Welcome to Bizarro Amerika!

As President Barack Obama meets Thursday with fractious House and Senate leaders, his new bolder approach to debt reduction reflects a political strategy aimed at independent voters but also is raising alarms among fellow Democrats.

With June’s unemployment figures due out Friday, success or failure will be measured most by the impact on jobs and the economy. But after being slow to the gate, the president’s handlers are clearly trying to portray him as the leader willing to put everything on the table to cope with the debt issue and get past the partisanship dividing Washington.


Thursday morning’s papers were laced with allusions to tax reform and even making changes in Social Security. David Plouffe, the president’s 2008 campaign manager and now senior White House advisor, has seemed to move past the president’s economic team as a lead behind-the-scenes voice enunciating the administration debt strategy. And in a replay of tensions seen in April’s government shutdown fight, White House chief of staff Bill Daley — who has a strong business background — is playing an increased role, roiling the waters in Congress given his past record of jumping ahead of Democrats and making concessions to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Rather than $2.4 trillion in deficit reduction—a dollar-for-dollar match for the debt ceiling increase due in August— the administration is aiming higher toward as much as $4 trillion over 10 years. Vice President Joseph Biden, in talks with Congress, has already done significant spadework but a $4 trillion target increases the likelihood of some commitment to tax reform in hopes of luring Republicans on board and lifting the economy to generate revenues for the future.

I agree as well.  Republicans will not "compromise" on anything less than every single cut imaginable, to save the rich from being taxed.

I agree as well that we need reforms in spending, reforms that remove as much fraud, double dipping, and bloat-i-ness as possible.  But the real problem, that's not being addressed in many instances, is a run away free market...that no manner of adjustment can accommodate for.  We'll be right back where we are right now in 10 years or less.

If the Top 25 Hedge Fund Managers Paid Taxes Like You and Me, We'd Cut 44 Billion of the National Deficit

Republicans are perpetrating a fraud. They say they're concerned about reducing government deficits. But you don't need to look at how they treat all of the country's biggest corporations (which is extremely well) or even how they kowtow to its richest 400 families, who now have 6900 times as much income as the average household.

You only need to look at the way they treat 25 people.

The top 25 hedge fund managers in the United States collectively earned $22 billion last year, and yet they have their own cushy set of tax rules. If they operated under the same rules that apply to other people -- police officers, for example, or teachers -- the country could cut its national deficit by as much as $44 billion in the next ten years.

We're not talking about "raising taxes on the rich," either -- although that's an excellent idea. (There's an automated petition here that will encourage your representative to do just that.) This money could be raised simply by removing a tax loophole that protects hedge fund managers. And that's not counting all the other people who run hedge funds. We'd get that $44 billion from just 25 people. They can certainly afford it, and at least one of them (George Soros, #2 on the list) undoubtedly would approve.


But they won't do it. Instead of taking a simple step that could net as much as $4.4 billion per year, House Republicans have passed a budget that cuts $30 million for flood control and emergency funds that would help people avoid being hurt or killed in storms like the ones we've seen in New Orleans, Birmingham, the Midwest, and all across the country. They voted to cut $336 million from the National Oceanographic and Aeronautical Administration to track and predict violent storms.

You could call their bill the "Tony Montana budget," too, since it cuts funds from all the law enforcement activities that Al Pacino's character in Scarface loathed and feared: $74 million from the FBI. $256 million from "State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance." $600 million from COPS, another program that gives grants for state and local policing. More than half a billion from the IRS, which is a giveaway to tax cheats that also reduces future collections -- which will make the deficit worse.

They even want to cut $330 million from the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, a self-sustaining program that administers all the assets seized by U.S. Customs, the Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the IRS Criminal Investigation unit, and the Coast Guard. Tony Montana would approve.

Oh -- they want to cut the budget for "food safety and inspection services," too. You could pay for all these cuts by just eliminating a tax loophole for these hedge fund managers -- and you'd still have more than $2 billion left over. And that's everyyear.

From 25 people.

here's something that will make one sick..

more at LINK (http://www.alternet.org/story/151479/if_the_top_25_hedge_fund_managers_paid_taxes_like_you_and_me%2C_we%27d_cut_44_billion_of_the_national_deficit_/?page=1)


not only do I not know what's wrong with anyone who goes along with this, but I don't know what country this is that puts 25 of their wealthiest citizens over the other 300+million.. when did we become an aristocracy?

is a hedge fund for intents and purposes....

a side bet ?

A hedge fund is basically gambling.  Good to know where the rest of us stand.