The Empire’s editorial headline on Sunday, Dec. 2, is biased to the very conservative end of the US political/economic spectrum. The code phrase “Death Tax” confirms the bias that runs throughout the editorial.
Cutting government spending is not “…the only way to hit the brakes.” Many government employees will be out of work and no longer able to buy things. Local businesses that depend on government spending and contracting will have to lay off their employees, slash their operating expenses, and terminate projects. Many will close their doors.
We need a more reasoned analysis (without context, the colored charts and isolated numbers don’t help). The Empire needs an editorial that discusses the other part of avoiding the “FISCAL CLIFF.”
Warren Buffett — with Bill Gates, routinely named by Forbes magazine as the two richest men in the US — said that a “fair” tax rate would not require that his personal secretary pay a larger portion of his or her personal income in taxes than he, Warren Buffett, pays.
Buffett’s “fairness” — according to the Empire — would reduce billionaires to being “penniless.”
Mitt Romney’s tax returns show us that a handful of the top income earners in the US now pay a lower tax rate on taxable income than the people who work for a salary. Since the early 1950s, these top earners have been so successful at moving wealth out of the pockets of working people, and into their own accounts, that they have now accumulated about two trillion dollars (a 2 followed by 12 zeros) in disposable cash and assets.
So. The other side of the “FISCAL CLIFF” problem is that the Captains of US industry are hoarding their wealth. They cite the “uncertainty” in the marketplace as the reason why they refuse to invest in business expansion, and the creation of new business opportunities. In other words they have become afraid to take risks.
The Empire’s next editorial on the “FISCAL CLIFF” needs to talk about Obama’s proposed return of tax rates on the top end hoarders of wealth to what their rates were in 2000. In 2000, the federal budget was in balance, and the US economy enjoyed, essentially, full employment.
This is the other side of the FISCAL CLIFF discussion, and the Empire needs to talk about it in their editorial column.
• Smetzer was director of a multi-funded regional economic development program in the Interior of Alaska during the 1970s. Now retired, he lives in Juneau.
Comments (49)
Add commentThanks, well said, Jerry.
Thanks, well said, Jerry. The whole "editorial" read like a rant from one of the right wing websites. The facing page graphic showing how much taxes might go up was amatureish and confusing to say the least.
One paragraph stood out for me in the rant:
"The mainstream media’s drumbeat in their fiscal cliff coverage is for Republicans to cave in to tax hikes. They’re demonized and pestered about it seemingly from every reporter on the planet. So why aren’t these same reporters asking Democrats about changes to America’s bloated entitlement programs – Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?"
I must be nave been naive, I thought it was the empire's job to be "the voice of the capital city" and aspire to be part of the evil mainstream media. If morris wants to keep the empire open for another 100 weeks much less 100 years they should give serious thought to what their content is, editorial page or otherwise. With the media under constant scrutiny for bias one way or the other, publishing crazy rants will do nothing to convince readers that morris intends to run a serious business in Juneau.
There is NOTHING stopping
There is NOTHING stopping Gates, or Buffet from writing a check to the nanny-state in what ever amount is needed to rid them of their guilt.
And NOTHING in what the Lord of the Moochers has demanded will make Buffet pay more in taxes than his secretary.
I believe that many of the " Captains of US industry" are hoarding their wealth due to the fact that the Moochers have made them out to be the enemy, & their reaction is natural.
And so long as those that love, & will defend Liberty hold the majority on the PEOPLES house, the Lord of the Moochers can not force us to spend, hire, or expand.
Atlas is beginning to shrug.
Still waiting...
...for Empire Editor John Moses to explain his justification for titling it an 'Empire Editorial' when the identical editorial was run in every Morris newspaper across the country. It was a 'Morris Corporation Editorial' - trying to brand it as a local editorial was nothing but deceptive.
How about it, John? Your credibility is resting on this.
And nice letter, Jerry. Well put.
Question,
How come everytime the Dems want tax increases, and the consevatives want cuts in spending, it comes across as Wimpy, of Popeye fame, and the reality is " I would gladly pay you Tuesday, for a hamburger today" HHhhmmmmmm??
Tax code
Through all the arguments presented about tax reform we never hear of those specific deductions that truly are bought and paid for by those who are getting to use that item. The legislation that allows things that only very few benefit from did not get into the tax code by themselves.
