It is long past time to raise the taxes on the highest 2% income earners in the US.
Battle lines are already being drawn. I know that I'm preaching to the choir here, but I also know that we need to supply our leaders with ammunition, to encourage them, to threaten them, to hold their feet to the fire. We need to have strategies to get out the truths and to fight back.
I know that daily kos is reviewed for ideas and news themes, so skip over the fleur-de-kos, review my suggestions and let's win this.
Arguments for
1. Trickle-down economics does not work
We have known this for some time, of course, and even George HW Bush called the theory "Voodoo Economics" before he was bought off with the VP spot.
The Senate's Democrats had this to say
In a rebuke to long-held Republican economic theory, a nonpartisan report has found that there is no evidence that tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires leads to improved economic growth.The report also found that tax cuts for the wealthy increase income disparities.
The analysis, conducted by the Congressional Research Service, compared tax policy with GDP patterns over the last 65 years. The report's findings undermine a central tenet of Republican party orthodoxy on taxes.
The report was first released in September but was removed from public circulation shortly thereafter, apparently after pressure was applied by Senate Republican leaders.
You can read the report here
2. The only way to really balance the budget
This is simple arithmetic, folks, as President Clinton said.
There are so many studies on this, and it seems so obvious, but here are a few numbers: Washington Post July 19, 2012
A Republican proposal to preserve tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest households next year would cost about $80 billion more than a Democratic proposal to extend the cuts solely for middle-class taxpayers, according to official estimates released Thursday.
3. Money does not make the rich any happier
Think of the Koch Brothers, of Sheldon Adelson, even of the Romneys. Do these people seem happy to you? I didn't think so. It turns out that money, after you reach a certain level, does not make you any happier.
NYT money doesn't always make you happy
Here are the money quotes:
But it turns out there is a measurable connection between income and happiness; not surprisingly, people with a comfortable living standard are happier than people living in poverty.
The catch is that additional income doesn’t buy us any additional happiness on a typical day once we reach that comfortable standard. The magic number that defines this “comfortable standard” varies across individuals and countries, but in the United States, it seems to fall somewhere around $75,000.
and
Imagine three people each win $1 million in the lottery. Suppose one person attempts to buy every single thing he has ever wanted; one puts it all in the bank and uses the money only sparingly, for special occasions; and one gives it all to charity. At the end of the year, they all would report an additional $1 million of income. Many of us would follow the first person’s strategy, but the latter two winners are likely to get the bigger happiness bang for their buck.
Turns out that those who give away money feel the best of all. From the information I've seen, George Romney experiened much more contentment and self-respect than his son.
We do not need to feel guilty about this! We will be making the Kochs and the Adelsons happier! Well, maybe they are beyond happiness, but we can try.
Strategies for a fight
1. We just won the election based on this
Several today have emphasized the report by Krugman which points out that Obama has a mandate for this.
Paul Krugman's article, Let's Not Make a Deal a>
It’s worth pointing out that the fiscal cliff isn’t really a cliff. It’s not like the debt-ceiling confrontation, where terrible things might well have happened right away if the deadline had been missed. This time, nothing very bad will happen to the economy if agreement isn’t reached until a few weeks or even a few months into 2013. So there’s time to bargain.
More important, however, is the point that a stalemate would hurt Republican backers, corporate donors in particular, every bit as much as it hurt the rest of the country. As the risk of severe economic damage grew, Republicans would face intense pressure to cut a deal after all.
2. Remind everyone that the Republicans are both lying and suppressing the truth
Every time that Boehner or McConnell tries to talk about keeping tax cuts for the job creators (I mean, destroyers) we need to remind the public about that report which they quashed.
We need to remind the public about the oaths given to Norquist.
These need to be the memes.
3. Pressure on our democrats
We need to remind our elected officials that we prefer the fiscal cliff to an extension of the Bush tax cuts
Here's where you contact the White House
I suggest that everyone here write to Obama and tell him how we feel about those tax cuts for the rich.
More ideas? Please include in the discussion.
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Want a break from current politics? If you like Greek mythology, go here and read the story of Oedipus from Jocasta's point of view or the books in the Niobe trilogy, starting with Children of Tantalus and read about a mass murder where the gods were falsely accused.