Trump Didn't Pay Any Taxes!

He says that makes him smart.

I pay taxes, so I must be pretty dumb.

The Clintons pay taxes. They've released years of tax returns. The Obamas pay taxes. The Bushes pay taxes. Even wealthy businessman, Mitt Romney, contrary to the false assertions of Harry Reid, paid taxes. Are they all dumber than Donald Trump?

All for a Good Cause!

TurboTax and I were busy today with only minor cussing. That was me, TurboTax was all socially inept, "Congratulations! Now let's deal with your better half's W-2!"

We apparently owe some this year. Unfortunately our little deductions have about all flown the coop and the last one here won't even get us a credit because our income is  now too high. But that's OK because he just turned 17 anyway. So I have to claim fewer deductions and decrease my withholding. 

I do find it a patriotic honor to pay my taxes. I think taxation with representation is great! I do not begrudge the good cause it is to serve our government of, by, and for the People - all the people! I hope we can get the corporations under control a bit. They and the inordinately wealthy should not have the power to control and benefit from the government with their extremely high returns and little regard for the burden on the poor and middle class who helped provide the labor, spending, infrastructure, and taxes to get them where they are. Corporations themselves are a creation of the government of, by, and for the People, so it's certainly appropriate for the people to control them with reasonable regulation rather than a corporate "person" controlling the real people's government.

Senator Lee Is the Problem, NOT The Solution

The "tea party" response is kicking around there on the internets. It's the same ol' palinesque Paul Revere "ringin' those bells" and firin' shots to "warn the British" that we were going to be free.

To succeed in a political cause among some circles, all you have to do is take a story from the founders and liken it to our present time. That is, phrase it terms to match your present dogmatic needs. Here's Sen. Lee's homage to his fantasies:

Why I Continue My Fight

Time for a little open-heart reflection and explanation why I continue my fight against Senators Cruz, Lee, & Paul along with the tea-party Representatives and the political entertainers Beck & Limbaugh.

I've read a little history and seen enough old news reels to wish somebody had stood up to Senator Joe McCarthy earlier. I also wish more people had stood up to Cleon Skousen too. Even Ernie Wilkinson could have used a bit more of a kick in the rear when he imposed his anti-communist spy-ring on my alma mater. So I'm standing up to the demagogues now in hopes of saving them and their followers from worse abuses like those we've known in the past in this very country. And they've mostly come from the extreme Right.
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Bottom line, what I fight against is the demagoguery that pulls in some very good friends and family that I care about.

Ross Perot? Who? What?

And you thought President Obama had funny ears.

"United We Stand America" was Perot's big movement. We need an episode of "Where are they now?" or something. I still say the tea-party/Randian element of the Republican Party will soon be as forgotten as Ross Perot and his crowd - which did have its effect helping to tip two elections to Bill Clinton. Of course I have the sneaking suspicion that a lot of Ross's folks ended up in the tea party. They just forgot their graphs and charts.

Forbes Magazine on-line, of all places, just published an article on the theme that President Obama may be one of the best, perhaps the best, president for the economy in history! (h/t Phil). Imagine that! Of course, he inherited a mess that gave opportunity to improve and any improvement would look good compared with the economic disaster W Bush left us from the surplus budget he inherited. And remember this - it's called the Great Recession not the Great Depression II. Somebody did something right.

Book of Mormon Conspiracy Stories

Furthering my experiment upon the word to liken the scriptures unto us, I came across an interesting conspiracy theory last night. Right at the end of the Book of Helaman there is a bit explaining the convoluted theory the unrighteous Nephites came up with to reject the prophecies of the coming of a Savior, Jesus Christ. A part of that seemed awfully familiar to the current political scene. Try thinking of this passage in terms of the "lame-stream media" and "welfare state" and "dependency" on government. I guess you also have to be really creative to think about things like the safety-net (Medicare, Social Security, "general welfare*," and even Obamacare) to be things that are "good" rather than stealing free agency. I know it may be a stretch, but give it a try:

Republican Family Budgets

I'm really having a hard time understanding the Republican strategy here. In this article at Roll Call it explains:

Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., insisted that any revenue from a tax overhaul would have to be reserved for reducing tax rates and not used to fund government spending or lower the deficit.

Does that make any sense to anyone out there?

On the family budget analysis analogy, it appears they are sitting around the kitchen table planning that the family breadwinners go to their bosses to ask for less money so they can avoid paying their debts and taking care of their children and aged grandma. Am I missing something?

