...till November 4th, a Tuesday, where we all need to go to the polls and excercise our duties as citizens of the United States of America.
I'll be frank with you, and let you know that I am a bit exhausted mentally at the moment. One thing I can think of though, comes from my many talks with people reading this blog. Some have not noticed that there is more content than is on this page, accessible via the archiver over on the right. So I'm gonna list below links (in chronological order of my posting) to all of my previous posts.
A republican voting green in Illinois 18th
Schafer came to MY party
What do we see when we get to the core?
What makes a qualified representative?
A "present" that's not for you
Goliath takes a note from David
A Scientist for Congress
TAXES: Taking from the poor, 'cause the rich choose our Congress
Transparency above and beyond
Voter Information
I have bolded what I believe to be the most important 5 to read, in case you are in a hurry.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Voter Information
The time is drawing close to show up at the polls. I'm hoping at this point you've decided that you're ready to cast your vote to make a real difference. Of course, by that I mean, I hope you've caught the Schafer wave. If you haven't, or you are still unsure, continue researching your candidates. Go to each of their websites and find where they stand on the issues. Google their names and read any press releases or articles. Do the research and commit to being a part of the solution as an informed voter.
All that said, let's look at some voter resources.
Your first resource is the Illinoise Voter Guide which can be accessed here. From the home page, click on the chair icon in the upper right, then click the "Representative in Congress" button, and then the "18th Congress" link. I'd link you straight there, but the website design doesn't allow it.
Next, you may want to be sure you're in the 18th congressional district. I was talking with a man one day while out handing out flyers, and he said he wasn't in the Illinois 18th. When I asked him where he lived, it turned out he lived in the same town as our current representative. In his defense, it's not easy to find out by city what your district is, as most listings are by county and there are several split counties. That being said, here are a few links with information about the Illinois 18th:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=IL&district=18
http://www2.pjstar.com/index.php?/elections/districtmaps/18th_congressional_district/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:IL-18_congressional_district.gif
If you happen to live in a split county, find your town's website and see or call your town's city hall.
And lastly, know where to go to vote come the 4th. This involves knowing what precinct you are in in your town. So again, a call to city hall may be in order.
All that said, let's look at some voter resources.
Your first resource is the Illinoise Voter Guide which can be accessed here. From the home page, click on the chair icon in the upper right, then click the "Representative in Congress" button, and then the "18th Congress" link. I'd link you straight there, but the website design doesn't allow it.
Next, you may want to be sure you're in the 18th congressional district. I was talking with a man one day while out handing out flyers, and he said he wasn't in the Illinois 18th. When I asked him where he lived, it turned out he lived in the same town as our current representative. In his defense, it's not easy to find out by city what your district is, as most listings are by county and there are several split counties. That being said, here are a few links with information about the Illinois 18th:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=IL&district=18
http://www2.pjstar.com/index.php?/elections/districtmaps/18th_congressional_district/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:IL-18_congressional_district.gif
If you happen to live in a split county, find your town's website and see or call your town's city hall.
And lastly, know where to go to vote come the 4th. This involves knowing what precinct you are in in your town. So again, a call to city hall may be in order.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Transparency above and beyond
As you may have garnered from my writings by this time, among other important qualities, there are two "biggies" for me regarding what makes a qualified candidate.
1.) A candidate who works for the PEOPLE and NOT for special interests or members of the "political donor class".
2.) A middle class individual who has walked the walk of the people he'll be representing.
It should come as no surprise, that I believe Sheldon Schafer excels in these two qualities. Furthermore, he has taken a big step to prove it.
As he crossed the threshold of receiving $5,000 worth of campaign contributions, he was required by law to do some filings. Well he took it one step further and decided to publish his PERSONAL tax returns for the last two years openly. He did this because it shows exactly how he puts (and gets) his money where his mouth is. If you review his records posted on his website, you'll see the following things:
1.) A middle class income
2.) Generous to charity
3.) NO income from special interests of any type.
