By James N. Sites
The President has now told us about the state of the union (grim) and submitted his latest budget plan (grimmer, with red ink everywhere). And the state of the economy? Grimmest -- despite the recent flurry of upticks.
He also made some telling points about the grave consequences of the Great Divide between the minus-1% of the US population living in luxury and the 99% struggling to hold on or falling by the wayside. His "Jobs Bill" will provide some short-term relief. But more Federal spending (and budgets deficits and borrowing and deficits and borrowing won't move us an inch toward reducing the Divide.
What the President did NOT say is also crucial. He failed to propose anything resembling a coherent, inspiring, truly effective plan that would jump-start the stalled economy, send the unemployed back to work, launch a new era of national expansion and prosperity, regain our tattered standing in the world…and, not so incidentally, assure his re-election.
People also missed a clarity of vision, a sense of urgency. Perhaps governmental problems have become too multifaceted, too detailed, too overwhelming for basic, commonsense analysis. But try, we must. For present approaches are NOT working. And the American downslide is too severe, and the need too great, for anything but drastic counter-action.
Here are some things that need to be done:
TAX FACTS: The President talks much about need for the wealthy to begin bearing their fair share of the national tax burden…but he needs to DOCUMENT his case. The White House or Treasury should issue a FACT MEMO detailing the tax loopholes, accounting tricks and special rates for special income flows that allow the wealthy to get away with what amounts to grand larceny when it comes to avoiding taxes. He needs, then, to show the corrective changes he would make.
3-TIER FLAT TAX: The present US income tax system is a horrific, backfiring, self-defeating mess, and should be scrapped…then replaced by a 3-Tier Flat Tax. The one size-fits-all flat tax presently proposed, whether 18% or 20% or whatever, would simply continue to give a relatively free ride to the wealthy on the backs of other taxpayers. A 3-TIER FLAT TAX, however, could achieve both simplicity and fairness. Thus, a 10% flat tax could be leveled on taxable annual incomes of under $100,000, a flat tax of 20% on incomes between that figure and $1 million, and a 35% flat tax (the present maximum) on incomes of more than $1 million.
BREAKTHROUGH: The present 35% corporation profits tax should also be scrapped…BUT ONLY ON CONDITION that advocates of this step agree to the above-mentioned 35% flat tax on the main beneficiaries – the investors, CEOs, Wall Streeters and other Big Money people making more than $1 million a year. This would allow recapture of the lost $2.3 billion now produced by the corporation tax. In short, those demanding an end to this tax should get a chance to PAY for its end.
Tne impact of this move would be AWESOME. The huge profits now being stashed abroad by global US firms could be returned to the USA, providing funds for new investment in expanded and modernized plant, creating more US JOBS; US firms would stop or reverse their shutting down of US factories, keeping production and JOBS here at home; exporters could cut prices sharply, spurring sales abroad and JOBS in the USA and finally moving America toward a favorable trade balance; firms all over the world would want to set up and expand operations within the USA, creating more US JOBS; the fiercely competitive US retail industry would cut prices, spurring consumer buying and follow-up output and more JOBS; increased economic activity would increase US Treasury tax receipts, opening the way toward finally balancing the Federal budget and paring down our mountainous national debt.
A potential political GRAND BARGAIN could lead to these grand results. The question is whether Big Money will accept it. Will Big Money interests go along with higher taxes on their own incomes in order to get rid of the much-despised corporation tax? Or will they dig in behind the Anti-Tax Stonewallers in Congress and kill off these basic tax changes that could lead to a stunning revival of America here at home and around the world?
Especially since the strange recent Supreme Court decision unleashing a flood of new money into politics, , Big Money stalks the streets, corridors, offices and homes of Washington as never before,, threatening political oblivion to anyone who refuses to do its bidding. Big Money dictates the terms of the pallid Republican primary campaigns; what candidate dares say one word that might offend it? And Big Money will surely call the shots on this Fall’s campaign for the Presidency.
So is this what American democracy has now come to? With every official and would-be official kowtowing to the demands of Big Money? No, thank heavens…not necessarily. We, the voters, will have our turn at bat in November. And we’re mad as hell at the whole Washington esaablishment! So what? Well, if I were an incumbent office-holder up for re- election, I would be very, very nervous about the future.
(30)
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Friday, October 28, 2011
INGER! How Washington REALLY Works
Hi, everyone!If you are as disgusted as I am with today’s divided government, partisan bickering, gridlock and endless electioneering by economic illiterates, you may appreciate these book-notes on
HOW WASHINGTON REALLY WORKS.
Most of you know my wondrous wife Inger, who came to America from Norway as a first post-WWII exchange student. But how well do you know her book, INGER! A Modern-Day Viking Discovers America…? Not really? Well, one reviewer calls the book “a dual biography that reads like a novel.” It’s a unique combination of sea story/love story, a chronicle of our times, a travel adventure and an action drama based on our 40 years in Washington.
This last subject area may well be INGER!’s main contribution to public understanding of “the Washington process.” For here are rarely seen personal case histories of the intricate, ever- shifting interplay between officials, lobbyists, the news media and PR forces – which combine to create government action. Or inaction, like NOW! Inger thus joins the author in…
· The grueling process of becoming a Washington reporter, freelance writer, editor -in-chief/ publisher of a major national magazine, head of the Washington office of the legendary PR firm, Carl Byoir & Associates, etc….
· The classic nationwide PR campaign that railroads developed to get Washington help in forcing labor unions to update crippling “featherbedding” work rules.
· An Eisenhower Fellowship-sponsored study of transport policies from Ireland to India and the USSR—which proved decisive in heading off nationalization of US railroads.
· A unique educational drive to increase press know-how of complex economic issues and thereby rebuild the public image of a leading business association (NAM).
· How the chemical industry used ad/PR campaigning to get government to set up a “Superfund” to clean up dangerously contaminating chemical waste dumps.
· The sweeping campaign to warn the nation of the dangers of government budget deficits—led by Treasury Secretary William E. Simon and run from inside government.
INGER! is thus a book for all ages--including students of Journalism, PR, Government/ Political Science and Inger’s own field, Library Science.
As for Inger’s own experiences, it took 11 years, two sons, three schools and many jobs after landing in America before Inger earned her Master’s Degree and went on to serve as a librarian, Washington tour guide and a teacher of Norwegian to US diplomats heading to Norway. A truly contributing US citizen!
