Curry County Democrats: In Perspective

December 3, 2011

Your Republican friends have almost certainty seen a quote from Abraham Lincoln that reads:

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

This quote has recently experienced a revival in popularity as a criticism of the #Occupy movement. It has been widely distributed through viral emails, and has been posted on numerous right-wing web sites and even on FaceBook.

August 11, 2011
COST - Ernst & Young

It seems that one of the characteristics of conservatism is a belief in things that are not true and disbelief of things that are true. One of the clearest examples of this phenomena is the conservative meme that Oregon is bad for business and that high taxes on Oregon businesses is stifling economic growth and driving business from the state.

As we pointed out earlier, this just isn't true. In fact Oregon has one of most business friendly tax structures in the nation as documented yet again by a new report prepared by Ernst & Young LLP in conjunction with the Council On State Taxation (COST) titled "Total state and local business taxes, State-by-state estimates for fiscal year 2010 July 2011." This report ranks states by total business tax as a percentage of private sector gross state product (GSP). It turns out that Oregon has the fifth lowest total business tax in the nation.

Oregon technology marketing executive and democratic activist Jon Perr in another excellent post on his Perrspectives blog turns the debt ceiling hostage crisis into a teachable moment about Republican perfidy and hypocrisy when it comes to taxes, deficit spending, and the national debt.

. If nothing else, the debt ceiling crisis provided what Barack Obama is so fond of calling a "teachable moment." Hopefully, that extends to the President himself. After seeing his nominees blocked, his legislation filibustered and popular upper-income tax increases delayed by Republicans who withheld their support from his watered down stimulus and health care programs, President Obama nevertheless continued to seek common ground with those whose only goal remains his political destruction. The result was as painful as it was predictable.

In January 2010 Oregon voters approved Measures 66 and 67 which increased taxes on corporations and high-earning individuals. Anti-tax forces insisted these tax increases it would damage Oregon's economy which was already struggling under the effects of the Great Recession. Invoking a common argument against state tax increases, opponents of Measures 66 and 67 claimed is that the new tax rates would drive business and individuals in the Portland metropolitan area over the border to Washington where there is no income tax.

It didn't happen.

How Republican "Voodoo Economics" Cost $9.2 Trillion and Ballooned the National Debt

Economist Dr. Steve Stoft presents a concise explanation of the origin of the national debt and points out that it's the Republicans, not Democrats, who are responsible most of our current debt. In fact, between the beginning of the Carter administration in 1977 and the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008 the national debt ballooned during Republican administrations and decreased during Democratic administrations.

Dr. Stoff puts the blame where it belongs -- on Republican Supply Side economics.

Conservative Republicans believe -- and are happy to tell everyone -- that Oregon has a hostile business climate, and Oregon's tax structure discourages business investment. As we've pointed out previously, this happens to not be true.

Debunking the Republican Myth that Cutting Taxes Increases Government Tax Revenue

Since the arrival of Supply Side Economics during Reagan administration, a constantly repeated Republican theme used to justify tax cuts for the wealthy is the counter intuitive idea that tax cuts result in increased government tax revenue. The theory holds that tax cuts pay for themselves by stimulating economic growth so that people and bushiness end up paying more taxes on more income and profits. Republicans believe the resulting increased tax revenue more than makes up for the decreased tax rate.

It would be nice if this were true. Unfortunately, it isn't.

Oregon Tax Facts: Good for the Wealthy and Corporations, Not So Much for the Rest of Us

It's not that hard to solve the U.S. budget problem. No, really it isn't. You can do it yourself here. Or you (actually Congress) can solve the problem by simply doing nothing. That's right, absolutely nothing!

No matter how you slice it, when it comes to income and wealth in America the rich get most of the pie and the rest get the leftovers. The numbers are shocking. Today the top 1 percent of Americans control 43 percent of the financial wealth (see the pie chart below) while the bottom 80 percent control only 7 percent of the wealth. Incredibly, the wealthiest 400 Americans have the same combined wealth as the poorest half of Americans -- over 150 million people.

The Republicans have succeeded in framing the budget issue around budget cuts that impact the poorest and weakest in our society while leaving the tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy untouched.

The New York Times provides an easy on-line tool that lets you make the decisions about how to balance the federal budget. You will find that it's easier than you think to balance the budget without resorting to massive tax increases of draconian cuts in entitlement programs.

Today, you’re in charge of the nation’s finances. Some of your options have more short-term savings and some have more long-term savings. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done. Make your own plan, then share it online.

On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The law represents a major effort by the federal government to jump start our economy and create and save jobs.

Along with funding to help states maintain critical health and education programs and billions for tax cuts for the middle class, the ARRA will fund thousands of projects nationwide that will improve our critical infrastructure and put Americans back to work. As of April 2010, Curry County has been awarded approximately $16 million in ARRA funding.

Another Inconvenient Truth: The U.S. Economy Always Does Significantly Better Under Democrats

U.S. Economy Deos Better Under Democrats

Republicans have always extolled the virtue of fiscal conservatism as if it were an indisputable law of nature. But in this case, a different law applies. That's Steven Colbert's famous law of political reality: "Reality Has a Well Known Liberal Bias." It turns our that for at least the last 60 years the economy has always done significantly better under Democrats. This has been a well known fact for many years, but it has received almost no recognition in the mainstream media, in spite of the media's alleged liberal bias.

Ezra Klein takes up the subject in his September 8, 2010, column in the Washington Post titled "Why elections matter, in one graph."

The Brookings Tea Part web site is full of lies and distortions acquired from various right wing publications and web sites. One particularly egregious lie comes from an article copied from the web site of Americans for Tax Reform, an organization run by the famous anti tax crusader Grover Norquist. It states that Democrats want to raise taxes on everyone: "Look for tax increase that will impact you." There is even a nice list showing how much taxes will go up.

Two multi billionaire brothers, David H. and Charles Koch, are major funders of the Tea Party and other right wing causes to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Jane Mayer gives us the details in an extensive investigative report published in the August 30 issue of the New Yorker magazine.

Report Prepared by a Group of Oregon Business People Punctures the Myth that Oregon is Bad for Business

As reported in the Oregonian, a group of six Oregon businesspeople took a look at the Republican meme that Oregon is unfriendly to bushiness. They published their findings in a report titled "Is the Grass Really Greener in Other States?"