{"id":10191,"date":"2013-04-02T02:23:32","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T09:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=10191"},"modified":"2013-04-02T02:23:32","modified_gmt":"2013-04-02T09:23:32","slug":"open-thread422013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/02\/open-thread422013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–4\/2\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

I screwed up.  Because I just received the last of the documents I needed to do my taxes, and I figured that I\u2019d better get them done, before something else happens.  It set off my back pain.  I expected pain, but I thought it all would be somewhat lower.  In spite of poverty, I am not a corporate criminal, so I pay taxes.  Disgust over that comparison should help explain two of the Short Takes.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

Today’s took me 3:31 (average 4:25).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

From Think Progress<\/a>: <\/font>Japan lowered its corporate tax rate one year ago this week, leaving the United States with the highest statutory corporate tax rate in the world. And as Washington turns its focus to corporate tax reform, groups of corporations aren\u2019t letting lawmakers forget the anniversary.<\/p>\n

The RATE Coalition, a group of corporations advocating for lower tax rates, sent top tax writers in the House and Senate a letter today noting the anniversary and renewing their push for lower tax rates<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

…RATE isn\u2019t alone. Business Roundtable, another corporate lobbying group that includes some of RATE\u2019s members, announced plans to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for lower corporate tax rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But while the companies are correct that America\u2019s corporate tax rate is statutorily the highest in the world, what they aren\u2019t noting is that few corporations actually pay the 35 percent rate. In fact, even as profits for American corporations hit a 60-year high<\/a> in 2011, their effective tax rate hit a 40-year low<\/a>, and the U.S. collects less in taxes<\/a> as a percent of the total economy than every industrialized country in the world save Iceland. It\u2019s been 45 years since corporations paid the full top tax rate, and 26 American companies avoided taxation altogether over the past four years\u2026<\/p>\n

Effectively, this exposes the Republican claim as pure deception.  TC paid more than GE! \"Sad<\/font><\/p>\n

From The Nation<\/a>: <\/font>States are giving unprecedented tax breaks to corporations\u2014but unlike welfare recipients, Nation writer Greg Kaufmann says, "nobody’s talking about drug-testing them." Kaufmann joins a panel on The Melissa Harris-Perry Show<\/a> to break down the hypocrisies of government largesse.<\/p>\n

 <\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

This certainly exposes the Republican plan in action. Welfare for corporate criminals and their 1% vulture capitalists; poverty enhancement for the rest of us. Perry was spot on when she referred to the evaporated middle class.<\/font><\/p>\n

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>Saying that he could \u201cno longer keep up the punishing pace of sabre rattling seven days a week,\u201d North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un said today that beginning this month he will take weekends off from vowing to incinerate the world\u2026<\/p>\n

He expects to return to 7 day BS as soon as he finishes converting his nation to the more totalitarian Republican Tea Party.<\/font><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"2Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I screwed up.  Because I just received the last of the documents I needed to do my taxes, and I figured that I\u2019d better get them done, before something else happens.  It set off my back pain.  I expected pain, but I thought it all would be somewhat lower.  In spite of poverty, I am […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}