Today, in the United States, it's Tax Day 2012, the last day that Americans can legally submit their completed income tax returns - or, if you're like Mitt Romney, the last day to get an extension until nearly the end of the Presidential campaign, which he may very well extend again past the end of the campaign.
There are a great many Americans thinking about important topics like taxes and tax fairness today - though we highly doubt you'll be hearing much honest discussion on these subjects in much of the mainstream media. Today, some of the media is still dwelling on the 'Mommy Wars', the fake hypocritical outrage we briefly noted yesterday. Many of the others are falsely claiming the Presidential horse race is closer than you might think - which is stupid, considering Pres. Obama leads Mr. Romney 52-43 in the latest CNN poll, Reuters has Obama up 47-43, Obama leads Romney by at least 16 points among women (25 points in the latest WaPo/ABC poll)... and it's only Tax Day, in April.
Don't expect Senate Republicans to be caring much about taxes either, today.
In fact, if you were expecting the Republicans in the U.S. Senate to care about subjects they've given lip service to for years - like fair tax rates, America's debt & deficit, or the federal government's need to collect more of the income it already claims to collect (but doesn't actually collect, for a host of reasons)? We're sorry to say the Republicans in the U.S. Senate - as expected - let you down again Monday night.
Yes, on Monday night, the GOP minority in the United States Senate did the only thing they've proven they're regularly capable of, as they once again filibustered legislation, this time the Buffett Rule, the proposed law designed to bring about tax fairness.
There has been some discussion in the media recently that a tax policy like the Buffett Rule may at best have made a measurable dent in the budget and deficit , and at worst, might have simply made Americans feel their tax system is less unfair. Whether either of those were accurate or not, Senate Republicans didn't want their colleagues to actually vote on the Buffett Rule - so we'll likely never know what the real effects of such a law might have been.
Thankfully, Ezra Klein at the Washington Post, and the group Citizens For Tax Justice, proved they do actually care about taxes, as CTJ once again pulled out their annual 'Who Pays Taxes in America' column, and Ezra simplified it for everyone.
In short, based on Gallup's annual survey on attitudes about taxes, the majority of Americans actually think the level of income taxes they pay are fair. Those Americans who feel their tax burden is the least fair, are those Americans that congressional Republicans want to make pay more in taxes, poor Americans.
Of course, right-wingers often claim that the poorest half of Americans don't pay taxes - which is complete baloney. Thankfully, CTJ and Ezra gathered and simplified those numbers too.
In fact, if you take into account the total tax burden of all Americans, they're surprisingly close - and the wealthy are paying more than anyone else, overall - but not by much. Not surprisingly, the largest burden is being carried by those in the middle and upper-middle classes.
That's exactly the kind of problem the Buffett Rule aimed at fixing - and exactly the legislative action congressional Republicans didn't want to give the Senate a real chance to vote on.
What taxes us most at times like this, are that the things Americans really seem to care about most boil down to having a fair chance to improve their lives, and the lives of their friends, family, and loved ones, today.
The things the Republican politicians seem to really care about boil down to how much of a drag the rest of American society is on their personal financial success.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Unexpected Events
This past weekend was filled with both expected and unexpected events, from coast to coast. As scheduled, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony happened in Cleveland, and as expected, legendary troublemaker Axl Rose did not show up, even though his band was inducted into the Hall.
In the NBA, NHL, and MLB, there were more than a few surprises over the weekend, too. Of course, the biggest sports surprise may have happened Saturday, when storms roared through Nebraska, and cancelled the Husker Football Spring Game for the first time in its 62 year history. Even though the University of Nebraska lost nearly four hundred thousand dollars due to the cancellation, Athletic Director Tom Osborne tried to feed the fans - for free - who had already showed up on Saturday. It may not have seemed like much, but it was not a surprise to us that Osborne tried to take care of the Husker faithful.
Another much less positive event, that was also not a surprise to us, happened late Friday in Nebraska, when Republican Governor Dave Heineman - a man who claims to be pro-life when it's convenient - vetoed LB599, a bill from the Nebraska Legislature to give pre-natal care to poor women in need.
We've spoken about this bill a great deal lately, in part because we've been so happily surprised at how clearly the fight over this bill is exposing the blatant hypocrisy within the Republican Party.
In Heineman's veto letter, the Governor argued that if LB599 passes, Planned Parenthood might potentially get taxpayer dollars to help poor women with pre-natal services. Planned Parenthood often offers those services at its clinics around the country. However, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland confirmed to the Omaha World Herald that it does NOT offer those services at either of its Nebraska clinics - which exposes Heineman's hypocrisy completely.
The reaction from one of Nebraska's most historically powerful opponents of Planned Parenthood - Nebraska Right to Life - was explosive, as they blasted the Governor for his stance on this bill.
For once, we completely agree with Nebraska Right to Life on Heineman's actions on the Prenatal Care bill - something that you, our readers, may also find unexpected. We don't think you should really be surprised, though. Heineman's past legislative history is not that of someone who is truly concerned about the life of pregnant women, or even someone honestly concerned about immigration.
