Caving on Extending Tax Breaks for the top 0.5%

It's a new week, and the new word on the street is that Democrats, including Obama, plan to cave to Republican demands for extending the Bush Tax Cuts for the very richest Americans.

In the Senate an attempt at compromise was made; Democrats offered to extend the tax breaks for those earning up to a million dollars a year, up from $200,000 - a five fold increase. Nope, not good enough.

Don't Republicans care about their base? What percentage of registered Republicans fall within that range between $200,000 and a million dollars? It's got to be the vast majority of people who actually walked into polling places and pulled a lever, punched a chad, or left fingerprints on a touchscreen voting for Republican candidates.

I suppose Republicans took a calculated risk that Democrats and Obama would cave to get a few more months of unemployment (which most Americans support), an end to Don't Ask - Don't tell (which most Americans and most military personnel support), and ratification of a new nuclear weapons treaty (which most Americans, most Republicans, and most of the Western World support).

Then again, maybe Republicans were willing to risk losing the tax break for the vast majority of their voting base because (1) those voters will vote for them next time anyway, and (2) the Republicans true masters want their tax break, and if they don't get it those masters may choose to fund alternate candidates in upcoming elections - and not provide cushy, private-sector jobs for those Senators who failed them. Yes, few Republican voters earning even $500,000/year will be able to provide an ex-Senator a do-little job paying $200,000/yr and up. But those earning $10 million per year and up almost certainly can because they control corporations with even greater resources.

So, all you loyal Republican voters out there, just remember that your incumbent leaders were willing to screw you over for the sake of continuing enormous tax breaks for the top 0.5% of the population. Your leaders aren't representing your interests and haven't been for many years.

Randi Rhodes has jumped on the Hartmann Social Security Bandwagon

I just heard Randi Rhodes say on her radio program that it's "not fair" that people aren't required to pay into the Social Security system on their income over $106,000/year.

I enjoy listening to your program, Randi, and I agree that the proposal for "deficit reduction" is a sham and likely aimed at privatizing Social Security. I believe it should be burned in a trash can in the parking lot.

BUT, Randi, don't lower yourself to the level of Fox and Friends. If Social Security is a retirement plan, then of course it is fair to stop taking money away from a person when there is no way in Hell that money will ever benefit that person later in their life.

If you want to tax people, fine. But be honest about it and call it a tax.