[Vision2020] The 1% in Congress
Paul Rumelhart
godshatter at yahoo.com
Sun Nov 13 14:36:24 PST 2011
It's indiscriminate class warfare. Targeting people based solely on
how much money they have is not any different than targeting someone
based on any other random criteria. So, instead of targeting randomly
wealthy people, target those who worked to pass those laws. Target the
laws themselves.
It's the difference between saying "I hate you because you are rich" and
"I hate you specifically because you made a deal with a congressman to
get a special tax benefit that no others have so you could unfairly
increase your profits on the backs of all tax payers". One requires
actually thinking about the problem and doing some research in an effort
to fix it. The other is just lashing out because someone is doing well
while they are not.
Target the greedy, not the well-to-do. They overlap a lot, but not
completely.
I'd love for the Occupy Idaho folks to scour the State tax code looking
for unfair tax benefits and expose them. Much more beneficial than just
making a statement.
Paul
On 11/13/2011 02:00 PM, Sunil Ramalingam wrote:
> Paul,
>
> You say, 'Condemn the laws that encourage it, such as the ability of
> shareholders to sue if a company is making a decision that affects
> short-term profits in favor of long-term growth or the various tax
> dodges written into the tax code to benefit specific companies over
> their competition (making for a non-free trade market).'
>
> Do you think those laws are somehow disconnected from the institutions
> that pass and sign them? Did they just spring up, somehow disconnected
> from their beneficiaries and sponsors?
>
> Of course there's a direct connection between a ruling class this
> wealthy, and legislation that benefits others in their group, and in
> whose pockets they so comfortably dwell.
>
> How come that's not class warfare? How come it's only class warfare
> when someone says, 'Those guys are screwing us?'
>
> Sunil
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 09:09:18 -0800
> From: godshatter at yahoo.com
> To: rforce2003 at yahoo.com
> CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] The 1% in Congress
>
>
> This kind of thing is a good illustration of what concerns me about
> this whole 1% / 99% metric. Here is a list of people who are in
> Congress who have a lot of money. So what? There is no indication as
> to how these people got their money. No condemnation of certain
> Congressmen because they passed legislation that directly helped their
> bottom line. No effort to separate the wheat from the chaff. How
> many of these people came into their wealth and decided they wanted to
> do something good with it but also understand the idea behind the
> phrase "free milk and a cow"? The only thing we can say is that they
> are doing well.
>
> it looks vaguely like a target list, frankly. What ever happened to
> the good old American Dream(tm)?
>
> What we should be focused on is unmitigated greed. It exists in all
> levels of society, not just in the most wealthy. Condemn the laws
> that encourage it, such as the ability of shareholders to sue if a
> company is making a decision that affects short-term profits in favor
> of long-term growth or the various tax dodges written into the tax
> code to benefit specific companies over their competition (making for
> a non-free trade market). There are plenty other examples of outright
> greed that we could be focusing on. Instead, we are focusing on net
> wealth as some kind of metric of Good vs. Evil. Sure, the wealthy
> could be doing more to help the poor, but so could each one of us.
>
> While we're on the subject of the seven deadly sins, why not take a
> close look at "envy" while we're at it?