INGER!’s insights into America are legion. A key one: She warns of the covert impact on the human spirit by the all-enveloping Media/Entertainment Complex, with its avid promotion of permissiveness, pornography, promiscuity and perversion. She then shares her opposing dream of helping people become “Four-Dimensional Humans” – intensively developed beings possessing knowledge, cultural awareness, spiritual depth and an abiding concern for others.
Foreshadows of future shock conclude the book. Leading the list is the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of one percent of the population—forcing Americans into a dangerous rich-poor divide. Then come inadequate health-care coverage, runaway college costs, domination of Washington by Big Money, our horrendous budget deficits and pyramiding national debt. And what about Inger’s native land? Formerly poor, now oil-rich, once-peaceful Norway is being swamped by desperate Third World migrants, who do not assimilate, do not get jobs…and then turn to narcotics, prostitution and crime. Inger feels, nevertheless, that mankind is enterprising enough not only to survive such problems but to prevail over them.
WHY ALL THIS NOW? Because the book’s publisher, the Jesse Stuart Foundation, is offering INGER! to our friends as a HAPPY HOLIDAYS present for $12. each. This includes a packaging and shipping charge of $6…so you get a $25. book for $6. Not bad! To order, go to JSFBOOKS.com. Or write JSF at P.O. Box 669; Ashland, KY 41105 and mention this Publisher’s Special Offer. JSF will also be glad to handle shipping to a list of individual addressees if you wish to order multiple copies of the book and avoid re-mailing them yourself.
WHY ALL THIS NOW? Because the book’s publisher, the Jesse Stuart Foundation, is offering INGER! to our friends as a HAPPY HOLIDAYS present for $12. each. This includes a packaging and shipping charge of $6…so you get a $25. book for $6. Not bad! To order, go to JSFBOOKS.com. Or write JSF at P.O. Box 669; Ashland, KY 41105 and mention this Publisher’s Special Offer. JSF will also be glad to handle shipping to a list of individual addressees if you wish to order multiple copies of the book and avoid re-mailing them yourself.
Feel free to forward this Email offer on to your friends…and make their Holidays Happy, too!
With many good wishes, (Inger &) Jim Sites
Sunday, September 18, 2011
CURBING THOSE CRUSHING COLLEGE COSTS
By James N. Sites
It’s September again, which means that all across America college-bound youngsters and their parents face another grueling shakedown from a vicious “pass the buck” higher-education cost travesty. But courage! fellow citizens, there IS hope….
The problem all of us face is that universities seem to be mired down in a medieval management structure. The farce begins with constantly escalating across-the-board schooling costs, which college chiefs have few real incentives to control. For instance, when faculties demand higher and higher pay for teaching fewer and fewer hours, why should administrators say NO and go through a nasty confrontation when they can simply pass the extra costs on to students in higher tuition and fees?
College leaders also know that few outsiders and no politicians dare criticize academia. After all, isn’t this the citadel of learning, and aren’t such folks our national “thought leaders”? Isn’t it THEY who know what’s best for the masses (not to mention for themselves)?
Now enters Washington. The politicians’ “solution” (pushed and applauded by academia): Ever bigger and ever more generous government-backed student loan programs. A solution? Someone’s got to be kidding! Such loans in practice actually mean saddling the young with a horrendous debt burden that takes years, even decades, to pay off.
So how does the nation break this vicious cycle of constantly increasing higher-education costs being loaded onto a suffering public? Here’s one action suggestion:
Congress should amend student loan legislation to require that no government-guaranteed loan can be used at any college whose total annual costs to students (tuition, dormitory, books, fees, etc) exceed the BLS Cost of Living Index.
One can already hear the deafening howls of protest from higher-education sources. Nevertheless, a long-abused and overburdened public might – just might – see colleges begin to implement effective cost-cutting and efficiency-boosting measures. A real incentive to do so will finally have arrived. Then, hopefully, the cost buck- passing will stop where it belongs: Right in the college executive office.
Are you listening, academia? You, too, Washington? Anyone?
(30)
It’s September again, which means that all across America college-bound youngsters and their parents face another grueling shakedown from a vicious “pass the buck” higher-education cost travesty. But courage! fellow citizens, there IS hope….
The problem all of us face is that universities seem to be mired down in a medieval management structure. The farce begins with constantly escalating across-the-board schooling costs, which college chiefs have few real incentives to control. For instance, when faculties demand higher and higher pay for teaching fewer and fewer hours, why should administrators say NO and go through a nasty confrontation when they can simply pass the extra costs on to students in higher tuition and fees?
College leaders also know that few outsiders and no politicians dare criticize academia. After all, isn’t this the citadel of learning, and aren’t such folks our national “thought leaders”? Isn’t it THEY who know what’s best for the masses (not to mention for themselves)?
Now enters Washington. The politicians’ “solution” (pushed and applauded by academia): Ever bigger and ever more generous government-backed student loan programs. A solution? Someone’s got to be kidding! Such loans in practice actually mean saddling the young with a horrendous debt burden that takes years, even decades, to pay off.
So how does the nation break this vicious cycle of constantly increasing higher-education costs being loaded onto a suffering public? Here’s one action suggestion:
Congress should amend student loan legislation to require that no government-guaranteed loan can be used at any college whose total annual costs to students (tuition, dormitory, books, fees, etc) exceed the BLS Cost of Living Index.
One can already hear the deafening howls of protest from higher-education sources. Nevertheless, a long-abused and overburdened public might – just might – see colleges begin to implement effective cost-cutting and efficiency-boosting measures. A real incentive to do so will finally have arrived. Then, hopefully, the cost buck- passing will stop where it belongs: Right in the college executive office.
Are you listening, academia? You, too, Washington? Anyone?
(30)
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
GOODBYE, GOP
By James N. Sites
If Republican members of Congress think that their adamant refusal to consider tax changes as part of a Federal budget/debt agreement is going to win them votes in the next election, they had better think again. The same for members of the Congressional Tea Party caucus.
I for one will NOT be voting for GOP candidates next time around. Nor will my friends or family. In fact, I’ll shortly be changing my voting registration in my home state of Delaware. I’ve had it, GOP!
