Bad Deeds for 4-4-2011, Volume 2

 

Top 25 Hedge Fund Managers Make Almost $1 Billion Each – And Pay Less Taxes Than You Do – Ten years ago, when the hedge fund industry was much smaller than it is today, it took 25 hedge fund managers to earn a combined annual payday of $5 billion.

Last year, it took only one. …
Last year was very lucrative for some of the biggest and best-performing hedge funds’ chiefs. Wealth was so concentrated that a mere 25 people pocketed a total of $22.07 billion, according to this year’s annual ranking by AR Magazine, which tracks the hedge fund industry. At $50,000 a year, it would take the salaries of 441,400 Americans to match that sum.

But just because these executive are cashing big checks doesn’t mean that they have big tax bills. Sure, they are likely giving Uncle Sam more money than you are, but as a percentage of their income they pay nowhere near close to what you pay. Wonkroom writes:

[H]edge fund managers benefit from preferential tax treatment that middle-income Americans don’t. Due to what’s known as the carried-interest loophole, the income that hedge fund managers receive if their funds make money is treated as capital gains — rather than ordinary income — and gets taxed at the capital gains rate of 15 percent. Even though the pay is performance-based compensation (just like any other performance-based bonus made by any other worker), hedge fund managers receive a tax break on that income. This results in hedge fund managers paying less in taxes on this income than middle-class workers, who are subject to a 25 percent top marginal tax rate.

So a hedge fund manager that is making $1 billion a year is probably only bringing home $850,000,000. That makes you feel better, right?

When the Republicans say that rich people need to have their money because they pay most of the taxes, remember that this is what they are talking about — someone who makes one billion dollars only gets to keep $850,000,000 of it, and the GOP thinks that they should be able to keep many millions more. Whereas someone who makes $50,000 should be forced to lose collective bargaining rights to ask for a 2 percent raise for the following year.

[Forbes list of United States “investment” billionaires ]

 

Texas House Republicans Force Through Destructive Budget Cuts – On Sunday night, Texas House Republicans forced through some of the most destructive budget cuts in Texas history. On a party line vote, 101 House Republicans trampled on the priorities of regular, middle-class Texas families.

Republicans voted to:

• Eliminate 335,000 Texas jobs in both the public and private sectors, threatening our fragile economic recovery [2]
• Lay off up to 100,000 teachers and school support workers, crowding dozens of kids into unruly classrooms [3]
• Kick 100,000 kids out of full day Pre-Kindergarten [4]
• Close half of the state’s nursing homes, leaving thousands of seniors with no place to go [5]
• Create a ripple effect that will force local governments like cities, counties and local school districts to raise taxes [6]
• Cut off access to financial aid for thousands of graduating high school seniors [7], while forcing up college tuition through cuts. [8]

They didn’t have to cut this deeply into the priorities set by most Texas families. They chose to make the deepest cuts public education since the creation of our school finance system in 1949. [9]

 

Republican Rand Paul Has No Problem With Deaths of Coal Miners Doubling, But is Worried About the Burden of Prevention on Coal-Mining Companies – Since the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act was repealed in 1995, the number of cases of Black lung disease have doubled, and now kills approximately 1000 miners per year. But Republican Senator Rand Paul from the coal-mining state of Kentucky doesn’t see any problem. Paul said during a Senate hearing that black-lung rates had dropped dramatically since 1969, when a law to combat the illness took effect. (Yes, they decreased while the law was in effect, and have incresed since it was repealed. – JLV) Paul also said, “There is a point or a balancing act between when a regulation becomes burdensome and our energy production is stifled. We have to assess the cost.” (How about the human cost? – JLV)

 

Minty, Pink and Deadly: Big Tobacco Targets Girls – In 2006, a court determined tobacco companies intentionally targeted youth. But less than a year later, R.J. Reynolds was at it again, by debuting Camel No. 9, a cigarette packaged in a chic black box with hot pink foil.

Designing and marketing cancer-causing cigarettes to girls is wrong. We’ve got to fight back against the deceptive marketing tactics of Big Tobacco. This starts with you taking a stand against the tobacco industry by adding your name to the petition at the link.

Regards,

Jim