"The Federal Budget Crisis Hoax" by Sally Kohn

[hfojvt]

Sally Kohn is the Founder and Chief Education Officer of the Movement Vision Lab, a grassroots popular education organization.

http://movementvision.org/

...

Yet big corporations and their lobbyists have literally been manipulating our government --- both Republicans and Democrats --- to grease the wheels for big business while putting up more and more obstacles for working families, small business owners, homeowners, etc. Yes, working families’ taxes are too high and yes, small business owners struggle under too much bureaucracy. But not big business and the super rich. No, our government is literally designed for their advantage.

And so, at their behest, politicians of both parties --- as well as the media owned by the very same big businesses --- tell us that the government is broke and our debt level is unsustainable and, therefore, we’re going to have to cut things like unemployment benefits and funding for public school teachers. Wall Street doesn’t care. They can afford private schools. But what are you going to do when your child literally doesn’t have a classroom?

...

Those who are trying to convince us that our government is broke and cannot afford to borrow more are, consciously or unwittingly, reinforcing the vastly unequal society that we have become, where the size of the silver spoon in your mouth when you’re born matters infinitely more than how hard you work.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/04/06/federal-budget-crisis-hoax/

yes, the article is at Fox News

[Tippy]

1. Now why would FOX alow anyone to voice this type of opinion....

Inquiring minds want to know....?????

More here on Sally....http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sally-kohn/wisconsin-four-facts-you-_b_826618.html

[SnakeEyes]

2. The question I have is what do we do?

When businesses are taxed the business just passes the tax down to us, either the workers in the form of lower wages/benefits/employees or the customer in the form of higher prices. I also can't see the policing of keeping them from doing so to be something feasible.

[ArcticFox]

4. Higher taxes on business and the rich would lead to more investment, better regulation

If they were paying a higher tax rate, then they'd need to expand revenues in order for their shareholders and executives to take home the same compensation. How do you expand revenues? You invest in more equipment and research to produce more and better stuff more cheaply. You hire more people to produce more stuff. Equipment, research and labor costs are deducted from revenues before taxes and are therefore "tax writeoffs". Unless SHs and executives want to earn substantially less, they need to expand operations.

Taxes have two purposes. The arguably more important one is ignored in all these debates. First, taxes raise revenue. Second, taxes serve policy purposes. Want to get more people owning their homes? Create a home interest deduction. Want to get industry building solar panels? Create a solar panel research and manufacturing deduction. But those deductions have much more impact when you're taxing industry at 50% rather than 10%. With constantly lower tax rates, we've lost our ability to influence business to create a better future.

As to passing on the higher taxes: They can't raise prices forever. Competition is still there, and there is more potential to skim a little from the compensation paid to those at the top than there is for raising prices.

[ArcticFox]

3. Read the Comments on Fox

I just read about ten of them.

Two people trying to talk sense into eight clearly brainwashed people frothing at the mouth to call this woman a communist, and calling for de-funding of everything not specifically required by the Constitution.

Enlightening reading.

Undoubtedly, this was put up there to hand fox followers a sacrificial lamb, or get them riled up.

[taught_me_patience]

5. Her article is complete bullshit

her facts are completely wrong. We are already at 100% debt to GDP and climing at a yearly deficit of over 1.5T/year. Secondly, debt to GDP is a horrible measure of debt load because tax collections are at an all time low.

Noboby is saying the government is broke... we are at a tipping point and the deficit needs to be taken seriously.

[badtoworse]

6. +1 - You are right on the money

[hfojvt]

7. "nobody is saying the government is broke"

not this guy?

http://meridianstar.com/local/x740874323/Rep-Harper-government-is-broke

not this guy? (almost two years ago)

http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-the-us-government-is-broke-2009-5

not this guy? (back in January)

http://www2.starexponent.com/news/2011/jan/30/all-together-now-our-federal-government-broke-ar-808191/

Also, she and Baker never said that we are not at 100%, Baker wrote that projections show that ten years from now, even if we do nothing to cut the budget that in ten years we will be at 90%. Also, the debt to GDP shows the revenue potential. Of course, Republicans would rather cut their noses off than spite their masters by raising taxes on them, but the potential is there, if we choose to do something sane instead of something in some sort of Republican-Chamber of Commerce induced panic.