Politics Plus

Nothing could be more simple or more obvious.  It is a grave injustice when people making a million dollars or more pay taxes at a lesser rate than the people in their secretarial pools.  Newt “13.9%” Romney is a perfect example.  In his State of the Union Address, Barack Obama proposed a Buffet Rule to address this.  Republicans booed him.  Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is about to introduce a bill to implement the Buffet Rule.

Warren Buffett has been talking for months about the unfairness in our tax system, pointing out that his secretary pays more in taxes than he, a billionaire, does. Buffett could be getting his day on the Senate floor, courtesy of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

Last week, Whitehouse announced his intention to introduce a bill that would rectify some of the tax inequality our current system allows. In a conference call with reporters today, he explained his legislation and confirmed that he will introduce it in the Senate this Wednesday.

Using Rhode Island wages as his example, he argued that the top 400 taxpayers in America are paying about the same percentage of income as a truck driver. "In theory," Whitehouse said, "we have a progressive tax code in which the greater income you have, the more you pay in percentage of income. Unfortunately, there are these huge exceptions to the rule of a progressive tax system,” he added. “I hope that many of my colleagues believe that these are loopholes that we can and should close.”

His bill would do that quite simply, without actually rewriting any tax code. Taxpayers making more than $1 million would pay either their regular amount, if it’s 30 percent or over of their income, or if it’s less, 30 percent… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

Ed Schultz discusses the Buffet Rule with Robert Reich.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Let me be clear here.  This will not pass this year.  There is no way that the Republican controlled House will pass a bill that demands that billionaires pay their fair share.  It is likely not to pass next year, even if Democrats take the House in November, there is no way Senate Republicans will not filibuster, unless Democrats change filibuster rules..  To get anything so substantive done, we need a Democrat in the White House, a majority in the House, not counting Blue Dogs, and 60 votes in the Senate, not counting DINOs.  Therefore we need to recognize that this is not just a struggle until November.  We’re in this for the long term.

If you live in Florida or Oregon

VOTE!

Republicans often provide us with a sense of déjà vu, as they resort to draconian practices in ways that we have seen before.  Whatever Bill Clinton’s shortcomings, he did nothing worthy of impeachment, such as starting lengthily wars of aggression, torture, or using the federal bureaucracy in an attempt to attain a permanent Republican regime at taxpayer expense.  Nevertheless, they did impeach Clinton, just to gridlock the government and prevent him from achieving more of his objectives.  That time may well come again.

Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist has long held a tight grip on the marionette strings of the GOP. Wielding undue influence as the head of the Americans for Tax Reform, Norquist ensures that Republican lawmakers sign his anti-tax pledge and threatens them with electoral defeat should they even think of deviating from it. Norquist has marked a successful few years, killing the deficit super committee agreement, batting down a tax increase on millionaires, and, of course, ensuring the extension of the Bush tax cuts.

Pleased with his headway, Norquist is now mapping out how he can ensure further anti-tax victories by securing Republican majorities. In an interview with the National Journal, he mused that a GOP mandate would obviously enact an extension of the Bush tax cuts, work to maintain a repatriation holiday for corporate profits, and even pass House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) plan that jeopardizes Medicare. But when asked what Republicans should do if faced with a Democratic majority that won’t keep the tax cuts, Norquist had a simple answer: “impeach” Obama [Propaganda delinked]… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Norquist and his Republican toadies could care less that Obama has done nothing worthy of impeachment, save offending their racism by committing the heinous crime of being elected while black.

Note that every priority Norquist listed benefits the 1% at YOUR expense.  Norquist knows that Democrats will represent YOU, because otherwise, there is no need for the threat.

In their ongoing attempt to steal the right to vote from students, workers, the disabled, and minorities, Republicans have been quick to make false allegations of voter fraud, despite conclusive evidence from a DOJ investigation that voter fraud accounts for less than one ten thousandth of one percent, a statistically insignificant amount.  South Carolina’s new voter ID law is so draconian that DOJ has blocked it’s implementation on Constitutional grounds.  In response SC Republicans are claiming over 900 dead people voted in the recent primary, and trotted out their six best examples.  The truth here is almost comical.

The highlight of last week’s War on Voting was South Carolina’s Attorney General Alan Wilson claiming that 900 dead people voted in "recent" elections in his state based on data from the DMV. The South Carolina legislature, of course, jumped on the claim.

Remember, the Department of Justice has blocked South Carolina from implementing a voter ID bill passed last year under the Voting Rights Act, arguing that the new law would create an unconstitutional impediment to voting by certain groups. The state is fighting back, hence this hearing. Which didn’t go exactly as planned.

State Election Commission director Marci Andino testified that some of the voters the DMV data said were dead are very much alive – and were eligible to cast a ballot. […]

In a news release that election agency spokesman Chris Whitmire handed out prior to the hearing, the agency disputed the claim that dead people had voted. One allegedly dead voter on the DMV’s list cast an absentee ballot before dying; another was the result of a poll worker mistakenly marking the voter as his deceased father; two were clerical errors resulting from stray marks on voter registration lists detected by a scanner; two others resulted from poll managers incorrectly marking the name of the voter in question instead of the voter above or below on the list.

The attorney general’s office had only given the State Election Commission six names off its list of 950 or so names to examine. The agency found every one of them to be alive and otherwise eligible to vote, except for the one who had voted before dying.

… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

How dare that voter have the audacity to die before election day!  It must have been a Librul Alinsky Conspiracy!

Are Republicans really seeing dead people,  or are they the frauds?

It appears to me is that the only voter fraud going on here is Republican fraud about voters.

Why is it that one party works to make sure that everyone gets to exercise their right to vote and the other party tries to take away people’s right to vote?