Please, Senators, May I Have Some More?

By Ed Raymond
Staff Writer

A few years ago Richard Scrushy, billlionaire CEO of Alabama’s Health South was in the news, charged with fraud and a number of other felony violations. After being acquitted, then convicted and jailed, and then convicted again in a civil suit, a juror who voted for acquittal in the first trial was asked why he didn’t vote to convict Scrushy. He said: “Why would a rich man want to steal more?”  I guess he didn’t realize it’s often a terminal disease.

Because it is budget time for practically all governmental units in the United States, the Scrushy case is an interesting one. It reminds me of a line in Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist.” Oliver is living in a state orphanage where he is “indentured’ to work in various businesses. The conditions are terrible, and the young children are cold and starving. After his first day Oliver finishes his porridge in a couple of gulps and goes back to the food line with tin cup in hand to see if he can get more. When he reaches the cook, he asks, “Please, sir, can I have some more?” Everyone is shocked. There is total silence until the orphanage director tells the rest of the children: “Stay away from Oliver. He is going to Hell.”

So far In the budget discussions all of the cuts discussed have involved the poor and the middle class.  The average taxable income of the middle class was $33,400 in 1988 according to Internal Revenue Service records. By 2008 the average went down to $33,000. But during these two decades those with taxable incomes of over $200,000 increased their taxable income about 33 percent. During that time the rich tightly gripped their gold, diamond-encrusted cups in hand, gathered at the Washington Buffet on Capital Hill daily, and pleaded: “Please, Congressmen, can we have some more?” They always left with full cups on their way to streets of gold.

Thank You, New Republican Congressmen, You Got One Right!

It might be the first time–and the last time–that fiscal conservatives, liberal Democrats and independents–-have a chance to thank the new Tea Party Republican representatives for turning the screws on “The Best Congress Money Can Buy” by voting against the extra jet engine for the new F-35 fighter plane, the costliest weapons program in U.S. history.  We probably don’t need 1700 F-35 fighters because the generals are always fighting the last war–-but that’s another column.

For five years, two presidents and Secretary of Defense Bob Gates have been trying to dump the “extra engine” proposal made by members of the military-industrial complex and Congress. They have been defeated by a bribed Congress each time they have tried to dump it. Pratt & Whitney has the engine contract for the fighter and General Electric, one of the biggest bribers in the Washington Buffet, wants part of it. GE has spent $40 million bribing Congress this year. Gates is against it because he doesn’t want to waste $3 billion on the extra engine. GE happens to have a jet engine plant and 1,000 workers in Speaker of the House John Boehner’s Ohio district. Smell that one for awhile.

Jet engines are pretty reliable. We don’t seem to need standby replacements for civilian jets in the sky. The Federal Aviation Administration says we have between 4,000 and 6,000 jet passenger planes in the U.S. sky at any minute.  I have no idea, but I could imagine that around the world there could be a total of 25,000 to 35,000 flying at 40,000 feet.  That could mean as many as 120,000 jet engines, mostly Pratt & Whitney, are performing purrrfectly well in the sky right now.  I have heard of no crashes for at least a week. But of course bribed Congressmen know better. That F-35 needs a back-up! My God! How can we ever get rid of the gold, diamond-encrusted cup the lobbyists are clutching?  Sometimes jet engine proposals have nine lives, so don’t be surprised if this doesn’t show up in a Senate earmark or a House midnight bill again. But in the meantime let’s congratulate the new Republican members in Congress for joining Democrats in finally screwing the military-industrial complex–before the Tea Party members succumb to the feast at the Washington Buffet.

Do We Really Have To Steal From The Mouths Of Babes To Balance Budgets?

This country is flooded with money. Hedge managers making $2 billion a year and paying half the percentage of the taxes their secretaries, limo drivers, gardeners, and massage therapists pay. Health care and health insurance CEOs making hundreds of millions of dollars each year while the indigent wait in hospital emergency rooms for 12 hours for treatment. Investment bankers with six homes around the world fully staffed at all times for their instant convenience.  I could go on and on – but you know this story too.  Most of the rich give a smaller percentage of their assets and income to charity than the middle-class does. The rich–and even some of the superrich–- have the attitude “I’ve got mine now, Jack. Now you try to get yours.”

The state of California currently has a budget deficit estimated at $26 billion. There has been much gnashing of teeth from former Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggergroper and the California Legislature about solving the problem. According to a California economist there is a simple answer.  Raise the income tax on everyone just one percent. What a sacrifice! If a single mother has paid taxes on an income of $10,000 it would cost her another $100, or $8.33 a month. It would hurt, but it’s doable in most situations. Now if an investment banker has paid taxes on an income of $50 million he would pay an additional $500,000.  It certainly would be tough for him to survive on the balance of $49,500,000, but perhaps we could give the rich another tax deduction for taking a finance survival course.

At the federal level, the Tea Party reps who defeated the extra engine for the F-35 restored their reputation for the bizarre immediately after that vote by voting to cut the Women’s and Children’s Nutrition program (WIC) by a billion dollars. The program supplies poor children, pregnant mothers, infants, and young children supplemental nutrition. I wonder what the ten richest Americans think of that cut. They all gained an 8 percent raise this year–and still banked the Bush tax cut. That tax cut for the rich is costing us $80 billion a year. Somebody should ask #1 Bill Gates at $54 billion whether that cut is fair.

