Simply stupefying speechifying: Sandoval and Obama
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at 19:54 Washington, D.C.—Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following statement in reaction to the President Obama’s State of the Union address:
“Tonight we heard a blueprint for how to move our country forward by investing in what works and cutting what doesn’t. We heard a vision for keeping America a global economic superpower by out-educating, out-innovating and out-building our competition. To get there, we’ll have to set aside our differences and reach across the aisle.
“In Nevada, that means working together to create good paying clean energy jobs, training our workforce with the tools needed to compete in a global economy and boosting our small business community.
“Republicans have a responsibility to work with us to create jobs instead of wasting time with pointless political stunts. Republicans should join us in looking to the future instead of refighting old battles and pressing extreme, ideological plans to end Social Security and Medicare. I hope they will join us in finding common-sense solutions to the challenges we face as a nation – to rebuild our economy today, create the jobs of the future and strengthen the middle class.”
###
Sigh. Too true. The GOP leaving hard line ideology behind and joining in good faith? Good luck with that. Here’s a post-partisan tweet from Rep. Paul Broun (R-Tenn.) : “Mr. President, you don’t believe in the Constitution. You believe in socialism.” Well, we can certainly count him onboard, can’t we? All this while Obama was praising newly minted House Majority Leader, John Boehner … hero of the working class. I thought Boehner was going to burst into tears again.
Kumbaya.
Here’s one of the most hopeful parts of Obama’s speech:
“Over the years, a parade of lobbyists has rigged the tax code to benefit particular companies and industries. Those with accountants or lawyers to work the system can end up paying no taxes at all. But all the rest are hit with one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, and it has to change.
So tonight, I’m asking Democrats and Republicans to simplify the system. Get rid of the loopholes. Level the playing field. And use the savings to lower the corporate tax rate for the first time in 25 years – without adding to our deficit.”
Sigh. That’s nice.
The speech tonight was masterful once again. It set out wonderful goals. It’s bound to rate highly in the popular polls. It seems to have hit all the right notes, ala Bill Clinton.
This begs the fact that the U. S. corporate tax rates are already among the lowest in the world.
“In its Paying Taxes 2009 publication, based on its 2009 Doing Business report, the World Bank-International Finance Corp. estimated that the United States has a lower effective rate of current corporate tax than that of several other nations, including Germany, Canada, India, China, Brazil, Japan, and Italy. The publication also included a figure that compared effective and statutory corporate tax rates for several G-8 and BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India, China] countries…” Media Matters
When will the average American get a clue that no corporation, not to mention the wealthiest of Americans, never, ever pay the statutory tax rate. That would be as stupid as walking up to the airline ticket counter and asking to pay the highest published fare. Then, there was that pesky GAO report citing that nearly two-thirds of American corporations paid no federal income tax. (Note the declining federal taxes paid by U. S. corporations in graph below)
Tonight we heard all the usual rhetoric … very well delivered. All designed to put the Republicans on the defensive, if that’s possible since they’re beaming in from an as yet undiscovered planet (can you say Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI ?). Yup, we’re all gonna have flying electric cars one day, and mag-lev rail between Reno and the Bay Area. Right. We’re gonna get all this done with a “spending freeze”.
Gawd help us.
Obama starts out patting himself on the back, for what? Extending tax cuts. Tax cuts create jobs, you know. Sigh. This is simply buying into the ‘new centrism’ and GOP mythology. (Note below, that even individual tax rates in the U. S. aren’t exactly going through the roof.)
The President goes on to talk about cutting discretionary spending to levels not seen since the Eisenhower Administration. I’ve got news for the President, if Eisenhower had seen what we’re dealing with right now, he’d have increased spending. Eisenhower wasn’t stupid.
Typically, no where in the speech was it mentioned that the bulk of our “discretionary spending” is for the military-industrial complex, AKA ‘The War On Terror’, AKA wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I cite Warresisters.org, nationalpriorities.org.