After near 30 years of being a tax preparer I can testify to the uniqueness of many special provisions. Yes occasionally one of my clients has been able to use one of those deductions or allowances. However the typical taxpayer never qualifies for so many specialized tax provisions that they have no idea that they even exist.
Do you believe for one minute the chauffeur driven limo for Donald Trump is paid for with after tax dollars? Sure just like the cost of a haircut for a politician is an expense to keep up their image in public.
Hand Outs to the 1%
Mitt Romney, is a poster child for the American financial industry that gets more government assistance than any other group.
The sector would not exist in its current form if not for egregiously charitable tax policies (capital gains, cough) crafted specifically for its benefit. The industry has been the beneficiary of constant and massive bailouts.
The American financial sector—and a narrow segment of it, consisting primarily of the largest firms—is the single biggest recipient of American government largess, and are in fact so dependent on it that the sector as currently formulated would not even exist if it were not for that largess.
They achieve this preferential treatment via the heavy use of lobbying, massive campaign donations to both parties and to other politically-minded groups, and the hiring of ex-politicians who are then paid to rattle on in public about how students getting Pell Grants and the children of unemployed Americans getting a token amount of assistance during a recession in order to keep eating is dooming America through rampant parasitism.
And how the only good fix for it all is to end that nonsense and hand over Social Security, Medicare, and all of our tax money to the financial sector so that they can give the rest of us not jobs, but the mere satisfaction of knowing that some unadulterated, gambling-addicted, fabulously wealthy shi*head, somewhere, is achieving "prosperity" on our behalf and on our dime.
Good job Lattitude 58
There is a small window for Editor John Moses to explain how and why a Juneau Editorial really was nothing more than Morris Corporation Propaganda.
Suffice to say the credibility of the Empire is non-existant at this point. Mr. Moses also lost his credibility by printing it. Now, we get to see if he has the personal integrity and courage to admit the sham.
Fun while it lasted,
Well HB, we are gonna miss your rants here, reading your liberal points and refering to them was entertaining! Now that you won't be here any longer with YOUR brand of propaganda I guess we will only hear the other side? Then again you probably won't be reading this? So long, you are going to keep your word? Right?
@Humanbeing
Since you appear to be in need of reading material, might I suggest:
http://www.critiquejournal.net/
Based on your past posts you may find the material quite pleasing.
AHhh Gee,
New sherriff huh? Ya come across like Barney Fife, hope they take your ONE bullet away. Can't remember what you posted? Might I suggest you READ it?
Snicker!
Wow, it's just to easy to get some people all spun up. You guys leave poor ol humanbeen alone now,, He's about to have another of those "fits"
"Smetzer was director of a
"Smetzer was director of a multi-funded regional economic development program".
Any bets that Mr. Smetzer was gainfully employed by some government entity and now "enjoys" his retirement at the feet of the taxpayers?
So what if the Empire prints a conservative editorial. Where is it written that only progressive editorials are allowed?
And allow me, Mr. Smetzer, to clear up some of the untruths (or we can call them lies or liberal rhetoric) in your letter.
Regarding Buffett's lies about his secretary paying a higher tax rate than he. Mr. Buffett derives his income, at this point, from dividends - not a salary. Therefore, his dividends are taxed at 15%. It's been rumored that his secretary is paid handsomely (in the 6 figures) and in fact, may be receiving stock options. So I guess that would make her part of the "1%". Who knows, who really cares. It would be nice if Warren Buffett would shut up and just go away with his lies. By the way, did you know that he presently owes around a billion dollars in back taxes?
As you mourn the pending dismissals of government workers because of projected spending cuts, you do realize that America operates under a capitalist system where the private sector should drive the economy more than government largess, don't you? At certain times in our history, a man could put in a good day's work at his own business or as an employee at another man's business and at the end of the day feel as though he had produced a product or a service that other citizens in the community valued. He then gave the government a small portion of his wages and kept the rest to do with as he pleased. He didn't expect to labor all day at the government's pleasure.
Now onto Mitt Romney. You must realize that he also derives his income, at present, from dividends. They're taxed at 15%, per the U.S. tax code. However, another interesting piece of the puzzle with Romney might be called double taxation. You see, he owned Bain Capital. That company's profits were subject to a corporate tax rate of almost 40% (the highest in the world, incidentally). So in effect, Romney's dividend income is being taxed twice. We hear all the time about "fairness" from the Democrats but that doesn't seem very fair.
