Bad Deeds for 5-19-2011

 

We Could Have Had Jobs for Every American, But Republicans Chose Gifts to the Rich – In December, Republicans demanded – and won – an extension of Republican tax cuts for the rich, costing $858 billion over two years. That same $858 billion could create jobs for all 14.5 million unemployed Americans, each paying nearly $30,000 per year!

Thirty years of trickle-down economics have failed. Corporations are making record profits and sitting on record amounts of cash. But rather than create jobs here in the U.S., they are shipping our jobs overseas.

The rich don’t need more tax breaks. But 14.5 million unemployed Americans desperately need jobs. But the new Tea Party Republican Congress wants to slash jobs to give even more tax cuts to the rich. They won’t create jobs unless we build a powerful nationwide grassroots movement to demand them.

 

Florida Republicans Take Money From the Unemployed and Give to Businesses – A bill that would establish some of the deepest and most far-reaching cuts in unemployment benefits in the nation is heading for the desk of Florida Gov. Rick Scott. At the same time, the legislature is also providing a further reduction in business taxes. Which would be great if those businesses were using the money to hire more people to work. But the businesses seem more interested in making sure the benefits are being cut off than putting people back to work.

Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, suggested her bill was a take-it-or-leave-it offer for the House, Gov. Rick Scott and the business lobbyists, all of whom have been pushing her to cap benefits at no more than 20 weeks. Detert said her proposal already was the “gift of the year” for Florida’s business community. “Pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered,” Detert said. “Learn to like it or get nothing.”

Although in this case, I would think it’s the hogs getting fed.

 

Koch Brothers Now Buying Academic Support – In 2008 the Charles G. Koch (a prime funder of the Tea Party) Charitable Foundation had an agreement with Florida State University where the foundation agreed to provide millions of dollars of funds for the school’s economics department in exchange for granting Koch the ability to directly approve faculty hired with those funds.

The agreement also provides that an advisory committee appointed by Koch decides which candidates will be considered and provides that should Koch not be happy with the faculty’s choice or, more alarmingly, if the hires don’t meet “objectives” set by Koch, the foundation will withdraw funding entirely.

As if that were not chilling enough for academic freedom, Koch wanted the ability to review work done by the economics faculty, to determine which candidates qualify to receive funding and which professors find themselves on a tenure track.

 

Toxic Chemicals Pervasive in Baby Products – A new peer-reviewed study finds that 80% of tested baby products contain toxic or inadequately tested flame retardants. Many of these same chemicals are found in our children’s bodies and are widely dispersed throughout the environment and in our food.

How do we protect our kids from such dangers? It starts with passing strong legislation to reform our outdated and pathetically weak toxic chemicals law.

Please take action today to urge your Senators to support the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 introduced by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).

 

Newt Gingrich Has a $500,000 Tiffany’s Habit – Fiscal conservative as he may say he is, Republican Newt Gingrich seems to have a little weakness for the bling, and it has cost him big. In 2005 and 2006, the former House speaker turned presidential candidate carried as much as $500,000 in debt to Tiffany and Company jewelers, according to financial disclosures filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Republicans are always claiming that the government should be run like a family budget. No word on if there are proposed cuts to the family’s health care and retirement plans.

Regards,

Jim