Two years ago the so-called "Tea Party" Movement made a huge splash by showing up at Congressional Town Halls and throwing a temper tantrum over our "Out of Control Ganster Government" and their heinous, egregious attempts to help 50 Million Americans gain access to affordable Healthcare and prevent a second Great Depression.
Now of course those people have gotten exactly what they wanted and the U.S. Credit Rating has been downgraded from AAA for the first time in history leading to an 200+ Point Drop in the Dow after it's opening bell.
yeah, that's a plan well executed as the Wisconsin Tea Party who cheered when they heard about the S&P downgrade shows.
Maybe it's time for a new plan. One that involves creating positive outcomes instead of chaos, confusion and financial tragedy.
As we enter August and a brand new round of Congressional Town Halls Looms, perhaps we should take a moment to consider the proper care, feeding and hard probing questioning of your wild, roaming congress critter.
The first and most obvious question besides What the Frack are you Thinking? - would be Why on earth do we continue to maintain these massive tax breaks for corporations and millionaires when they continue to utterly fail at job creation?
It's not just GE who hasn't paid any taxes in recent yeas, according to the GAO nearly 60% of U.S. Corporations don't pay any taxes either.
The Government Accountability Office said 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005.
More than half of foreign companies and about 42 percent of U.S. companies paid no U.S. income taxes for two or more years in that period, the report said.
"Taxed Enough Already?" - how about Not Taxed At All!
U.S. Corporations are doing great, here's how.
Of the companies in the S&P 500 list of large-cap firms which have reported their quarterly earnings to date, 72 percent have beaten analysts' forecasts, according to Standard & Poor's analyst Howard Silverblatt.
Moreover, if the current trend keeps up, the S&P 500 companies are poised to have their most profitable quarter ever, he said.
"Earnings are basically the only thing holding up the market at this point," Silverblatt said. "They're amazing numbers."
The prosperity of large corporations may seem surprising at a time when many indicators show profound weakness in the world's largest economy.
The US unemployment rate stands at 9.2 percent, and the government last week said growth in the second quarter was a feeble 1.3 percent, far below economists' expectations.
But analysts say US corporations are doing well in part because they slashed costs during the recession, laying off workers and reining in spending on plants and equipment, which boosted profit margins.
U.S. Corporations have had record breaking profits for 3 Quarters Straight, and been doing it by squeezing more and more productivity out of fewer and fewer employees for less and less in pay and benefits. When more and more Companies are becoming Walmart-ized where their employees have to seek public assistance for their housing and healthcare, exactly why should these companies get public subsidies instead of paying their fair share to help provide the public services that their own employees are using?
U.S. Tax Revenue is currently at a 50 Year Low, yes, even lower than during the Reagan Era.
So, what exactly Mr. or Mrs. Esteemed Congress Person do you plan to do to either increase Revenues and/or compel U.S. companies to take the $1.7 trillion in profits their sitting on and create jobs for U.S. Workers?
This right here in my option is the question that matters.
What are you going to do to get this Country Back to Work?
It might be fair and productive to ask others such as...
Will you support benefit cuts to Social Security (which is running a Surplus), Medicare (which had the Life of it's Trust Fund Extended by the Affordable Care Act) or Medicare?
Do you concur with John Boehner's suggestion that the jobs of Public Workers like Police, Firefighters and Teachers somehow don't count as "Real", and if not what are you going to do to reverse this trend of Public Job Loss?
Do you fear the spread of "Sharia Law", and if so are you equally afraid fo the spread of Levitican Law which would see a woman stoned to death for adultery if she gets re-married after a divorce that isn't caused by infidelity? (Go On -Look it Up)
If you believe that Life is a "Right", do you or do you not think that the ability to Live (Via affordable accessible Health Care) is also a Right?
Do you believe in the effectiveness of Torture? If yes, please explain how KSM still LIED about knowing Osama bin Laden's courier, and why Ibn Sheik al-Libi told Egyptian authorities that Saddam had trained members of Al-Qeada (even though he didn't) only after he had been tortured, and why that information was used in the reasons to start the Iraq War? If No, will you pledge to repeal the Military Commissions Act, which as it is written and stands in law right now maintains exceptions in the Army Field Manual, War Crimes Act and Torture Statute that would allow for coercive physical techniques up to and including Waterboarding, Sensory and Sleep Deprivation (the latter of which was used on Pvt. Bradly Manning)
Do you Support Warrantless Spying on U.S. Citizens (such as private calls to and from our Troops Overseas) and extension of the Patriot Act despite the thousands of cases of excessive abuses reported by the FBI?
If you believe in "Freedom" do you or do you not believe in the Freedom of Choice for a woman and her own body, particularly when effective birth control is available and could easily avoid the tragedy of Abortion - or the Freedom to Marry the Consenting Single Adult of your choice, despite their gender - or the Freedom to Choose your Religion even if that faith isn't particularly popular, respected or trusted among the majority? What does Freedom mean if you can't exercise it through your responsible reasonable choices?
Just what does a #SatanSandwichM Taste like when it's fresh? Seems to me the one America just swallowed is a bit stale for my tastes.
There are dozens of good questions to ask beyond these few examples. If fact, please do enter your own suggestion in the comments ( I hope to compile the top 20 or so in a future diary to be used as "Tips" for those who do plan to attend the August Town Halls)
But if you do attend a town hall or do happen to call your Congress person on the phone - if you can PLEASE, please, please document it here on Dkos and/or post it on Youtube.
I hope and plan to place links to these videos on my new Facebook Page - The New American Spring. or it's Twitter Feed Restore Democracy
Even though we may act individually, with the resources of the Net, we can still Act Together. They did it in Egypt, They're doing it in Wisconsin. We can do it everywhere.
Vyan