We hope that you remembered yesterday was the deadline to file your Federal Tax statement for 2010. Truthfully, we don't know of anyone - or anyone willing to admit it, anyway - who hasn't either completed their taxes or filed an extension by this point.
All the same, there are still some folks who forgot to pay their taxes last year - and millions more who are paying less than then they likely ever have.
We're not going to debate the facts regarding taxes; we have them all here. The richest of the rich continued to see their tax rates plummet last year. For the wealthiest 400 Americans, their tax rates have dropped nearly 10% in the last decade.
For the rest of America, the amount they pay in Federal Income Tax is at historic lows, lower than at any time since 1955. Even if we factor in state and local taxes along with federal tax dollars, Americans are still paying a lower percentage of per-capita income than at anytime since the 1960's.
With all of those things being true, our government, at nearly every level, still seems to be having money issues. In short, everyone wants to know: where did all the money go?
If you listen to the partisans on the political right, you're hear our recitation of facts blasted as "Class warfare!" Those dirty immigrants and the lazy unemployed are to blame, according to many of those on the right. If the poor would just suck it up and take jobs that pay less than unemployment (even though they'd need even MORE financial assistance down the road if they did so), the poor should just buck up and accept their status as members of the economic slave class.
On the left, there are those who blame corporations and the ultra rich for every monetary problem that America and other countries are facing. Those on the left may be operating from a larger set of actual facts - for example, that the rich have more tax shelters, and (as we pointed out already) the richest of the rich continue to watch their tax rates drop. Still, the corporate pigs and the greedy rich aren't even the biggest reason why America's collective bank account is short more than a few sheckels.
The biggest reason why we are all still struggling is that we are all STILL recovering from the second worst economic disaster in American history.
We think sometimes - many times, actually - that the collective memory of Americans is no longer than that of a chicken. This disaster we're all still climbing out of didn't happen overnight, and it won't be over like a sitcom or a cheesy horror flick, in a relatively short time.
We also weren't the only ones to suffer.
Our government is powered by the taxes we pay. If we don't earn anything, government doesn't fill it's coffers either. Our government isn't some strange magical creature that steals money from us and gives us nothing. If we have no money to give it, it can't afford to provide all the services we expect from it.
As we've quoted before, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society." If we do not pay the price, our society is LESS civilized.
To us, when certain elements in our society raise the battle cry of "Class warfare!" where there is none, that's merely another example that our economy is anything but back to normal.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
The Time To Choose Is Now
When it comes to Senator Ben Nelson, The Daily Feltoon staff has been of at least two minds on Nelson for many years - even before we began working together.
In general, as a Senator - and before that, as a Governor - our opinion of Mr. Nelson has been generally positive. He has often made decisions that make sense for those he represents, even if those decisions haven't been fully understood or investigated by the media and the general public.
For those persons who think we're merely partisan, and that we like Ol' Ben just because he's a Democrat, we remind you that Sen. Nelson was once a Nebraska Republican, the kind who have lately been run out of the party. If you think the Salt Creek Tiger Beetle is endangered, you should try being a moderate in the present-day GOP. Nelson has said - more than once - he wouldn't change back to being a Republican because they have become too inflexible for someone like him, and we applaud him for his honesty on that subject.
The one thing that has perpetually disturbed us though, about Sen. Nelson's conduct over the years has been his apparent blindness to both history and basic math, in regards to the wealthy paying more in taxes.
When he was state insurance commissioner for Nebraska, Nelson supported several actions that protected the wealthy at the expense of the working class. Recently, that record came up again when Nelson expressed support for legislation which would protect insurance brokers from having to pay their fair share of the Affordable Care Act, aka the health insurance reform law.
Nelson's defense of the rich at the expense of the rest of us doesn't stop there.
When President Obama made brutally clear last week a point we've made for years - that fiscal responsibility for our government will require BOTH budget cuts AND tax increases - Senator Nelson stepped forward again to protect those of his constituents who are on the upper end of the income scale.
We do not have an issue with anyone being wealthy. We have more than a few friends who are better than comfortable, and to be honest, none of us is exactly starving. Most Americans also aspire to be wealthy someday, even if most will never achieve that goal.