Go to http://www.schaferforcongress.info/bio.html to see his bio, where at the bottom you'll find a link to a PDF of those tax returns.
He has called on his opponents to do the same. Read about it here. Admirably, Colleen Callahan, took the challenge and did the same. So far Schock's camp has chosen not to follow suit, despite being explicitly called upon to do the same by both Schafer and Callahan.
In case you don't go to his tax records, I'd like to point out exactly how generous to charity he really is. I'm no accountant, so I could be missing some gross vs. net whatnot, but it would appear that in 2007, he gave roughly 50% of the total household wage income (it's a joint return with his wife) to charity!!!! ...again, I'm no accountant, and according to the records, he got some income from investment or something beyond his salary, so even if you factor that in, he still gave around 33% of the households GROSS earnings of any type to charity!!! I think this should leave no question about his intentions and proves how much of a passion for the people around him he has. !!!
EDIT: Just verified with a CPA that my numbers above are correct. He emphasized that the 33% figure is the ethical statistic to point out "since adjusted gross income would really be the appropriate denominator". Whatever that means. :)
UPDATE: After Sheldon read this, he felt it an ethical commitment to clarify the reason for the extent of his generosity in 2007:
"Actually, 2007 was an unusual year as far as contributions go. Usually [his wife]Mary Ann and I try to give about 10% to charity but in 2007 Mary Ann's mother died, and Mary Ann gave a large donation to the OSF facility that cared for her mother the last three years in memory of her mother and in recognition of the fine care she received at St. Clare Home."
1.) A candidate who works for the PEOPLE and NOT for special interests or members of the "political donor class".
2.) A middle class individual who has walked the walk of the people he'll be representing.
It should come as no surprise, that I believe Sheldon Schafer excels in these two qualities. Furthermore, he has taken a big step to prove it.
As he crossed the threshold of receiving $5,000 worth of campaign contributions, he was required by law to do some filings. Well he took it one step further and decided to publish his PERSONAL tax returns for the last two years openly. He did this because it shows exactly how he puts (and gets) his money where his mouth is. If you review his records posted on his website, you'll see the following things:
1.) A middle class income
2.) Generous to charity
3.) NO income from special interests of any type.
Go to http://www.schaferforcongress.info/bio.html to see his bio, where at the bottom you'll find a link to a PDF of those tax returns.
He has called on his opponents to do the same. Read about it here. Admirably, Colleen Callahan, took the challenge and did the same. So far Schock's camp has chosen not to follow suit, despite being explicitly called upon to do the same by both Schafer and Callahan.
In case you don't go to his tax records, I'd like to point out exactly how generous to charity he really is. I'm no accountant, so I could be missing some gross vs. net whatnot, but it would appear that in 2007, he gave roughly 50% of the total household wage income (it's a joint return with his wife) to charity!!!! ...again, I'm no accountant, and according to the records, he got some income from investment or something beyond his salary, so even if you factor that in, he still gave around 33% of the households GROSS earnings of any type to charity!!! I think this should leave no question about his intentions and proves how much of a passion for the people around him he has. !!!
EDIT: Just verified with a CPA that my numbers above are correct. He emphasized that the 33% figure is the ethical statistic to point out "since adjusted gross income would really be the appropriate denominator". Whatever that means. :)
UPDATE: After Sheldon read this, he felt it an ethical commitment to clarify the reason for the extent of his generosity in 2007:
"Actually, 2007 was an unusual year as far as contributions go. Usually [his wife]Mary Ann and I try to give about 10% to charity but in 2007 Mary Ann's mother died, and Mary Ann gave a large donation to the OSF facility that cared for her mother the last three years in memory of her mother and in recognition of the fine care she received at St. Clare Home."
Monday, October 6, 2008
TAXES: Taking from the poor, 'cause the rich choose our Congress
This is my continuation on David Cay Johnston's work ...today using "Perfectly Legal" as my primary source. This is David's first of the two, and is a best seller.
