SHE WON'T GO!
Rand Paul talked to his constituents… at the Bowling Green Country Club… where he said that everyone should be really nice to rich people… because rich people are the mot important people… because they make everything happen.
Where to start?
Paul said the first thing he would do to get job growth in motion is to lower the corporate income tax by cutting it in half from its current 35 percent. “We’re not even competing with countries that are much more socialized than we are,” Paul said.
Yes, America’s corporate tax rate is 35%, higher than all industrialized countries but Japan. But that comparison — which Conservatives love to blab on about as if everyone’s too stupid to ponder it — is only half the story.
The 35% is America’s “statutory rate.” That’s what’s on the book. It may shock you to know that American politicians and corporate czars have crafted corporate tax loopholes, corporate tax rebates, corporate tax subsidies… and so forth.
All of which creates the “effective rate.”
Again, we continue to be shocked that a man lauded as an economic expert doesn’t seem to understand economics at all. The “effective rate” is the functional rate, what we are effectively taxing our billion dollar corporations. Or, put another way, as the New York Times reported back in May, America is the global leader in tax avoidance:
Which means Rand Paul’s theory that we must slash tax rates holds no water. They’ve already been slashed, they are competitive with the rest of world, if not lower.
So, when Rand Paul says, “We’re not even competing with countries that are much more socialized than we are,” he’s lying.
What’s next?
During his speech, Paul alluded to the fact that taxing the rich more isn’t necessarily the right solution.
“Raising rates probably won’t bring any more revenue,” Paul said. “You want to raise tax rates, you want to punish the rich. Well, the rich are the ones hiring us, the rich are the ones creating the jobs.”
No one’s talking about “raising rates.” The Bush Tax Cuts were scheduled to expire and the tax rate would have reset. It’s not a punishment.
If anything it’s a realization that the entire reason behind the Bush tax cuts was flawed. The country’s debt is directly correlated to the Bush Tax Cuts, to the slashing of revenue from “The Rich.” Here’s a pretty picture even Rand Paul might understand:
Letting the obviously failed Bush Tax Cuts expire would do exactly what Paul claims he’s interested in, halting the growth of the debt:
If, in fact, “The Rich” were the benevolent force Rand Paul described at the Bowling Green Country Club, the country would be in a better place after 8-years of pro-Rich policies and after 10-years of the Bush Tax Cuts.
That’s obviously not the case. Throwing ourselves at the feet of The Rich, as Rand Paul suggested people do while addressing the Bowling Green Country Club, is only going to accomplish more of the same.
Up next from Rand:
“We need to not look enviously at the fellow next to us who has three cars and we have one car,” Paul said. “We need to get out there and work hard. We need to be educated. We need our kids to thrive. We can do it again, but you’re never getting there by envy. You’re not getting there by class warfare. You have to get there by producing things again and thriving as a country.”
We’re not looking enviously at the fellow next door with three cars. Claiming that everyone without vast, vast sums money is struggling because they are consumed by envy, and that somehow this magical state of envy is the reason we aren’t working or “producing things” is insulting. It ignores how the economy works, or why we are where we are.
In fact, THIS is class warfare. Not that anyone at the Bowling Green Country Club probably noticed.
KentuckyElection.org
BONNIE PRINCE BILLY
Golf claps. It absolutely sickens me that in this day and age, the working poor and unemployed are still painted as lazy, stupid, unmotivated etc.
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Benevolent, nurturing socialism for the wealthy few and brutal, unfeeling capitalism for the rest of us. Little Randy grew up eating from the public trough. Does he really think he could have overcome a disadvantaged childhood and become a US Senator? Goofy to the max he is.
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The coverage of Paul is fine and I agree with this writer’s article, but Paul was not speaking “to the BG Country Club,” he was speaking to the Bowling Green Noon Rotary Club which meets at the Bowling Green Country Club. There is a difference.
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Not enough to impeach the article or the facts of the article.
randpaul is a child who is throwing a tantrum at the behest of mitchmcconnell. He’s sitting in the corner drumming his feet on the floor threatening to hold his breath until you do it his way; screaming bloody murder and clueless, not knowing about what he’s talking.
As a Senator he’s woefully inept, which is why the voters chose him. He’s the ’cause celebre’ of the inept Tea-Beggars who along with the wealthy wish to plunge us into a despotic plutonomy.
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[...] Still, go to Barefoot and Progressive. Rand Paul is methodically and meticulously sliced and diced by those pesky facts, complete with char… [...]
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As long as there are 15,000 DC lobbyists and a revolving door of insiders greasing our Parliament of Whores it won’t matter what the “official” tax rates are. What’s killing our economy right now is uncertainty…uncertainty on regulations and taxes and the still unknown impact of Obamacare on employer health plans. In the meantime we are going to have TRILLION dollar ANNUAL deficits as far as the eye can see.
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Ricky — you do realize that this talking point you are hanging your entire argument about is actually generated *by* the lobbyists you are simultaneously bitching about, right? By a party and business interests intent on turning back regulations and taxes? Collect taxes on the giant corporations, collect taxes on the top 5% and don’t listen to lobbyists.
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Ricky -
As much as I might dislike everyoffence of impeachment you enumerated here … -
It is incumbent upon the President to be the President of all of us; govern as even handedly as he can, and as a gentrified farmer and unabashed Socialist, I can still dream of a liberal in the White House for a second term if he’s re-elected.
A favorite Republican of mine said a politician’s first job is to be re-elected … Everett Dierksen. Peter Drucker, god-like figure for enterprise managers says the first rule of social responcibility in business is to continue to do business by succeeding (in a manner amicable to the environment in which we operate).
If President O’Bama wishes to be re-elected he must be President of everybody. Since People on both the far left & far right are complaining, he must be in the middle. Makes him re-elactable. If you wish to complain about something compain about the minority party in the Senate; they are obstructioinists and forced the insurance mandate. Insurance companies can’t compete with Medicare on delivery of low-cost profitable medical care to the citizens of the US.
The fastest way to end the recession is to terminate health insurance for all residents and make medical care under medicare or medicade for all a national benefit. Charge enterprise and employees 5% of payroll each and mandate termination of all insurance plans not elected by individuals who wish to opt out of cover, but not paying.
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Ole Scout, I’m a libertarian conservative myself, which means we hold our conventions in phone booths when we can find them. I’m also taking bets that Obama will be re-elected and getting 4 to 1 odds from my Republican friends. Obama will then spend the last four years of his Presidency ala Bill Clinton (who had six) with Republicans running the House and Senate which will pretty much queer your second term liberal dream.
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It sure wood.
I’m confident we’ll see a
democratic majority in the House again. Tea-Beggars sending folks to Washington to create jobs and getting only social legislatioin will not go far toward the next election cycle. Now that they see the republican’t agenda is slice & dice, and has been for 32 years now, and realizing that employment is inversely related to tax impact on the budget: ie as tax rates decrease the budget, employment goes down or unemployment goes up. It’s acually unassailable.
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