Bad Deeds for 2/22/2010

 

Top 10% Doing Just Great Thanks to the Bottom 90% – Last week I showed you how the wealthy have made out like bandits. Between 2001 and 2007, the 400 richest taxpayers doubled their annual incomes to an average of $345 million, while their effective tax rate plummeted to only 16.6% from 29.4% in 1993. (Notice the last time the wealthy did this well was 1929, and then CRASH!):

 

But look at the bottom graph. Ninety percent of Americans are suffering while the wealthy are doing better than ever. For Democrats wavering in their resolve to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, this shocking new data from the IRS should hopefully stiffen their backbones.

And as the New York Times uncovered in 2006, the 2003 Bush dividend and capital gains tax cuts offered almost nothing to taxpayers earning below $100,000 a year. Instead, those windfalls reduced taxes “on incomes of more than $10 million by an average of about $500,000.” As the Times revealed in a jaw-dropping chart, “the top 2 percent of taxpayers, those making more than $200,000, received more than 70% of the increased tax savings from those cuts in investment income.” People making over $10 million per year got an additional 95% tax savings! So it should come as no surprise that the income share of the 400 richest Americans doubled over the past decade.

And yet, the usual suspects among the Republican Party (and some quislings among the Democrats) are pleading that the rich should be spared even as their share of the national wealth reaches stratospheric levels. Baloney!

 

 

Health Insurance CEOs Doing Just Great Thanks to You – In the past 10 years, your family’s health insurance bill has more than doubled. And if nothing is done to rein in the health insurance industry, your premiums will double again in another 10 years.

Did your salary double during the past decade – will it in 10 years? Meanwhile, the CEOs of the top health insurance companies each averaged $9.7 million in compensation in 2008. How can they possibly understand the financial strain on us from their never-ending rate increases?

We have the power to force health costs down if we get real oversight of insurance companies and allow competition to flourish. We have to make sure that we can control what we pay, how we pay it, and what we get for it. And the leading health reform bill does that.

 

In a Time of Budget Cuts, Yacht Sales Sail Through Untaxed in Missouri – Cash-strapped legislators have recommended spending cuts for Missouri schools and shelters for battered women, but so far the yachting class can enjoy another season of clear sailing.

Thanks to a longstanding tax exemption, Missouri’s marina set can opt to pay a small fee in lieu of sales taxes and shave as much as $30,000 off the purchase of a $500,000 boat. But if you’re buying a small bass boat or runabout, forget about any tax breaks. You’ll pay the full load.

That tax exemption alone is depriving state and local coffers of more than $6 million a year, according to some estimates.

 

See What Being “Soft on Terror” Gets You! – Washington’s recent decision to tone down its criticism of the Pakistani military has resulted in a new level of cooperation between Pakistan and the U.S. “When you criticize the Pakistani military publicly, it reduces room for maneuvering for Pakistan’s institutions. It becomes difficult for the military to motivate the lower and middle rank officers. Finally, there is a much better equation between both military establishments,” said Imtiaz Gul, head of the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.

Another senior Afghan Taliban leader has been arrested in Pakistan, two Pakistani intelligence officials told CNN on Monday. Security forces arrested Mullah Abdul Kabir last week from a religious school in the district of Nowshera, 54 miles (88 km) northwest of Islamabad, the officials said. Kabir is the fourth Afghan Taliban leader to be arrested by Pakistani security forces in the past several weeks.

 

More Palin Hypocrisy: Tripp Has Government Provided Health Insurance – Recently released documents from the custody battle show clearly Tripp Palin Johnston has socialized health care through Indian Health Services and the Alaska Native Medical Center. Palin’s family has federally funded health care afforded to them…but if you had it Barack Obama might kill you. Put this on the list of Palin’s Greatest Hypocritical Hits…volume 97.

 

Rep Olsen and Sen. Cornyn Get a Big Fat Zero on Environmental Record
The League of Conservation Voters has released their scorecard for the first session of the 111th Congress. Rep Pete Olsen and Sen. John Cornyn got a big fat zero. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison got 18%. What if your kid brought home a report card like that?

Regards,

Jim