Why? Because the Republicans seem totally oblivious to the radical changes occurring in the US economy and their implications for America’s future. Or are they PURPOSELY blind in their fervor to curry favor with their wealthy backers and major contributors to re-election campaigns? Whatever, they seem woefully unaware of the nation’s most serious problem short of fighting international terrorism:
This is the increasingly dangerous concentration of wealth in the hands of a fraction of 1% of the population.
The radical changes that have brought this about include (1) runaway executive compensation among US business firms; (2) bloated bonuses within the financial sector and (3) the Bush-Cheney tax cuts of 2001-3, which heavily favored the wealthy and led to a decade of disastrous budget deficits and spiraling national debt.
If a fair and equitable tax system should “follow the money,” then higher tax rates not only should be applied to concentrated wealth; they MUST be so applied if the US enterprise economy is to survive. Mass purchasing power is essential for the effective functioning of our economy. If the wealthy continue grabbing most of the benefits of economic activity, where is the general public’s purchasing power to come from? Certainly NOT from the 20 million Americans trying desperately to find jobs. And NOT from the millions of others who are working at subsistence-level wages.
Indeed, the USA is looking more and more like a classic Banana Republic, with a few at the top wallowing in luxury while everyone else is either falling behind or is left barely hanging on.
Under the new economic reality America faces – where the vaunted marketplace has badly failed to control greed at the top and achieve a fair distribution of income, key tax changes are badly needed:
1. End indefensible loopholes and tax breaks for special interests and allow the IRS rate on that portion of a person’s taxable income exceeding, say, $300,000 annually to return from the present 35% to the pre-Bush level of 39.6%. The present 15% giveaway tax rate on dividends should also return to 39.6%.
2. Enact a new top marginal tax of 49.6% on that portion of a person’s taxable income exceeding $1 million a year…with ALL of the additional money raised by this tax then devoted to CUTTING taxes for those making less than $100,000. per year.
These tax actions, implemented immediately, would not only correct today’s badly unbalanced distribution of tax burdens but they would also stimulate consumer spending and employment AND the flow of general tax revenues needed to start bringing down the government’s huge budget deficits. They would also help rein in on the runaway pay and bloated bonuses of corporate CEOs, returning some of the vast sums they are now plundering from their firms to use by the general public.
As for the strange controversy over when and how to act on our deficits, there IS a practical, workable approach. Unemployment is the key. Deficit spending may be needed now to stimulate economic activity…but once the national unemployment rate drops below 6%, the public should DEMAND that Congress and the President pass balanced budgets. This must include an extra 5% over and above the annual operating budget directed solely and directly to paying down our horrendous backlog of debt. This action formula can be expressed in this simplified equation:
Minus 6% = Balance Plus 5%.
It CAN be done, Washington. DO it…or face the public’s wrath at the next election. People are FED UP!
(30)
By James N. Sites
If Republican members of Congress think that their adamant refusal to consider tax changes as part of a Federal budget/debt agreement is going to win them votes in the next election, they had better think again. The same for members of the Congressional Tea Party caucus.
I for one will NOT be voting for GOP candidates next time around. Nor will my friends or family. In fact, I’ll shortly be changing my voting registration in my home state of Delaware. I’ve had it, GOP!
Why? Because the Republicans seem totally oblivious to the radical changes occurring in the US economy and their implications for America’s future. Or are they PURPOSELY blind in their fervor to curry favor with their wealthy backers and major contributors to re-election campaigns? Whatever, they seem woefully unaware of the nation’s most serious problem short of fighting international terrorism:
This is the increasingly dangerous concentration of wealth in the hands of a fraction of 1% of the population.
The radical changes that have brought this about include (1) runaway executive compensation among US business firms; (2) bloated bonuses within the financial sector and (3) the Bush-Cheney tax cuts of 2001-3, which heavily favored the wealthy and led to a decade of disastrous budget deficits and spiraling national debt.
If a fair and equitable tax system should “follow the money,” then higher tax rates not only should be applied to concentrated wealth; they MUST be so applied if the US enterprise economy is to survive. Mass purchasing power is essential for the effective functioning of our economy. If the wealthy continue grabbing most of the benefits of economic activity, where is the general public’s purchasing power to come from? Certainly NOT from the 20 million Americans trying desperately to find jobs. And NOT from the millions of others who are working at subsistence-level wages.
Indeed, the USA is looking more and more like a classic Banana Republic, with a few at the top wallowing in luxury while everyone else is either falling behind or is left barely hanging on.
Under the new economic reality America faces – where the vaunted marketplace has badly failed to control greed at the top and achieve a fair distribution of income, key tax changes are badly needed:
1. End indefensible loopholes and tax breaks for special interests and allow the IRS rate on that portion of a person’s taxable income exceeding, say, $300,000 annually to return from the present 35% to the pre-Bush level of 39.6%. The present 15% giveaway tax rate on dividends should also return to 39.6%.
2. Enact a new top marginal tax of 49.6% on that portion of a person’s taxable income exceeding $1 million a year…with ALL of the additional money raised by this tax then devoted to CUTTING taxes for those making less than $100,000. per year.
These tax actions, implemented immediately, would not only correct today’s badly unbalanced distribution of tax burdens but they would also stimulate consumer spending and employment AND the flow of general tax revenues needed to start bringing down the government’s huge budget deficits. They would also help rein in on the runaway pay and bloated bonuses of corporate CEOs, returning some of the vast sums they are now plundering from their firms to use by the general public.
As for the strange controversy over when and how to act on our deficits, there IS a practical, workable approach. Unemployment is the key. Deficit spending may be needed now to stimulate economic activity…but once the national unemployment rate drops below 6%, the public should DEMAND that Congress and the President pass balanced budgets. This must include an extra 5% over and above the annual operating budget directed solely and directly to paying down our horrendous backlog of debt. This action formula can be expressed in this simplified equation:
Minus 6% = Balance Plus 5%.
It CAN be done, Washington. DO it…or face the public’s wrath at the next election. People are FED UP!
(30)
Friday, May 13, 2011
LET'S DECLARE WAR ON THE NATIONAL DEBT...AND SAVE AMERICA!
Mr. President and Members of Congress:
Let’s Declare WAR on the National Debt…
And Save America!
