like moving the legal age from eighteen to twenty-one like alcohol. But third smoking has already come down so far in this country from what we’ve already are doing right now to it.
Look if we as a society do not like the actions others take and primarily the reasons for that is because we do not want to pay for their mistakes, remember a lot of America is about our economy and money, so if we do not want to pay for others mistakes, gee here’s an idea and let’s stop doing that. And let stupid people pay for their stupid mistakes instead. Not just tax tobacco, but tax it to the point that smokers will have a decision to make. “Do I really want to spend so much money on a product that could kill me?” But second to transfer that tax revenue to the health care that smokers will need to pay for their smoking.
Alcohol prohibition didn’t work, the War on Drugs has failed. Just look at all the ruined lives from it as a result. Like people not being able to get good legal jobs because of a drug conviction. Even though they didn’t actually hurt anybody. Same thing would happen with tobacco prohibition. Arresting people for what they do to themselves and overflowing and already overcrowded criminal justice system.
Just to start out before I go any further. I believe there’s a better shot of the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series in 2014 or the Redskins winning the Super Bowl with Dan Snyder as the majority owner, than I see any bipartisan cooperation in this divided Congress. When it comes to economic growth, but just for the sake of this post if not for just the hell of it, if both sides actually worked together, this is what I believe they could get done based on what both parties in Congress want to do and where there’s already agreement.
1. Infrastructure
Let’s put a five-hundred billion dollar to one-trillion dollar national infrastructure plan over five-ten years. Including a National Infrastructure Bank that would be independent of the Federal Government. A public/private corporation that would run itself and not by government. That would fund a lot of these infrastructure projects all over the country. With private funds by brining in private investors who would make money off of these completed projects. That economic Conservatives should like this because we would be using private capital and private principles. That is about what is the right thing to be doing to rebuild this country.
2. National Energy Policy
We already have a Bipartisan consensus when it comes to renewable energy sources in this country. And a bipartisan consensus when it comes to oil and gas. The fact that we need to produce a lot more of both at least in the short-term to get off of foreign oil. The reason energy independence is now on the horizon for America, is because we’ve produced a lot more oil in the last five years. If we were ruled by commonsense, we would be doing these things creating millions of jobs in our domestic energy sector. But as Senator Chuck Grassley says, “Washington is an island immune from reality”.
3. Tax Reform
For short to long-term economic and job growth I’m just talking about business tax reform. And greater tax relief for individuals and business’s to expand economic and job growth. So this would be part of my long-term tax reform plan as well. But short-term we spend somewhere around fifty-hundred-billion dollars a year on corporate welfare. When we also have a corporate tax rate of thirty-five percent, higher than both Canada and Germany. Germany the only large country in Europe with a strong economy now. Let’s lower the corporate tax rate two twenty-five percent on all profits made inside the United States. In exchange for either eliminating most of the subsidies. Or changing corporate welfare to corporate workfare and invest in things like.
A. Health insurance for employees.
B. Life insurance for employees.
C. Pensions for employees.
D. Job training for low-skilled workers and educated veteran workers who need additional skills.
E. Investing in America by either expanding or creating new factories, plants, offices and creating jobs inside the United States.
4. Immigration Reform
Pretty simple at least as far as policy. Bring in the workers that we need to do the jobs where we do not have enough skilled workers for those jobs. And bring in the workers that we need to do the jobs that Americans won’t do whether they are qualified for them or not. Bring in the 10-15 illegal immigrants in this country so they can pay their fair share of taxes. And fine for being in the country illegally based on how long they’ve been in the United States illegally. And no longer be abused by their current employers.
Just to be completely straight up. I sure as hell hope Democrats at least keep the majority in the Senate that they have now. Which I believe is possible and possible simply because their candidates and incumbents are better. And they won’t have a wildcard factor to deal with. Meaning far-left candidates trying to run for office either statewide or in swing districts. Unlike Republicans who still have these problems with their far-right and will have them in 2014. And would love to see House Democrats pick up forty seats. Not going to happen but whatever the Congressional makeup is in 2014, this is what I believe could get done without the partisanship from both sides based on what they already agree on.