The vilification of prosperous, energetic, highly successful businessmen by the Democrat party in America is nothing but poisonous. I'll leave it up to you, Mr. Smetzer, to look up the charts and graphs that lay out tax receipts to the government from these individuals. It has been talked about ad nauseum but facts are funny things to a mind that's more interested in progressing an agenda. That would be the class warfare agenda of the Democrat party. It's a very sad thing that one group of Americans is held in such contempt by a political party, no less. And this contempt from a group that professes to care so much for the human race.
And you continue with this - "the Captains of US industry are hoarding their wealth. They cite the “uncertainty” in the marketplace as the reason why they refuse to invest in business expansion." I'll surmise that you know exactly where your next monthly retirement check is coming from (the government?) and there's no "uncertainity in (your) marketplace". With the current state of our economy, any business or individual would be foolish not to be saving for a rainy day. That's lesson number one in prudence.
I can only laugh at your big wind-up finale in the next to last paragraph. Longing for the days under Bill Clinton! I thought the Democrats were all about progress. That's more like regress. You'd be better off thanking Newt Gingrich and his Republican Congress for taking the reins and keeping Bill Clinton under control - atleast on some fronts!!!
Obama isn't Clinton and his record is dismal - one in seven Americans on food stamps, Medicaid and Medicare spending out of control, 8.3% unemployment, home foreclosures right and left, printing presses running day and night with over $6T added to the debt in 4 years, corruption and lack of transparency around every corner and on and on.
But we'll continue to hear the class warfare drumbeat from the left, devoid of any facts because when everything is driven by division and emotion, it's all they have. It's the Alinsky way...
Funny
Sounds to me like the Liberal Left would like a flat tax so that every one pays the same percent. This is the same thing that the conservatives have wanted for years. If you try to say the rich should pay the same as the middle and poor as far as a percent goes. Otherwise the rich as you call them pay a lower percent on some of their money but a much larger percent on other investments. I am all for a flat tax on EVERYONE. Compare a middle class person making 50K and they pay average of about 20%, so 10K, take Mitt Romney who made 20 million and paid 15% on it, yes its lower but jeez he paid 3 Million to the government and the middle class guy only a meager 10K, who paid their fare share I wonder. I think 3 Mil will go a long way and its fair!!
Editorial IS opinion
Editorials ARE opinion pieces. Whether you agree with them or not, there is nothing wrong with people (even editors) expressing their own opinions or exercising their First Amendment rights.
(I don't agree with the piece, but I'm not going to attack the editor just because he doesn't think like me...)
I might feel differently.......
......if one of the tried and true ways people like Mr. Romney built their wealth wasn't buying companies, artificially bankrupting them so they can clean out the retirement funds of the employees who worked for those companies for 20-30 years, walking off with millions to build yet another mansion with a car elevator, while some 60-year old blue-collar worker is now left with ZERO retirement.
This practice should be criminal. I can't even wrap my head around how someone could look themselves in the mirror after doing this to another human being.
But it happens often in the world of big finance.
What a rag...
Printing an editorial out of Parent Co. Georgia and doctoring it up with local references to make it appear as generated as an Empire editorial and not making reference to the fact that it was an editorial that appeared in such and such newspaper, is plain and simple, flat-out, Shoddy Journalism. Not to mention the fact that the premise of the editorial is complete bs - IMHO...
@swimmer - what a nasty,
@swimmer - what a nasty, condescending view you have of certain fellow Americans. Sad...
You have your "special" definition of venture capitalism, probably garnered from Rachel Maddow or Chrissy Matthews, and that's all you need to further the vilification of whomever holds an opposing political viewpoint. Your views further convince the rest of us that Democrat voters are "low information" voters.
Have you ever watched the tv show Shark Tank? It's an elementary lesson in venture capitalism. The people with money take a risk on an inventor's idea. It's a give and take proposition with both parties reaching an agreement.
Can you even name one company that "evil" Bain Capital saved and today is a profitable company employing hundreds or thousands of people? And by the way, the current upper management at Bain are huge Democrat donors.
Venture capital involves high risk investing with big failure rates.
And while you spew the hatred of "cleaning out retirement accounts" what responsibility does the owner of the company bear? Two parties were involved in making the decision to have a venture capitalist come in and work his magic, hopefully. Only the ones with money willing to take big risks come out looking like a skunk, in your eyes, if the company eventually fails. Right?
That's the beauty and/or curse of a free market. There are winners and losers. We've all seen how artifically propped up companies are smoke and mirrors - Solyndra, Abound Solar, Vestas, etc.
