Bad Deeds for 7-13-2010

Bad Deeds Special Edition: Republicans Want to Take From You and Give to the Rich – The Republican noise machine telling lots of stories to get average Americans to work against themselves in order to benefit the rich. On TV, in print, on the radio, all I hear is Republicans saying how tough it is to be rich. I’ve even heard in conversation with co-workers and friends. Republicans want you to help spread their lies. They want to enlist you to support the idea that you should give up what little money and benefits you have so that the rich can have more. Who knows, maybe we can get Rick Perry into a bigger mansion.

Here are just a few examples:

Republican Lies About How Much Tax the Rich Pay – In a July 7, 2010, appearance on MSNBC’s The Dylan Ratigan Show, U.S. Republican Rep. Trent Franks (Ariz.), said, “When you’re always talking about raising taxes on the rich, I think the top — the rich now, the top 1 percent, pay over half of the entire revenue for this country.”

However, the Tax Policy Center of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution found that in 2009, the top 1 percent shouldered the burden for roughly 23 percent of all federal taxes. Also, Tax revenues aren’t the only form of revenues that fund the government. The federal government also collects fees paid to various agencies. That would put the share of federal revenue paid by the top 1 percent at less than 21%. And remember that number is only that big because some of those people have incomes that rival the gross domestic product of some countries. The Poor, Poor, Mega Rich – They Are Just So Over Taxed

Republican Lies About How Much Oil Companies Pay in Royalties – In a May 4, 2010, interview with MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, (Calif.), said that oil royalties are “the second-largest revenue source to the federal government after the IRS.” However, For the most recent year — 2009 — MMS says it received $7.6 billion in combined royalties for oil, natural gas and coal, plus roughly $2.3 billion more in other revenues, for a total of $9.9 billion. But, earnings from other agencies are greater, such as the Federal Reserve System, alcohol and tobacco taxes, Customs, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insurance premiums, Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Fund, and energy sales by the Tennessee Valley Authority. This would rank MMS no higher than eighth among entities generating revenue for the government.

Republicans Lie About Tax Rates in the U.S. – U.S. taxes are actually low relative to those in other developed countries. In 2006 U.S. taxes at all levels of government claimed 28 percent of GDP, compared with an average of 36 percent of GDP for the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Of these 30 countries, only Mexico, Turkey, Korea, and Japan have lower taxes than the United States.

Republicans Lie About How Much Taxes Corporations Pay – Corporations in the U.S. pay a much smaller share of taxes than they used to. Revenue from the corporate income tax fell from around 5.5 percent of GDP in the early 1950s to 2.1 percent of GDP in 2008.

Republicans Lie About Group That Advocates for Low and Moderate-Income Families – Last September, a conservative Web site posted seemingly incriminating undercover videos taken at ACORN offices around the country. Two young conservative activists appeared to be dressed up as a pimp and prostitute in ACORN Offices, pretending to seek legal advice.

The heavily and selectively edited videos were aired around the clock ad nauseam on Fox News and caused a giant anti-ACORN freak-out to defund ACORN.

Republicans demanded an investigation. The Government Accountability Office found that the nonprofit group did not misuse government funds. In April, California Attorney General Jerry Brown released a report on the case. His office found no illegal activity on the part of ACORN or any of its California employees. But, by that time, screaming Fox News pundits and Congressional Republicans had forced ACORN to shut down, never mind no actual wrongdoing was ever proved.

Now, an unedited video, made available from the investigation, shows ACORN employee Juan Carlos Vera pressing for as much information as he could possibly get from the two visitors in his office. So why was he asking for stuff like phone numbers, dates of arrival, specific location?

Quoting from the attorney general‘s report, “Immediately after the couple left, Mr. Vera telephoned his cousin, Detective Alejandro Hernandez, at the National City Police Department and said that a self-admitted prostitute had been to the office and was discussing human smuggling. Detective Hernandez contacted detective Mark Haas at the San Diego Police Department. Detective Haas works with cases involving human smuggling.”

So Fox News and Republicans make a crime-stopping hero into a villain and gets an organization that helps low and moderate-income families defunded and disbanded.

Are you outraged yet?

Regards,

Jim