Joshua Holland on Republicans Plans to Lower Wages and the Big Lie on Raising Taxes

 From C-SPAN's Book TV, Joshua Holland, editor and senior writer at AlterNet discussed his book, The Fifteen Biggest Lies about the Economy: And Everything Else the Right Doesn't Want You to Know about Taxes, Jobs, and Corporate America. The plan is to LOWER WAGES across the board, so profits can rise even more than they have, and to lower taxes so those profits need never be shared with those who have produced them for the corporations Apr 17, 2011

Joshua Holland on Republicans Plans to Lower Wages and the Big Lie on Raising Taxes

The GOP's Absurd Plan for the Economy: Lowering YOUR Wages:

Earlier this month, House Republicans laid out a perverse plan to lower working Americans' wages, supposedly in a bid to get employers to hire more of them (PDF). One would be hard-pressed to find a better example of the “race to the bottom.”

Republican staffers on the Joint Economic Committee released the study in response to widespread criticism that the deep public sector cuts they've advocated threaten to derail an already anemic “recovery” -- economist Mark Zandi estimated last month that if enacted, the spending cuts would cost the U.S. economy 700,000 jobs through 2012.

So, as Tim Fernholz and Jim Tankersley wrote in the National Journal, the GOP report “makes the party’s ... case that fiscal consolidation (read: spending cuts) can spur immediate economic growth and reduce unemployment.”

The paper calls for cuts that are “large, credible, and politically difficult to reverse once made,” and offers a typical conservative fantasy about shuttering entire federal agencies. But topping the list of what should be on the Republicans' chopping block is “decreasing the number and compensation of government workers,” which the staffers say will spur job creation because “a smaller government workforce increases the available supply of educated, skilled workers for private firms, thus lowering labor costs.” Read on...

Tax Day Question: Who's Paying What?:

The right's anti-tax crusade has been so successful that in 2010 the federal government collected a smaller share of our economic output in taxes than it had in 60 years. That's created a large deficit, which is now being used to justify cuts to popular social programs.

Taxes have decreased dramatically for most American households since Ronald Reagan came to offcie 30 years ago. But our overall level of taxation, on average, obscures who's paying how much. So, on this tax day, let's take a look at the way federal tax rates for different income levels have changed since 1981 (using this handy calculator and adjusted for inflation to 2010 dollars).

Lots more facts and figures there, so go read the rest. And from the video above, here was Holland's response to a question on lowering the corporate tax rate in America that the right is constantly screaming needs to be done.

HOLLAND: It's based on a very false premise. There is the nominal tax rate, and that is the tax rate that is written in the books. That's the law that they passed. Okay, we have a 35% corporate tax rate in the United States and that is one of the highest in the world. That's the kernel of truth around which an utter fabrication is built. The nominal tax rate, what you write in the books is inconsequential next to the effective tax rate.

Which means what they write in checks. Now our effective tax rate is about half what our nominal tax rate is because corporate America's lobbyists have effectively won so many loopholes, and manipulated the tax code in a way that they're paying far, far less than the nominal, official corporate tax rate of 35%.

Now, let me add something. 2/3 of all major US corporations pay no taxes at all. This week the big story was General Electric. General Electric is not only not paying taxes, they took a $3.2 billion tax benefit. What does that mean? That means that you and I are paying General Electric out of our taxes, we're paying them effectively.

So this idea is simply based on using a number that's inconsequential, our nominal tax rate. And if anybody wanted to make a deal with "the left", if they could find "the left" to drop the nominal rates and increase the effective rates by closing loopholes, we'd be all for that.

I'd be all for it too if it wasn't likely our bought and sold politicians wouldn't just go put a bunch of new ones back in there for them. (Heather, 2011)

Cite Source

Heather. ( 2011, April 16). Cooks and liars. Retrieved from Videocafe: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/joshua-holland-republicans-plans-lower-wag

Working In America

The truth is that working conditions for American workers have been getting progressively worse in recent years. Blue Collar Americans Fed Up With The Lack of Jobs.

In today's world many of our jobs were outsourced and the jobs that are available are very lowing paying and it is very hard to make a living.

Van Jones, founder of the Green for All jobs campaign, asserts that "the idea that it's jobs versus environment is an utter falsehood." Jones, speaking at the Take Back America Conference of the Campaign for America's Future on March 17, 2008, called on the government to get on the side of those trying to simultaneously help our economy and stop global warming. There are more jobs in the clean economy, he said, than in the current polluting one. Van Jones: http://www.vanjones.net/

These people I talk to are people who want to work and work very hard they are in financial debt not because they don't work or lazy! It is because the company they work for put them in that situation. By Cutting there pay or cutting their hours. These people are looking for work but it goes back to every open job in America, there are more than 50 people lining up to apply.

The Question I get most asked is What is the Average Working America People to do to bring income to support there family in today economy?

The economy being the way it is, and people losing their jobs, it is easy to get into a poverty mentality. Or maybe you were raised with the concept that there is never enough. Either way, here are a few tips on how to get out of the poverty mentality.

Take out your notebook and write ten things you worry about when you are asked about money. For example: " There will never be enough money" or "My money runs out too fast."

Turn these negative statements into positive affirmations. Beside your list of worries, write the positive. For example if it was the worry "I will never have enough money." write beside it "There will always be enough money to provide for my needs and extra for things I want." Or you can simply write "There will always be enough money."

Education is a key to success! Always learn something new . Education can also take several forms. Formal schooling and college are a major part of it, but there is also self-taught learning from books and guidance from mentors.

"Without a goal to work toward, we will not get there." - Natasha Josefowitz

Ask yourself exactly what it is you want. If you don't know what you want, there is no possible way for you to make a plan to accomplish it. Even though poverty is a technically a lack of financial capital, your state of poverty may also stem from a lack of foresight or vision.

How driven are you ? How resilient and determined are you? You have to have extraordinary faith and live through many a shattered dream of what you think it will be like as you transition into a better life materially.

'The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going." Napolean Hill

The Key is Keep Trying! Stay Focused and You Will Get There! Create Your Own Success!

This Article was by Michelle At People's Natural Living: