Lori Montgomery has a piece today in the Washington Post (5/20/11) noting that Senate Democrats have yet to unveil a budget planthat would”counter the budget blueprint approved last month by House Republicans.”Some Democrats dosay that they will soon unveil a plan that “would offer a sharp contrast to the GOP budget.”
Such a contrast exists already in Congress. It’s called the People’s Budget, and it is the work of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The most notable coverage of it in the Post came in the form of a red-baiting Dana Milbank column. The news pages of the Post, like most other papers, has chosen to ignore a budget plan that is politically inconvenient to them. Thus the debate over how the government should deal with debt/deficit problems omits one very real policy solution.
Hi,
First a big THANK YOU for the job you are doing.
Second, I wanted to let you know that I sent the following e-mail to the WaPo ombudsman and never got a response. Thanks again.
Katherine
Dear Mr. Pexton,
Please look into the Post’s complete lack of coverage of the “Peoples’ Budget,” which is put together by no less than 80 Democrats as an alternative to the Ryan budget, which, reportedly has been worked out by only six Republicans.
FYI, I too was a news reporter in the past, and I can tell you that in my view, the newspaper business is in decline not only because of the internet, but because of the perceived (and often accurate) notion that the news serves, and is served by, corporate interests–hence the example of the Peoples’ Budget above.
I hope you take the time to look into this.
Thank you.
Why is it in decline here but not in Europe? It would suggest other factors are involved since Europe is as electronically set up as the USA is.
Night-Gaunt,
Essentially, the US lacks a principled institutional left. We have a Right, a Center, and a mish-mash of activists, gutted labor unions, and regular folks who support the Democratic Party unconditionally. Europe has independent left parties and movements (like the US has had at times) that are large and influential enough to demand a voice. Keep organizing!
Again – If you fail to report the readers position- You lose the reader- And the Washington post wonders why subscriptions are off! My gosh, This peoples budget is hardly new. I must wonder was this Lori forced to ignore this fact? Or is Lori just a careless writer?
Night-Gaunt: There is neoliberal decline in Europe too. Among English-language publications, I’ve seenLenin’s Tomb talking about it from time to time.
Don’t confuse Neo-Liberal with Liberal. Most of the time the Neo-liberals eskew their liberal tendencies of society and just let the economy roll any what they can use it making in action no different from your Koch’s of the world.
The “Center” here now is what the Republicans were in the 1980’s.
I think it is important my esteemed FAIR bloggers to indicate your belief (and to what degree)in socialism.It seems everybody is dancing about the bug light.
Hmmm . . . witness the totalitarian mindset: Admit your though-crimes (Socialism!), and then be declared null and void. Anything even remotely socialistic is condemned outright, like the belief that perhaps Israel sometimes goes Too Far. Someday, for our outrageous beliefs, we’ll be thrown into “labor” camps, but for now, atonement for our unspeakable political outlooks will have to do. So repent libs! On your knees before the great god capitalism, and it’s Magick Marketplace, and it’s magnificent invisible hand that benevolently guides our democratic lives.
It was quite stunning – well, I guess i’m not suprised – to see the contrast in coverage of Kucinich and the Progressive Caucus’ budget proposal vs. others on the far right. To be fair, I suppose the argument for the coverage of Ryan’s budget vs. lack of coverage for the Progressive one is that ultimately, the press corps was following a bill that was more likely to pass and have a significant impact on the debate as a result, compared to the Progressive Budget, which was seen as simply a reactionary one on the left. The point is, that I think they would possibly tend to agree with, is that the D.C. press tends to focus entirely more often on issues of process rather than substance and philosophical questions. I’m about to give up.
C’mon SC, the argument should be between the Obama budget and the People’s budget not the Ryan plan. If there were more people pushing for at least a consideration of the people’s budget, then the value would be obvious, it tackles the deficit, the accumulated debt, without the poor, the disabled, the elderly, the kids, and the ill while having no one go through any great suffering. It makes the wealthy pay taxes instead of the government borrowing from these wealthy folks, with interest beingpaid for the privilege, thereby making more money for the rich, who happen to have all the damn money in the first place, but they should not have it. They made it due to their being a citizen in these United states and through Bush tax cuts. They were not on an island all alone while the money just flowed in, they got it from the active benefits of this US society that allows folks a chance, an opportunity to become rich. It is time they paid their fair share, and that goes for corporations, too.
Here is a chart that shows individual taxes paid versus corporate taxes paid from 1943 to 2008:
From the office of Management and the Budget in the White House:
Over the last 65 years corporations have shouldered less and less of the tax burden ranging from paying 147% above the individual in 1943, to individuals paying from 200% more to a maximum in 1988 of 424% more than the corporations. And yet they lobby more and more every year for a lower tax burden. All the while, hiding their funds in tax havens. America is a tax haven for the very rich.
Tax Year Individual income tax Corporate income tax
1943 6,505 9,557 individuals paid 68% of corporate rate.
1948 19,319 9,678 individuals paid 200% of corporate rate.
1968 68,726 28,665 individuals paid 239% of corporate rate.
1988 401,181 94,508 individuals paid 424% of corporate rate.
2008 1,145,747 304,346 individuals paid 377% of corporate rate.