As America is getting more diverse and younger as a country we are becoming more diverse as a country. Not just racially and ethnically, but how we look at politics as well. The more time Americans spend with people from a different race, ethnicity, culture, class, religion, sexuality and in many cases we are with different people who come from different groups across the board, we learn that people are people. And they tend to be good and productive and want similar things as far as being successful in life. And look at people even from different groups as individuals instead of members of groups.
The way America is moving is bad for both the far-right, but the far-left as well that tend to want to put people in groups. The far-right who put down people who don’t look at the world the way they do. And perhaps look different and have different backgrounds and come from different cultures and so forth. But the far-left who see certain groups as needing special protection even from government and that they need to be treated special.
As we are becoming more diverse across the board and hanging out and working with people of different backgrounds and getting new experiences, we are simply becoming more liberal as a country in a few different ways. The ability to see new things and experience them and not be afraid of change and even embrace it. We are becoming more liberal both culturally, but politically as well and don’t always want to go with the establishment. And how things have always been done. But instead want the freedom to live our own lives and experience different experiences without government getting in the way and saying we can’t.
It is not just our politics that is changing and we are becoming more liberal as a country culturally. With wanting more freedom period over our own lives not just personal, but economic as well. A liberal amount of freedom, as I like to call it and not a liberal amount of government. Which are two different things and as we are making this leftward movement as a country, politicians who look at America from more of an Old America perspective or going to have to adjust politically. Or risk being out of office and having to look for a job.
This sounds more like an agenda for a third-party, an American Independence Party. A new center-right fiscally conservative socially moderate or federalist party. Where Jon Huntsman would make a great nominee for president. Instead of an agenda for this divided Congress with a Republican House and a Democratic Senate. Where both chambers are so divided on basically everything. They just passed a budget, but that is part of their job and shouldn’t be congratulated for that.
I like the goals and what No Labels is trying to accomplish here. Of trying to bring pragmatists together to solve the problems of the country from both parties. The problem is right now they only have goals without any real solutions. You want to reform Washington, you have to reform Congress to the point where the majority and minority parties in both chambers are allowed to offer relevant substitutes and amendments to bills that the majority brings up. So both sides in the House and Senate at least have their say and can at least have their ideas voted on to what the House and Senate are debating. To turn Congress into a competition of ideas and not partisan attacks.
The other way you fix Washington in this current ultra partisan political environment is for the American people to step up and give one party enough power to govern and put their agenda through. Then at least we would have a real governing party in this country with the power to govern. Because right now it is just too partisan and we are too divided as a country for Democrats and Republicans to do much work together.
I can’t think of someone more qualified to sing Happy Birthday to our most effective and greatest American. At least when it comes to equal rights in America and applying our United States Constitution and the constitutional rights that we all have as Americans and applying the principles of our Founding Fathers to all Americans equally than Stevie Wonder singing Happy Birthday to of course the late, but still great the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.
There will be plenty of more posts on this blog in the future about what the rest of the life of Dr. Martin L. King could’ve looked like. Had he been able to live a normal life at least as far as years. But what we would’ve seen is phase two of his national campaign for equality and justice in America. The Poor People’s Campaign would’ve had a real agenda and policy initiatives behind it that was sort of dropped after he was assassinated that would’ve moved onto into the 1970s. Giving millions of Americans a very good idea of what Dr. King’s complete political brain would’ve looked like.
About MLK’s birthday today keep in mind he would’ve been eighty-five today had he lived. And not saying he would’ve still been alive today had he not have been assassinated, but a lot of men in his generation are not only still alive in their eighties, but a lot of them are still working as well. And it is very likely he still would’ve been a major political force at least into his seventies. Had he not have been assassinated in 1968, or not have been assassinated at all.
