Tag Archives: CNN

Cory Booker

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Image representing Cory Booker as depicted in ...

Image via CrunchBase

Largely overlooked yesterday was the good news that Cory Booker was elected to the US Senate from New Jersey. I have been impressed with him for some time now. He tried to live on stamps for one week to see the effects. I wish all the members of Congress were required to try to do that before they vote on a reduction of food stamp benefits. Moments ago on CNN, Senator-elect Booker quoted an old saying as to how he intended to conduct himself in the Senate, “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

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Message from Todd Rokita

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Rep. Todd Rokita

Rep. Todd Rokita (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Message from Todd Rokita, Congressman from Indiana‘s fourth district. He believes that we will not default even if the debt ceiling is not raised. It is thinking like this on the part of the TEA Party GOP that is causing the present disaster in Washington, DC.

“As you probably know, the United States is rapidly approaching its borrowing limit.  There has been a lot of talk in the media that the sky is falling and the United States will default unless we raise the debt ceiling, borrow billions more from China and others, and leave the tab for our children and grandchildren.

“This is not true.  According to estimates from the Department of Treasury, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Bipartisan Policy Center, the truth is that the federal government makes somewhere in the neighborhood of $18 and $20 billion dollars in interest payments to our creditors every month.    The federal government takes in around $200 billion in revenue every month.   Given this cash flow, the United States will not default on its creditors.   What we cannot afford to do is continue to spend money we do not have.

“The credit rating agency Moody’s—one of the agencies that rates the creditworthiness of the United States and other governments—said recently that, “We believe the government would continue to pay interest and principal on its debt  even if the debt limit is not raised, leaving its creditworthiness intact.” 

“Failing to raise the debt ceiling would lead to sudden spending cuts and economic disruption.  I am opposed to balancing our budget in such a sudden and thoughtless way.  But continuing to pile debt on to the $17 trillion we already owe is dangerous and will lead to the same potential for economic upheaval as we have seen in nations like Greece.”

If the US follows Greece’s lead, it will because Todd Rokita’s brand of politics gets us there.

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Winning in November

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Ohio

Ohio (Photo credit: DBduo Photography)

CNN is now discussing what Barack must do to win in November. Get more votes obviously. Not so obviously, the votes must be counted honestly. I believe that a dishonest count in Ohio stole our last close election in 2004. How to prevent that from happening again in another close election? I’m not sure, but I hope and pray that the Obama campaign will do everything possible to prevent a stolen election for Mitt. All the laws against voter fraud are in aid of preventing legitimate voters from voting. Nothing in these GOP-sponsored laws to prevent cheating after the ballots are cast.

 

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GPS and Fareed Zakaria

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Fareed Zakaria, Editor, Newsweek International...

Fareed Zakaria, Editor, Newsweek International was a featured speaker at Charles Schwab Institutional Impact 2007 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I usually agree for the most part with Fareed Zakaria whose show GPS is broadcast each Sunday morning at 8am and 11am, Mountain daylight savings time on CNN. However, this morning July 15, 2012, I disagree most strongly with his assertion that the US has the second highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. That is a nominal rate. The effective rate is one of the very lowest, exceeding only that of Iceland as the lowest rate.

He indicated that corporate taxes  now provides only 8% of total Federal revenue. That is down from the 10% I had seen in past articles. If the Federal government gets only 8% of its revenue from corporations, that means that people like you and me provide the other 92%. Please think about that. In the 1950s and 1960s, corporate taxes supplied 35% of federal revenue and individuals 65%. I think that the share of Federal revenue supplied by corporate taxes are moving in the wrong direction.

If corporations are people, why aren’t they paying taxes like real people?

Mum’s the word

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Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney (Photo credit: Dave Delay)

I watched Mitt today on CNN for ten minutes denying involvement in Bain affairs after February, 1999, and attacking President Obama for questioning Mitt’s word. In my opinion, he added nothing new to our knowledge. In the opinion of some journalists who may have watched all five interviews, Mitt did not put the Bain questions to rest. He also is still refusing to release his tax returns before 2010. Mum’s the word, Mitt. He’s keeping a stiff upper lip, lower one too.

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