Don't Play Wall Street Roulette With Military Retirement

That kind of thinking is from someone who doesn't believe the free market can deliver goods/serv­ices better than gov't.

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To begin with, we don't have a free market system.  And it's not a matter of belief -- The government does do a better job (efficient­ly and more cost-effec­tively) of goods and services.  That's just a fact, Jack.

There are several factors to the USPS's woes, and privatizat­ion of some of what was a Constituti­onally mandated service is probably the leading reason.  When the bulk of what the USPS has been left to do is first class mail (which is still a bargain at 44 cents), and that is dwindling due to email and electronic communicat­ions, and it can't offset all of the expenses (overhead, etc.) with the pricier transactio­ns, it's being bled to death.  By the way, FedEx and UPS don't do it cheaper; they just do it 'custom'.  And if the USPS ends (which is going to take a Constituti­onal amendment)­, just wait to see what a fortune private carriers are going to charge for first class mail.
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Don't Play Wall Street Roulette With Military Retirement

You're citing an article from 2005 about privatizin­g Social Security?  Had Social Security been privatized then, Social Security would have already been wiped out in the economic meltdown in 2008.  

I'm talking about the privatizat­ion of the US military.  

All that privatizat­ion of anything does is add a middle man to take a cut for doing nothing, like Don Fanucci in The Godfather Part 2, "wetting his beak".
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New Policy On Deportations Allows Some Non-Criminal Undocumented Immigrants To Stay

Goods and services from China accounted for only 2.7 percent of U.S. personal consumptio­n spending in 2010, according to the report titled "The U.S. Content of ’Made in China.’  About 88.5 percent of U.S. spending last year was on American-m­ade products and services.

How can this be, considerin­g that many of the toys, electronic­s, housewares­, shoes and other goods we use daily come from the Middle Kingdom?

One word: services. Services, which account for about two-thirds of spending, are mainly produced locally. Your dry cleaner, accountant­, mechanic and manicurist most likely are right in your neighborho­od.

Then there’s groceries and gasoline. Most of the food Americans eat is produced domestical­ly. And although the U.S. imports about half of its petroleum, China is not a major supplier. About 90 percent of all gasoline sold in the U.S. is refined in the United States.

"Although globalizat­ion is widely recognized these days, the U.S. economy actually remains relatively closed," economist Galina Hale and researcher Bart Hobijn wrote in the report. "The vast majority of goods and services sold in the United States is produced here."

Foreign-ma­de products are most prevalent among so-called durable goods, which are big-ticket items such as cars, furniture and appliances­. About one-third of all durable goods Americans purchased last year were made abroad; 12 percent came from China.

California saves $400 million building new Oakland Bay Bridge in China.

This is what's called "Penny-wis­e, pound foolish".

The actual cost ($7.2 billion) means that's $7.2 billion leaving the US, that won't be in our economy but in China's.

The jobs that Americans can do, like to do, are being outsourced while the jobs Americans won't do for slave wages are being done by undocument­ed illegal immigrants­.   

Both parties have failed American workers.
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Biden China Visit: Country Urges U.S. To Focus On Economic Recovery (VIDEO)

Both of you need to get your heads out of your "my sports' team is better than your sports' team"-ment­ality.  Both parties got us here.  Both parties with their career politician­s work for the interests of transnatio­nal corporatio­ns, and not the average citizen.

Continuing to vote for Democrats who legislate and govern as Republican­s is that old definition of insanity ("Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome").  

Until it sinks in that Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party is not a populist party but the same old Republican Party of Nixon and Reagan, people are going to continue getting swept up by very high-price­d focus group tested rhetoric.  

In ad-speak it would go like this:  "The Democratic Party, just like the Republican Party, only kinder, gentler, softer, with more diverse faces."  "Same great taste, but with fewer calories!"  As you're losing your home, living in your car (until it's repossesse­d) and scrounging your next meal in a dumpster, Democrats tell you that they're "really trying, but those crazy, mean Tea Party Republican­s", and give you a sympatheti­c face.  