Governing without Government

That is the basic cognitive dissonance I have been sensing among many Republican politicians for the last couple of decades. How do you expect to govern if you think government is the problem? I blame President Reagan for separating the people from their government with his crass "government is the problem" mantra. (Well, we did have Nixon and Johnson attempting to separate the government from the people with unnecessary wars and criminal conspiracies).

There are some few Democrats in the Utah Legislature. Three of them, Jim Dabakis (SLC), Susan Duckworth ( Magna), and Larry Wiley (West Valley), just made my hero list for calling the bluff on Republican grandstanding by Republican Representatives on the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environmental Quality Appropriations Subcommittee in the Utah House. I was particularly pleased that they got ol' Roger Barrus, my own Representative - (even if I never voted for him and likely never will). You can read the article here at Utah Political Capitol.

And the Next Prize for Cliff-Walking Goes to. . .

I'm afraid it's the Republicans again, specifically Speaker Boehner who can't win because the majority of his majority will not allow it any other way. The President is still holding all the cards. Boehner is thrashing about trying to blame someone else - the Senate, the President, Seth Macfarlane - but the Constitution along with tradition says its the responsibility of the House to initiate bills to raise revenues and appropriate funds (Cons. Art. I, sec. 7 requires revenues in the House, appropriations traditionally - and theoretically - go with revenues and originate in the lower house. See this Republican source.)

The Sequester comes Friday. (Did I mention that "sequestrar" in Portuguese means "kidnapping"?) But it will be a slowly painful fiscal crisis unlike a government default or shutdown. Personally, and remember all my caveats that I do not speak in my official capacity on this blog, our DC office has informed us that we will be receiving furlough notices soon (probably Friday as law already requires 30-day notice and Congress hasn't gotten rid of that yet). And by imposing a hiring freeze, cutting travel and training, we can probably get by with just three days of furlough assuming this even goes to next October 1 when a new fiscal year supposedly begins. "I only regret that I have but three days to lose for my dysfunctional country!" (sorry, Nathan Hale).

Book of Mormon Pride Cycle (Liberal View)

Every active member of the LDS Church can draw the Book of Mormon Price Cycle with their eyes closed. I would make an attempt, but it is easier explained with a clear graphic:

My son wrote a very popular Guest Post on Humility and Pride on this blog. Anonymous D has hit the Pride Cycle theme in rather direct terms here, here, and here. And keep reading the blog. I don't think he's through yet.

Finding Bull Puckey in Conservative Economic Arguments

From Anonymous D:

Ok, so I just read an article by Thomas Sowell, notorious right winger.  His article, which was a three-parter, probably because it was more than three pages long, discusses the current fiscal cliff. Amusing stuff really.  In said article he states that revenue actually went up after the Bush tax cuts, gives you the source to the budget report used by the White House, and is kind enough to give you the page. He actually got the source wrong but I found it anyway.  Herein lies the danger, I actually took the time to look up the source material. Turns out, if not complete B.S. it’s at least close enough to smell terrible. 

Year	Tax Receipts in billions	Deficit
2000	2025.2	+236.2
2001	1991.1	+128.2
2002	1853.1	-157.8
2003	1782.3	-377.6
2004	1880.1	-412.7
2005	2153.6	-318.3
2006	2406.9	-248.2
2007	2568.0	-160.7
2008	2524.0	-458.6
2009	2105.0	-1412.7
2010	2162.7	-1293.5
2011	2303.5	-1299.6

Over the Cliff But Safe in the Middle

And the Republican Party crashes on the rocks.

It's Not Grover Cleveland!

Separated at birth:

One of these is a furry monster, the other is a character on Sesame Street. One is a no-tax lobbyist who wants to shrink government small enough he can drown it in a bathtub. The other wants little kids to take baths. One refers to "poopy-heads" and "impure thoughts," the other teaches good manners to young children. One controls the Republican Party with a series of pledges at least as strong, if not stronger, as the oath to uphold the Constitution. The other is a puppet.

Presidential Check (maybe Mate)

Republicans are breaking on the edge of the fiscal cliff.

The President set this up very well politically. A few Republicans, having learned some difficult mathematical reality on election night, are now facing reality on the Bush tax cuts. My new hero is a Reality Republican Congressman from Nebraska:

Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., signed Norquist's pledge but says now that he's open to a deal that includes some new tax revenues. . . . “We're screwed either way,” Terry said. “We really have no leverage in these discussions.”