How about Obama's involvement in the Delphi workers' pension funds when he acted like a venture capitalist and rushed in with boatloads of taxpayer cash to save GM? Did you see where a New York judge may reverse the whole auto bailout decision and send the company into backrupcy, which is what should have happened in the first place?
Give it a rest with the car elevator too. Tiresome and petty. Is it okay that Jay Leno has car elevators?
calypso - as opposed to?
....your "special" definition of anyone who happens to have a government job (policemen, firemen, road crews......) or someone who is poor?
Are you really saying that someone who worked 25 years at "Widget.co", a private company, making $40k a year, and paid into a pension plan every month during that time, isn't entitled to it?
And anyone with money is clearly better, smarter, more deserving than that person, no matter how they got that money?
What kind of a person ARE you?
face it swimmergirl
Some people are just inclined to lick boots. It satisfies them on some basic level. Frenchie is one of those people.
No point trying to reason with them.
Company owners/boards just as bad
....it's more obvious in a hostile takeover or a buyout, when firms purposefully load the company with fake debt in order to bankrupt it and liquidate the 'assets' (i.e. grandpa's retirement). But companies are just as bad.
From: Ellen Schultz - "Retirement Heist"
"It's no secret that hundreds of companies have been slashing pensions and health coverage earned by millions of retirees. Employers blame an aging workforce, stock market losses, and spiraling costs- what they call "a perfect storm" of external forces that has forced them to take drastic measures.
But this so-called retirement crisis is no accident. Ellen E. Schultz, award-winning investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, reveals how large companies and the retirement industry-benefits consultants, insurance companies, and banks-have all played a huge and hidden role in the death spiral of American pensions and benefits.
A little over a decade ago, most companies had more than enough set aside to pay the benefits earned by two generations of workers, no matter how long they lived. But by exploiting loopholes, ambiguous regulations, and new accounting rules, companies essentially turned their pension plans into piggy banks, tax shelters, and profit centers.
Drawing on original analysis of company data, government filings, internal corporate documents, and confidential memos, Schultz uncovers decades of widespread deception during which employers have exaggerated their retiree burdens while lobbying for government handouts, secretly cutting pensions, tricking employees, and misleading shareholders. She reveals how companies:
•Siphon billions of dollars from their pension plans to finance downsizings and sell the assets in merger deals
•Overstate the burden of rank-and-file retiree obligations to justify benefits cuts while simultaneously using the savings to inflate executive pay and pensions
•Hide their growing executive pension liabilities, which at some companies now exceed the liabilities for the regular pension plans
•Purchase billions of dollars of life insurance on workers and use the policies as informal executive pension funds. When the insured workers and retirees die, the company collects tax-free death benefits
•Preemptively sue retirees after cutting retiree health benefits and use other legal strategies to erode their legal protections.
Though the focus is on large companies-which drive the legislative agenda-the same games are being played at smaller companies, non-profits, public pensions plans and retirement systems overseas. Nor is this a partisan issue: employees of all political persuasions and income levels-from managers to miners, pro- football players to pilots-have been slammed."
Calypso - I'm all for people making money - if you have a good idea, go for it. I hope you make millions. But I don't believe that making money should be the ONLY consideration - and that any and all abuses are OK as long as more money is made. I do have a problem when greed takes over to such an extent that businesses will do ANYTHING, including screwing the people who do the 9-5 work to make them successful, for the next dollar.
swimmergirl,
I absolutely LOVE ladies who are smarter than me and who can articulate... I suspect you are both! ;-)
wolfmagic.....
.....blush and curtsy, you are too kind.
Calyspo wrote:
"Obama isn't Clinton and his record is dismal - one in seven Americans on food stamps, Medicaid and Medicare spending out of control, 8.3% unemployment, home foreclosures right and left, printing presses running day and night with over $6T added to the debt in 4 years, corruption and lack of transparency around every corner and on and on."
On food stamps: War and Wall Street cost the taxpayers dearly...not entitlements. People lost their jobs then the banks stole their homes. Not Obama's doing...done before he took office.
On Unemployment: Financial meltdown due to deregulation most of which took place in the prior administration. Not Obama's doing...done before he took office
Big News... the home foreclosure nightmare began before Obama took office
The prior administration lied to the American people about WMD's and forced us into a BS war. THAT WAR cost the people of the United States more then pensions for grandma. Then we just walked away and allowed China to waltz off with most of the oil allotments. In fact...most of middle eastern oil goes to Europe and China. So tell me why the American taxpayer should pay for the defense of Europe, South Korea, Japan and Israel when they are capable of paying for their own defense.