The problem with Sen. Nelson that we see, as his 2012 re-election race approaches rapidly is not the good things that he's done in the past, or even his growing support by such far-right wing backers as the Koch Brothers.
It's his continual standing up for the wealthy, at the expense of everyone else, and in the face of basic math. As President Obama pointed out last week, even if America made insane amounts of cuts, we are simply not bringing in enough revenue as a nation. We are not collecting what we say we do - and some politicians keep attempting to collect more money by taking it from those who have the least.
Mr. Nelson, and his staff can most certainly do simple math. His actions in the Senate have proven that more than once. If he does not do the budget calculations, however, there are many things he may not be able to count on over the next year and a half.
The winning number of votes in Nebraska, in both primary and general elections, for example, might not be so easy to come by this time around.
In general, as a Senator - and before that, as a Governor - our opinion of Mr. Nelson has been generally positive. He has often made decisions that make sense for those he represents, even if those decisions haven't been fully understood or investigated by the media and the general public.
For those persons who think we're merely partisan, and that we like Ol' Ben just because he's a Democrat, we remind you that Sen. Nelson was once a Nebraska Republican, the kind who have lately been run out of the party. If you think the Salt Creek Tiger Beetle is endangered, you should try being a moderate in the present-day GOP. Nelson has said - more than once - he wouldn't change back to being a Republican because they have become too inflexible for someone like him, and we applaud him for his honesty on that subject.
The one thing that has perpetually disturbed us though, about Sen. Nelson's conduct over the years has been his apparent blindness to both history and basic math, in regards to the wealthy paying more in taxes.
When he was state insurance commissioner for Nebraska, Nelson supported several actions that protected the wealthy at the expense of the working class. Recently, that record came up again when Nelson expressed support for legislation which would protect insurance brokers from having to pay their fair share of the Affordable Care Act, aka the health insurance reform law.
Nelson's defense of the rich at the expense of the rest of us doesn't stop there.
When President Obama made brutally clear last week a point we've made for years - that fiscal responsibility for our government will require BOTH budget cuts AND tax increases - Senator Nelson stepped forward again to protect those of his constituents who are on the upper end of the income scale.
We do not have an issue with anyone being wealthy. We have more than a few friends who are better than comfortable, and to be honest, none of us is exactly starving. Most Americans also aspire to be wealthy someday, even if most will never achieve that goal.
The problem with Sen. Nelson that we see, as his 2012 re-election race approaches rapidly is not the good things that he's done in the past, or even his growing support by such far-right wing backers as the Koch Brothers.
It's his continual standing up for the wealthy, at the expense of everyone else, and in the face of basic math. As President Obama pointed out last week, even if America made insane amounts of cuts, we are simply not bringing in enough revenue as a nation. We are not collecting what we say we do - and some politicians keep attempting to collect more money by taking it from those who have the least.
Mr. Nelson, and his staff can most certainly do simple math. His actions in the Senate have proven that more than once. If he does not do the budget calculations, however, there are many things he may not be able to count on over the next year and a half.
The winning number of votes in Nebraska, in both primary and general elections, for example, might not be so easy to come by this time around.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Friday Funday: Watch Out For Me In The Spring
In case you had any doubts, Mother Nature has quite solidly reminded our staff in Nebraska and DC that springtime is fickle, and not always so warm and gentle (It's nearly always warm in our Florida location, so they don't really have "spring" anyway).
While it was a bit nippy in our DC location, at least we had plenty of beautiful sunshine yesterday, and we're supposed to have more today.
In our Lincoln quarters, we've been receiving some welcome rain and not-so-welcome wind in Southeast Nebraska. At least we're not out in "Cattle Country", in western and central Nebraska. They've got blizzard conditions in some parts of Nebraska today - which somehow seems terribly wrong and yet perfectly normal, as a fellow Lincoln wordsmith might have said.
In case you haven't heard, that wordsmith, former Lincoln Journal-Star columnist and longtime Nebraska Wesleyan English professor Leon Satterfield, passed away this week. He was 77, and died of complications from Alzheimers, a fate we wish on no one.