A note on my choice of title prior to continuing ...the use of the word "poor" in the phrase "taking from the poor" is not entirely accurate ...yet. In truth, it's the middle class that is getting taken from the most ...and, surprise, surprise, the middle class is shrinking ...with the vast majority being pushed into the lower class, thus making my usage of the word "poor" far more poignantly accurate than I dare imagine.
As I've mentioned before, I'm not anti-rich or anti-capitalism at all ...I think the drive to succeed and achieve financial security for one's self and one's family really do drive people in this country ...but the playing field is being tilted against all but the super rich.
An alarming statistic is that in 2003 dollars, the average income across all classes was $36,573 in 1970 and $40,330 in 1999. [Johnston, 27] That's a 10% jump. Not bad, not bad ...people toiled 30 years to increase their income by 10% ...lest we forget that this is the average of ALL incomes, including the wealthiest 10% of Americans ...let's look at how they faired individually:
...I see a trend there, don't you? Remember my 10% income increase for 30 years above ...well, that included the above. So, clearly, for your average Joe, it was alot less. Fortunately, I have that info separated into the top 1% and the rest of us:
!!! To put it into perspective, if we could somehow say we (the bottom 99%) got ahead by about a mile in those 30 years, then the top 1% got ahead by 7,500 miles ...that's just shy of the diameter of the Earth at the equator (7,926.28 miles)!!!
So, things just might be tilted in their favor ...but here is the part that will make you sick ...they pay LESS in taxes than we do!!! (as a percentage of their income)
The IRS (in 1999) audited 1.36% of the people making < $25,000 (up 33%) and only 1.15% of those making > $100,000 (down 90%). [Johnston, 130] They justify this by trying to find people defrauding the Earned Income Tax Credit ...but read Chapter 9 (Preying on the Working Poor) of "Perfectly Legal" and you'll see how messed up the details of that credit are ...the type of details that can get a woman who made just $7,000 one year get audited and thrown thru the court system over pennies. These people can be denied the credit for up to a decade over something as simple as living in the same household as another person (since neither could afford to live on their own). ...all the while, someone who makes $91,000 or the child of a foreign billionaire can LEGALLY apply for the FULL credit. ...thanks Congress (as the law makers, they're the ones who put the devil in the details of that credit, of course).
Check out the Alternative Minimum Tax. Initially intended to not allow people who make tons of money to pay less than they should by using all sorts of deductions, has instead turned into a greater tax burden on the middle class. ...the super rich and the corporations (as you'll read more about shortly) don't end up showing profits as far as the IRS can tell, so it ends up not applying to them. Worse yet, is that the way that Congress drafted the law, even though exemptions, deductions, and income tax brackets automatically get adjusted for inflation, the AMT does not ...so every time the dollar inflates, another round of middle class people get sucked into paying more taxes. (Read Chapter 7 "The Stealth Tax")
Or how about the laws that make it PERFECTLY LEGAL to do what is called a corporate inversion, where a company rents a mailbox in Barbados and pays them 2.5% (instead of 35%) income tax, then creates that mailbox as the "parent company" ...then with magic like charging the subsidiary company rent, usage rights to logos and names, this that and the other, the company makes no profit in the US at all. Further, the taxes they do pay in Barbados, are deductible in the US (again we have Congress to thank for that with the Foreign Tax Credit). This is detailed in the 17th chapter of Perfectly Legal entitled "Profits Trump Patriotism".
Don't get me started on how Royal Dutch Shell sold a day's worth of volume on the open market in and then bought it back for $1.92 less a split second later ...46 TIMES in one day. This was an incredibly complicated scheme to basically show a loss in the US, pay less tax to the Dutch government, and basically profit off of taxes ...another willing participant in the game was Compaq ...who also got similar perks from the transaction (they were the company that bought and sold back at the loss) ...this worked by having the coordinating third party short the shares somehow ...it's complicated and can be read in full in Chapter 16 of Perfectly Legal. It turns out they got away with it, but Congress did actually step up and make that particular type of deal illegal going forward.
