On au•courant•attitudes I will
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acknowledge comments and answer questions timely;
treat others the way I would like others to deal with me (The Golden Rule);
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urge the community to study facts and analyze issues;
eschew dogma, obfuscation and prejudice;
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request followers, friends and others to conform to that too;
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encourage followers, friends and others to conform to that too;
promote a positive view of au•courant•attitudes on the blogosphere and elsewhere. • Ask me anything
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Brad Sloan
Feeling good? You'll get over it.
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Pantsless Progressive
present progressive ideas and values to the blogosphere;
respect each and every person in the community;
acknowledge comments and answer questions timely;
treat others the way I would like others to deal with me (The Golden Rule);
strive constantly to improve the blog’s content;
urge the community to study facts and analyze issues;
eschew dogma, obfuscation and prejudice;
avoid and prevent pain and harm in the treatment of people and animals;
request followers, friends and others to conform to that too;
strive to enhance human and animal health and happiness;
encourage followers, friends and others to conform to that too;
promote a positive view of au•courant•attitudes on the blogosphere and elsewhere. • Ask me anything
• Submit AU COURANT ATTITUDES
Following:
AZspotBrad Sloan
Feeling good? You'll get over it.
Doctors Without Borders
The FADER Tumblr
U.S. Department of State
NYCEDC
Mother Jones magazine on Tumblr
Tumblr Staff
Somewhere in the world today
The Nation Magazine
DAN CASSARO
The Blog That Will Pierce The Heavens!
Diadoumenos
The Economist
We Are the 99 Percent
Pantsless Progressive
AU COURANT ATTITUDES RECOMMENDS: “IMPOSTOR: HOW GEORGE W. BUSH BANKRUPTED AMERICA AND BETRAYED THE REAGAN LEGACY” (BRUCE BARTLETT)
The George W. Bush Tax Cuts, which disproportionately benefited the super-rich and super-powerful, are the root of our fiscal problem according to no less than Republican Bruce Bartlett, who held senior policy roles in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and served on the staffs of Representatives Jack Kemp and Ron Paul. For example, on July 26, 2011, Mr. Bartlett said the following in the NY Times’ Economix Blog:
“Few people remember that a major justification for the 2001 tax cut was to intentionally slash the budget surplus. President Bush said this repeatedly during the 2000 campaign, and it was reiterated in his February 2001 budget document. In this regard… the Bush-era tax cuts were highly successful. According to a recent C.B.O. report, they reduced revenue by at least $2.9 trillion below what it otherwise would have been between 2001 and 2011. Slower-than-expected growth reduced revenue by another $3.5 trillion. Spending was $5.6 trillion higher than the C.B.O. anticipated for a total fiscal turnaround of $12 trillion. That is how a $6 trillion projected surplus turned into a cumulative deficit of $6 trillion… These facts notwithstanding, it has become a Republican talking point that the Bush tax cuts did not, in fact, reduce revenue at all — something the Bush administration itself never asserted… It is hard to know where these totally erroneous ideas come from. Federal revenue fell in 2001 from 2000, again in 2002 from 2001 and again in 2003 from 2002. Revenue did not get back to its 2000 level until 2005. More important, revenue as a share of G.D.P. was lower every year of the Bush presidency than it was in 2000… What will happen at the end of next year when the Bush tax cuts expire is already a matter of intense budget negotiations. Perhaps the whole point of the apparent Republican disinformation effort to deny that the Bush tax cuts reduced federal revenue is to make the reverse argument next year — allowing them to expire will not raise revenue.”
It’s crystal clear that Republicans are culpable of using a talking points smoke screen. Au Courant Attitudes encourages you to read Mr. Bartlett’s riveting best seller “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy.”
“Few people remember that a major justification for the 2001 tax cut was to intentionally slash the budget surplus. President Bush said this repeatedly during the 2000 campaign, and it was reiterated in his February 2001 budget document. In this regard… the Bush-era tax cuts were highly successful. According to a recent C.B.O. report, they reduced revenue by at least $2.9 trillion below what it otherwise would have been between 2001 and 2011. Slower-than-expected growth reduced revenue by another $3.5 trillion. Spending was $5.6 trillion higher than the C.B.O. anticipated for a total fiscal turnaround of $12 trillion. That is how a $6 trillion projected surplus turned into a cumulative deficit of $6 trillion… These facts notwithstanding, it has become a Republican talking point that the Bush tax cuts did not, in fact, reduce revenue at all — something the Bush administration itself never asserted… It is hard to know where these totally erroneous ideas come from. Federal revenue fell in 2001 from 2000, again in 2002 from 2001 and again in 2003 from 2002. Revenue did not get back to its 2000 level until 2005. More important, revenue as a share of G.D.P. was lower every year of the Bush presidency than it was in 2000… What will happen at the end of next year when the Bush tax cuts expire is already a matter of intense budget negotiations. Perhaps the whole point of the apparent Republican disinformation effort to deny that the Bush tax cuts reduced federal revenue is to make the reverse argument next year — allowing them to expire will not raise revenue.”