>
> Paul
>
> On 11/11/2011 04:34 PM, Ron Force wrote:
>
> *Table 2: All members of Congress with average net worth above $9
> million, from 2009*
> Name Minimum Wealth Maximum Wealth Average Chamber
> Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) $156,050,022 $451,100,000
> $303,575,011 House
> John Kerry (D-Mass.) $182,755,534 $294,869,059 $238,812,296
> Senate
> Mark Warner (D-Va.) $65,692,210 $283,077,995 $174,385,102 Senate
> Jared Polis (D-Colo.) $36,694,140 $285,123,996 $160,909,068 House
> Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) $89,358,027 $231,245,995 $160,302,011 Senate
> Vernon Buchanan (R-Fla.) -$69,434,661 $366,180,982
> $148,373,160 House
> Michael McCaul (R-Texas) $73,685,086 $201,537,000
> $137,611,043 House
> James E. Risch (R-Idaho) $38,936,114 $179,131,990
> $109,034,052 Senate
> Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) $61,446,018 $136,218,002
> $98,832,010 Senate
> Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) $64,210,256 $125,529,976
> $94,870,116 Senate
> Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) $46,055,250 $108,109,018
> $77,082,134 Senate
> Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) $49,083,204 $104,690,018
> $76,886,611 Senate
> Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) -$7,356,915 $124,229,990 $58,436,537
> House
> Gary Miller (R-Calif.) $19,365,053 $84,302,000 $51,833,526 House
> Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) $9,778,047 $91,656,998 $50,717,522 Senate
> Diane Lynn Black (R-Tenn.) $14,673,049 $84,145,990
> $49,409,519 House
> Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) $19,898,179 $67,697,000
> $43,797,589 House
> Rick Berg (R-N.D.) $19,347,579 $58,981,451 $39,164,515 House
> Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.) $14,900,036 $63,125,000 $39,012,518 House
> Kenny Marchant (R-Texas) $13,303,385 $63,106,351 $38,204,868
> House
> Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) $6,598,014 $56,244,997 $31,421,505 House
> Scott Rigell (R-Va.) $11,618,078 $48,200,000 $29,909,039 House
> Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) $12,556,055 $44,669,000
> $28,612,527 Senate
> James B. Renacci (R-Ohio) $17,571,131 $39,297,044 $28,434,087
> House
> Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) $11,522,909 $44,209,871 $27,866,390
> Senate
> Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) $7,045,017 $41,899,994
> $24,472,505 House
> Tom Petri (R-Wis.) $5,111,026 $43,765,999 $24,438,512 House
> John Campbell (R-Calif.) $9,227,063 $37,282,000 $23,254,531 House
> Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) $8,368,014 $37,945,000 $23,156,507 House
> Richard L Hanna (R-N.Y.) $10,960,117 $33,276,000 $22,118,058
> House
> Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) $15,681,206 $27,543,006 $21,612,106
> Senate
> Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) $10,359,086 $31,381,997
> $20,870,541 House
> John Hoeven (R-N.D.) -$12,829,960 $52,851,999 $20,011,019 Senate
> Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) $7,102,036 $32,756,000 $19,929,018 Senate
> Kay R. Hagan (D-N.C.) $3,549,596 $33,149,981 $18,349,788 Senate
> F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) $14,990,621 $20,923,567
> $17,957,094 House
> Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) $1,056,768 $34,566,596 $17,811,682 Senate
> Michael F Bennet (D-Colo.) $6,217,020 $27,780,000 $16,998,510
> Senate
> Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) $10,447,125 $23,082,001 $16,764,563 Senate
> Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.) $9,542,219 $23,259,000 $16,400,609 House
> Fred Upton (R-Mich.) $7,010,173 $25,651,000 $16,330,586 House
> Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) $5,429,018 $26,697,997 $16,063,507
> House
> John McCain (R-Ariz.) $9,769,247 $22,072,994 $15,921,120 Senate
> Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) $7,790,095 $20,949,999 $14,370,047 House
> Cynthia Marie Lummis (R-Wyo.) $4,939,028 $23,591,999
> $14,265,513 House
> Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) $6,393,295 $20,874,000 $13,633,647 Senate
> Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) $6,593,088 $20,654,033 $13,623,560 House
> Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) $4,561,077 $20,503,000 $12,532,038 House
> Tom Price (R-Ga.) $7,653,606 $17,121,588 $12,387,597 House
> Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) $8,010,107 $16,623,001 $12,316,554 Senate
> Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) $4,100,005 $20,250,000 $12,175,002 House
> Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) $6,126,070 $18,078,998 $12,102,534
> House
> Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) $6,407,085 $17,427,999 $11,917,542 Senate
> Rob Portman (R-Ohio) $5,544,075 $17,468,999 $11,506,537 Senate
> David Dreier (R-Calif.) $5,264,092 $17,715,000 $11,489,546 House
> David B. McKinley (R-W.Va.) $5,216,060 $14,316,000 $9,766,030
> House
> John A. Yarmuth (D-Ky.) $2,850,009 $16,349,999 $9,600,004 House
> John Fleming (R-La.) $2,153,834 $16,797,770 $9,475,802 House
> Jon Runyan (R-N.J.) $5,000,034 $13,674,999 $9,337,516 House
>
> Source: Center for Responsive Politics
> <http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/index.php>
>
>
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