A concept you may or may not be familiar with is the "tax gap" ...it's the difference between what should be paid in taxes and what does get paid. "Some tax experts have said that $300 billion is a cautious estimate for 2003" [Johnston, 296]. Since income tax was expected to bring in just a little over $1 trillion that year, it's a GAP of nearly 30% of what should be paid ...
...this discrepancy (as is detailed in Perfectly Legal) comes almost entirely from the super rich and the corporations who have the luxury of using all of these crazy schemes that congress has made PERFECTLY LEGAL.
Now let's talk about a candidate who knows and understands all this: Sheldon Schafer. He's a member of the squeezed middle class. He's made his tax records open to the public so they can see he has been paying his share. ...and further he could be in Congress representing us in the future on these things ...I know for a fact he has read and understands "Perfectly Legal" as I have seen his copy (which is highlighted to all get out).
Further, if you still aren't convinced about Schafer, drill your would-be candidate (if you can get them to talk to you) about taxes ...I've read up on the other candidates, and you'll be surprised to find they may not be aware of this disappearing middle class and all the laws that make it legal ...even encourage it ...and perk up your ears when you hear one of them looking to CUT corporate taxes ...without massively reducing government service, it's a zero sum game, so if the corporate taxes get cut, then we'll pick up the slack.
...so again, look to a candidate that wants to represent the majority. He is one of us ...you can get a hold of him ...he knows your concerns, and is looking out for the people ...not the special interests that contribute to the major party candidates and not the people who aren't paying their taxes so that we can pay more.
A note on my choice of title prior to continuing ...the use of the word "poor" in the phrase "taking from the poor" is not entirely accurate ...yet. In truth, it's the middle class that is getting taken from the most ...and, surprise, surprise, the middle class is shrinking ...with the vast majority being pushed into the lower class, thus making my usage of the word "poor" far more poignantly accurate than I dare imagine.
As I've mentioned before, I'm not anti-rich or anti-capitalism at all ...I think the drive to succeed and achieve financial security for one's self and one's family really do drive people in this country ...but the playing field is being tilted against all but the super rich.
An alarming statistic is that in 2003 dollars, the average income across all classes was $36,573 in 1970 and $40,330 in 1999. [Johnston, 27] That's a 10% jump. Not bad, not bad ...people toiled 30 years to increase their income by 10% ...lest we forget that this is the average of ALL incomes, including the wealthiest 10% of Americans ...let's look at how they faired individually:
| Income Group | Average 1970 | Average 2000 | % Gain |
| 90th-95th percentile | $80,148 | $103,860 | +29.6% |
| 95th-99th percentile | $115,472 | $178,067 | +54.2% |
| 99th-99.5th percentile | $202,792 | $384,192 | +89.5% |
| 99.5th-99.9th percentile | $317,582 | $777,450 | +144.8% |
| 99.9th-99.99th percentile | $722,480 | $3,049,226 | +322.0% |
| 99.99th-100th percentile | $3,641,285 | $23,969,767 | +558.3% |
| [Johnston, 34] | |||
...I see a trend there, don't you? Remember my 10% income increase for 30 years above ...well, that included the above. So, clearly, for your average Joe, it was alot less. Fortunately, I have that info separated into the top 1% and the rest of us:
| Income Group | Average 1970 (inflation adjusted) | Average 2000 | $s added |
| Bottom 99% | $32,763 | $35,473 | +$2,710 |
| Top 1% | $3,641,285 | $23,969,767 | +$20,328,482 |
| [Johnston, 37] | |||
!!! To put it into perspective, if we could somehow say we (the bottom 99%) got ahead by about a mile in those 30 years, then the top 1% got ahead by 7,500 miles ...that's just shy of the diameter of the Earth at the equator (7,926.28 miles)!!!
