Shorter Rich Donors: “Class war for ME but not for THEE…”

Ya, its appearing that the “chickens are coming home to roost”…. wonder how many jobs globally will be lost with this move. Maybe I can create a global unemployment index to track such political moves.

Thanks Jane! Keep after them!

A top Obama fundraiser and hedge fund manager said: “I’m appalled at the anti-Wall Street rhetoric. It was OK on the campaign but now it’s the real world. I’m surprised that Obama is turning out to be so left-wing. He’s a real class warrior.”

that’s hilarious. A Wall-Streeter appalled at the fact that a politician might have actually meant what he said – it’s preposterous!

Wasn’t there a line in a movie somewhere to the effect “Son, if you can’t take their money, drink their liquor, and then vote against ‘em, you’re in the wrong business.” (?)

I don’t know why I even bothered to look for the names of my congresscritter and Senators… Barrow, Chambliss and Isakson? What was I thinking?

I think the argument is “we shouldn’t tax big business because it will cut the amount of money that they can pay to small businesses that supply them.”

As a small business, I’d just rather they pay their fair share of taxes.

Oh, there you go, Dennis, bringing class into it.

210 billions is a mere pittance next the enormous savings Americans will experience when the biomedical establishment’s avowed and voluntary commitment to cut back increases in the cost of health care by a whopping 1 1/2% per year for the next 10 years. Oh, I’m so happy!

I didn’t even bother looking up my two people in the House of Lords, being as I’m from Texas. But my Congressman, Lloyd Doggett deserves mad props on this piece of Legislation. He drives the reprobates republicans here absolutely out of their small little minds!

“Son, if you can’t take their money, drink their liquor, and then vote against ‘em, you’re in the wrong business.”

Charlie Wilson of Texas said that. If that’s in the movie then more power to ‘em.

Wall Streets must be the most irony-impaired people on the planet. What do they think the government is bailing them out with? Money left by the money fairy? Pay yer taxes, you bums. Or are you socialists? (hint: they are)

We can’t get the super rich to pay taxes in the US.

The capital investors are building on Regan to be subsidized in two ways…one shrink middle class jobs by offshoring…increase PE (price earnings)ratio by offshoring profits.
Net tax decrease…hence smaller public sector that has been under attack to privatise with rich profitable contracts that increase our share of cost for utiliities, defense and infrastructure.
the class war has always belonged to the wealthy while workers struggle to keep a roof and food without healthcare and tax shelters.
It is an insane argument to have loopholes that transfers more the wealth to the wealthy. They do have leverage…they cankeep the capital on the sideline and force the public to fund the economy. Retirement is their right not ours.

It is socialism if it only benefits the people.

Does anyone know if tax policy is as divisive an issue in the other developed western democracies?

Jane, a question I’m sure FDL’ers are tired of me asking, but I never seem to catch you “live” on a thread.

Are guests on the shows (like KO and Rachel) paid for their appearances? I don’t object to it if they are, I’m just curious. I’m sure you know the answer. I can’t even find it on Google, so maybe I’m not using the correct terms.

Love the Members song of almost thirty years ago…how appropriate even today! Of course, they were referring to how the wealthy in England were avoiding the taxes that the working and Middle class were burdened with…and even using ostensibly “British” offshore banking biz in the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Gibralter, Bermuda, the Grand ($1000) Caymans, etc.

There’s a rich trove from that era of agit-pop songs: “Armagh” (aka “We Don’t Torture..we’re a civilized nation” by the Au Pairs; lots of stuff by the Gang of Four, Billy Bragg, early Chumbawamba, the Clash, God’s Little Monkeys, Jah Wobble, John Cooper Clarke, The Oyster Band, the London Underground, Material, the New Model Army, The Ruts, early UB40, etc.

Influenza viruses don’t recognize class. You’d think these people would beg for a decent health care system rather than hiding money from the IRS.

I don’t know the answer, but do know some facts & have some experience to make a guess. The regular guests who work for other MSM probably have it written into their contract that they should appear so and so often on a TV program. For example, Wessel of WSJ had, as part of his duties, to appear on CNBC. Most other guests are probably not paid. When I was a talking head economist on cable business channels, I was not paid. My employer thought the publicity was a plus. That was a long time ago, and you are asking about a different subject, so it may not be the same.

Thanks, Jane, for this very fine recap of the reaction so far — we know it’s going to get uglier. Love the video, too, & some of the comments are terrific. It’s a pleasure to turn to this site.

The Constant Weader at http://www.RealityChex.com

Decent would be desirable, but universal coverage above all.

a bit of blogronicity for me -

I just played this youtube for a much younger ska fan last night !

fyi y’all – the youtube is from Urgh! a Music War

I think some may be paid as “consultants” to the network — you see the contracts announced every once in a while. But guests such as me, no.

Here’s the thing. Every penny of cash flow is capitalized on Wall Street, so even the tiniest changes in tax legislation capitalize into billions for the ‘take the money and run’ crowd. The opposition to this measure is going to be fierce, because the capitalized stakes are huge. These guys could care less about the consequences good or bad for their companies over the long term; what they care about is the immediate hit on their net worth.

Thanks, eCahn and Jane!! It just occurred to me that frequent guests (like Jon Turley, for example) might have a nice little side income from their appearances. As I said, no objection, only curiosity.

Why don’t you email Olberman & ask?

Jane Hamsher Good morning Iraq the endless war.