By James N. Sites
It’s time for Washington to stop flailing around with failing attempts to balance the Federal budget and go on to a war footing against government deficits and the national debt. This will mean unprecedented cuts in government spending AND higher taxes on those who stand to benefit the most from restoration of a sound, stable economy – the wealthy.
America today stands as Target No. 1 in a vicious war being waged against us by international terrorism. Our political leaders talk torrents about this, but what they have NOT done since 9/11/01 is to ask taxpayers to PAY for this war. They’ve preferred instead to finance it on the cheap, through an ominous, decade-long expansion of debt.
Washington, in effect, has thus been handing the terrorists an indirect victory by setting the USA up for eventual financial ruin.
Another war must, therefore, now be fought against America’s No. 1 domestic problem -- the monstrous overhang of national debt that threatens to crush our economy. Yet, has anyone seen any of our leaders REALLY pursuing this course? With the URGENCY it demands?
Tea Party-backed Members of Congress say they want to see a concrete plan for balancing the Federal budget before they’ll vote for raising the national debt ceiling. So why don’t THEY come up with a plan? Are they and other MCs afraid of the dreaded T-word? After four months of huffing and puffing and trying to cut Federal spending…and making only a dent in this year’s projected $1.5 trillion deficit, is it possible that even conservatives are ready to admit that tax revenues must be increased if the US is EVER to balance the budget?
So why doesn’t the President come up with a plan? After caving in to GOP demands last December to continue the Bush tax cuts, he now finally says that taxes may, indeed, have to be raised, that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy of 10 years ago should be repealed.
Fine, Mr. President! But you can’t just proclaim a goal like a professor addressing an economics class. YOU’VE GOT TO GO OUT AND FIGHT FOR IT!
It appears that everyone in Washington is hanging back, waiting for the “Gang of Six” to stick its neck out with a plan first. These six Members of Congress – three Democrats and three Republicans -- will soon report their views on what should be done. One can only wonder how effective their plan, born of endless compromises between the two major parties, will be.
This leaves the way open for an ordinary citizen to offer a plan – one with real TEETH in it. Here it is:
The first requisite for any plan is to base it not on wishful thinking or bankrupt policy approaches but on reality – on what is actually happening not in Washington but within the economy itself. In this regard, three portentous structural changes in the economy stand out:
1. Runaway executive compensation among US businesses. In 1960 CEOs were making 42 times the average worker’s pay. This is now 344 times! Backed by compliant corporate Boards, new CEOs are literally plundering their firms, hogging for themselves earnings that used to be divided more evenly among employees, customers, investors and the communities the firms are meant to serve. The vaunted marketplace has, in effect, failed to control these excesses, leaving government tax policy itself as the public’s only recourse.
2. Bloated financial sector/Wall Street bonuses. Ordinary people cannot understand how any executive or expert of any kind can so contribute to the common weal or general public interest as to justify handouts of 20 or 50 or 100 million dollars a year, especially when one sees 15 million people out of work and our nation floundering in gathering financial distress. Can recipients possibly consider their uncontrolled gobbling up of national resources fair and equitable -- not to mention moral or ethical?
3. The disastrous Bush tax cuts of 2001-3. These brought the top marginal tax rate levied by IRS down from 39.6% to 35%, with the rate on dividends dropping all the way to 15% and the rate on capital gains going from 20% to 15%. These cuts were -- and remain -- DISASTROUS because they came while government spending was rising sharply to pay for the war in Iraq and, later, Afghanistan. This led to a decade of record-breaking Federal budget deficits and year-by-year increases in the nation’s debt – which now hangs over our heads like a deadly sword of Damocles. The real difficulty will come when economic recovery begins to push up interest rates. Indeed, interest payments of the national debt could then become the dominant -- and eventually intolerable -- part of the Federal budget..
Another result of these changes may be the most dangerous aspect of all: An increasing concentration of national wealth in the hands of a fraction of one percent (1%) of the population. This poses profound threats not only for the effective functioning of the US economy but also for the future of American democracy itself. Significantly, consumer spending represents 70% of the US economy. However, as more and more of the nation’s resources go to fewer and fewer people, mass consumption now seems to depend mainly on massive expansion of consumer debt. When this reaches its inevitable limit, economic collapse follows – like NOW!
Yet, almost no one addresses this problem of concentrated wealth. Not the news media or so-called thought leaders. And certainly not politicians. Why? Have our political leaders become so dependent on re-election campaign contributions from the wealthy that they don’t dare do anything to displease them?
The dismal past decade of huge Federal budget deficits also raises questions of the validity of claims put forward by “supply side” and “trickle down” taxation advocates – especially those in the GOP [I myself am a registered Republican BUT this doesn't mean I have to support the party leaders when I feel they are dead-wrong]. These advocates have proclaimed that cutting taxes for the wealthy spurs new investment and economic growth, leading to more revenue than is lost. Would it were so! Instead, the only ones who appear to have gained from 10 years of disastrous deficits under the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy ARE THE WEALTHY THEMSELVES.
An example: Wealthy taxpayers who live largely on investment income can now steer their money into areas yielding capital gains and dividends, thereby bringing their tax rates down to as little as 15%, compared to the pre-Bush top of 39.6% for salaried taxpayers. The Bush tax cuts thus came as an enormous gift to the SuperRich – a gift to capitalists that, ironically, had to be financed by our deficit-ridden government through enormous borrowing from Communist China. Which shows what screwball effects can come from misguided Washington policymaking.
So how should Washington now go onto a war footing to balance the Federal budget and bring down the national debt? By trimming wasteful government spending, of course. BUT new sources of revenue must also be developed, as the President has rightly declared. Especially needed is a return to a national policy of levying taxes on those most able to pay, especially the SuperRich. These steps should be taken immediately:
1. Allow the IRS rate of that portion of a person’s taxable income exceeding, say, $300,000 annually to return from the present 35% to the pre-Bush level of 39.6%. The present giveaway tax rate on dividends should also return to 39.6%..
2. Enact a new top marginal tax of 49.6% on that portion of a person’s taxable income exceeding $1 million a year. ALL of the additional money raised by this tax should then be devoted to CUTTING taxes for those making less than $100,000. per year.
