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Opinion
Free Press columnist Kelly Sloan coughs up some more unrealistic opinions in his Jan. 27 column regarding the president's State of the Union address.
He wants to ignore the Bush administration and financial gamblers nearly crashing the world economy and the long time and necessary policies to even stabilize the economy, much less grow it. The right-wingers demanded the bank bailouts. If the banks and the highly profitable private corporations had stepped up to the plate and infused their initial bailouts and hoarded cash ($2 trillion per most all financial reporters) into a Main Street economy the government wouldn't have had to have acted further. This is just an obvious example of giving the wealthy more money not translating into economic prosperity for all. The fact that the wealthy have had tax cuts for eight years and seen their incomes grow 245% (vs. 23% for the working class families) in the last two decades is another example of fallacious “trickle down” policy not creating jobs.
Bashing health care reforms seems silly — since most of the Act's provisions are kowtowing to big insurance and drug companies. Our country has been battling crushing health care costs, dying uninsured individuals and inefficiencies for 40 years. Something had to be done and the solution of Medicare for All was totally obstructed by the right-wing legislators.
Considering the volatile nature of Korea, Syria, Iran and the rest of the overthrown Middle East, Sloan should have been praising Obama's and Hillary Clinton's foreign policy for keeping us out of more disastrous foreign situations. Sloan hardly acknowledged the administration's elimination of Osama bin Laden. Could you imagine the mandatory celebrations and George Bush's military-suit parading that would have occurred if the Bush administration would have nabbed bin Laden?
Halting a toxic pipeline from Canada to continue to promote dirty-climate fossil fuels is to be lauded. Since the U.S. is exporting 40% of its crude oil now, this energy measure wouldn't have guaranteed any U.S. energy independence — rather just more big oil profits on exporting the oil. How many millions of jobs could we create if renewable energy had tax loopholes like depletion allowances and Caribbean corporation domiciles?
Sloan's contention that taxation of the super wealthy is double taxation (because the individuals already paid a wage tax ) is erroneous. Studies show that less than 10% of wealthy individuals made their fortune by wages or “working their way up from the mailroom.” Most inherited their fortunes by paying zero or 15% taxes via relatives' deaths or gifting, life insurance proceeds, or past capital gains from previous assets. Hedge fund mangers only pay 15% on millions of dollars of commissions (wages). Mitt Romney used the “carried interest” loophole to avoid a wage tax rate in his vulture capitalism actions. He then stuffed his monies in Swiss and Cayman Island banks — what a slap–in-the-face to our economy and unemployed Americans!
He wants to ignore the Bush administration and financial gamblers nearly crashing the world economy and the long time and necessary policies to even stabilize the economy, much less grow it. The right-wingers demanded the bank bailouts. If the banks and the highly profitable private corporations had stepped up to the plate and infused their initial bailouts and hoarded cash ($2 trillion per most all financial reporters) into a Main Street economy the government wouldn't have had to have acted further. This is just an obvious example of giving the wealthy more money not translating into economic prosperity for all. The fact that the wealthy have had tax cuts for eight years and seen their incomes grow 245% (vs. 23% for the working class families) in the last two decades is another example of fallacious “trickle down” policy not creating jobs.
Bashing health care reforms seems silly — since most of the Act's provisions are kowtowing to big insurance and drug companies. Our country has been battling crushing health care costs, dying uninsured individuals and inefficiencies for 40 years. Something had to be done and the solution of Medicare for All was totally obstructed by the right-wing legislators.
Considering the volatile nature of Korea, Syria, Iran and the rest of the overthrown Middle East, Sloan should have been praising Obama's and Hillary Clinton's foreign policy for keeping us out of more disastrous foreign situations. Sloan hardly acknowledged the administration's elimination of Osama bin Laden. Could you imagine the mandatory celebrations and George Bush's military-suit parading that would have occurred if the Bush administration would have nabbed bin Laden?
Halting a toxic pipeline from Canada to continue to promote dirty-climate fossil fuels is to be lauded. Since the U.S. is exporting 40% of its crude oil now, this energy measure wouldn't have guaranteed any U.S. energy independence — rather just more big oil profits on exporting the oil. How many millions of jobs could we create if renewable energy had tax loopholes like depletion allowances and Caribbean corporation domiciles?
Sloan's contention that taxation of the super wealthy is double taxation (because the individuals already paid a wage tax ) is erroneous. Studies show that less than 10% of wealthy individuals made their fortune by wages or “working their way up from the mailroom.” Most inherited their fortunes by paying zero or 15% taxes via relatives' deaths or gifting, life insurance proceeds, or past capital gains from previous assets. Hedge fund mangers only pay 15% on millions of dollars of commissions (wages). Mitt Romney used the “carried interest” loophole to avoid a wage tax rate in his vulture capitalism actions. He then stuffed his monies in Swiss and Cayman Island banks — what a slap–in-the-face to our economy and unemployed Americans!