Representative Lee Terry, Republican, Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District

Live-Blogging Presidential Debate II

This is the one when they vote who gets thrown off the island - I'm pretty sure.

All the punditry is certainly extra excited to see if Governor Romney can pull a knock-out punch or the President can fight back to be a contender for round three next week. I can't figure this out to predict much. Neither one seems capable of "feeling pain" as well as President Clinton. And neither seems like they will be as distracted as George H.W. Bush checking his watch and misunderstanding the questions - or wandering the stage like McCain. Certainly the President will be more engaged but something less than the excitable Vice President. Governor Romney will continue his best equity salesman persona with all the moderation he can muster. We'll see if the President can call him on any of that this time. Or, the complete unknown, how the audience will play on either one of them.

A Moderate Response to Mitt Romney (and me)

In response to my hyperventilation about Governor Romney being taped discussing the 47%, Anonymous/D provides the following:

Well, keep your head about you.  It is just politics after all.  The thing is, I hate to make anybody, in Isaiah’s terminology, an "offender for a word" - even Romney in his 47% comment. I think I know what he meant when he said it. I hate to hold it against him, or make myself feel better about voting for Obama.  It’s just not intellectually honest although you can score easy political points with something like that.  Maybe there are people out there who will change their vote because of it.  It wouldn’t change my mind were I on the fence.  He’s probably right, there are a group of people out there who will never change their minds.  It’s the thing I hate about politics, this constant point-scoring, the intellectual dishonesty of campaigning.   It’s all a show.

Moochers vs. Producers

Governor Romney just had his "clingin' to gummint handouts" moment. Personally, I think it is worse than Senator Obama's gaffe in 2008 talking about guns and religion. I mean, I cling pretty tightly to my religion, but I don't feel that strongly about my guns. I guess that's why I thought it was OK to vote for Obama as I will likely do again. I still think we're all in this together. And divisions of people into Producers or mooochers don't help much. In fact, they're much more insulting. The "guns and religion" people can rightly take offense at an instance of arrogance from Candidate Obama. But they're still proud of their guns and religion. The 47% of We the People who are "moochers" under Romney's economic-political views don't find much to be proud of in that characterization.

We could envision an imaginary day-in-the-life of the working poor who pay no income tax because of low income, but still pay a significant amount is federal payroll taxes, along with excise taxes in fuel along with a couple of bad habits with alcohol and tobacco consumption. In fact, because the salary is so low, those taxes have a much greater impact as a share of salary. That's just too depressing. So let's imagine an average life of one of the Producers who never take advantage of the federal government except when they do. Unfortunately, even though they pay income tax, payroll taxes, etc. they are also getting the benefit of the federal taxes paid by the poor. If only government would just get off our backs, we'd be so much better off!

The Divine Right of Shark Jumping

"You work and I'll get the tax cut"

Yep. I think the Republicans have finally jumped the shark. Governor Romney will be joining Paul Ryan and the Fonz on the water skis tonight.

In the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln skewered the underlying philosophy of slavery protected by Stephen Douglas's "Popular Sovereignty" (as long as you were a white, male voter) when he compared slavery to the Divine Right of Kings with his cutting summary "You work and I'll eat the bread." Now, the party formerly of Lincoln, now of the former Southern Segregationists (or their kids), has jumped the shark with their tax cut plans and anti-We-the-People economics. Of course they've actually been doing this since Reagan, but I think we're finally catching on.

Update on Reid & Romney's Percentages

Mormons-Я-Us

Whatever the truth of the "no taxes for 10 years" and whether Reid or his alleged source or Romney are lying (or all of the above?), Reid has now skunked Romney out to state that he has never paid less than 13% in taxes in the last 10 years. Did Reid successfully fall on his ethical or decency sword to get Romney to fess that up? He did get a rise out of Romney who took the bait. And the issue goes on.

The Right to Bear Government

It struck me in the middle of the night so maybe it was only a dream. Though it seems odd to me that many people consider guns to be a God-given right as tools for self defense or other problem solving measures. And many of these same people deny that government is a tool for the benefit of people. It's not that people always have to be consistent (I'm certainly not). It's just that it seems to fly in the face of the Lincoln philosophy of government of, by, and for the people.