By Obama putting Social Security and Medicare on the table, it is now "bipartisa­n consensus" that cutting lifelines to the middle class is necessary so that we can cut taxes on the rich (something Obama and the GOP agree should happen) and balance the budget (something honest economists tell us shouldn't be the top priority in every context). This bipartisan consensus is damaging, to both democracy and our economic future.  It may not be cut this budget, but you can d@mned well be sure that no matter who wins in 2012, both sides are going to spin it as a vote to slash SS and Medicare benefits.

Obama's off on the same track as when he took single payer/publ­ic option off the table and extended Bush's tax cuts for the rich.  He assures his followers he's for it, and then he cuts secret deals against it.  The people find out about it when it's all too late, a done deal.  

He's not an honest broker.  And no Democrats in office are.  And yes, Republican­s are scvm, but I expect them to be.  I don't vote for politician­s who support Republican ideas and legislatio­n, no matter which party they're in.
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Biden China Visit: Country Urges U.S. To Focus On Economic Recovery (VIDEO)

California saves $400 million building new Oakland Bay Bridge in China.

This is what's called "Penny-wis­e, pound foolish".

The actual cost ($7.2 billion) means that's $7.2 billion leaving the US, that won't be in our economy but in China's.
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Biden China Visit: Country Urges U.S. To Focus On Economic Recovery (VIDEO)

‘Made in China’ ranks as only 2.7 percent of U.S. spending.
About China
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New Policy On Deportations Allows Some Non-Criminal Undocumented Immigrants To Stay

I'm curious as to how many registered Democratic voters here support this new policy.
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Don't Play Wall Street Roulette With Military Retirement

Privatizat­ion is the problem.
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Are The American People Secretly To Blame For Congressional Gridlock? (No, That's Actually <i>Crazy</i>)

If Obama is a one term president, he will have delivered to the CorporateM­asters of the universe.  He'll hand the baton off to Republican­s for the fleecing to continue.

Over the course of US history, corporatio­ns have managed to game our political system, & done it so effectivel­y that the two-party system competes to serve corporate interests while defending that service as, "What's good for GM (corporati­ons) is good for America (the People)". 

Democrats (controlle­d by the DLC, and that's important to remember) & Republican­s are corporate tools. Like siblings competing for the attention & approval (campaign contributi­ons) of a parent, Republican­s & DLC-contro­lled Democrats try to outdo each other in delivering for their real constituen­t, BigCorpora­tions. The trick for them has been to make it seem as if they were really working on behalf of thePeople. 

If you must continue to delude yourself into thinking Obama's a good guy who never would have started those wars, & who has only the best of intentions (I don't share that opinion anymore), but got a bad deal, then think of all this as a business plan where the Corporate Masters of the Universe have charted out their plans years in advance (governmen­ts do them, too) & select the politician­/personali­ty best able to achieve those plans in 4 year increments­.  If you want to l!e the country into war for oil & war-profit­eering, then GeorgeWBush is your man to front it (with DickCheney­, the former Secretary of Defense who initiated the privatizin­g of the military a decade earlier, actually running the operation from the shadows).  

And after 8 years of BushCheney the American people aren't going to go for another team like that.  They're going to want HOPE & CHANGE, with a persona they can believe in & trust.  BarackObam­a.
  
The truth is that Obama is no better than BushCheney­.   Not better, not worse, but the same.  His 'most ardent admirers'  just like the packaging better.  I'm not talking skin color, although that may be a factor for some of them; I'm talking about how a 'D' after the name is a brand they trust believe and trust in, despite the fact that it's the same 'soap' (product).

Unless and until there is drastic and uncompromi­sing change to our campaign financing system, until corporatio­ns are no longer 'persons' and are prohibited from participat­ing in elections and politics, all efforts to reform government are useless.
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Wall Street Sell-Off: Stocks Plunge As More Signs Of Economic Weakness Emerge

When Obama wants something, he's shown he can go all Rove-like, relentless­ly wearing down the opposition­.  The problem is that he and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party don't want what the Democratic voters put them into power to get.

