Taxing issues

If Romney ever gets in the White House, Grover Norquist’s dream of shrinking government down so he can drown it in a bath tub, will come true. A majority of Republicans have pledged their loyalty and devotion to an individual who holds the purse strings to their campaigns, in exchange for no new taxes on the obscenely wealthy.

Eric Alterman writes in the Nation magazine, “Romney’s tax proposals would mean those making $3 million annually will save $250,000” and Republicans call for “raising taxes on 20 million American families by eliminating the tax credits for the middle class, according to Seth Hanlon the director of fiscal reform at the Center for American Progress.”

So when Romney pledges not to raise taxes on anyone, he’s correct he won’t in theory “raise” taxes; he’ll just eliminate the credits that’ll help the poor and the middle class, essentially raising taxes for ordinary citizens.

Another misleading tax issue is the estate tax; initially enacted to prevent dynasties from forming with vast wealth accumulating in the hands of one family over decades. The US is supposed to be an equal society, the current frenzy over the “death tax” is propaganda peddled by the “money power” of mega conglomerates.

Alterman continues, “slashing taxes on the super wealthy means $9 trillion in lost revenue over the coming decade according to the Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center.” Which when translated means that a Romney-Ryan win would slash all government spending except defense. Candidate Romney pledges to increase defense spending to $2 trillion over the coming decade. We’ll have no government spending on social programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and all of those funds and our taxes will go instead to wars.

Quoting Alterman’s article Grover Norquist said “We just need a president who can sign legislation that the Republican House and Senate pass. We don’t need someone to think. We need someone with enough digits on one hand to hold a pen.”

Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged is coming to life, only the rich can save us… with austerity cuts. Yeah, right. Goodbye cruel world!

Retroactive

Just as the banks eliminated regulations which protected the American populace from their arrogance and greed, many corporations and companies have eliminated pension regulations which protect employees against ‘retroactive’ retirement losses. Maybe Ed Gillespie’s announcement that Mitt Romney ‘retroactively’ retired from Bain Capital isn’t all that odd in today’s politically charged and hostile business climate.

According to Ellen Shultz in “Retirement Heist”, “Under pension law, it’s illegal to retroactively cut someone’s pension. However, Cash balance plans provide a way around this prohibition…” “Cash balance accounts are complex. When companies switch to a cash balance account they essentially freeze the old pension, ending it’s growth. They then convert the frozen pension to a lump sum, which they call the “opening account balance”. The lump-sum amount doesn’t grow each year by multiplying years and pay, both of which would be growing, and thus generating the leveraged growth seen in a traditional pension.”

While millions of employees around the country are experiencing ‘retroactive’ pension losses, this new ‘retroactive’ descriptive adjective certainly gives pause for thought. What they’re doing is just getting the public used to the idea of ‘retroactive’ happenings of any kind, and the changing of the rules so those corporate sponsored changes in the rules enable them to benefit financially. Again, according to Ellen Schultz, “…accounting rules turned retiree benefits plans into cookie jars of potential earnings enhancements, and provided employers with the means to convert the trillion dollars in pension and retiree benefits into an immediate, dollar for dollar benefit for the company.”

Companies have been able to use the earnings of their employee’s pension plans for corporate gain and executive pay, hence we now have the “trillion dollar” under-funding of pension plans. the newest latest reality catch phrase circling in the news cycle is “looming liabilities” which is what the retirement account, now looted of it’s funds is called. But the corporate mouthpiece which from the media has one message: “blame the people” just don’t blame the companies…and their lobbyists…and your representatives…and your senators…and your judges who allowed these rules for under-funding to be created. The banks have already taken their savings, so if pension plans and Social Security are eliminated, how are retirees supposed to survive when they can no longer work?