Taxes, Rallies, Politicians, Rich Folk, and Who's to Blame?

Russ Kronke is a member of our Frankfort, Kentucky, MoveOn Council. He brought the following information for sharing at a recent meeting of our council. I immediately appreciated how Russ had put a difficult subject into a clear concise document that, to me at least, asks the right questions and gives the right information. Thank you, Russ, for sharing this with us.
Mike
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TAX DAY RALLIES, ETC

PROBLEM

• Verizon, Amazon, BFA, GE, Citi, etc are doing what the tax laws allow them to do. The corporation lobbyists may have influenced legislation, but corporations are not the right target.

• It’s the government, its rules and regulations and the legislators who are being bought off that are the problem.

• Rally, where, why and how? To get what? What can I do?

DEFICIT: It’s the revenue, not the spending.

WHY IS REVENUE A PROBLEM?

• Oil subsidies

• Corporate tax loopholes

• Tax cuts for the wealthy

• Jobs shipped overseas

• Unemployment, insufficient job creation

• Republican obstructionism and Democrat wimpishness, Lobbyists.

• Citizens United Supreme Court Decision (Koch Brothers, Chamber of Commerce)

IS THERE A SPENDING PROBLEM?

• We certainly don’t want waste but we don’t want to cut good programs. Republican ideology is attempting to slash good programs.

• Too much war and defense spending

• Need to spend more in areas that will create jobs and improve the economy.

• Education needs support.

HOW CAN IT BE FIXED?

• Grass roots activism to get leadership to act

• Educate the public and get them to vote

• President and Democratic leadership need to take a stand

• It can only be fixed by Congress and the President.

WHAT ABOUT ENTITLEMENTS (SS, MEDICARE AND MEDICAID)?

• Social Security is solid for 30 years --- do not touch

• Medicare only source of affordable health care for seniors.

• Medicaid is being abused by states and needs some reform.

• Health Care costs need to be contained. They increase too much too fast.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

• Rallies? Town halls? What kind? Where?

• Get our organizations to support going after the real target, Congress and President

• Demonstrations? Target legislators?

• Letters to editors

• Educational forums and material

• ????????????????

Renewed effort

I spend an enormous amount of time each day reading and watching news stories, many of them related to the political arena. I do a lot of this through Facebook and some through Twitter; but it is the relationships I have made through both of those plus email that has influenced me quite a bit.

When I started this blog, though, there was no Facebook; and most of my "rants" were simply emails sent to the majority of those in my email address book.

When I got on Facebook, I gradually (well almost suddenly) abandoned this blog. Recently my son has said, "Dad, if you're going to spend that much time on the computer, you should be writing your own blog." He also said he believed I was a good writer, which never hurts feelings. Two or more weeks since he last said that I have decided to take him up on it.

This is a preamble to my desire to start posting my thoughts regularly again. Those thoughts may not be as well done as some of my friends; but they will still be my thoughts and feelings about what my life, our lives together, and the political world of the United States of America and that relationship to the "real" world of all the nations.