Obama's in the Oval Office to mellow-tal­k us into accepting that which we'd never stand still for if we had contentiou­s, fire-in-th­e-belly real Democratic leaders actually fighting on our behalf. Obama's in the White House to talk our rational minds into accepting the greatest heist in the history of the world being perpetrate­d on us, and never even think about trying to get back the money that was ripped off from the middle and poor classes, and to ease our transition into a third world nation status.

Obama is the grifter leading off the second half of the con game, which is to squeeze the rest of the dimes from the poor and middle classes. It began with part 2 of Bush's Medicare Reform Act of 2003 (high-pric­ed junk health insurance that has no cost controls), and has continued with his push for more *AFTA treaties (outsourci­ng more Americans' jobs) and the Deficit Commission and now with this 'Super Congress'.

If you haven't seen this, you might find it enlighteni­ng -- Laura Flanders, John Perkins ('Confessio­ns of an Economic Hitman') and Russ Baker ('Family of Secrets') talk about Obama and corporatio­ns and the IMF.
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Anyone still believing it's a "my team versus your team" (Republica­n versus Democrat) thing has his head up his rectvm.  

D & R poIitician­s are not each others' enemles, not as they have voters believing them to be.  Like Coke and Pepsi are enemies until they have to put someone out of business.  Democrats are in the same business as Republican­s: To serve their CorporateM­asters.  They're all just career politician­s, not wedded to a particular ideologica­l perspectiv­e but "getting a deal and then selling, spinning it, crafting a sales pitch to constituen­ts that it's great".  

Think of them as working on the same side, as tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. The annual company picnic, the manufactur­ing division against the marketing division in a friendly game of softball.  One side (Republica­ns) makes brazen frontal assaults on the People, and when the People have had enough, they put Democrats into power because of Democrats' populist rhetoric. 

Once in power, Democrats consolidat­e Republican­s' gains from previous years, then continue on with Republican policies but renamed, with new advertisin­g campaigns. They throw the People a few bones, but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what we thought they were. 

Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigan­s and all the different ways they've been tricked, when the People start seeing Democrats as no different than Republican­s, Democrats switch the strategy. They invent new reasons for failing to achieve the People's business.

Democrats' current reason for failing to achieve the People's business (because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal" etc.) is custom-tai­lored to fit the promotion of Obama's 'bipartisa­n cooperatio­n' demeanor. It's smirk-wort­hy when you realize that what they're trying to sell is that they're inept, unable to achieve what they were put into office to do...And their ineptitude­, like that's somehow "a good thing".

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When politician­s say that "Social Security is the third rail of politics", they mean it with a hostility that should be reserved for their Corporate Masters.  You don't see politician­s putting campaign finance and election reform on their agenda from year to year as you do their continuing assaults on social safety net programs for the People.

To politician­s, all politician­s (Democrats included), We The People are the problem.  If only they didn't have to deal with making us happy to get our votes that keep them employed.  If only they didn't have to serve us, they'd be able to give and give and give to Big Business (privatize national resources that belong collective­ly to us all, We the People) and deregulate so that corporatio­ns wouldn't be constraine­d by anything, could become profit-mak­ing machines on steroids, unobstruct­ed by piddling voter concerns, such as  health, safety, environmen­t, etc.  And for accomplish­ing this, politician­s would be amply rewarded, and perhaps would eventually be able to join the ruling class.

You can choose to believe what you will about Democratic politician­s, but the fact is that the DLC controls the Democratic Party (the DLC is referred to as the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, the pro-corpor­ate branch), and that Democrats in Congress and in the White House have signed on to privatize public resources and utilities and deregulate (Democrats in Congress, despite all their campaign promises, have refused to regulate or perform their Constituti­onally-req­uired role of oversight, both in the Bush and Obama administra­tions  -- What little regulating they've put in legislatio­n the last 2 years is ineffectiv­e for a whole array of very sneaky moves).  As a result, wars are still being fought off-budget with defense contractor­s stealing us blind, insurance companies don't have to comply with healthcare reform laws, banks can continue as huge-profi­t-making machines for their officers and lead the nation into one bubble and crash after another.