Drastic? Not in view of the nation’s drastic need. Few seem to remember that the top marginal tax rate during WWII was 93%. Even as late as the Truman-Eisenhower-Kennedy years, 1950-1963, it was 91%. Today, however, you hear “experts” talking about “broadening the tax base” and going to a top marginal tax rate of 18%. Incredible! Under present conditions this could only be interpreted as an unjustified further sop to the wealthy and an unthinkable disserve to the nation.
These two steps would not only correct today’s badly unbalanced distribution of tax burdens but they would also stimulate consumer spending and economic recovery AND the flow of general tax revenues needed to start bringing down the government’s huge budget deficits. They would also help rein in on the runaway pay and bloated bonuses of bankers, Wall Street traders and corporate CEOs, returning some of the vast sums they are now plundering from their firms to use by the general public.
As for the controversy over when and how to act on our deficits, there IS a practical, workable approach. Unemployment is the key. Deficit spending may be needed now to stimulate economic activity…but once the national unemployment rate drops below 6%, the public should DEMAND that Congress and the President pass balanced budgets. This must include an extra 5% over and above the annual operating budget directed solely to paying down our horrendous backlog of debt. This action formula can be expressed in this simplified equation;
Minus 6% = Balance Plus 5%.
It CAN be done, Washington. LET'S DO IT!
(30)
Let’s Declare WAR on the National Debt…
And Save America!
By James N. Sites
It’s time for Washington to stop flailing around with failing attempts to balance the Federal budget and go on to a war footing against government deficits and the national debt. This will mean unprecedented cuts in government spending AND higher taxes on those who stand to benefit the most from restoration of a sound, stable economy – the wealthy.
America today stands as Target No. 1 in a vicious war being waged against us by international terrorism. Our political leaders talk torrents about this, but what they have NOT done since 9/11/01 is to ask taxpayers to PAY for this war. They’ve preferred instead to finance it on the cheap, through an ominous, decade-long expansion of debt.
Washington, in effect, has thus been handing the terrorists an indirect victory by setting the USA up for eventual financial ruin.
Another war must, therefore, now be fought against America’s No. 1 domestic problem -- the monstrous overhang of national debt that threatens to crush our economy. Yet, has anyone seen any of our leaders REALLY pursuing this course? With the URGENCY it demands?
Tea Party-backed Members of Congress say they want to see a concrete plan for balancing the Federal budget before they’ll vote for raising the national debt ceiling. So why don’t THEY come up with a plan? Are they and other MCs afraid of the dreaded T-word? After four months of huffing and puffing and trying to cut Federal spending…and making only a dent in this year’s projected $1.5 trillion deficit, is it possible that even conservatives are ready to admit that tax revenues must be increased if the US is EVER to balance the budget?
So why doesn’t the President come up with a plan? After caving in to GOP demands last December to continue the Bush tax cuts, he now finally says that taxes may, indeed, have to be raised, that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy of 10 years ago should be repealed.
Fine, Mr. President! But you can’t just proclaim a goal like a professor addressing an economics class. YOU’VE GOT TO GO OUT AND FIGHT FOR IT!
It appears that everyone in Washington is hanging back, waiting for the “Gang of Six” to stick its neck out with a plan first. These six Members of Congress – three Democrats and three Republicans -- will soon report their views on what should be done. One can only wonder how effective their plan, born of endless compromises between the two major parties, will be.
This leaves the way open for an ordinary citizen to offer a plan – one with real TEETH in it. Here it is:
The first requisite for any plan is to base it not on wishful thinking or bankrupt policy approaches but on reality – on what is actually happening not in Washington but within the economy itself. In this regard, three portentous structural changes in the economy stand out:
1. Runaway executive compensation among US businesses. In 1960 CEOs were making 42 times the average worker’s pay. This is now 344 times! Backed by compliant corporate Boards, new CEOs are literally plundering their firms, hogging for themselves earnings that used to be divided more evenly among employees, customers, investors and the communities the firms are meant to serve. The vaunted marketplace has, in effect, failed to control these excesses, leaving government tax policy itself as the public’s only recourse.
2. Bloated financial sector/Wall Street bonuses. Ordinary people cannot understand how any executive or expert of any kind can so contribute to the common weal or general public interest as to justify handouts of 20 or 50 or 100 million dollars a year, especially when one sees 15 million people out of work and our nation floundering in gathering financial distress. Can recipients possibly consider their uncontrolled gobbling up of national resources fair and equitable -- not to mention moral or ethical?
3. The disastrous Bush tax cuts of 2001-3. These brought the top marginal tax rate levied by IRS down from 39.6% to 35%, with the rate on dividends dropping all the way to 15% and the rate on capital gains going from 20% to 15%. These cuts were -- and remain -- DISASTROUS because they came while government spending was rising sharply to pay for the war in Iraq and, later, Afghanistan. This led to a decade of record-breaking Federal budget deficits and year-by-year increases in the nation’s debt – which now hangs over our heads like a deadly sword of Damocles. The real difficulty will come when economic recovery begins to push up interest rates. Indeed, interest payments of the national debt could then become the dominant -- and eventually intolerable -- part of the Federal budget..
Another result of these changes may be the most dangerous aspect of all: An increasing concentration of national wealth in the hands of a fraction of one percent (1%) of the population. This poses profound threats not only for the effective functioning of the US economy but also for the future of American democracy itself. Significantly, consumer spending represents 70% of the US economy. However, as more and more of the nation’s resources go to fewer and fewer people, mass consumption now seems to depend mainly on massive expansion of consumer debt. When this reaches its inevitable limit, economic collapse follows – like NOW!
Yet, almost no one addresses this problem of concentrated wealth. Not the news media or so-called thought leaders. And certainly not politicians. Why? Have our political leaders become so dependent on re-election campaign contributions from the wealthy that they don’t dare do anything to displease them?
The dismal past decade of huge Federal budget deficits also raises questions of the validity of claims put forward by “supply side” and “trickle down” taxation advocates – especially those in the GOP [I myself am a registered Republican BUT this doesn't mean I have to support the party leaders when I feel they are dead-wrong]. These advocates have proclaimed that cutting taxes for the wealthy spurs new investment and economic growth, leading to more revenue than is lost. Would it were so! Instead, the only ones who appear to have gained from 10 years of disastrous deficits under the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy ARE THE WEALTHY THEMSELVES.