I do not like Milton Friedman’s idea of what he called the Negative Income Tax. Or today what people on both the Left and Right are talking about which is the National Basic Income. Because for this idea to work we as a country have to rely on a low-skilled low-income population to be very responsible with the money we are giving them. When up to this point in their lives they haven’t been very responsible with their lives at all. And in many cases this is why they are on public assistance right now. Not finishing high school, having kids before they can take care of them. This may sound harsh, but these are facts.
Now I do like Milton Friedman’s idea of subsidizing independence when we are talking about our less-fortunate population. That is with the current system people on pubic assistance the more money they are able to make on their own, they go back to work, perhaps set up a small business in their own. Like taking care of their neighbors kids or doing other laundry. To use as examples or going back to work in a traditional way. The money they get is taken away from their public assistance benefits. Instead of letting them keep all of that money.
What we should be doing instead is allowing for people on public assistance to be able to make as much money as they possibly can legally on their own. And still allow for them to keep their current public assistance benefits up to the point that they are no longer in poverty. That they are now making enough money to get out of poverty. So we encourage economic independence instead of punishing people for seeking it.
I rarely agree with Representative Paul Ryan on anything, but he actually makes some good points about poverty in America. And what I respect about is that he makes his points in an interesting way that leaves me to believe that and intelligent person can believe what he is saying. And say, “yeah I see how an intelligent person could agree with that. It might not be my approach. But it is a good alternative to what I’ve been talking about on these issues.”
Now here is where I agree with Representative Paul Ryan. Where he says that we all need to be in this together. Meaning the whole country when it comes to dealing with poverty in America. That the Federal Government can’t do all of it by themselves as much as they may want to. That the states and locals need to be involved here as well as the private sector. And for me that would be about empowering the non-profits in the private sector with the resources to train low-income workers. Give them health services, find and build them housing, give them childcare etc.
Representative Ryan was talking about the one size fits all solution to combating poverty in America. Meaning the Federal Government trying to manage everything themselves. That needs to stop and allow for the states and locals to have the resources to meet the needs of their own residents. With basic national standards in place, as well as empowering non-profits to deal with these issues. Empowering people in their own communities to take on poverty in their communities.
This is a smart move in the City of Washington to decriminalize marijuana in Washington. Instead of arresting people for simply usage or possession of marijuana. And then basically ruining their professional careers and making it very difficult for them to get a good job. And as a result someone with this type of marijuana arrest has this on their record for good. Making it very difficult for them to get a good job. And as a result they end up on public assistance because they do not make enough money to pay their own bills. Instead of having a good job and paying into public assistance.
Washington should go even further than this and legalize marijuana, but regulate it and tax it like alcohol, which would allow for them to lower their taxes on everyone else, especially the middle class and employers. And you would see even more economic development in Washington and the marijuana industry would be part of that. But other business’s as well, because the taxes on them would be lower if they invested in Washington.
Washington should regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol.
1. Twenty-one or over to use, possess or sell marijuana in the City of Washington.
2. People under twenty-one caught with marijuana or trying to sell it would pay a fine on that or a short-term jail sentence, but not sentenced to prison for it.
3. Require license’s of dealers, users and seller of marijuana in Washington.
4. Tax marijuana just like alcohol and use that money to pay for needed public services. Instead of having to use current tax revenue to prosecute and enforce current anti-marijuana laws.
5. Strict regulations similar to alcohol like not being able to drive while high to use as an example. That would come with being locked up in jail if caught and convicted.
This would be a much smarter approach to dealing with a drug that has similar side-effects as alcohol. Instead of trying to prohibit people from doing to themselves what they want to do. Which is why alcohol prohibition didn’t work. Trying to stop people from what they want to do with their own lives.
Football Stadium Digest covers major stories and events in the planning, construction and operations of NCAA and professional NFL football stadiums across the United States and Canada.
Source:
Derik Schneider
Ederik Schneider
Erik Schneider
FredSchneiderUS
kireschneider
The Daily Review
Rik Schneider
TheActionBlogUSA
The New Democrat
The New Democrat 
You must be logged in to post a comment.