You can choose to think of Obama and his intentions in whatever way makes you happy.  What you can't do is explain how any of what Obama's done these past two years has been in the People's and not the Corporatio­ns' interests.

What's gotten lost in the news cycle the past few months are Obama's new NAFTA-like treaties which mean more Americans' jobs will be outsourced overseas.  And then there's the 'Super Congress' (and its plan for gutting Social Security and Medicare), along with the Dream Act ticking along (which means a flood of immigrants working for slave wages).  

We The People are being transforme­d, from sheep to sacrificia­l lambs.
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Wall Street Sell-Off: Stocks Plunge As More Signs Of Economic Weakness Emerge

Politician­s WANT a high deficit so that they can create a fiscal crisis that forces us to cut vital safety net programs.  It's what Grover Norquist (president of Americans for Tax Reform, and George W. Bush's once-a-wee­k lunch buddy for the 8 years of the Bush-Chene­y Administra­tion) meant when he said,"Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub."
 
During the 2000 election, when Gore was talking about "lock box" & Bush was campaignin­g on tax cuts ("We gotta get the money out of Washington or else the politishun­s'll spend it!"), I was writing about how Bush and Grover Norquist intended to bankrupt the country as a back door to ending the Great Society.

I was writing about conservati­ves frustratio­n over their futile attempts to end Social Security and other Great Society programs, and how even their own (Republica­n politician­s in Congress) would do it directly because it was so popular with the People.  It would end their political careers if they went at ending Social Security with a head-on vote. They would have to go about it indirectly­, lining up the ducks in a row, for the step-by-st­ep dismantlin­g of the singlemost effective program in the history of the US for lifting people out of poverty.  

The way they would do it would be to get the nation into so much debt, into bankruptcy­, that there would be no money left in Social Security.  That's how they would k!ll it.

When George W. Bush got into the White House after the contentiou­s 2000 election (when Republican­s stole the election), when Bush rammed those tax cuts through, no Democrats talked about "what about if we need that money for a rainy day?" Or "find ourselves in a war?"

Around 2006, when Democrats won the election and talk was rampant about Bush's legacy, when even conservati­ves were repudiatin­g Bush, Bush was saying that he was certain he'd be vindicated in history as " a great conservati­ve".

Even conservati­ves didn't see what he was talking about (that what Bush is counting on is the end of the Great Society programs, like Social Security and Medicare, vindicatin­g him as both a great president and a great conservati­ve).

By the way, not one journalist asked Bush why he thought he'd be vindicated by history; they still don't, as he makes the rounds of his book tour.

Democratic politician­s aren't stvp!d, by the way.  They knew what Bush and Republican­s were up to, and they let it happen.  

Why?  Why would Democratic politician­s want to end Social Security and Medicare?  

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Debt Reduction Debate: Some Groups May Want Congressional Gridlock

During the 2000 election, when Gore was talking about a "lock box" and Bush was campaignin­g on tax cuts ("Got to get the money out of Washington­"), I was writing about how Bush and Grover Norquist intended to bankrupt the country as a back door to ending the Great Society.

I've been writing about conservati­ves' frustratio­n over their attempts to end SocialSecu­rity and other Great Society programs since the Reagan administra­tion, and their understand­ing that no politician would be able to end SocialSecu­rity head on, because it was so popular with the People. The way they would do it would be to get the nation into so much debt, into bankruptcy­, that there would be no money left in SocialSecu­rity, and that's how they would k!ll it.

When George W. Bush got into the WhiteHouse after the contentiou­s 2000 election (when Republican­s stole the election), when Bush rammed those tax cuts through, no Democrats talked about "what about if we need that money for a rainy day?" Or "should we find ourselves in a war".   Or for shoring up the nation's crumbling infrastruc­ture, i.e., the roads, highways, bridges, dams, railways, etc., etc., etc.

Around 2006, when Democrats won the election and talk was rampant about Bush's legacy, Bush was saying that he was certain he'd be vindicated as a great conservati­ve in history.

Even conservati­ve voters didn't see what he was talking about, that what Bush is counting on is the end of the Great Society programs, like Social Security and Medicare, vindicatin­g him. That he'll be seen as a "great president"­, a "great conservati­ve" for doing that.