The very dismal record belongs to the prior administration. No reasonable human being could expect a president to "fix" the mess in just 4 years
Morris Communications
is of course going to spread the political viewpoint(s) of its owner(s), shareholders, etc. throughout the communities in which it owns news outlets---And one would assume the editors in those communities are of like enough mind to have been hired in the first place and will themselves express similar opinions on specific issues in their respective towns/cities, as John Moses frequently has.
We needn't be surprised, and it's good of Mr. Smetzer to reply, and good enough of the J.E. to publish that reply and hold it up for debate---And while I'm on the subject of free speech here's a toast to barnardj1, madison89, latitude58, alaskabobc, humanbeing, AH HA, islander, swimmergirl, wolfmagic, MamaT, J.E. Fume and all the rest of you---Even you, Calypso. (me, lifting my coffee cup to all on this frosty morning in December...): "Huzzah!"
And who cares if they're about to start charging for the privilege, to stay afloat enough to keep providing the service (which is itself a statement---either of necessity, or further editorializing based on usage and prevalence of opinion)? Everyone here can surely afford it, if we care to.
The forum retains something of value, regardless of its "conservative" bias, and "newspapers" have basically been this way since our country's inception and before (though I heartily agree with swimmergirl's points in this area)...
Should our government of the people continue to be an outlet, clearing house, and standard of the people who pay money for it? Or an actual government of the people, whether they can pay or not; which incidentally provides the aforementioned with a labor-force, capital (which, like it or not, is based on labor, as even ol' Abe once admitted), and cannon-fodder; not to mention being in keeping with majority rule, self-determination, and all those other good things expressed in our founding documents? Or a little of both? (which is what we've so far hashed out, with a decided emphasis toward the former...)
The comfortable would clearly like those less fortunate to start coughing up more of their meager slice of the American pie---The vaunted "47%" that ol' Mitt really DOESN'T have to worry about anymore---To finance the whole show, (which is what the flat tax talk is really all about), while at the same time divesting themselves of things like public education, and various safety nets, not to mention municipal, state, and federal retirement funds, that keep this large, and largely silent, segment of the population in business, so to speak.
What would the poorest of us like? I wonder...Many of these latter folks can't afford computers let alone "service providers", aren't well educated, are living on the street, and are already refugees of cut-backs in social programs that have been going on for over thirty years. They don't go to meetings (and we have only to look around to see what they get for missing meetings...), though, as has been pointed out ad nauseam, our system has done what it can to make sure many of the more functional still have "access" to the latest media technology (i-phones and such)---I suppose so that they can continue to be told in a thousand ways that they're "moochers" and "useful idiots."
It's very interesting to me that the "fiscal cliff" (talk about an over-used metaphor!) is even there---It shows our system is still sputtering along, unlike the sorry show in our health-care debate, and in blatant defiance of those at the wheel, who have repeatedly driven it into the ditch, over and over again.
Is it any wonder there are so many casualties?
Jamison Paul
Calypso just copied and
Calypso just copied and pasted something he found on some right-wing fringe website. That pretty much all he ever does. Then, he goes back to his dumpster.
Is calyspo on the Koch payroll?
If he's not he's workin cheap!
Hey jamison - thanks for the
Hey jamison - thanks for the "special" shout-out! Please...
We're all just victims, right? Now go curl up in the corner and wait for Dear Leader to lead us all out of the quagmire.
What happened to that good ole American attitude of "Yes, we can"? Ooops, that was co-opted in '08 by the "woe is me crowd" and now the circle is complete.
God help America...
mama t - you're hopelessly lost in the wilderness of leftist rhetoric and talking points...
Progressives never fail to
Progressives never fail to live up their mantra of attack the messenger.
When facts can't back-up the agenda, what's left?
Progressives never fail to
Progressives never fail to live up their mantra of attack the messenger.
When facts can't back-up the agenda, what's left?
Calypso needs to make up her mind
If she doesn't like a source, she dismisses it and endlessly "attack[s] the messenger" and considers any "facts" presented as beneath both contempt and contemplation. If, on the other hand, she likes a source, she demands that everything from it be considered, and witheringly criticizes the very same behavior she displays when she dismisses others.
More cognitive dissonance.