More Deception from The Neocon Echo Chamber on Tax Cuts

By Robert Abston | March 20, 2011
Crosspost:  http://twincities.indymedia.org

Financial oligarchs: Paulson, Bernanke, Geithner, both rich and shills for the rich.

Demand creates jobs, not taxcuts. Look at the evidence. During the Eisenhower administration the tax rate on incomes over $300,000 was 91%.  The nation was prospering. Middle class families were able to find jobs and buy new homes. Workers were protected by unions. Incomes and the standard of living were rising.  Kennedy cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans in 1963 to 77%.  Reagan cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans to 50% in 1982 and to 38.5% in 1987.  Bush cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans in 2003 to 35%.  If tax cuts created jobs, the Bush administration would have ended with the fullest American employment in history. Instead, by 2008, America experienced the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression.

FIX America! by PLAN AmericaIn an upcoming book from the Progressive Leadership Action Network (PLAN) entitled FIX America!How Each of Us Can Help All of Us., I explain how speculation, not the Community Rehabilitation Act of 1977, caused the Republican Depression of 2008. When government gives tax cuts to wealthy people, they look for ways to maximize profits. The wealthy already have plenty of material possessions. There are only so many cars and homes a wealthy family can use. Even John McCain needs only 9 houses. Giving him a tax cut does not mean that he will buy house number 10. Wealthy people want more return on investment, not more material possessions.

Neocons want you to believe that the wealthy will plow this new-found cash from tax cuts into creating jobs. There is a major problem with this theory. Creating jobs when there is no demand will reduce profits, not maximize them. Creating jobs when there is no demand creates excess inventory. Excess inventory leads to lower prices and higher costs from additional warehousing expenses. Lower prices and higher costs means lower profits. This is not rocket science.

Wealthy Americans need the rest of to work harder for less money so they will have more money to gamble with.  That is why the Koch Brothers, David and Charles, and their friends are spending millions of our dollars  to help people like Scott Walker in Wisconsin and John Kasich in Ohio get elected. Scott Walker and John Kasich promised to make the rest of us work harder to that the Koch Brothers could get more tax breaks. The Koch Brothers and their friends need more money to gamble with. Unfortunately, the less money we earn, the less money we have to go shopping or spend on repairing our homes. Less shopping and spending means less demand. Less demand means less production and less production means less jobs. It may start to become apparent that tax cuts do not create jobs. In fact, tax cuts cost jobs.

If it is apparent that tax cuts cost jobs, why do so many people believe that tax cuts create jobs? This is work of the neocon echo chamber. It is often referred to as the rightwing echo chamber, but that is a misnomer. It is a misnomer because neocons are doing the wrong things, not the right ones.

That is why it is called an echo chamber. Now you  the whole story about deception from the neocon echo chamber on tax cuts. Now you also know why over a hundred thousand workers are marching in Wisconsin.

is a software/Web Developer with a passion for political activism and social justice. After a successful 28 year career in the computer field and a 10 year career as a carptenter, he has dedicated his continued efforts to leaving the world a better place for his children and grandchildren.Back

By Louis Proyect
Book Review | March 14, 2011

HODGE, Roger D.: The Mendacity of Hope: Barack Obama and the Betrayal of American Liberalism, HarperCollins, 2010, 259 pages, ISBN 978-0-06-201126-8
ALI, Tariq: The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad, Verso, 2010, 153 pages, ISBN-13 978-1-84467-449-7
STREET, Paul: The Emperor’s New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World     of  Power Paradigm, 2010, 274 pages, ISBN 978-1-59451-845-4 (paperback)

Obama: A seamless transition from George Bush.

The Obama Syndrome or Paul Street’s The Empire’s New Clothes, the two other books reviewed here. Ali and Street approach the Obama administration from the standpoint of Marxism, an ideology that will not get you in the front door at HarperCollins. Ali’s book was published by Verso, where he has been an editor for decades. Street comes to us courtesy of Paradigm Publishers, a left-oriented scholarly imprint that will likely never be able to afford a quarter-page ad in The New York Times Book Review or The New York Review of Books. That being said, readers trying to make sense of arguably the most reactionary Democratic president since Grover Cleveland should seek out all three books.