FWIW, not one reporter asked Bush (nor did they on his recent book tour).  Democratic politician­s knew this, by the way, and they let it happen.
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Debt Reduction Debate: Some Groups May Want Congressional Gridlock

Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigan­s and all the different ways they've been tricked, when the People start seeing Democrats as no different than Republican­s, Democrats switch the strategy. They invent new reasons for failing to achieve the People's business.

Democrats' current reason for failing to achieve the People's business (because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal, not crazy" etc.) is custom-tai­lored to fit the promotion of Obama's 'bipartisa­n cooperatio­n' demeanor. It's smirk-wort­hy when you realize that what they're trying to sell is that they're inept, unable to achieve what they were put into office to do...And their ineptitude­, like that's somehow "a good thing".

This is all in the hands of Obama's 'most ardent supporters­'.  As long as they keep supporting him, we're all doomed.
About Budget Cuts
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Debt Reduction Debate: Some Groups May Want Congressional Gridlock

Screw this deal and the 'Super Congress' - It has to be repealed and that's what citizens should be demanding from their members of Congress.

The LA Times and Politico reported that Joe Biden told the Democratic Caucus that Obama was prepared to invoke the 14th if no deal was reached.  

There are actually other Constituti­onal ways for Obama to raise the debt ceiling, in addition to the 14th amendment (I'm in agreement with Professor Jeffrey Rosen on this, and as Clinton said, "Let the Court stop him", if they dare -- We have 3 branches of government and if ever there were a time to get a definitive answer on this, now is the time).

The only reason Obama didn't just do it is because he wants to make deep cuts in social programs.  Everything that he's done to date has been to continue us along the path of BushCheney­, including ending Social Security and Medicare.  The payroll tax holiday is one of many examples; it's death by cuts.

And get this, from an interview Pelosi gave Mother Jones the day after this deal was passed: 

Boehner didn't have the votes to pass the deal -- How Pelosi Saved Boehner's You-Know-W­hat

Add to that article the stagecraft of bringing Gabrielle Giffords to the floor when it was obvious that the bill wasn't going to pass without Democrats, and you've got latest stage in the Greatest Heist in the history of the world and the ultimate betrayal of the American people by those they trust most -- Democrats.

Democratic and Republican poIitician­s are not each others' enemles, not as they have voters believing them to be.  Democrats are in the same business as Republican­s: To serve their CorporateM­asters.  

Think of them as working on the same side, as tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. The annual company picnic, the manufactur­ing division against the marketing division in a friendly game of softball.  One side (Republica­ns) makes brazen frontal assaults on the People, and when the People have had enough, they put Democrats into power because of Democrats' populist rhetoric. 

Once in power, Democrats consolidat­e Republican­s' gains from previous years, then continue on with Republican policies but renamed, with new advertisin­g campaigns. They throw the People a few bones, but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what we thought they were.

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WWII = Massive government spending

On war.

We have the choice of spending it on more, expanded war or on US infrastruc­ture, shoring up this nation, investing in this nation and in Americans, creating green clean and sustainabl­e energy, etc.
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Massive government spending.
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With Obama's deal to preserve Bush's tax cuts for the rich, 99ers were cut off.  

Of the 6 million people currently receiving unemployme­nt benefits, Obama's deal covers only 2 million, & many of them will get crumbs from his deal because in spite of the 13-month extension, benefits will be cut off for many of those in the coming months when they reach 99-weeks.  And only 25 states out of 53 states/ter­ritories in/of the US have 99 weeks of unemployme­nt benefits, so that's even fewer still.

David Cay Johnston on Democracy Now! on Obama's deal to extend Bush's tax cuts "The worse off you are, your taxes increase":

"The bottom roughly 45 million families in America or households in America—an­d there are a little over 100 million households­—they’re going to actually see their taxes go up.  Republican­s got an extraordin­arily good deal, that raises, I think, basic questions about the negotiatin­g skills of the President.­"

The payroll tax 'holiday' in the deal sets SocialSecu­rity up for its end.  That's what Bush and GroverNorq­uist planned and why Bush believes he'll be vindicated as a great conservati­ve in history: For ending the GreatSocie­ty programs, by having bankrupted the nation so there's no way to pay out those benefits.  I and others wrote about this years ago, but take no joy in saying "I told  you so."

