As has been pointed out numerous times here, including in
Analysis: Dow 30 companies show what a joke calling corporate tax burden 'heavy' has become, the idea that the United States somehow has become buried in taxes compared with other well-off, developed nations is bogus. Travis Waldron
pointed that out again Monday:
President Obama and Senate Democrats have presented deficit reduction plans that would rely on both spending cuts and increased tax revenues, but Republicans continue to insist that the U.S. has only a “spending problem” and that deficit reduction does not require new revenues.
The premise of the argument from Republicans is that Americans already face an extraordinarily heavy tax burden. Citizens for Tax Justice, however, compared levels of taxation in 2010 in the other industrialized countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and found that the U.S. not only collects far less in tax revenues than the average OECD country, but that it also collects less in taxes as a share of its economy than all but two other OECD nations, as the chart at right shows. [...]
The U.S. has historically collected less in taxes and spent less than the majority of its OECD counterparts, in part because it operates such a stingy social safety net that doesn’t assist the least fortunate in society as well as programs in other countries do. Still, the chart shows that the U.S. is far from a high-tax country, and Democratic offers to raise modest amounts of revenues in the budget process would hardly send the nation’s level of taxation through the roof.
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Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—After Saddam: an Arab Congo?
The US war against Saddam may soon be over, but that may only be the start of the Iraq war. There are millions of guns, rockets and mortars, billions of rounds of ammo, scattered across the country. No one knows who controls them or what they have planned. The Shia want control of their destiny, as do the Kurds, and the Sunnis may not be happy to lose power.
Let's say we fully control Baghdad in the next week or so and the rest of the cities in the next month. What Iraqi government official surrenders? Who runs things? Do we just slide from Saddam rule to American rule?
We have set up clear political goals, remove Saddam, establish democracy, but the problem is that we have no power base to work with.
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Tweet of the Day:
I cried all my tears for the Reagan/Thatcher gang when Pinochet died
— @Wolfrum via web
On today's
Kagro in the Morning show, Congress is back, which means a filibuster is coming.
Greg Dworkin on the passage of CT's new gun legislation, the state of play on the federal level, and a new Pew poll. We note the passing of Margaret Thatcher, and pretty much leave it there. The super important issue of Beyonce & Jay-Z's vacation!
Armando on the absurdity of it all. The
NYT's "A Secret Deal on Drones, Sealed in Blood." Comments on Joe Nocera & Dan Baum's gun debate. Important listener mail from business owner and community member
Arliss Bunny.
Note for tomorrow: David Cay Johnston & Meteor Blades on the program!
High Impact Posts. Top Comments. Overnight News Digest.