Skip to main content

Stories That The GOP Wants Us To Believe

     (1) Large is small. According to the GOP definition, any business, e.g., a partnership or a Limited Liability Company, that passes its net income through to its owners for inclusion on their personal federal income tax returns is a small business. There is no limit to the amount of income such a company can earn! For example, privately owned companies Cargill and Koch Industries each had over $100B in revenues in 2011, yet qualify as small businesses under the GOP's definition!
     While agreeing in principle that the tax code needs revision, the Democratic Party would limit the definition of small business to one that has a net income not exceeding $250,000. While that figure may be a bit low, it certainly makes more sense than basing it on how the paperwork is set up.
     (2) The estate tax is killing small business. Through 2012, there is no estate tax on estates not exceeding $5M in value. Unless Congress extends the exemption, it will revert to $1M per person in 2013. So unless the estate of a married couple exceeds $2M in value, there is no estate tax. The percentage of truly small businesses falling into that category is very low.
    (3) If the income tax rates were reduced, businesses would hire more people. I was in the accounting business for over 40 years, and worked with hundreds of business owners. I cannot recall a single case where the owner hired or fired because of his tax rate. Lower tax rates simply mean more money in the owner's pocket.
     (4) Lower tax rates stimulate the economy. This past week the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan arm of the Library of Congress, withdrew publication of an economic report that found no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth. The author of the report, Thomas L. Hungerford, is a specialist in public finance who earned his economics doctorate from the University of Michigan. He examined the historical fluctuations of the top income tax rates and the rates on capital gains since World War II, and concluded that those fluctuations did not appear to affect the nation’s economic growth. To no one's surprise, Senate Republicans, who know far more about economics(?) than does Mr. Hungerford, “raised concerns about the methodology and other flaws” of the report.
     (5) Congressmen have far more knowledge of the way the world works than do scientists who spend their lives studying the processes of nature. From Congressman Todd Akin and his knowledge of “legitimate rape,” to his many colleagues who disbelieve the conclusions of 95% of the world's climatologists regarding the attribution of climate change to mankind's activities, they have special knowledge of nature's workings. The problem appears to be that scientists do not spend enough time listening to science “experts” such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter.
      (6) Mitt Romney has a plan to create jobs and stimulate the economy. From his campaign speeches, it appears he has many plans, one for whatever section of the electorate he is courting at the moment.
******
     My books, “There Are Only Seven Jokes” and “The Spirit Runs Through It” are available in paperback or Kindle at Amazon.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

There Are Only Seven Jokes - Introduction

      The statement “There are only seven jokes – all the rest are variations,” has been around for a long time, but no one ever seems to know what the original seven are. I think I have found the solution to the mystery.       The answer is to be found in an article published in the New York Times on May 2, 1909. Entitled “New Jokes? There Are No New Jokes, There Is Only One Joke,” it goes on to say that all jokes are a distortion, and lists seven categories of distortion. Supposedly every joke will fit into one of the categories. I believe that repetition changed the seven categories into the seven jokes.       Each of my next seven blogs will be devoted to exploring one of the categories. In addition, I shall attempt to give an example or two of jokes which I think fit the category.       You must realize that this article appeared over one hundred years ago, so most of the jokes a...

By Today’s Standards Many of my Teachers Would be in Jail

I started school in a two-room building: grades 1 to 4 in one room; grades 5 to 8 in the other. One teacher in each room taught all four grades. I don’t remember first grade very well – the teacher left at the end of the year. I am pretty sure it was not my fault. Now keep in mind that reading the Bible every morning was the standard for all grades at that time. But my teacher in grades two to four went a little above and beyond the normal practice. As a member of a “plain” sect, she considered it her duty to lead the little heathens to Christianity. She offered a free Bible to all students who managed to memorize 20 verses. I memorized my verses – “Jesus saves” was my favorite because it was the shortest – and got my Bible with my twenty underlined in red. That would be illegal today (not the underlining), and rightly so. Teachers may not teach religion, although contrary to what many folks seem to think, students may bring their Bibles to school, read them, and pray their...

The First Snowfall of the Season

This morning the grass was covered in white – the first snowfall of the season. Actually it started as a rain/snow mixture late yesterday afternoon, and accumulated only an inch or two on the non-paved areas. Not too bad – it eases us gradually into winter. You may have guessed that I am not a big fan of cold weather. It may seem strange, but the first thing I think of when I see new-fallen snow is the Claude Thornhill recording of his theme , "Snowfall."Although I like his version, the Manhattan Transfer version is my favorite. I don’t know why, but for some reason, perhaps it’s the harmony, I tend to puddle up when I hear it. Somehow it brings back, not particular memories, but emotions of days long, long, lonnnggg ago. After the emotions, the memories flood in: sledding on the hill northwest of the farm where I lived with my grandparents, followed by putting my cold feet up on the warm part of the old coal stove; my first and only venture onto skis; the Christmas ev...