An example: Wealthy taxpayers who live largely on investment income can now steer their money into areas yielding capital gains and dividends, thereby bringing their tax rates down to as little as 15%, compared to the pre-Bush top of 39.6% for salaried taxpayers. The Bush tax cuts thus came as an enormous gift to the SuperRich – a gift to capitalists that, ironically, had to be financed by our deficit-ridden government through enormous borrowing from Communist China. Which shows what screwball effects can come from misguided Washington policymaking.
So how should Washington now go onto a war footing to balance the Federal budget and bring down the national debt? By trimming wasteful government spending, of course. BUT new sources of revenue must also be developed, as the President has rightly declared. Especially needed is a return to a national policy of levying taxes on those most able to pay, especially the SuperRich. These steps should be taken immediately:
1. Allow the IRS rate of that portion of a person’s taxable income exceeding, say, $300,000 annually to return from the present 35% to the pre-Bush level of 39.6%. The present giveaway tax rate on dividends should also return to 39.6%..
2. Enact a new top marginal tax of 49.6% on that portion of a person’s taxable income exceeding $1 million a year. ALL of the additional money raised by this tax should then be devoted to CUTTING taxes for those making less than $100,000. per year.
Drastic? Not in view of the nation’s drastic need. Few seem to remember that the top marginal tax rate during WWII was 93%. Even as late as the Truman-Eisenhower-Kennedy years, 1950-1963, it was 91%. Today, however, you hear “experts” talking about “broadening the tax base” and going to a top marginal tax rate of 18%. Incredible! Under present conditions this could only be interpreted as an unjustified further sop to the wealthy and an unthinkable disserve to the nation.
These two steps would not only correct today’s badly unbalanced distribution of tax burdens but they would also stimulate consumer spending and economic recovery AND the flow of general tax revenues needed to start bringing down the government’s huge budget deficits. They would also help rein in on the runaway pay and bloated bonuses of bankers, Wall Street traders and corporate CEOs, returning some of the vast sums they are now plundering from their firms to use by the general public.
As for the controversy over when and how to act on our deficits, there IS a practical, workable approach. Unemployment is the key. Deficit spending may be needed now to stimulate economic activity…but once the national unemployment rate drops below 6%, the public should DEMAND that Congress and the President pass balanced budgets. This must include an extra 5% over and above the annual operating budget directed solely to paying down our horrendous backlog of debt. This action formula can be expressed in this simplified equation;
Minus 6% = Balance Plus 5%.
It CAN be done, Washington. LET'S DO IT!
(30)
Saturday, December 11, 2010
TWILIGHT OF THE AMERICA GOD?
It is said that democracies contain within themselves the seeds of their own destruction. Which means that in striving to curry favor with voters, elected officials habitually spend more and more of our government's money (OUR money) for more and more projects that appeal to more and more constituents, all with the aim of gathering in more and more votes for the officials' re-elections. Or they cut taxes far below spending levels. In the case of the USA, this has led so far to 10 consecutive years of record-breaking budget deficits and ballooning Federal debt -- a sure recipe for eventual financial ruin.
This budget-busting process has nowhere been seen more clearly than in the recent passage of the Obama-GOP tax-cut/spending bill, which will add hundreds of billion$ to our national debt. All in the name of stimulating our sick economy. Instead of rubbing their hands over this new flow of money from Washington, however, recipients should be counting each dollar as another nail in the nation's coffin.
Ironically, Washington politicians and pundits are now hailing this bill as a standout example of cooperation between the two parties. Which you might say it is, BUT more like two gangs that, in order to get everything each wants, combine forces to rob the public treasury.
One of the chief beneficiaries of this government largesse is the SuperRich, who need no stimulant whatever but who will now be cashing in handsomely on continuation of the Bush tax cuts of 2001-3 -- which have disproportionately enriched the wealthy. Not surprisingly, many of these just happen to be major contributors to our political leaders' re-election campaign funds.
Another group applauding Washington's idiotic economic policies must surely be the leaders of China, who are not only a major source of loans to cover our horrendous budget deficits but who also are driving relentlessy to displace the USA as the world's No. 1 economic power.
And after that, what?
Sunday, July 4, 2010
TAMING THE DEFICIT MONSTER!
MINUS 6%=BALANCE PLUS 5%
What kind of strange equation is THIS? It's really not that strange. This singular formula is a practical, workable guide for coping with recurring Federal budget deficits and the government's horrendous backlog of debt. It states that when the national unemployment rate drops below 6%, the President and Congress MUST balance the budget. Balance must ALSO include an extra 5% over and above the operating budget devoted to reducing the national debt. So this is a flag around which concerned Americans can rally as they try to get government back onto the track toward fiscal responsibility. Will it work? It's GOT to!
As a scarred veteran of 40 years of Washington news reporting and public affairs work, I take my hat off to the Tea Party movement and other concerned citizens for their efforts to return government to those values that created a great nation.
Experience tells me, however, that we face a long, uphill battle—one that will require not only dedication and enduring effort but also the setting of ONE overriding clear-cut goal. In short, let’s not scatter our shots…but, like Alexander the Great confronting a vastly more numerous Persian army, let’s direct our resources and vote-power into an all-out drive straight into the heart of the enemy.
What is this heart? It’s the SPEND/ELECT fever that seems to grip every new President and Member of Congress (MC) coming to Washington. Or, more precisely, it’s the OVERSPEND/BORROW/RE-ELECT fever. For the dominant symptom of this malady is a feverish obsession with staying in office. This leads our elected officials to vote repeatedly for programs government doesn't have the revenues to cover...and to spend untold hours raising campaign funds from lobbyists and special interests and preparing for the next election, raising serious questions about who’s governing whom.
Sadly enough, we-the-people then abet this mockery by playing up to our representatives as though they are royalty. And once in office that’s exactly how they live…on OUR money. Small wonder our public servants are becoming our public masters!
It is said that democracy has built within itself the seeds of its own destruction. Meaning that our elected officials cannot seem to resist the temptation to dole out tax cuts to favored groups while ALSO borrowing vast sums from nations like China to pay for whatever spending scheme might win them votes at the next election. The result: Massive Federal budget deficits—growing by nearly $2 TRILLION a year and now topping $13 TRILLION-- that overhang America like a disaster just waiting to happen.