If Heineman were truly concerned about immigration, he would have brought forward bills during the last decade to crack down - with severe penalties - on agribusiness corporations that hire undocumented immigrants and pay them under the table. He could have done that, or any number of other things to try and work with the Federal government to solve Nebraska's undocumented immigrant problem. Instead, Heineman has done nothing significant regarding immigration since he got into the Governor's office in 2005.
Simply put, Heineman has always done little more than give lip-service to those groups - like Nebraska Right to Life - that he claims to be so closely aligned to. To him and those who think like him - like state Sen. Tony Fulton, or GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney - political advocacy groups are merely political pawns, to be played in a game whose only goal is to win, not to govern.
Unsurprisingly, Romney himself got caught in yet another example of his own hypocrisy over the weekend, as video footage of Mr. Romney from January of this year, contradicted what he and his campaign have been crowing about since the end of last week.
In that January video, Romney said that mothers should be required to work outside their homes, so they can "have the dignity of work" - as though women who work at home don't have dignity. That footage proves Romney and the Republican Party's latest fake indignation about the "Mommy Wars" is just like Gov. Heineman's claims of being pro-life or against illegal immigration -- just another desperate political pander, that they don't truly believe in.
As we've said previously, this kind of hypocrisy is something we've come to expect from the modern, twisted version of the GOP. If you're honestly surprised about Heineman's or Romney's actions, you haven't really been paying attention.
It's long past time that you do.
In the NBA, NHL, and MLB, there were more than a few surprises over the weekend, too. Of course, the biggest sports surprise may have happened Saturday, when storms roared through Nebraska, and cancelled the Husker Football Spring Game for the first time in its 62 year history. Even though the University of Nebraska lost nearly four hundred thousand dollars due to the cancellation, Athletic Director Tom Osborne tried to feed the fans - for free - who had already showed up on Saturday. It may not have seemed like much, but it was not a surprise to us that Osborne tried to take care of the Husker faithful.
Another much less positive event, that was also not a surprise to us, happened late Friday in Nebraska, when Republican Governor Dave Heineman - a man who claims to be pro-life when it's convenient - vetoed LB599, a bill from the Nebraska Legislature to give pre-natal care to poor women in need.
We've spoken about this bill a great deal lately, in part because we've been so happily surprised at how clearly the fight over this bill is exposing the blatant hypocrisy within the Republican Party.
In Heineman's veto letter, the Governor argued that if LB599 passes, Planned Parenthood might potentially get taxpayer dollars to help poor women with pre-natal services. Planned Parenthood often offers those services at its clinics around the country. However, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland confirmed to the Omaha World Herald that it does NOT offer those services at either of its Nebraska clinics - which exposes Heineman's hypocrisy completely.
The reaction from one of Nebraska's most historically powerful opponents of Planned Parenthood - Nebraska Right to Life - was explosive, as they blasted the Governor for his stance on this bill.
For once, we completely agree with Nebraska Right to Life on Heineman's actions on the Prenatal Care bill - something that you, our readers, may also find unexpected. We don't think you should really be surprised, though. Heineman's past legislative history is not that of someone who is truly concerned about the life of pregnant women, or even someone honestly concerned about immigration.
If Heineman were truly concerned about immigration, he would have brought forward bills during the last decade to crack down - with severe penalties - on agribusiness corporations that hire undocumented immigrants and pay them under the table. He could have done that, or any number of other things to try and work with the Federal government to solve Nebraska's undocumented immigrant problem. Instead, Heineman has done nothing significant regarding immigration since he got into the Governor's office in 2005.
Simply put, Heineman has always done little more than give lip-service to those groups - like Nebraska Right to Life - that he claims to be so closely aligned to. To him and those who think like him - like state Sen. Tony Fulton, or GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney - political advocacy groups are merely political pawns, to be played in a game whose only goal is to win, not to govern.
Unsurprisingly, Romney himself got caught in yet another example of his own hypocrisy over the weekend, as video footage of Mr. Romney from January of this year, contradicted what he and his campaign have been crowing about since the end of last week.
In that January video, Romney said that mothers should be required to work outside their homes, so they can "have the dignity of work" - as though women who work at home don't have dignity. That footage proves Romney and the Republican Party's latest fake indignation about the "Mommy Wars" is just like Gov. Heineman's claims of being pro-life or against illegal immigration -- just another desperate political pander, that they don't truly believe in.
As we've said previously, this kind of hypocrisy is something we've come to expect from the modern, twisted version of the GOP. If you're honestly surprised about Heineman's or Romney's actions, you haven't really been paying attention.
It's long past time that you do.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Friday Funday: True Nature
Since this past winter was significantly warmer than normal, you may have been seeing signs of a very early spring where you are for quite some time now.
Regardless of what the temperatures have been - and how the trees, flowers, grass, and animals have been acting - the 2012 version of spring has many of the more traditional signs of the season popping up, including the annual Husker Spring Football Game.
It's a true rite of spring we've often had mixed feelings about over the years. Surprisingly, some folks involved in politics seem to think Nebraskans are having similarly mixed feelings about former Senator Bob Kerrey.
