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The real estate industry is full of bad actors who have a habit of finagling handouts from the government. Here's one of many horror stories, albeit in Mexico with Sam Zell: latimes.com/projects/la-me-mexico-housing-chapter-2/ I suppose Zell's REIT like all the others will jump if this thing passes.
It's horrible. The only good news is that it is polling very badly last time I checked as people are onto the shenanigans. That could hurt them in 2018.
Just once in my lifetime I would like to see these scummy creeps do something that is right for the collective good rather than for themselves. Their lack of common decency is pathetic. Have any of them looked through the constitution lately or even ever? Yuck!
It seems that they have already conceded the 2018 elections and are trying to secure their golden parachutes by sucking up to every major donor on the planet. Alas and alack.
And the good news - is that we haven't even seen the pork and penciling in the margins. Can anyone guess the crooked stuff we're going to see?
You would think that someone on the republican side of the aisle would realize how wrong this tax bill is and vote no. I fear not.
The last thing we need is more supply side trickle down economics. I said when the Bush Jr. cuts came through there wasn't enough at the low end where the Marginal Propensity to Consume is 1. High end cuts do not impact aggregate demand as much as low end. And we need more aggregate demand. It doesn't matter that money is almost free and they can write off all cap ex - no one is going to build another plant or add another shift if they are operating under 75% capacity. What we need is some demand side economics - infrastructure package creating jobs - minimum wage increase - payroll tax cut.
As for taxes it's really not that hard. Make 15% the flat rate on all sources of income and have a $25K per person exemption. Ergo, a family of 4 doesn't start paying 15% until the hit $100K. And eliminate ALL deductions. Every steeenking one of them. Make the companies compete in the market place instead of the halls of congress.
I sometimes wince when people of any persuasion say all GOP reps are crooks and bad actors and should be strung up. However, these are friggin unbelievable:
My tax decreases approx 1.5% 2018 yr but who counting... Wonder if Clinton and rich democrats Republicans will benefit from tax cuts especially if make ) 500k annually
Supreme Court Justice (and Boston Brahmin) Oliver Wendell Holmes was known to “enjoy” his taxes. According to Felix Frankfurter’s book Mr. Justice Holmes and the Supreme Court, Justice Holmes told a young law clerk who complained about paying them, “I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.”
...Wonder if Clinton and rich democrats Republicans will benefit from tax cuts especially if make ) 500k annually
@johnN, no need to wonder. Paying of rich benefactors is exactly what the bill is intended for. Benefactors and special interests groups won't keep giving if there is no profit to be made - for either party. It's a payoff, lets be clear.
John, you'll have to be happy with your 1% tax cut and remember, since it is the holiday season you should be happy for those that get their 8%.
Worry more now about what has to be cut to make that 8% happen! By the time people notice what they lost, they don't remember who to blame... and the strong party affiliations will continue.
@Davidmoran - I cringe too when a label is applied to all members of this or that group but when a group shoves a bill which effects us all, hammered out with little to no input from the opposing group(s), down the throats of the American people who vastly oppose it what are we to think, say or do? Can you say "deplorable?"
American voter-drones. Unthinking. Habit-bound. Churchill said something like: "The worst argument for democracy is a 5-minute conversation with the average voter." Ya, I've quoted him before. Yes, the overall general American public IS that stupid.
Churchill also said: "Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Democracies function best with an educated public. You could argue the forces seeking to erode our democracy want a dumb apathetic populace. Worse than the average American voter is the average American non-voter. So few actually vote especially in local elections or mid-term elections. Again there is a concerted effort by certain forces for people to feel apathetic and dispirited about politics and the state of our democracy so that people don't vote. In fact, I read some of those targeted ads on Facebook during 2016 were meant to discourage people from voting.
There's probably a good reason that the current administration has been so involved with Russia and the Ukraine: we needed expertise on conversion of our old liberal democratic political system to the new, improved oligarchical model. Whatever they've learned from Russia and Ukraine certainly seems to have worked. Hail to the Koch Brothers!
