THREE STEPS TO A BALANCED FED BUDGET

Hi Brad,
(I can’t find Desi’s email address!)

I MAY miss all or part of the Bradcast but wanted to introduce this information that I just sent to some right wing moron who was trashing Clinton and Obama. I agreed on just one point. Please take a look.

I agree Dick Morris is an absolute moron.

Re: Clinton, he the only president to balance the budget (and he did it 3 times in a row AND CUT WELFARE ROLLS IN HALF!) since Kennedy (both Democrats, as you will notice).

And Obama, he inherited an $11 TRILLION national debt, all but $1 trillion of which was run up VERY recently by mostly idiotic Republican presidents who said the hell with our fiscal health, we are going to borrow, borrow, borrow and let our grandkids and great grandkids pay for our wars and no-bid contracts to firms like Haliburton, Blackwater, etc. Reagan came in in 1981 when our debt was just $1 trillion. When “W” left office, he had managed to run OUR NATIONAL DEBT UP TO $11 TRILLION!!! “W” had started bailout programs for the banks that Obama was forced to continue, along with hugely inflated budgets of certain federal entities (yes, like Defense, etc.).

The avalanche of debt (I have not heard that phrase ever use before, so if I’m the first, I WANT CREDIT FOR IT, BRAD!!) had already started rolling down the mountain LONG LONG before Obama got to the White House. It would have been impossible for ANYONE to stop the avalanche. And no, you can’t just pick and choose what programs you are going to fund in the event of a shortfall – historically “we” have just increased the debt limit (generally without ANY objection from congress or the Senate – especially when the Repubs were in office).

Now, all of a sudden, the debt ceiling is a big deal – which it legitimately really IS (in some ways, or we could just eliminate the ceiling entirely like Moody’s suggested), but isn’t it strange that the Repubs all of a sudden want to become “fiscally responsible” when they spent (i.e. “borrowed”) like drunken sailors since 1981. Ah, how easy it is to blame the last man to the party – obviously HE must be responsible for all the fiscal trouble we are in. None of it was an issue from 1981 to 2011 (30 years). We DO need to balance the federal budget and it is real easy to do:

1) Raise taxes on the rich who make over $1 million/year so they have to pay a minimum of 10% (many of them pay NOTHING AND DON’T PROVIDE HEALTH INSURANCE TO THEIR EMPLOYEES – causing a drain on our medical system and ER operations)
2) Force corporations to pay a minimum of 10% in taxes (regardless of loopholes) and 15% (or 20%) for those who operate outside the U.S. in an effort to avoid paying a fair share of taxes (GE is OWED a large tax REFUND from the feds) – the way it is is JUST NOT RIGHT
3) Place a 1% transaction fee on all stock transactions that would go directly to the federal treasury

These would allow for a balance budget and eliminate the need to keep borrowing. Which of the above three do you think are unfair? Should we just let them keep getting away with not paying a fair share? If we do allow that, the middle class is then paying an UNFAIR share (I think my marginal tax rate is something like 29% - compare that to the proposal above about 10% or 15% or 20%). Are you ok with that?

I hope people will read the above FACTS (all can be easily validated) and think about my tax proposals. Why would ANYONE oppose the three points above??? And NO, companies will not leave the U.S. if we actually make them pay their fair share. And if so, good riddance to the “free-ride” assholes!

TC

I stumbled on a post on reddit just now. It's titled "Forget Anonymous: Evidence Suggests GOP Hacked, Stole 2004 Election".
*sigh* I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Brad, one thing that has caught some attention is the confused and dysfunctional policy the administration is developing that concerns medical marijuana.

They are flip flopping and beginning to indict state licensed small medical marijuana distributors in Washington state.

Joan @2,

We were telling the world that way back then. It did happen.

It will happen again because the great enlightened masses are programed to consider that to be a conspiracy theory.

Hi Brad, like your show especially your work on election fraud which seems to keep the dems in denial (a large river in Egypt?). What do you think it will take for the dems and ‘the people’ to wake up the fact that our democracy has been stolen? What do you think we in California should be doing about it?

I appreciate your fill in work for Mike and also download your Green Report when I think of it. Do you have a podcast for the Green Report that is supported by non-iTunes platforms, specifically Winamp as my iPod shuttles no longer work with iTunes? There is NO progressive radio in Sacramento where I now live, having moved from LA, so my KPFK and Air America fix is all by podcasts.

One small bone to pick regarding your Arafat comments Friday night. While he was no hero of mine, he was unable to accept the ‘best and final’ deal offered by Clinton and Barak because there was little or no contiguous land upon which to make a viable state. If my memory serves me correctly, some of Clinton’s negotiators and even Clinton himself were reported to have admitted after the fact that this was not a deal that any Palestinian leader could accept. In fact, I think that you can go back and find that Ehud Barak also admitted as much a year or two after the failed negotiations.

Just saying, you may want to research what really happened with the 2000 negotiations before you use this as an example again. This myth has been pushed by the Israeli PR machine to reinforce the old saw from Abba Eban that the "Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."

Keep up the good work brother!

Joan @2 and All: here's the direct link for that article:

http://www.benzinga.com/...cked-stole-2004-election

("Forget Anonymous: Evidence Suggests GOP Hacked, Stole 2004 Election")

Dredd #4,
I know. And yet it's posted as if it were news, even after all this time. That's why it makes me laugh and cry.

Raven #6,
Thanks for posting the link.