“A report by the General Accounting Office found that 83 of the largest 100 publicly traded US companies had subsidiaries in tax havens or “financial privacy” jurisdictions, as do 63 of the largest US federal contractors (PDF).”

A list published here on one od Ian’s posts last year with 400 offshore offices to hold equity and profits tax free…it is a strategy for globalized businesses. Their accounting firms should be shut down by the SEC and the courts.

We should file a class action lawsuit to recover lost tax revenues.

Another lovely job Jane… thanks.

Is there a list of Congress Critters that have off shore accounts? Not just those with business accounts but private off shore accounts as well. Of course I doubt that any US politician would dream of hiding their tax obligation in Tortola or the Caymans or Hong Kong or Dubai now would they.
This is interesting from the waPo and this from Grassley

On October 3rd, 2007, the Wall Street Journal published a rebuttal letter from Senator Charles Grassley entitled ” Americans Abroad Should Be Taxed”
http://www.aca.ch/grassley.htm . Senator Grassley concluded the letter by saying, “An American in Peoria can’t exclude any salary or housing costs from taxable income. Why should an American in Paris not face reasonable limits?”

ooh boy
is that “not to be” link supposed to be reporting ? could swear I smell quail wings through my screen

As I understand it many of these activities are currently legal. To exact any kind of punishment would be unconstitutional. Those hiding assets and not declaring is an entirely different matter.

We should file a class action lawsuit to recover lost tax revenues.

I really like that idea. Sign me up. Can you imagine how many people would be willing to become part of this.

The trillions in the “shadow banking system” with off of the books investment is another tax dodge.
Shifting earnings… shuffling the profits off of the balance sheets conflicts with showing earnings that effect a traded stock…a way of getting capital funds…issuing new stock.
We have no idea what the Fortune 500 companies do in their accounting…we should demand for stricter oversight from our critters or we will have another meltdown.
The corporations are trimming back capital programs that make the GNP bigger hense lower tax revenue for health welfare, roads and other government services. Smaller middle class more poverty…the fuedal system is back.

Sure it is…check the British Newspapers. They are pissed over the Cap and Trade taxes they have been paying for years with little to no results to show for it.

Good idea — or maybe Rachel. They must get so many letters that I’m not sure my little inquiry would make it through, but I can try. But Jane pretty much answered it, and she’s been a guest on some of these shows of late.

Why should an American in Paris not face reasonable limits?”

Wait just a minute now, that’s cutting pretty close to home.

It’s getting close to dinner time over here. Have to leave to get my portion of fois gras and sauterne before the shops close. Tootle-doo.

Good Morning Mary
Shall we run it by BMAZ, LHP, Marci over at Emptywheels? A class action lawsuit could ask for treble damages too that might dissuade future Corporate Kabuki. Maybe we should ask Jane the thermometer is not full yet?
We have to move these politicos off of their fat butts.

vindicates one of my favorite dfh tag lines:

They only call it Class War when we fight back.

Hard to imagine how closing tax loopholes only the wealthy – and their highly-paid retainuers – can take advantage of is “class warfare”. It’s a badly indebted country’s attempt to collect tax revenue, without which it can’t pay its debts as they come due, including the salaries of bureaucrats and CongressCritters and the payments taxpayers and defense contractors expect to be paid on time.

There was a time when loopholes, by definition, were inadvertent gaps in the law that allowed the deviously creative to evade the law’s intent. Now the rich fight over them like an inheritance. If there’s class warfare going on, it’s the rich doing it.

I don’t think Obama is really that much of a “soak the rich” guy. On the other hand, he has more freedom than past presidents to act that way if he wants to, as his fundraising was based on getting a little money from a lot of people, not a lot of money from a few people. Even zillionaires like Schmidt can only give $4,600 to a federal candidate.

Seems pretty simple: asking electeds whether they really want to keep handing power and control to criminals. Or not?

Something like 40% of all off-shore (all or European-ish I don’t recall) ‘investments’ are in Ireland. It’s purely a move to save paying taxes.

You would think these people are smart enough to know they are trying to save pennies instead of getting the economy going strong again so they can make dollars.

What is it with claiming Obama is a class warrior when it’s clear from their unpatriotic hiding of taxable dollars that it’s them who have helped put us into this position of huge debt.

They should trust Obama and the agenda he used to get elected. They know their businesses and they should let him do his job.

You might be right, but I’d prefer to fantasize that it’s part of a move towards a new tax structure with fewer deductions…a cleaner code.

If Obama can get the economy running better the stock market will zoom up and their stock values will make them far richer than the reduction of their tax havens could offer.

If they don’t let him fix things, then the economy and the market will be flat as a balloon without air.

Choose.

Wouldn’t it be fascinating to analyze how much they’ve hidden from the tax man since this became available to them and how the gov’t might have used that money to avoid huge debt or to provide valuable services to the public AND to regulate the markets, so we wouldn’t have this gigantic world-wide recession which has cost trillions?

Not punishment, just eliminating that deduction for the future.

The Clintons sponsored the offshore tax treatment legislation as well as the deregulation of banks as well as Reagan era domestic government spending levels. Let’s never return to those good old days.

I think the argument is “we shouldn’t tax big business because it will cut the amount of money that they can pay to small businesses that supply them.”

Tax evaders and bailout recipients primary concern over ending giveaways is the potential damage to Grandma’s 401k and Ma & Pa Inc.

ROFLMAO.

Next time, bring a link.

Excellent point.