Monday, April 25, 2011

Republican Politicians Want You To Pay More

If you're net worth is over a million dollars, this post is not for you.

We have a clear and strong argument against our Republican politicians, which is supported by their actions. Republican politicians care more about wealthy individuals and corporations than most Wisconsinites. We are the overwhelming majority, and it's time our legislators focus on our problems.

Evidence
  • Collective bargaining bill
    • Strip away workers' rights and forcibly reduce benefits. If corporations ask for the same "flexibility," will the Republicans decline?
  • Walker budget proposal
    • Significant cuts to most if not all vital public services. Tax breaks for corporations.
  • Extension of Bush tax cuts for the very rich
    • Obama agreed to this only to preserve the tax cuts for everyone else. Otherwise, the Republicans would have been happy to increase all of our taxes.
  • Republican (Paul Ryan) budget
    • Significant cuts to many vital public services including eliminating Medicare and Medicaid as we know them. Significant tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations.
    • All but 4 Republican House Representatives voted for this proposal
The result is that all of us end up retaining less money, while the wealthy get wealthier.

This argument is simple, effective and more than barely true. This should be the argument that we reach for first. Republican politicians care more about wealthy individuals and corporations than you.

Corporations have already been bailed out and given huge tax cuts, and the stock market is up over 50% since April 2009. So we know most of them are doing quite well. Yet they're still not creating any significant amount of jobs. More tax cuts aren't going to convince them much more. In fact, I'd argue that we need to stop babying the corporations so they start creating jobs. Corporations used to pay a much larger share of taxes, and they flourished. Since they won't hire from increased profits by tax cuts, remove the tax cuts and force them to increase profits through hiring, or simply get them to hire out of fear that we'll remove the tax cuts. The CEOs could easily afford a pay-cut if it came to that (maybe a temporary CEO salary cap).

I dare anyone to prove me wrong.

We need to fight for our respect, and the most effective way to do that now is to help recall the Republican 8 before the May 2nd deadline (one week from today)!

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