It’s crystal clear that Republicans are culpable of using a talking points smoke screen. Au Courant Attitudes encourages you to read Mr. Bartlett’s riveting best seller “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy.”
HOW MUCH MONEY HAS BEEN LOST TO THE U.S. TREASURY DUE TO THE BUSH TAX CUTS?
Do you want to find out how much money has been lost to the U.S. Treasury due to the George W. Bush Administration’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans? Visit Citizens for Tax Justice and the National Priorities Project’s new website www….costoftaxcuts.com When Au Courant Attitudes did, the cost of these tax cuts since 2001 was: $1,072,415,657,735 for Top 5%; $733,229,861,807 for the Top 1%; and $339,185,795,929 for the Next 4%. It’s increasing every second! The expiration of these tax cuts will also help bring the budget deficit under control. See More
costoftaxcuts.com
With the help of Citizens for Tax Justice, National Priorities Project is tracking every dollar the U.S. Treasury loses from tax breaks for the wealthiest five percent—American families and individuals who in 2011 will make at least $176,000 and on average $477,453.See More
THE HIDDEN ENTITLEMENTS (CTJ STUDY)
Republicans use a math “problem” ploy to avoid discussing valid reasons why the super-rich ought to pay their fair share of taxes. They alone benefitted from the deleterious policies of the George W. Bush Administration, which are indisputable. Although they’ll never admit it, they know the George W. Bush tax cuts aggravated income disparity, came with the worst economic expansion in more than five decades, and turned budget surpluses into budget deficits; these tax cuts should expire ASAP. Robert S. McIntyre, the director of Citizens for Tax Justice, a nonpartisan research and advocacy group that fights for tax fairness at the federal, state and local levels, said: “A Congress that is eager to challenge low-income welfare entitlements ought to be at least as tough—if not tougher—on welfare entitlements for the well-heeled and politically powerful if it truly wants to bring the budget deficit under control” in The Hidden Entitlements (1996 edition). According to the CTJ study, these tax entitlements a/k/a tax expenditures: (1) currently cost the federal government two-and-a-half times as much as all means-tested direct entitlement programs such as welfare and Medicaid; (2) will soon surpass what the federal government spends on defense, roads, environmental protection and all other “discretionary” programs combined; and (3) are reductions in taxes that are awarded to people and companies that engage in congressionally-favored activities (with no limit on their total cost). Au Courant Attitudes agrees with Mr. McIntyre’s analysis: “We can’t pretend that tax loopholes for corporations and the affluent don’t affect the rest of us… To make sense of the budget and our tax system, we must root out some of the expensive corporate and high-income welfare programs in the tax code.” Urge your members of Congress to be tough on welfare entitlements for the super-rich and mega corporations.
DECREASE DEFENSE BUDGET & BRING TROOPS HOME!
The George W. Bush Administration that left items out of the budget, namely, the cost of fighting the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Congress needs to increase revenue by making the powerful, entitled super-rich pay their fair share. Why does Congress keep giving them egregious loopholes and subsidies? Tax reform eliminating these entitlements would be a positive first step, so Kudos to the Barack H. Obama Administration for proposing it. Yes, before the enactment of the Bush tax cuts, the Bill Clinton Administration left our country with projected budget surpluses. Too bad President George W. Bush didn’t leave the top income tax bracket at 39%; instead he gave not one, but two tax cuts that benefited the super-rich inordinately, and took us into two very costly wars and adopted an expensive give-away to the drug and insurance industries (Medicare Part D), none of which were paid for. Every year that US has a budget deficit, the national debt grows, so Au Courant Attitudes urges you to demand that the super-rich ante up. Also, insist that the federal government economize by seriously decreasing the Defense Budget and bringing most of our troops and their families, which are stationed abroad, for example, in Germany, Japan, Italy, United Kingdom etc., etc. home ASAP.
FROM SURPLUS (CLINTON) TO DEFICIT (BUSH)!
The Bill Clinton Administration gave us a surplus, but spending got way out of hand during the George W. Bush Administration that resulted in a trillion dollar deficit. Au Courant Attitudes believes in pay-as-you-go, which is exactly what President George W. Bush didn’t do during his two terms in office. The Republicans fail to address this! We need to increase revenue, reduce the deficit, and make sure that out-of-control spending doesn’t happen again.