So, things just might be tilted in their favor ...but here is the part that will make you sick ...they pay LESS in taxes than we do!!! (as a percentage of their income)
The IRS (in 1999) audited 1.36% of the people making < $25,000 (up 33%) and only 1.15% of those making > $100,000 (down 90%). [Johnston, 130] They justify this by trying to find people defrauding the Earned Income Tax Credit ...but read Chapter 9 (Preying on the Working Poor) of "Perfectly Legal" and you'll see how messed up the details of that credit are ...the type of details that can get a woman who made just $7,000 one year get audited and thrown thru the court system over pennies. These people can be denied the credit for up to a decade over something as simple as living in the same household as another person (since neither could afford to live on their own). ...all the while, someone who makes $91,000 or the child of a foreign billionaire can LEGALLY apply for the FULL credit. ...thanks Congress (as the law makers, they're the ones who put the devil in the details of that credit, of course).
Check out the Alternative Minimum Tax. Initially intended to not allow people who make tons of money to pay less than they should by using all sorts of deductions, has instead turned into a greater tax burden on the middle class. ...the super rich and the corporations (as you'll read more about shortly) don't end up showing profits as far as the IRS can tell, so it ends up not applying to them. Worse yet, is that the way that Congress drafted the law, even though exemptions, deductions, and income tax brackets automatically get adjusted for inflation, the AMT does not ...so every time the dollar inflates, another round of middle class people get sucked into paying more taxes. (Read Chapter 7 "The Stealth Tax")
Or how about the laws that make it PERFECTLY LEGAL to do what is called a corporate inversion, where a company rents a mailbox in Barbados and pays them 2.5% (instead of 35%) income tax, then creates that mailbox as the "parent company" ...then with magic like charging the subsidiary company rent, usage rights to logos and names, this that and the other, the company makes no profit in the US at all. Further, the taxes they do pay in Barbados, are deductible in the US (again we have Congress to thank for that with the Foreign Tax Credit). This is detailed in the 17th chapter of Perfectly Legal entitled "Profits Trump Patriotism".
Don't get me started on how Royal Dutch Shell sold a day's worth of volume on the open market in and then bought it back for $1.92 less a split second later ...46 TIMES in one day. This was an incredibly complicated scheme to basically show a loss in the US, pay less tax to the Dutch government, and basically profit off of taxes ...another willing participant in the game was Compaq ...who also got similar perks from the transaction (they were the company that bought and sold back at the loss) ...this worked by having the coordinating third party short the shares somehow ...it's complicated and can be read in full in Chapter 16 of Perfectly Legal. It turns out they got away with it, but Congress did actually step up and make that particular type of deal illegal going forward.
A concept you may or may not be familiar with is the "tax gap" ...it's the difference between what should be paid in taxes and what does get paid. "Some tax experts have said that $300 billion is a cautious estimate for 2003" [Johnston, 296]. Since income tax was expected to bring in just a little over $1 trillion that year, it's a GAP of nearly 30% of what should be paid ...
...this discrepancy (as is detailed in Perfectly Legal) comes almost entirely from the super rich and the corporations who have the luxury of using all of these crazy schemes that congress has made PERFECTLY LEGAL.
Now let's talk about a candidate who knows and understands all this: Sheldon Schafer. He's a member of the squeezed middle class. He's made his tax records open to the public so they can see he has been paying his share. ...and further he could be in Congress representing us in the future on these things ...I know for a fact he has read and understands "Perfectly Legal" as I have seen his copy (which is highlighted to all get out).
Further, if you still aren't convinced about Schafer, drill your would-be candidate (if you can get them to talk to you) about taxes ...I've read up on the other candidates, and you'll be surprised to find they may not be aware of this disappearing middle class and all the laws that make it legal ...even encourage it ...and perk up your ears when you hear one of them looking to CUT corporate taxes ...without massively reducing government service, it's a zero sum game, so if the corporate taxes get cut, then we'll pick up the slack.
...so again, look to a candidate that wants to represent the majority. He is one of us ...you can get a hold of him ...he knows your concerns, and is looking out for the people ...not the special interests that contribute to the major party candidates and not the people who aren't paying their taxes so that we can pay more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