Consider this an overstatement? Then picture the unbearable increase in Federal outlays for interest charges that will come with a significant rise in interest rates accompanying economic recovery. Or the shock that would come if China decided to jerk the chain we’ve wound around our neck through runaway borrowing from that nation. And you wonder, how could our “leaders” have allowed the horrendous deficits of recent years to pile up, even in boom times? Were these a result of economic ignorance on their part? Or plain old voter-pandering politicking?
THIS is the curse that we-the-voters must put an end to. And the simple equation set forth in the title of this commentary is THE way to do it. What does it mean? Simply that whenever the national unemployment rate drops below 6%, we-the-people DEMAND that our government adopt a balanced budget--which must include an EXTRA 5% over and above the operating budget devoted directly to paying down those horrific deficits.
In short, let’s tell the New Washington Royalty: Cut spending or raise taxes or do whatever it takes to give America a balanced budget now and every year hereafter. And if you fail to deliver, we demand you take a 50% cut in your inflated pay. THAT should get their attention! The main point: Political incentives are now all on the side of spending. So let’s alter this bankrupting system and add counter-incentives with teeth to CUT spending.
Where can government outlays be cut? The President's Commission on the deficits has recommended a long list of deep budget cuts that can be made across the entire Federal structure. These could serve as a veritable blueprint for action by the next Congress. -- IF the people demand our representatives ACT.
What kind of strange equation is THIS? It's really not that strange. This singular formula is a practical, workable guide for coping with recurring Federal budget deficits and the government's horrendous backlog of debt. It states that when the national unemployment rate drops below 6%, the President and Congress MUST balance the budget. Balance must ALSO include an extra 5% over and above the operating budget devoted to reducing the national debt. So this is a flag around which concerned Americans can rally as they try to get government back onto the track toward fiscal responsibility. Will it work? It's GOT to!
As a scarred veteran of 40 years of Washington news reporting and public affairs work, I take my hat off to the Tea Party movement and other concerned citizens for their efforts to return government to those values that created a great nation.
Experience tells me, however, that we face a long, uphill battle—one that will require not only dedication and enduring effort but also the setting of ONE overriding clear-cut goal. In short, let’s not scatter our shots…but, like Alexander the Great confronting a vastly more numerous Persian army, let’s direct our resources and vote-power into an all-out drive straight into the heart of the enemy.
What is this heart? It’s the SPEND/ELECT fever that seems to grip every new President and Member of Congress (MC) coming to Washington. Or, more precisely, it’s the OVERSPEND/BORROW/RE-ELECT fever. For the dominant symptom of this malady is a feverish obsession with staying in office. This leads our elected officials to vote repeatedly for programs government doesn't have the revenues to cover...and to spend untold hours raising campaign funds from lobbyists and special interests and preparing for the next election, raising serious questions about who’s governing whom.
Sadly enough, we-the-people then abet this mockery by playing up to our representatives as though they are royalty. And once in office that’s exactly how they live…on OUR money. Small wonder our public servants are becoming our public masters!
It is said that democracy has built within itself the seeds of its own destruction. Meaning that our elected officials cannot seem to resist the temptation to dole out tax cuts to favored groups while ALSO borrowing vast sums from nations like China to pay for whatever spending scheme might win them votes at the next election. The result: Massive Federal budget deficits—growing by nearly $2 TRILLION a year and now topping $13 TRILLION-- that overhang America like a disaster just waiting to happen.
Consider this an overstatement? Then picture the unbearable increase in Federal outlays for interest charges that will come with a significant rise in interest rates accompanying economic recovery. Or the shock that would come if China decided to jerk the chain we’ve wound around our neck through runaway borrowing from that nation. And you wonder, how could our “leaders” have allowed the horrendous deficits of recent years to pile up, even in boom times? Were these a result of economic ignorance on their part? Or plain old voter-pandering politicking?
THIS is the curse that we-the-voters must put an end to. And the simple equation set forth in the title of this commentary is THE way to do it. What does it mean? Simply that whenever the national unemployment rate drops below 6%, we-the-people DEMAND that our government adopt a balanced budget--which must include an EXTRA 5% over and above the operating budget devoted directly to paying down those horrific deficits.
In short, let’s tell the New Washington Royalty: Cut spending or raise taxes or do whatever it takes to give America a balanced budget now and every year hereafter. And if you fail to deliver, we demand you take a 50% cut in your inflated pay. THAT should get their attention! The main point: Political incentives are now all on the side of spending. So let’s alter this bankrupting system and add counter-incentives with teeth to CUT spending.
Where can government outlays be cut? The President's Commission on the deficits has recommended a long list of deep budget cuts that can be made across the entire Federal structure. These could serve as a veritable blueprint for action by the next Congress. -- IF the people demand our representatives ACT.
^
On a more personal note, every MC and White House official knows where there is government aste…as I myself found out when serving as Director of Public Affairs for Treasury during the Ford Presidency. For example, they can start by making deep reductions in their own bloated salaries, plus those of all Federal employees making more than $100,000 a year. Then, they
could also strike a rare blow for economic justice by distributing the savings to recession-hit state and local governments to help them re-hire laid-off employees (like teachers, social workers, policemen and firemen).
They can also outlaw “earmarks”-- amendments that MCs love to hang onto various bills to fund pet projects back home, and which add billion$ to each annual budget. Earmarks may be the ultimate Capital con game--an underhanded way to bypass normal congressional approval processes and tap the public treasury (OUR money) to show constituents their MCs are “bringing home the bacon”…when, in fact, they’re robbing the rest of the USA to do so.
The truly ultimate disgrace regarding earmarks, however, is that we-the-voters put up with this charade. Let’s STOP it!
A word about my equation: The nation’s unemployment rate right now is hovering around 10%. It’s tough to bring this rate down even when economic activity picks up, since businesses are understandably hesitant about hiring new employees until the economy’s rebound looks assured. When this rate drops below 6%, however, the US will be moving toward full employment, with consumer purchasing power and tax revenues both rising. It’s possible THEN—indeed, imperative—to balance the Federal budget. Let’s INSIST on it!
Increasing each annual operating budget by an extra 5% to begin paying down the national debt is going to be painful for taxpayers and risky for politicians. The reason is that this “harder road to travel” will probably require higher taxes, at least on upper-end incomes (see Post-Note at end of this article).
