Obama asks Republicans to make him screw the 99% and protect the 1%, with the "Grand Bargain"

 Obama and Boehner about to finally put it to the 99% and protect 1%



Why does Obama seem to get rolled by republicans even when he is in a strong bargaining position, because he wants to get rolled. He isn't weak he is just doing what he feels will get him what he wants with offense to the fewest number of people.

Obama is not a wild eyed liberal socialist. Obama is a conservative corporatist, to the right of Ronald Reagan. He wants to protect the wealthy and Wall Street, he wants to be the first president to cut medicare and social security. He has increased government spying on citizens, he doesn't want to restrict corporate spying on individuals. He pushed a health care bill that was a wet kiss to the insurance industry, and would not allow even talk of some kind of public option let alone single payer (medicare for all). Obama believes in trickle down economics, when ever he asks for economic stimulus the lions share he proposes is tax cuts.

Obama's main problem is that Americans are progressive and he is conservative. Americans want to tax the rich, Obama doesn't, Americans want to help home owners, Obama wants to help the banks. But Obama has a very strong ally, the Republican party. So Obama is a very talented politician, and he knows that if he talks progressive, but bargains poorly with conservatives he will arrive at the conservative position he desires while being able to to say its not my fault, they made me do it.

This “Grand Bargain” is a perfect example of how Obama works. He has created a false crisis at the end of the year, the “Fiscal Cliff”. There is no crisis, if nothing was done, middle class taxes would go up very slightly and the wealthy would go back to paying the tax rate they paid under Clinton, NO PROBLEM. The new revenue would be a great boon to lowering our national debt and balancing our budget. But Obama wants to keep taxes low on corporations and the wealthy, so he and his allays in the Republican party will create this “Grand Bargain” where Obama will be forced by Republican intransigence to accept a deal where there is a slight rise in the capital gains rate (15% to 18 or 20%) no change in the marginal rates with a few under used loop holes closed, but with cuts to Medicade, Medicare and if he is really lucky Social Security.

The middle class will pay more in taxes and the rich will not. in a year or two the loop holes will be back and the rich will be paying a lower effective tax rate.

But some one has to pay for all these gifts to the wealthy, so middle class get ready to kiss your mortgage deduction good bye.

Republicrats & Obama are getting ready to commit the "Grand Rape" of the Middle Class. Taxes from the 99.9% NOTHING from the .1% !

Paul Krugman: Republicans Seem Ready To Throw Upper Middle Class 'Overboard' 

 

  By Bonnie Kavoussi 

Paul Krugman says that the Republican Party may throw the modestly rich "overboard" to protect the fortunes of multi-millionaires.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Krugman focuses on one tax proposal floated by Congressional Republicans that would essentially create a "tax bubble," disproportionately hurting the upper middle class. (Nate Silver has an explanation and a chart here.) Krugman writes that taking this tack would let the GOP protect the super-rich at the expense of the working rich (using the decades-old language of Oliver Stone's Wall Street) who make six-figure salaries.

"When push comes to shove, the GOP seems ready to throw the bottom 90 percent of the top 1 percent overboard, in order to protect its real patrons, the superelite," Krugman writes.

The Obama administration and Congress are in talks to reach an agreement avoiding the fiscal cliff: a set of tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled to take place at the end of the year if they do not agree on a deficit reduction plan.

Some Congressional Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner, have said they are open to raising tax revenue but remain opposed to raising marginal tax rates. Here's a great explanation of marginal tax rates from economist Dean Baker (h/t Jason Linkins):

The tax system brackets give marginal rates. This means that if the raise bumps you into a higher bracket then you pay more taxes only on the income in the higher bracket. Suppose that the tax bracket for income under $200k is 25 percent, and for income over $200k is 33 percent. If you get a raise that pushes your income from $195,000 to $205,000 then you only pay the higher 33 percent tax rate on the $5,000 that is above the $200k threshold not your whole income. Therefore, there is no (as in none, nada, not any) way that getting more money, and being pushed into a higher tax bracket will leave you with less money after taxes.

One Republican proposal would tax a household's entire income at the highest rate possible, rather than just the portion of income that exceeds a certain limit. Doing so would penalize some people for making more money, as Nate Silver noted.

Republican Congressmen also have proposed raising tax revenue by limiting deductions, which could disproportionately hurt the upper middle class. Some Senate Democrats have said they are open to capping deductions.

At least wal-mart keeps its sweat shop fires off shore so as not to bother US shoppers.

Bangladesh Factory Fire Kills At Least 112 in Wal-Mart Sweatshop

By Diane Sweet

At least 112 employees of a Bangledesh garment factory perished in a blaze late Saturday after becoming trapped inside the building with no fire exits. The factory produced clothing for Wal-Mart, and other U.S. retailers. Were your Black Friday deals worth it?

There was no escape. A fire claimed 112 workers in a garment factory near the capital of Bangladesh late Saturday. A fire official said their last moments were spent in panic as they searched in vain for fire exits leading outside. “I want the factory owner to be hanged,” said one grieving mother who lost her daughter-in-law in the fire and whose son is still missing. “For him, many have died.” Firefighters have recovered 100 bodies from the gutted seven-story factory. Many of Bangladesh’s 4,000 garment shops lack proper fire protections.
The Telegraph:

"The factory had three staircases, and all of them were down through the ground floor," Mahbub said. "So the workers could not come out when the fire engulfed the building."
"Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower," he said.

Many of the victims were burned beyond recognition. The recovered bodies were kept in rows on the premise of a nearby school.

Army soldiers and paramilitary border guards were deployed to help police keep the situation under control as thousands of onlookers and anxious relatives of the factory workers gathered at the scene, Mahbub said. He would not say how many people were still missing.

Bangladesh's garment factories make clothes for brands including Wal-Mart, JC Penney, H&M, Marks & Spencer, Carrefour and Tesco.