Republicans can run ads attacking Democrats on taxes until the cows come home. They certainly have enough money to do it. FACT: Republicans in power are looting the treasury right now.
And the macaca and page scandals that have been dominating the airwaves for months must certainly be welcome diversions for some of these folks who really want us to look the other way. Today's headlines on google news even feature a priest who allegedly molested Foley back in the 1960's. Meanwhile...
No matter how high or low the issue of taxes ranks in your list of priorities, the current state of affairs in our Republican controlled Congress is simply unbelievable. So unbelievable in fact that the Republicans must be hoping that voters will think that Democrats are doing what they themselves so often do - just making it all up.
Or perhaps they hope we'll succumb to outrage fatigue. No. We are focused. Just read about this cast of characters and their stories, salacious and otherwise. They all have a lot in common.
They are all Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee. These are the people who decide exactly how 9 hundred billion dollars of our tax money is spent. These are the people who have been promising "to clean up Washington" for over a decade!
And now they are all caught up in enormous scandals. Many of these scandals put millions upon millions of our tax dollars into play as they are funneled to family, friends and contributors. One former Lewis staffer, now a lobbyist, is widely known as the "K Street Queen of Earmarks."
Duke Cunningham
Tom Delay
Virgil Goode
Jerry Lewis - Chair of the Appropriations Committee
Bob Ney - Former Chair of the Appropriations Committee
Hal Rogers
Don Sherwood
Curt Weldon
Our justice system is not yet a complete failure. Technically, Duke Cunningham can be stricken from this list since he's recently been jailed for tax evasion, conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, and wire fraud. That's the good news. One down. And with the conviction of Bob Ney, one more to follow, but millions - more likely billions - of dollars to go. And while he's not on the appropriations committee, Dennis Hastert also likes to get involved in spending.
The Plot Thickens
Plagued by a variety of scandals, Jerry Lewis, the chair, has spent over a half million dollars from his war chest on legal fees in the last three months, following a $200,000 retainer in June. To be precise, according to the last two FEC quarterly reports, Lewis found it necessary to spend $751,409.05 on legal fees between June and September.
And it gets worse. Justin Rood reports that Lewis has decimated the group that investigates fraud and abuse for the appropriations committee. Sixty contract investigators have been given the ax, leaving less than 20 full time employees to take up the slack.
It's a little too vague to say "we need a change." So brush up on some of the "representatives" who still populate the House Appropriations Committee and you'll quickly find out just what kind of change we need.
"Justin Rood reports that Lewis has decimated the group that investigates fraud and abuse for the appropriations committee. Sixty contract investigators have been given the ax, leaving less than 20 full time employees to take up the slack."
Do we still remember that IRS is doing the same thing, only *worse*? They're replacing the well-trained and non-partisan agents with *private* debt collectors, at the behest of the "free market" rethugligoons in Congress. Those will aggressively go after your butt and mine, when you trip over a minor payment. The IRS' own agents will continue to protect the big-time defaulters. Whoop-de-dooo!
"It's a little too vague to say "we need a change." So brush up on some of the "representatives" who still populate the House Appropriations Committee and you'll quickly find out just what kind of change we need."
I'm "mathematically challenged"; always have been. So, it's difficult for me to even *understand* all the "let me count the ways" in which the goons have betrayed their "fiscal responsibility" party line. Trying to explain it to someone else would be impossible (especially when my bad memory is factored in).
I also "measure others with my own yardstick" (as told by one of the many wise Polish "saws"
Words like "Tax cuts" and "tax raises" are easy to understand by anyone -- even someone with room-temperature IQ -- and easy to squeeze into a 30second talking point. Words like "loopholes", OTOH...
I most sincerely hope that all the "loopholes" will transform themselves into "hangman's nooses" and "lassoes" for the goons eventually, but I don't think that taxes are likely to be a swaying issue for Dems in this election. We don't dare say out loud that, yes, we need to raise *some* of them, *judiciously*... Nobody will "hear" past the Rethug bugaboo "raise".
I've heard it, time and again, about the "death" taxes... A "terrible thing", I'm told. By people for whom 2mil (never mind 5, and never mind doubling for a couple) is such an unimaginable number, that they look at me like I'd lost my cotton-pickin' mind, when I ask: "are your savings and/or investments much over that sum?"
I think the issue of "taxes" has been, pretty much, "locked" by the thugs and goons, until some more money can be redirected into education and "taxes -- how they're collected and how they work" becomes a compulsory course in every school (7th grade would be my choice -- old enough to understand, young enough to still have some ideals)
Democrats ought to be owning this issue, because it really isn't about the particulars of taxes. Granted on matters such as the death tax it's more difficult, but this is easier since it's really about corruption as it relates to tax money.
Here's a simplification.
1. We pay taxes.
2. The House Appropriations Committee (HAC) members decide on the detais of recommending how that money is spent.
3. NINE Republians on the HAC are embroiled in legal scandals related to special favors involving huge amounts of tax dollars.
Yes, Cunningham is gone, and Ney is going so that takes it down to seven.
Click here for the full committee.
There are 37 Republicans and 29 Democrats on that committee. Currently seven of those Republicans are embroiled in scandals. That proportion is outrageous. It is NOT the occasional random bad guy.
As for getting mired the details, those of us who live in the 5th are at an advantage because we've followed the MZM scandal a little more carefully since it affects our district directly.
But the HAC affects ALL Americans.
Maybe pick one on the list and learn about him and what he's done. Jerry Lewis is a good one.