We knew Leon Satterfield in various ways - including through his daughter Amy, whom both Paul and Shawn have worked with before. Paul and his wife initially met Amy Satterfield in 1982, as part of a UNL/Wesleyan/UNK summer program in Guadalajara, Mexico. Amy was sick as a dog near the beginning of the adventure, and ended up at the American hospital, suffering from a burst appendix. That was the end of Amy's Mexico trip. The rest of the group went on to Guadalajara for the next six weeks while poor Amy Satterfield recovered from her surgery and then returned to Lincoln. As Paul recalls, the trip sponsors had a devil of a time contacting her dad, Leon, and her mom, who both spent summers in Colorado in a family cabin way the hell out in the boondocks.
Leon Satterfield had a truly unique way of "drawing clarity from confusion," as he used to say at the end of his columns.
We hope that as the weather rages - or, if you're in sunny West Palm Beach, doesn't - this spring, you think about gathering your own clarity from the confusion of your busy life.
Go to the Red-White Game on Saturday, if you get a chance. If the weather holds, grab a P.O. Pears Burger at the East Campus UNL Dairy Store. Find your favorite local record shop and celebrate National Record Store Day, whether it's in downtown or north Lincoln, one of the many down in Dupont Circle, or at a spin shop west of I-95 near the coast.
The world is moving so fast these days, every moment we spend laughing, enjoying cartoons, and enjoying life, helps every person to get through the confusion this modern world seems to create.
If nothing else, curl up in your favorite spot, and grab a book - Mr. Satterfield would recommend 'Huckleberry Finn' we believe - and get away from wherever you are for a while.
Wherever you are, remember - it's a warm, gentle, spring-like day somewhere right now.
Probably in West Palm Beach.
While it was a bit nippy in our DC location, at least we had plenty of beautiful sunshine yesterday, and we're supposed to have more today.
In our Lincoln quarters, we've been receiving some welcome rain and not-so-welcome wind in Southeast Nebraska. At least we're not out in "Cattle Country", in western and central Nebraska. They've got blizzard conditions in some parts of Nebraska today - which somehow seems terribly wrong and yet perfectly normal, as a fellow Lincoln wordsmith might have said.
In case you haven't heard, that wordsmith, former Lincoln Journal-Star columnist and longtime Nebraska Wesleyan English professor Leon Satterfield, passed away this week. He was 77, and died of complications from Alzheimers, a fate we wish on no one.
We knew Leon Satterfield in various ways - including through his daughter Amy, whom both Paul and Shawn have worked with before. Paul and his wife initially met Amy Satterfield in 1982, as part of a UNL/Wesleyan/UNK summer program in Guadalajara, Mexico. Amy was sick as a dog near the beginning of the adventure, and ended up at the American hospital, suffering from a burst appendix. That was the end of Amy's Mexico trip. The rest of the group went on to Guadalajara for the next six weeks while poor Amy Satterfield recovered from her surgery and then returned to Lincoln. As Paul recalls, the trip sponsors had a devil of a time contacting her dad, Leon, and her mom, who both spent summers in Colorado in a family cabin way the hell out in the boondocks.
Leon Satterfield had a truly unique way of "drawing clarity from confusion," as he used to say at the end of his columns.
We hope that as the weather rages - or, if you're in sunny West Palm Beach, doesn't - this spring, you think about gathering your own clarity from the confusion of your busy life.
Go to the Red-White Game on Saturday, if you get a chance. If the weather holds, grab a P.O. Pears Burger at the East Campus UNL Dairy Store. Find your favorite local record shop and celebrate National Record Store Day, whether it's in downtown or north Lincoln, one of the many down in Dupont Circle, or at a spin shop west of I-95 near the coast.
The world is moving so fast these days, every moment we spend laughing, enjoying cartoons, and enjoying life, helps every person to get through the confusion this modern world seems to create.
If nothing else, curl up in your favorite spot, and grab a book - Mr. Satterfield would recommend 'Huckleberry Finn' we believe - and get away from wherever you are for a while.
Wherever you are, remember - it's a warm, gentle, spring-like day somewhere right now.
Probably in West Palm Beach.
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