As far as the middle class is concerned, the tax bill is the equivalent of the teaser rates one gets from cable companies such as Verizon or Comcast for the first twelve months. And it's no accident that those lower rates are during an election year. It's also like the cable companies that the plan is for the actual government services the middle class currently receives for the taxes they pay --Medicare, Social Security--to be reduced down the road--preferably in a non-election year--to help pay for the lower rates. The subtext to the tax policy creating a $1.5 trillion hole in the deficit is ultimately to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
There's probably a good reason that the current administration has been so involved with Russia and the Ukraine: we needed expertise on conversion of our old liberal democratic political system to the new, improved oligarchical model. Whatever they've learned from Russia and Ukraine certainly seems to have worked. Hail to the Koch Brothers!
And I thought we were plenty oligarchical before ... looks like we're graduating from Little League to the Majors.
@bee- I'm afraid that I don't keep an ongoing reference list of information sources for footnoting purposes, as do some posters here- Lewis Braham and David Moran, for example. However I do absorb a large amount of information from various sources regarding ongoing world developments, and manage to retain a decent mental overview of that information.
It has been well documented, and there is absolutely no doubt, that the most significant amount of money invested in Donald Trump's election was provided by various organizations funded in large part by men such as the Koch brothers. These men and their operatives invested early and heavily to elect someone who was not too bright, was both avaricious and without conscience, and who could be easily controlled.
The current tax bill is nothing more than payoff time for these oligarchs. Andy J is correct: we were "plenty oligarchical" before; but now it's open in-your-face corruption starting at the presidential level and working right on down. We have indeed graduated from Little League to the Majors. And Mr. Trump is sitting there being manipulated exactly like the ignorant fatuous marionette that he is.
The latest example, as if we needed more, is the warning from Mr. Trump that we will be watching how everyone votes in the UN, with particular attention being given to those countries who are given financial support by the US.
Translation: If we help a country financially because of altruistic or tactical reasons, then we own that country, body and soul- and that country had damned well better vote exactly as we tell them to. The Mafia could express the relationship no more clearly- crude and directly to the point.
This is exactly the same relationship as between the oligarchs and the president. The oligarchs are now in complete control of the Ukraine United States. Welcome to the "third world"... you are now a member.
Here's a short excerpt from David's New York Times link:
"The rush to enact the tax bill was designed to mask — as a break for the middle class — what is in fact a $1.4 trillion package of benefits for key donors and lobbyists, the richest members of Congress, President Trump, his family and other families like his.
The speed from introduction to passage — seven weeks, with no substantive hearings — effectively precluded expert examination of the legislation’s regressive core, its special interest provisions and the long-term penalties it imposes on the working poor and middle class through the use of an alternative measure of inflation — the “chained CPI.”"
"The Trump administration has halted an independent scientific study of offshore oil inspections by the federal safety agency created after the 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine was told to cease review of the inspection program conducted by the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Established following the massive BP spill, the bureau was assigned the role of improving offshore safety inspections and federal oversight.
The order marks the second time in four months that the Trump administration has halted a study by the National Academies. In August, the Interior Department suspended a National Academies study of potential health risks for people living near Appalachian surface coal mines.
Part of the Interior Department, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is also tasked with improving offshore drilling environmental protections. It was established in 2011 to separate enforcement of offshore drilling from federal revenue collection and permitting to avoid possible dysfunction and conflicts in enforcement against violations."
You don't suppose that the oligarchy had any input here, right?
Comments
amazing stuff here
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/17/opinion/taxes-inequality-charts.html
latimes.com/projects/la-me-mexico-housing-chapter-2/
I suppose Zell's REIT like all the others will jump if this thing passes.
and there is this likely outcome to boot:
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/12/tax-jobs-overseas/547916/
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/12/the-trump-tax-cuts-just-got-even-more-skewed-to-the-rich.html
It seems that they have already conceded the 2018 elections and are trying to secure their golden parachutes by sucking up to every major donor on the planet. Alas and alack.
And the good news - is that we haven't even seen the pork and penciling in the margins. Can anyone guess the crooked stuff we're going to see?
You would think that someone on the republican side of the aisle would realize how wrong this tax bill is and vote no. I fear not.
The last thing we need is more supply side trickle down economics. I said when the Bush Jr. cuts came through there wasn't enough at the low end where the Marginal Propensity to Consume is 1. High end cuts do not impact aggregate demand as much as low end. And we need more aggregate demand. It doesn't matter that money is almost free and they can write off all cap ex - no one is going to build another plant or add another shift if they are operating under 75% capacity. What we need is some demand side economics - infrastructure package creating jobs - minimum wage increase - payroll tax cut.