But what if the President and leaders of Congress proclaimed BALANCED-BUDGETS-PLUS as our national goal? What a fantastic signal this would send around the world! People everywhere would applaud that, finally, America is rejecting years of suicidal self-indulgence and fiscal irresponsibility and “biting the bullet.”
One thinks of those telling lines from Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith":
His brow is wet with honest sweat.
He earns whatever he can,
And looks the whole world in the face...
For he owes not any man!
Wouldn't it be wonderful if this could be said of America?
At the same time, elected officials who support the crucial changes needed to restore world confidence in America will need all the help that Tea Parties and responsible voters everywhere can give them. Let’s NOT let them down!
Significantly, my Minus 6%=Balance PLUS 5% equation comes close to fulfilling the political scholars’ dream of having government adopt a “cyclical budget.” This holds that government should run a surplus in boom times to dampen inflationary pressures…but allow a deficit during recessions to stimulate the economy–like now. Good idea! BUT it hasn’t worked…so far. The reason is that politicians can’t resist the temptation during boom times to devote ANY surplus to a zillion “worthy” purposes. And so they do….
Does this unique formula have any chance of being adopted by Washington? Well, why not! It's GOT to be better than the present approach. All agree, in any event, that suspension of a balanced budget requirement could be needed in times of a national emergency.
[Some may argue that in fighting international terrorism the United States faces an ongoing national emergency NOW. Which our beleaguered troops in Afghanistan would certainly confirm in spades. Even so, we cannot let terrorist fanatics prevent us from putting our financial house in order; that would give them as near a victory as our physical destruction.]
The lesson in this overview? If this approach had been in place during the years leading up to the current recession, there would have been NO string of record-breaking budget deficits and escalating indebtedness. And who knows: If our political leaders had set a standout example of fiscal integrity and common-sense budgeting in Washington, would the explosion of unrestrained real estate borrowing across the country and irresponsible lending in Wall Street have occurred? Or the banking crisis and the bail-outs? Or the recession?
Are you listening, Washington? We-the-people hope so…for we desperately want you, our political leaders, to do better.
We know you CAN.
And so can we-the-voters…
By James N. Sites
POST-NOTE: Those interested in that most painful aspect of government, TAXES, may want to visit this blogsite for another jolting analysis--this time of basic changes in the US economy that are producing a dangerous new concentration of wealth among the wealthiest...and the need this poses for parallel changes in tax policy. Stay on this blogsite and click on to MEET AMERICA’S NEW GENERATION OF "ECONOMIC ROYALISTS" (my report, updated, of MAY 8, 2010).
They can also outlaw “earmarks”-- amendments that MCs love to hang onto various bills to fund pet projects back home, and which add billion$ to each annual budget. Earmarks may be the ultimate Capital con game--an underhanded way to bypass normal congressional approval processes and tap the public treasury (OUR money) to show constituents their MCs are “bringing home the bacon”…when, in fact, they’re robbing the rest of the USA to do so.
The truly ultimate disgrace regarding earmarks, however, is that we-the-voters put up with this charade. Let’s STOP it!
A word about my equation: The nation’s unemployment rate right now is hovering around 10%. It’s tough to bring this rate down even when economic activity picks up, since businesses are understandably hesitant about hiring new employees until the economy’s rebound looks assured. When this rate drops below 6%, however, the US will be moving toward full employment, with consumer purchasing power and tax revenues both rising. It’s possible THEN—indeed, imperative—to balance the Federal budget. Let’s INSIST on it!
Increasing each annual operating budget by an extra 5% to begin paying down the national debt is going to be painful for taxpayers and risky for politicians. The reason is that this “harder road to travel” will probably require higher taxes, at least on upper-end incomes (see Post-Note at end of this article).
But what if the President and leaders of Congress proclaimed BALANCED-BUDGETS-PLUS as our national goal? What a fantastic signal this would send around the world! People everywhere would applaud that, finally, America is rejecting years of suicidal self-indulgence and fiscal irresponsibility and “biting the bullet.”
One thinks of those telling lines from Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith":
His brow is wet with honest sweat.
He earns whatever he can,
And looks the whole world in the face...
For he owes not any man!
Wouldn't it be wonderful if this could be said of America?
At the same time, elected officials who support the crucial changes needed to restore world confidence in America will need all the help that Tea Parties and responsible voters everywhere can give them. Let’s NOT let them down!
Significantly, my Minus 6%=Balance PLUS 5% equation comes close to fulfilling the political scholars’ dream of having government adopt a “cyclical budget.” This holds that government should run a surplus in boom times to dampen inflationary pressures…but allow a deficit during recessions to stimulate the economy–like now. Good idea! BUT it hasn’t worked…so far. The reason is that politicians can’t resist the temptation during boom times to devote ANY surplus to a zillion “worthy” purposes. And so they do….
Does this unique formula have any chance of being adopted by Washington? Well, why not! It's GOT to be better than the present approach. All agree, in any event, that suspension of a balanced budget requirement could be needed in times of a national emergency.
[Some may argue that in fighting international terrorism the United States faces an ongoing national emergency NOW. Which our beleaguered troops in Afghanistan would certainly confirm in spades. Even so, we cannot let terrorist fanatics prevent us from putting our financial house in order; that would give them as near a victory as our physical destruction.]
The lesson in this overview? If this approach had been in place during the years leading up to the current recession, there would have been NO string of record-breaking budget deficits and escalating indebtedness. And who knows: If our political leaders had set a standout example of fiscal integrity and common-sense budgeting in Washington, would the explosion of unrestrained real estate borrowing across the country and irresponsible lending in Wall Street have occurred? Or the banking crisis and the bail-outs? Or the recession?
Are you listening, Washington? We-the-people hope so…for we desperately want you, our political leaders, to do better.
We know you CAN.
And so can we-the-voters…
By James N. Sites
POST-NOTE: Those interested in that most painful aspect of government, TAXES, may want to visit this blogsite for another jolting analysis--this time of basic changes in the US economy that are producing a dangerous new concentration of wealth among the wealthiest...and the need this poses for parallel changes in tax policy. Stay on this blogsite and click on to MEET AMERICA’S NEW GENERATION OF "ECONOMIC ROYALISTS" (my report, updated, of MAY 8, 2010).
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