Did I disagree with it all? No. I found the suggestions to consolidate redundant agencies, utilizing transparency via internet technology, and similar attempts to corral bureaucratic sprawl encouraging … just as I did with Nevada’s new Republican Governor, Brian Sandoval when he proposed the same thing. Bravo. But this is such a ‘gimme’ that a school child would have thought of it. It’s nice, but let’s get back to the hard stuff.
That hard stuff which was noticeably lacking might be summed up in these keywords: unemployment, guns, foreclosures, financial fraud, Wall Street regulation. You’d think that all was well again on the crumbling financial front. And, it is if you’re an investment house or bank. Not so much if you’re a working schmuck.
Once again, Obama did a great job looking at the big picture, having forgotten some of the themes of his campaign that particularly resonated with voters … climate change, decline of the middle class. You’d have hardly remembered, listening tonight, that last year nearly one million American families lost their home to foreclosure.
Thanks, Mr. President, for stating the obvious.
Then there was the rebuttal from Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI. You’ve gotta hand it to the GOP on selecting this guy. He’s real purty. Shiny. New. Well spoken. Reagan-esque brown suit. The guy is really good. So obviously sincere. He’s also batty. And, his figures don’t add up. In fact, the GOP leadership isn’t sure they want to own it.
Ryan comes out of the box strong, declaring that the ‘Stimulus’ was a complete failure. Huh? Not according to anybody that matters. The stock market is back up, GDP and employment are really beginning to turn around. The loans to banks and businesses are paid back with interest. Where, Paul, is it a failure? Analysts from Moodys to the CBO have said it’s added a minimum of 1.6 million to more like 2.5 million jobs. That’s failure?
Not content to butcher the facts on the Stimulus, Ryan marches on to attempt to discredit health care reform. Uh, sorry Paul, but once again, every analyst that matters - and even the Wall Street Journal - says you’re wrong.
The Affordable Health Care Act will keep kids on their parents policies longer (saving money on premiums), small employers will see their costs relatively unchanged, employees of larger firms will see costs stay the same or go lower ( as I did with the really big airline that I get my health coverage from), people buying their own insurance can now qualify for some nifty tax credits that they couldn’t get before - lowering their costs. Yada, yada. Where is the FAIL, Paul? Where?
Under the misguided GOP plan to repeal the AHCA, more Americans would be without any health care coverage:
I’m going to do what the GOP leadership should’ve done. Ignore Rep. Michelle Bachman, R-MN. If Paul Ryan is merely batty, she’s bat shit crazy … as SailorColin, my Las Vegas correspondent would say. I don’t want to dignify her rants.
And then came SandovalCorp.
It’s probably pretty egotistical of me to assume this, but I’ll go right ahead. Were my readers wondering where my comments were last night, after another equally stupefyingly boring and predictable State of the State by Gov. Brian Sandoval? I just couldn’t do it. I sat there, head in hands, and couldn’t bring myself to do it.
To state the obvious. Governor, if this is Nevada ‘family’, you make a great case for being orphaned.
Mr. Maven and I sat there waiting in vain for SandovalCorp. to even mention that MINING (or GAMING) should step up and pay their fair share. So the reality train - which started with the video by Bob Fulkerson at PLAN - stopped just shy of Carson City.
Yes, Sandoval has a thankless job, but he wanted it badly enough to give up a comfy, cushy federal lifetime judgeship. No tears of pity here. I told Mr. Maven that my instincts are saying that GOP operatives are looking at the well-coiffed, well-spoken Hispanic Wunderkind (uh, I can’t think of a similar term except in German) with a mind to bigger and better things. If he can just hang on and not embarass himself like John Ensign.
This is supposing that Nevada can’t go further than dead-last in education. That’s good for Sandoval Corp. since he’s going to, well … gut education further. It should be embarassing to have even mentioned it.
Again, no mention of MINING. Which kinda takes a huge chunk - as in boatloads - of money out of this state every year, laboring under a tax structure that harkens back to the day of Mark Twain.
Here’s a suggestion for a new Nevada state motto:
Fuck no, we can’t.
Sigh.
-maven
