Have You PAID Your Billionaire Today - WH petition to close loopholes used by Needy Billionaires

[westladem]

“Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men” — Founding Father John Adams, 2nd President of the United States

Tax Loopholes are Big Business — over half a TRILLION dollars each year in lost government services goes from the Bottom 90% and to the Top 10% each year. This back door spending — aka Spending in the Tax Code — is the single largest category of federal spending, yet few Americans know this. Even fewer know that these loopholes are heavily weighted towards the Top 10%. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Government Accountability Office and the President’s 2014 budget, over 51% — or $520 billion a year — goes to the Top 10% each year. Once enacted, these tax expenditures never expire and are subject to NO budget limits or Congressional oversight. Since Congress creates them, the only way to stop loopholes is for Congress to repeal them.

This is a staggering amount of money that could be used for the nation’s business. The Founding Fathers strongly believed in the “common good” — funding public infrastructure like schools, roads, bridges and dams that are crucial for an economy to thrive. The American Society of Civil Engineers rates our nation’s infrastructure as D+. If this $520 billion were used to repair our infrastructure, it could create over 6.25 million new jobs, permanent jobs that can't be outsourced.

Needy Billionaires is an educational website that shows Americans the Big Picture about loopholes. It shows specific loopholes as well as Better Choices for our tax dollars that most Americans would prefer. It grounds it all in the Founding Fathers, who would roll over in their graves if they knew that Needy Billionaires like the ones they fought against are threatening our democracy again.

The website gives people the information they need to know to get involved in 2 ways: a) sign a WhiteHouse.gov petition asking the President to step it up and sharply increase using his bully pulpit to educate Americans about these loopholes, and b) call Congress to repeal them.

Here’s what $520 billion could pay for:

a) expand Medicare to another 49 million Americans - yes, we could have single payer TODAY

b) pay for 64% of the annual amount for Social Security

c) make all needed repairs to levees, dams, ports, toxic waste sites, water supply pipes and airports all across the country

BETTER CHOICES FOR OUR TAX DOLLARS

a) $140 billion for the 15% capital gains tax rate OR fix over 80% of our roads so we don’t have sinkholes big enough to swallow up fire engines (only $136 billion)

b) $42 billion for companies to park their profits offshore OR fix half of our bridges so they don’t fall down like in Minneapolis ($38 billion)

c) $49 billion for the Bottom 90% to pay the state and local taxes of the Top 10% OR double student aid

THE FOUNDING FATHERS

Unlike today’s Tea Partiers, raising taxes for education was considered an essential public service and necessary to protect our democracy. These quotes are all from Thomas Jefferson:

“I think by far the most important law in our whole code is for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom, and happiness ... crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils (tyranny, oppression, etc.) and the TAX which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the 1000th part of what will be paid to kings, princes and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.” (emphasis added)

“An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight. It is therefore imperative that the nation see to it that a suitable education be provided for all its citizens”

“I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power”

The Founding Fathers were all too familiar with the devastation wrought by their Needy Billionaires - both the economic damage (high costs for consumers and the loss of American businesses) as well as the destruction of democracy itself. Our forefathers said it best:

The fortunes amassed through corporate organizations are now so large, and vest such power in those that wield them, as to make it a matter of necessity to give to the sovereign - that is, to the Government, which represents the people as a whole - some effective power of supervision over their corporate use. In order to insure a healthy social and industrial life, every big corporation should be held responsible by, and be accountable to, some sovereign strong enough to control its conduct - President Theodore Roosevelt (Republican)

I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom - President Thomas Jefferson

(both quotes from Thom Hartmann's "What Would Jefferson Do?"

So, if you're tired of this massive Welfare for the Wealthy, go check out Needy Billionaires. Get informed about how badly our tax dollars are being squandered. Check out the sources for yourself. Once you've calmed down and the room is no longer spinning wildly around you, sign the petition and call Congress. Then pass it on. Let's go repeal some loopholes! You can Sign the Petition here.

[gopiscrap]

1. Good post thanks

[westladem]

9. Thanx - love your sig line

[gopiscrap]

10. thanks I was thinking of using fuckthegop

but didn't think it would get past the censors!

[westladem]

11. hahahahahahaha! Not into profanity, but - dang, it fits

[gopiscrap]

2. Welcome to DU

[PoliticAverse]

3. Among the apparent proposals on the site: tax employer provided health insurance,

eliminate the mortgage interest deduction, eliminate the ability to deduct state taxes you paid from
your income when computing federal taxes.

[westladem]

4. This ONLY applies to the amounts for the Top 10%

I have no problem with these loopholes for the Bottom 90%. But I DO have a problem as a taxpayer with paying for Romney's 3rd, 4th and 5th houses, or his car elevator. I don't think that taxpayers should be paying state and local taxes for the Top 10%. And I'm all in favor of loopholes for retirement accounts, but only for the Bottom 90%. I think the Top 10% can pay for their own retirement.

[PoliticAverse]

6. You can only deduct the mortgage interest on your primary or secondary home, not 3rd, 4th, etc...

(and it is limited to the interest on $1 million in debt).

You could also just cap the deduction for state and local taxes.

[westladem]

7. According to the CBO, 64% of the mortgage interest deduction goes to the Top 10%, while 54% of the

state and local taxes deduction goes to them as well. These are expenditures that the Top 10% is quite capable of paying for themselves. Taxpayers should NOT be picking up the tab for these.

[westladem]

8. $47 billion is a lot of money to make sure the Top 10% has adequate health care. We could fix

half of the train tracks across the country for only $50 billion, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. Ditto on $38 billion for the mortgage interest deduction - we could clean up 65% of the toxic waste sites that 3/4 of all Americans live within 3 miles of. And the $49 billion to pay the state and local taxes of the Top 10%? I'd much rather that we double student aid, which would only cost $45 billion.

[westladem]

5. All of the amounts listed on the site are loopholes that go directly to the Top 10%

The Congressional Budget Office has broken down who receives these loopholes by income - and it's not pretty. Over half of all loopholes are taken away from services for the Bottom 90% and donated by Congress to the Top 10%.

[dc rox]

12. Thanks.

I'm new to the site and was happy to read your post. I found the site while searching for info on expatriating. It's not something I've ever considered, but when I see the direction of the country and recent Supreme Court decisions I thought I'd like to know more. I like it here, but until the rich are taxed as they should be and the money is taken out of politics we are of the wealthy, by the wealthy and for the wealthy. Thanks again for the post.

[Rhiannon12866]

13. Welcome to DU, dc rox!

I think you'll like it here on DU and we do have members from everywhere, not just the US and Canada. Any questions, just ask. It's great to have you with us...