Link Corporate Tax Rate to Employment & Income

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Friday January 07, 2011 · 7:26 AM PST

2011/01/07 · 07:26

Even as job growth remains mediocre, with new jobs lower than expected and with more people not even trying to find work and dropping out of the labor market, both Wall Street and Big Business have booming profits.

Meanwhile there is a continuing trickle of reports of bipartisan backroom negotiations over changing corporate tax structure.

So, here is my modest proposal: Make an explicit linkage between effective corporate taxes and their hiring workers at a livable wage. Link and automatic adjusting lowering (or rise) of corporate taxes to lowering of real unemployment rate and rise in working and middle class income.

As a good capitalist, I really do believe in the incentive system. So, let's give wall street and real business and real employers the direct incentive to hire and employ people at livable wages.

DrSteveB

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Thursday January 06, 2011 · 8:18 AM PST

2011/01/06 · 08:18

The Republicans are going to read the Constitution today. Progressives should embrace this, insofar as the WHOLE consitution, good, bad, ugly and amended are read.

What are your favorite, and least favorite, parts of the Consitution?

DrSteveB

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Wednesday January 05, 2011 · 1:08 PM PST

2011/01/05 · 13:08

While the Republicans in Congress call for repeal, below is the timeline of implementation from the official Administration healthcare.gov website which lists the health reform bill items that are already implemented from 2010 or to be implemented in 2011.

I am numbering the items, so that the Republicans can tell us preciselly which parts do they think are so evil? Which specific items do they want to go on record as being opposed to?

DrSteveB

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Tuesday January 04, 2011 · 9:46 AM PST

2011/01/04 · 09:46

Wendell Potter is the former head of corporate communications for CIGNA. Since leaving in 2008 he has become the most prominent whistleblower of the private health insurance industry, speaking out against its deadly, profit-driven practices. He has testified repeatedly before Congress and has appeared in high-profile interviews on Bill Moyers Journal, Democracy NOW!, and many others. He is the senior fellow on health care at the Center for Media and Democracy publishers of "PR Watch"

He is on a tour promoting his book Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans, for which The Nation cited him as 2010's most valuable author.

DrSteveB

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Wednesday December 22, 2010 · 3:35 PM PST

2010/12/22 · 15:35

I am in the 9/11 World Trade Center health registry that you may have heard about; fortunately I am completely healthy. Below are several true stories, followed by some more or less related current political commentary:

As a physician and public health doctor, whose office is 4 diagonal blocks from the World Trade Center, and who watched the first plane go in from our 38th floor office, I was what one might call a secondary responder on 9/11. After our building was evacuated, I initially walked in the opposite direction, uptown a little ways to the late lamented St Vincent’s Hospital on 11th Street. As I walked away, like many others, I watched as the towers fell. At about noon on 9/11 I had linked up with some other health care workers, and walked down to a first aid station that was set up in Stuyvesant High School, under the Tribeca Bridge at the Corner of West and Chambers.

DrSteveB

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Tuesday December 21, 2010 · 6:10 AM PST

2010/12/21 · 06:10

President Obama, you are no Ronald Reagan. And I mean that in a bad way.

From the National Journal (h/t Irmaly) here is a report on Obama thinking around the tax cut deal with McConnell:

He said it was hard to change the narrative after 30 years of small-government rhetoric and policies dating back to Ronald Reagan.

Obama’s difficulties with setting the agenda, or dictating the political "narrative," have been a topic of avid debate. In the past, Obama has expressed a wary admiration for President Reagan and his ability to change the narrative.

That was a contrast to the eight years of President Clinton, Obama added cuttingly. "Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not," he said.

Ah, if only Obama really have the courage of Reagan's convictions to be an agent of change.

DrSteveB

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Monday December 20, 2010 · 2:13 PM PST

2010/12/20 · 14:13

As a single payer supporter, who also supports many other complementary reforms that we also need, let me offer some comments on where we are and where we are going:

DrSteveB

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Sunday December 19, 2010 · 9:12 AM PST

2010/12/19 · 09:12

Simply put: Open military service today... full equal rights including same-sex marriage tomorrow.

I consider myself a lefty/progressive populist in good standing who is both anti-War and anti-American Imperialism, somebody who is 90% in agreement with Chalmers Johnson and the American Empire Project.