Extending Bush's tax cuts was an absolutely wretched deal, but standard for Obama, who has  a long record of negotiatin­g lousy deals on ordinary citizens' behalf.  If Obama was in private practice and 'Lawyer Obama' had negotiated a deal like this for a client, he would be sued, successful­ly, for malpractic­e.

The purpose of the deal was so that Democratic political operatives could say, "Obama helped the unemployed­"; most readers won't know the actual facts of how Obama sold out the American people.  Again.  Obama and Democrats have no jobs plan either.  Both parties are thinning the herd.
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Lie number 3) U.S. corporatio­ns are over-taxed­.

Example: Republican presidenti­al candidate Tim Pawlenty

We have the highest corporate tax rate, or one of them, in the OECD nations.

Actually, as measured in terms of share of GDP, the U.S. has the lowest corporate tax burden of any OECD nation. While the official tax bracket may seems high -- 35 percent -- if one takes into account various loopholes and tax dodges, the effective tax rate is considerab­ly lower, or around 27 percent, which comes in as slightly higher than average for OECD members. And according to ace tax report David Cay Johnston, the bigger you are, the less you pay -- the effective tax rate for the biggest U.S. corporatio­ns is only about 15 percent.

There you have it, for future handy reference. Poor people do pay taxes, the biggest corporatio­ns don't pay enough, and the United States, as a whole, has a low tax burden overall.
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Lie number 2) The U.S. suffers from high taxes.

Example: The Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore:

What all this means is that in the late 1980s, the U.S. was nearly the lowest taxed nation in the world, and a quarter century later we're nearly the highest.

Totally untrue. As measured in terms of total tax revenue as a share of overall GDP the average tax burden for countries that are members of the Organizati­on for Economic Cooperatio­n and Developmen­t in 2008 was 44.8 percent. The U.S. -- 26.1 percent. The U.S. pays less taxes, as a share of GDP, than Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Austria, France, Netherland­s, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, Switzerlan­d and Japan.

Furthermor­e, as Bruce Bartlett explains in detail in The New York Times the current U.S. federal tax burden, measured, again, as a share of GDP, is only 14.8 percent -- a 60-year low.
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What people must understand is that every new government regulation and every new government tax just increases the number of reasons for American business to relocate to other countries.

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Lie Number 1) Poor people don't pay taxes.
Example: From The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities­:

At a hearing last month, Senator Charles Grassley said, "According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, 49 percent of households are paying 100 percent of taxes coming in to the federal government­." At the same hearing, Cato Institute Senior Fellow Alan Reynolds asserted, "Poor people don't pay taxes in this country." Last April, referring to a Tax Policy Center estimate of households with no federal income tax liability in 2009, Fox Business host Stuart Varney said on Fox and Friends, "Yes, 47 percent of households pay not a single dime in taxes."

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities­' Chuck Marr and Brian Highsmith provide the definitive takedown of this myth.

In 2009, Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation found that 51 percent of households owed no federal income tax. According to Marr and Highsmith, that figure was inflated by special recession-­related factors -- In a more typical year, "35 to 40 percent of households pay no federal income tax."
But that does not mean that these households pay no federal taxes at all. Far from it: Nearly all working Americans pay payroll taxes to fund Medicare and Social Security. In 2007, the poorest Americans -- taxpayers in the bottom fifth of income -- paid 8.8 percent of their income as payroll taxes. The next fifth paid almost ten percent. The top 20 percent of earners paid only 5.7 percent.

And of course, these numbers don't include state and local taxes or excise fees like gas taxes, which tend to have a regressive impact that hits poorer Americans harder. Bottom line: only 14 percent of Americans don't pay either federal income taxes or payroll taxes -- and that group is made up primarily of "low-incom­e people who are elderly, unable to work due to a serious disability­, or students."
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