So the Republicans are liars, we are not broke, and we have a revenue problem, not a spending problem. If they were to cut everything but the Pentagon in their budget plans, there would still be a deficit of a $600 billion dollars. Teabaggers are such know-nothings, they just cannot see that the deficit is a long term problem, not an immediate one.
It would be like me to suddenly decide a self imposing plan to pay off my mortgage in 10 years instead of the slated 30 years. It would take money away from necessary things I need from month to month to double down on my mortgage payments, but it would be unnecessary, taking thirty years is fine and I get to live in the meantime without gutting my monthly bills and creating a harsh austerity for myself. If there are people who buy cars and homes, they are running a deficit in their budget, and the plan is to pay a little at a time so that living will not be so difficult month to month. But these tprtyRethgunut right wing nuttery nutjobs want people to suffer and pay off the mortgage sooner rather than later and in doing so do without normal things like food and such, just because, no other reason.
Ray i think you numbers prove other things than what your argument spins. Those numbers are circumspect to so many variables and permutations that the inverse proportion of the argument could show the opposite with a different understanding of those variables.
Your idea that the rich are rich because america made them that way is a mirror image of the truth.America is rich because PEOPLE made her that way.Fair share is ridiculous when you see the percentage of the whole the top percentages pay.And the numbers the bottom 50% pay.Of course anytime the government is willing to create a flat/fair tax I am ready and able.Bring it on.everyone pays something and no shelters.Fantastic.
Last week the oil industry was told they did not pay their ‘fair” share.When they showed their taxes were higher than total profit -it was interesting to say the least when viewed against the lefts rhetoric.Also the current corp tax rate of 36% is eclipsed by the oil industry tax rate that is much higher.
And your ideas about the Tea party are YOUR ideas.They have no resemblance to tea party platforms or beliefs.
It is not the Republicans who say we are broke.As of last week it is ….pretty much everyone!
I think there is an intrinsic unfairness that some are rich and some are poor.I commend you in that you wish it were not so .BUT…..To apply the stain that the rich are so only upon the backs of others, and therefore liable to a theft upon their wealth for redistribution to others ,without any understanding of that ideas faults is ridiculous, and insidious in nature to this common wealth.Again your idea of fair is yours and yours alone. Those who agree with you are punitive and vengeful against those who have succeeded to the highest levels in the American dream.We may be created equal.We are not gauranteed eqaulity.Though that is exactly what you want our government to do.
Michael.e you play upon the instrument of the rich, but you are out of tune.
Your implication that the rich made it all themselves…therefore they deserve it all to themselves is full of holes as big as the grand canyon. Suggesting that Bill Gaites deserves $56 BILLION because he made it ignores the shoulders of the giants in computing that he stood on. He was lucky to have had the help of educators and the computer room provided by his school. His company would never have gotten a chance had he not lied and cut out Steve Jobs from a contract. Also ignoring all the employees who built the microsoft company that he gets all the credit and profits from. None of this is reflected in equal compensation, or fair taxes that pay for the education, the company protection by the state and federal competition protection to name only a few social benefits that helped build his company.
Donr …im out of tune?You sound like a 5th grade teacher coming after Paul mcCartney because you remember teaching him what a c -note was, and now want half royalties for “let it be”.Because after all he had a lot of help …right?
Lets say i am Bill Gates.Now Obama would say” when is enough enough”.Lets say we randomly agree 1 million is enough.After that all goes back to the world that helped Bill earn that million.This may seem a ridiculous argument, but it is still in line with redistributionary beliefs.So now Bill says screw it and all that comes after….his massive job creation,his charitable givings,his changing of the world….all gone.One thing good has occured.He is more EQUAL to you and i now.The world according to donr is now more fair.And we are all the poorer for it.
Michael e. as always you are plain full of s**t, you didn’t even acknowledge the facts of the chart, instead you launched into, well, that is just one interpretation. Look, the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, care to interpret that differently?
Hello Raymond…
Here are those corporate vs individual tax collection rates expressed a bit differently by Richard Wolff:
In the mid 1940s, the corporate income tax brought Washington 50% MORE than the income tax collected from individuals. Today, the corporate income tax brings the federal government 25% of the total collected from individuals.
If we taxed corporations in relation to individuals as we did in the 1940s, the entire deficit would vanish.
David Kocieniewski expresses them this way, “the corporate share of the nation’s tax receipts have dropped from 30 percent of all federal revenue in the mid-1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009.”
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As for what different groups of individuals pay, Travis Waldron notes, “The majority of Americans who do not pay federal income taxes don’t make enough money to qualify for even the lowest tax bracket, a problem made worse by the economic recession. That includes retired Americans, who don’t pay income taxes because they earn very little income, if they earn any at all.
And while many low-income Americans don’t pay income taxes, they do pay taxes. Because of payroll and sales taxes — a large proportion of which are paid by low- and middle-income Americans — less than a quarter of the nation’s households don’t contribute to federal tax receipts — and the majority of the non-contributors are students, the elderly, or the unemployed.”
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The current stated corporate tax rate is 35%, but most companies doesn’t pay it. Our EFFECTIVE corporate tax rate is in the 25% range.