As for taxes it's really not that hard. Make 15% the flat rate on all sources of income and have a $25K per person exemption. Ergo, a family of 4 doesn't start paying 15% until the hit $100K. And eliminate ALL deductions. Every steeenking one of them. Make the companies compete in the market place instead of the halls of congress.
And so it goes,
peace,
rono
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/cornyn-pipeline-amendment-enriches-gop-lawmakers-language-inserted-cornyns-former
WSJ:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRbKM05UIAEKiao.jpg:large
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/opinion/republican-tax-bill-unstable.html
John, you'll have to be happy with your 1% tax cut and remember, since it is the holiday season you should be happy for those that get their 8%.
Worry more now about what has to be cut to make that 8% happen! By the time people notice what they lost, they don't remember who to blame... and the strong party affiliations will continue.
Democracies function best with an educated public. You could argue the forces seeking to erode our democracy want a dumb apathetic populace. Worse than the average American voter is the average American non-voter. So few actually vote especially in local elections or mid-term elections. Again there is a concerted effort by certain forces for people to feel apathetic and dispirited about politics and the state of our democracy so that people don't vote. In fact, I read some of those targeted ads on Facebook during 2016 were meant to discourage people from voting.
"The lunatics have taken over the asylum" - George Carlin
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/12/no-the-media-has-not-been-unfair-to-the-gop-tax-bill.html
It has been well documented, and there is absolutely no doubt, that the most significant amount of money invested in Donald Trump's election was provided by various organizations funded in large part by men such as the Koch brothers. These men and their operatives invested early and heavily to elect someone who was not too bright, was both avaricious and without conscience, and who could be easily controlled.
The current tax bill is nothing more than payoff time for these oligarchs. Andy J is correct: we were "plenty oligarchical" before; but now it's open in-your-face corruption starting at the presidential level and working right on down. We have indeed graduated from Little League to the Majors. And Mr. Trump is sitting there being manipulated exactly like the ignorant fatuous marionette that he is.
The latest example, as if we needed more, is the warning from Mr. Trump that we will be watching how everyone votes in the UN, with particular attention being given to those countries who are given financial support by the US.
Translation: If we help a country financially because of altruistic or tactical reasons, then we own that country, body and soul- and that country had damned well better vote exactly as we tell them to. The Mafia could express the relationship no more clearly- crude and directly to the point.
This is exactly the same relationship as between the oligarchs and the president. The oligarchs are now in complete control of the
UkraineUnited States. Welcome to the "third world"... you are now a member.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/opinion/republican-tax-bill-trump-corker.html
Note the chained CPI and expensing consequences, and IBT digging
Sick of 'winners' winning more, and easier?
And of course carried interest abides.
Impossible to be too cynical indeed. And today Corker is really bristling about his kickback.
Yeah, we are the all-pro level of venality now.
"The rush to enact the tax bill was designed to mask — as a break for the middle class — what is in fact a $1.4 trillion package of benefits for key donors and lobbyists, the richest members of Congress, President Trump, his family and other families like his.
The speed from introduction to passage — seven weeks, with no substantive hearings — effectively precluded expert examination of the legislation’s regressive core, its special interest provisions and the long-term penalties it imposes on the working poor and middle class through the use of an alternative measure of inflation — the “chained CPI.”"
(Bold emphasis added.)
"The Trump administration has halted an independent scientific study of offshore oil inspections by the federal safety agency created after the 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine was told to cease review of the inspection program conducted by the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Established following the massive BP spill, the bureau was assigned the role of improving offshore safety inspections and federal oversight.
The order marks the second time in four months that the Trump administration has halted a study by the National Academies. In August, the Interior Department suspended a National Academies study of potential health risks for people living near Appalachian surface coal mines.
Part of the Interior Department, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is also tasked with improving offshore drilling environmental protections. It was established in 2011 to separate enforcement of offshore drilling from federal revenue collection and permitting to avoid possible dysfunction and conflicts in enforcement against violations."
You don't suppose that the oligarchy had any input here, right?