We really don't know where these people are coming from.
Bob Kerrey was not only born in Nebraska - in Lincoln, the capitol city - but he went to elementary, junior high, and high school in Lincoln, and graduated from the University of Nebraska, in Lincoln. Kerrey then chose to serve his country in the Navy SEALs, and served in Vietnam, at a time when so many others were finding any way they could to avoid serving.
Mr. Kerrey lost part of one leg serving his country - and when he was done with his service, he came back to Nebraska, where he became a successful businessman, then Nebraska's governor, and finally one of Nebraska's two U.S. Senators.
While Kerrey has spent some time working in other places over the past few years - mostly because far-away places were the ones to offer him challenging jobs that weren't in lobbying firms in Washington, DC - he's always kept property in Nebraska, and has come back to visit his family as often as he could.
All these Nebraska ties, to any real Nebraskan, certainly prove Kerrey's true nature as a fellow Nebraskan. Yet, according to people like the draft-dodging Karl Rove and his big-money, out-of-state SuperPAC, Kerrey is supposed to be a "carpetbagger" - someone who is, by definition, "a political candidate who seeks election in an area where they have no local connections."
For those of us who are REAL Nebraskans - regardless of how we feel about Kerrey's past political performances - we have to laugh at the hypocrisy of Rove and other out-of-state Republicans calling Kerrey "someone who has no local connections."
In a similar way to how the weather and the calendar have been giving contradictory signals, and to how Rove's minions have been calling Mr. Kerrey names, we have a similar feeling about the Husker Spring game.
Every year, no matter where we are at the time, when we see the pictures, and we read, hear, and watch the stories from the Nebraska media on how Husker spring football is going, we have to tell the little people inside of us to calm down, chill out, and not get too excited. We know exactly what's going to happen - because it's the same thing that's happened for many years now.
The young Huskers will play this weekend, Red squad against White - and then college football for Husker fans will be done until autumn.
Even when some in the media begin talk about potential spring scrimmages against other teams in their conference or division, everyone honestly knows, in their heart of hearts, that the real football season won't happen until fall.
Just as the truth of spring is both the calendar and the temperature, and the true nature of Bob Kerrey is a Nebraskan, the true season for college football is fall.
Even so, we sure will enjoy ourselves this weekend, as we watch the 2012 Spring Football Game.
Enjoy your weekend, whatever you're doing.
Regardless of what the temperatures have been - and how the trees, flowers, grass, and animals have been acting - the 2012 version of spring has many of the more traditional signs of the season popping up, including the annual Husker Spring Football Game.
It's a true rite of spring we've often had mixed feelings about over the years. Surprisingly, some folks involved in politics seem to think Nebraskans are having similarly mixed feelings about former Senator Bob Kerrey.
We really don't know where these people are coming from.
Bob Kerrey was not only born in Nebraska - in Lincoln, the capitol city - but he went to elementary, junior high, and high school in Lincoln, and graduated from the University of Nebraska, in Lincoln. Kerrey then chose to serve his country in the Navy SEALs, and served in Vietnam, at a time when so many others were finding any way they could to avoid serving.
Mr. Kerrey lost part of one leg serving his country - and when he was done with his service, he came back to Nebraska, where he became a successful businessman, then Nebraska's governor, and finally one of Nebraska's two U.S. Senators.
While Kerrey has spent some time working in other places over the past few years - mostly because far-away places were the ones to offer him challenging jobs that weren't in lobbying firms in Washington, DC - he's always kept property in Nebraska, and has come back to visit his family as often as he could.
All these Nebraska ties, to any real Nebraskan, certainly prove Kerrey's true nature as a fellow Nebraskan. Yet, according to people like the draft-dodging Karl Rove and his big-money, out-of-state SuperPAC, Kerrey is supposed to be a "carpetbagger" - someone who is, by definition, "a political candidate who seeks election in an area where they have no local connections."
For those of us who are REAL Nebraskans - regardless of how we feel about Kerrey's past political performances - we have to laugh at the hypocrisy of Rove and other out-of-state Republicans calling Kerrey "someone who has no local connections."
In a similar way to how the weather and the calendar have been giving contradictory signals, and to how Rove's minions have been calling Mr. Kerrey names, we have a similar feeling about the Husker Spring game.
Every year, no matter where we are at the time, when we see the pictures, and we read, hear, and watch the stories from the Nebraska media on how Husker spring football is going, we have to tell the little people inside of us to calm down, chill out, and not get too excited. We know exactly what's going to happen - because it's the same thing that's happened for many years now.
The young Huskers will play this weekend, Red squad against White - and then college football for Husker fans will be done until autumn.
Even when some in the media begin talk about potential spring scrimmages against other teams in their conference or division, everyone honestly knows, in their heart of hearts, that the real football season won't happen until fall.
Just as the truth of spring is both the calendar and the temperature, and the true nature of Bob Kerrey is a Nebraskan, the true season for college football is fall.
Even so, we sure will enjoy ourselves this weekend, as we watch the 2012 Spring Football Game.
Enjoy your weekend, whatever you're doing.
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