Dave Johnson continues to do incredibly good work. I wish someone would offer him a high-visibility job somewhere:
This new election-funding system has our candidates trolling for billionaire and corporate dollars instead of coming up with policies and positions that serve the people. Did you think Republicans were talking about billionaires as “job creators” because it would get them votes? No, it is because vain, wealthy, greedy billionaires like to be described that way, and those politicians are trying to get them to loosen their wallets. Even if they lose the election they are looking for rewards — lucrative jobs — later.
Even if they aren’t trolling for billionaire bucks, they still dare not offend. These super PACs are in the business of running nasty, negative ads, and lots of them. Politicians want them on their side and not on the other side. So they are much, much less likely to oppose policies that favor the billionaires and their big corporations.
Did you think the country needs an oil pipeline that runs from our northern border all the way across the country to Gulf Coast ports, to help Canadian oil companies sell to China? No, this is about politicians getting big checks from oil companies.
President Obama OK’d a super PAC. A week later he comes out with a proposal to cut corporate taxes from 35% to 25%. Coincidence? And Obama’s tax-reform plans pale in comparison to what billionaire-and-corporate-backed Republicans are proposing. Both parties are proposing rewriting the tax codes to favor the billionaires and their giant corporations.
Go read the whole thing.
What Dave Johnson shows us is that Capitalism works for the top 1%, but it does not work for the other 99% of us. Mostly because we don’t have any Capital Gains income. Capital Gains is income made by investing your capital (money). It’s taxed at a rate of 15%. The average guy or gal going to work everyday and earning a paycheck is taxed at the rate of 30%. [These folks will never have enough disposable income (extra) to invest and make a Capital Gain.] Earned income whether earned through one’s labor or by investing one’s money should be taxed at the same graduated rate. In other words the less you earn, the less you pay and the more you earn, the more you pay. Most Republicans want income earned by investing money (Capital Gains) not to be taxed at all. That is what the 1% Capitalists want. It’s called a free ride.