The Poverty Rate In this Country Is Now At Its Highest Since 1948. I Wonder What #2 Warren Buffet At $45 Billion Thinks Of That

The Republicans cut $648 million from nuclear proliferation activities the other day. I guess they feel its all right to let every Hussein, Markfarque,  and Muhammad cozy up to a nuclear weapon so they can sell it to Osama. I wonder what #3 Larry Ellison at $27 billion thinks of that. The Republicans also voted to cut $578 million from the Internal Revenue Service, eliminating many investigators.  I wonder what #4 Christy Walton at $24 billion thinks of creating more tax cheats in this country. The Republicans have promised to vote against funding for any aspect of Obamacare, including such cost-saving sections as “death panels” and Medicare fraud programs. I already know what #5 Charles Koch at $21.5 billion thinks of that. He and his brother are the principal financial backers of all Tea Party functions such as Freedom Works, Americans For Prosperity, and numerous anti-environment front groups. They both love oil and particularly enjoy selling it with as little governmental regulation as possible. Tied with his brother at #5 of the most rich is David Koch with $21.5 billion.  David is a follower of Ronald Reagan who believed all welfare queens drove new Cadillacs. The Republicans want to abolish all foreign aid, cut off payments to the United Nations, and reduce drastically the aid to schools. I wonder what #7 Jim Walton at $20.1 billion, #8 Alice Walton at$20 billion, and #9 Robson Walton at $19.7 billion think of that.

Education funding has declined so much around the country there are PTA groups running bake sales, lotteries, and other fund raising activities to pay teachers, electric bills, student field trips, and specialists for art and music classes. Harper’s Magazine summed up our tax situation very well: “Rather than tax Bill Gates enough to stock our school libraries, we tax him at a lower rate than his secretary and hope he finds it in his heart to donate some books. Increasingly, the schools in our wealthiest districts set up foundations funded by parents and local businesses, so that when a student takes up the tuba, the instrument is purchased by the fund; whereas in a poor district to do the same, his parent has to buy it–perhaps by taking out a payday loan.”

Does $1,200 Per Mile Sound About Right?

The Republicans are insisting that any military spending be kept out of the budget even if the Iraq War has cost us $1 trillion so far. Our defense budget has gone up 80 percent since 2000. It costs us $1 million a year to keep one soldier on the ground in Afghanistan. We pay as much as $400 to protect, convoy, and bribe our way in delivering one gallon of fuel to forward operating bases. When I was in the Marine Corps we used the Pershing tank, a 45-tonner with a 90 mm weapon which got two gallons of gas to the mile. In Afghanistan we are using the Abrams M2A1, a 60-tonner with a 120 mm weapon, which burns up three gallons a mile. So it could cost us as much as $1,200 to move it a mile closer to an objective. What insanity! We lost that war back in 2003 when the Northern Alliance “helped” us drive the Taliban into Pakistan. We didn’t have enough sense to declare victory and come home.  By the way, we lost eight Americans in terrorist incidents last year. Heck, we had 29 killed by lightning. How much did we spend on lightning prevention?

The other night I watched the House eliminating funds for environmental regulations, rounding up wild horses in Nevada, space exploration, and cutting off countries that vote against us in the United Nations. But the Republicans supported paying NASCAR several hundred million for plastering military symbols on race cars.  Is $7 million for an Army patch on a Chevy too much?

Although we are in the very bottom group of industrialized countries in the rich-poor gap, life expectancy, prison population, and student performance, these areas of shame were never mentioned. I guess we need more than 100 military bands sponsored by the Defense Department to maintain the morale of soldiers and Marines going back to Iraq and Afghanistan for their sixth tour.

If A Minnesota Billionaire Is Stupid Enough To Move To North or South Dakota For Quality Of Taxes, Then He Is Too Dumb To Recognize Quality Of Life

The efforts to balance the budget in Minnesota with its current biannual $6.2 billion deficit is just getting interesting.  Of course, like California, there’s no money in Minnesota either. The top ten superrich in Minnesota suffered through a bad 2010, only averaging an 8 percent gain on their investments and compensation. Well, that was a little better than the plumbers, electricians, and carpenters I know. Of course millions of campaign dollars from Wall Street bankers and brokers (90 percent to the Republican Party) didn’t seem to hurt their wallets.  Any of the top five superrich in Minnesota could pay off one year’s deficit of $3.1 billion and have hundreds of millions left to enjoy Lake Minnetonka, Edina, and the symphony. There are some familiar names who have wealth well above $1 billion.The MacMillans, the heirs of the Cargill fortunes. Richard Schulze of Best Buy. Glen Taylor of Timberwolves fame. Barbara and Marilyn Carlson of the Carlson Company. Conservative broadcaster Stanley Hubbard who even gave campaign contributions to Rudy Giuliani. And the Pohlad family. Didn’t they get a little help from nurses and janitors?  I wonder what kind of government the rich really want.

Perhaps they should examine a liberal view. Hubert Humphrey’s position was quite clear: “The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”

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