Over the years some of my fellow travelers (lol) have objected to the left taking up the cause of the repeal of don't ask don't tell, viewing this more as a pro-militaristic "equal wrongs" then "equal rights." A good example of this was expressed in a diary yesterday.

However, regardless of one’s views on the military-industrial complex, fortress America, and our imperialist role with bases in hundreds of countries all over the world, the fact is (whether it should be the case or not; alas) that historically open and acknowledged military service is the route by which oppressed minorities eventually gain full and equal legal, civil and social rights in America.

DrSteveB

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Saturday December 18, 2010 · 10:35 AM PST

2010/12/18 · 10:35

It is interesting, and possibly useful to parse the votes on both the DREAM Act and DADT cloture votes. Below is the listing of Democrats who voted against each, and the Republicans who voted for them.

Also: I know some anti-war/anti-military lefties don't fully get the importance of the repeal DADT, viewing this more as "equal wrongs" then "equal rights." However, regardless of ones views on the military-industrial complex, fortress America, and our imperialist role with bases in hundreds of countries all over the world, the fact is that historically open and acknowledged military service is the route by which oppressed minorities gain full and equal legal and civil rights in America. It was crucial abolition and reconstruction for African-Americans to have served in the Civil War. It has been an important path to respect and equality for every immigrant group throughout American history, from the Germans and Irish during the Revolution and War of 1812, to the Jews, Italians and other southern and eastern Europeans in World War I and II; and again for African-Americans and civil rights coming out of WW II and Korea.

DrSteveB

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Monday December 13, 2010 · 8:48 AM PST

2010/12/13 · 08:48

The latest version of so-called moderate, centrist, Third Way to organize is calling itself "No Labels". If you look at who makes it up, it is the usual Third Way (Jonathan Cowan) crowd with the non-batshit insane wing of the conservative and republicans (David Frum, Mark McKinnon) and token conservadem (William Galston).

They claim that they are "Not Right, Not Left. Forward" and "Put the Labels Aside. Do What’s Best for America. We are Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are united in the belief that we do not have to give up our labels, merely put them aside to do what’s best for America."

Alas, it seems to follow the recent Bloomberg plutocratic call for more of the same (deregulation, less taxes for the wealthy and corporate), but said nicely and with less Christianist and eliminationist rhetoric.

DrSteveB

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Saturday December 04, 2010 · 4:12 PM PST

2010/12/04 · 16:12

Repeating a false meme that has clearly has become a talking point for the seemingly moderate wing of opposition to real net neutrality, Bradford Plummer writing in The New Republic conflates the legitimate issue of bandwidth hogging and net neutrality. Since even to me, an IT amateur, the distinction is obvious, and since this conflation of two different issues keeps being repeated, it is important to fight back.

DrSteveB

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Friday December 03, 2010 · 6:54 PM PST

2010/12/03 · 18:54

I really should not care (I don' really). I really really should not be publicly doing a diary on this. The whole screwed up salary structure and misplaced priorities of it all is ridiculous. Even to admit to thinking about and discussing it goes against all my values.

But anyway: What should Derek Jeter's contract look like.

The correct answer is obvious ;)

Poll

85 votes Show Results

What should the Yankees and Jeter settle on?

85 votes Vote Now!

What should the Yankees and Jeter settle on?

1. Yankees are right. Jeter is in decline and overpaid.

23 votes

2. Jeter is right. He is still an above average player and an icon.

11 votes

3. Players are ridiculously overpaid. Give the money to school teachers.

15 votes

4. Owners have riduculous amounts of money and the teams make lots of money. Give the money to school teachers.

30 votes

5. Pie

6 votes

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Link Corporate Tax Rate to Employment & Income

Your Favorite (& Least Favorite) Part of the Constitution?

Which 28 Health Reforms in 2010-11 Do They Want to Kill?

Meet Wendell Potter: Health Insurance Whistle Blower

I Was a 9/11 Responder & What Is Important to Republicans

Obama: "It's hard to change the narrative after 30 years" (updatex4)

Judges, Mandates, Health Reform & Single Payer (oh my)

Against War & U.S. Imperialism, & Pro-Gays in Military

Repubs for & Dems against DREAM & DADT (& why Military service is important)

No Labels: the latest centrist/third-way crock (updated)

Net Neutrality vs. Bandwidth: Mainstream Media Gets It Wrong

Derek Jeter with a poll (a diary I am embarrassed to write)