The answer to such Hamiltonian malfeasance is a return to the principles of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, presidents who supposedly challenged the moneyed interests. Hodge regards them as heroes of their day:

They were not proto-socialists, though they did, in keeping with a powerful strain of republican thought, insist that a balance of property must be maintained, that one element of society should not become so wealthy that it could assimilate the state to itself or withdraw behind iron gates and neglect the community at large.
There is something utopian about such hopes. The wealthy are assimilating the state not because they are philosophically attuned to Alexander Hamilton but because we are living in the age of monopoly capital. In the early days of the republic, economic power was much more dispersed. The United States was composed of yeoman farmers and small manufacturers, all of whom would be naturally attracted to Jeffersonian democracy. By the late 1800s, America had become transformed. John D. Rockefeller and the rest of the robber barons had figured out that the state must serve their economic needs, which largely involved curtailing democratic rights at home and building an empire abroad. They backed Republican politicians like Teddy Roosevelt or William Howard Taft who understood the needs of monopoly capital. But Democrats were just as eager to cater to the Rockefellers. Grover Cleveland went on the warpath against trade unions and colonized Hawaii. Like Barack Obama, his true successor, Cleveland was a Democrat.

The book is relatively brief (156 pages, including a 30-page appendix) but covers the broken promises and corporate/militarist agenda of the Obama administration more than adequately.

Historically, the model for the current variant of imperial presidency is Woodrow Wilson, no less pious a Christian, whose every second word was peace, democracy or self-determination, while his armies invaded Mexico, occupied Haiti and attacked Russia, and his treaties handed one colony after another to his partners in war. Obama is a hand-me-down version of the same, without even Fourteen Points to betray.

The Audacity of Hope:

The Nation Magazine where he is hailed as a midwife to the Egyptian revolution. Street points out that Obama refused to call Mubarak an “authoritarian” when pressed for his take on the dictator, and dubbed Saudi Arabia’s king Abdullah a paragon of “wisdom” and “graciousness.”

We have an obligation in the United States to mount an assault on the capitalist system no matter who is in power, whether it is an obvious reactionary like George W. Bush or a decent liberal from the Democratic Party (of course, this will never happen so it is a moot point.) Drawing clear class distinctions between our own class and that of the ruling class is difficult in a country like the United States where some form of the two-party system has reigned for centuries. Taking a stand against capitalist parties does seem like a quixotic venture. But in an epoch of never-ending war and economic collapse, it would be a good time for a fresh start.

The eminently clear-eyed LOUIS PROYECT dispenses political wisdom from his regular blog, The Unrepentant Marxist.

By Patrick Martin 
| 18 March 2011
The Age, a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, reported Wednesday that WikiLeaks had been told last August 11 that co-founder Julian Assange was the subject of investigations by US and Australia security organizations.
According to the article, “Sources within WikiLeaks have told The Age that an Australian intelligence official privately warned WikiLeaks on August 11 last year that Assange was the subject of inquiries by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, and that information relating to him and others associated with WikiLeaks had been provided to the US in response to requests through intelligence liaison channels.”

The Australian intelligence official “specifically warned that Assange could be at the risk of ‘dirty tricks’ from the US intelligence community, including the possibility of sexual entrapment,” the newspaper said. Nine days after this warning, a Swedish newspaper revealed that Swedish police wanted to question Assange on sexual assault allegations by two women. Assange told the Al Jazeera television network August 23 about the warning from Australian intelligence earlier in the month, a direct confirmation of the story carried in the Melbourne newspaper yesterday.

Assange is fighting extradition from Great Britain to Sweden under a European Arrest Warrant issued by one Swedish prosecutor after another refused to bring charges, contending there was no evidence Assange had committed any crime. A London judge ruled in favour of extradition last month, and lawyers for Assange have filed papers with the court seeking leave to appeal. Assange is under virtual house arrest in Britain while the court case proceeds.

On Tuesday, the high commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe, Thomas Hammarberg, called the European Arrest Warrant a “threat to human rights,” citing its highly publicized use against Assange. He said the procedure was frequently subject to abuse by prosecutors. EAWs were introduced in 2002 as an alleged anti-terrorism measure, but instead of being used only for those suspected or convicted of the most serious crimes, the process is now being used indiscriminately.

“Human rights organizations have expressed concerns about the imprisonment of innocent persons, disproportionate arrests, violations of procedural rights and the impossibility in some countries for an innocent person to appeal against a decision to be surrendered,” Hammarberg said in Brussels. “The problems appear to have worsened with the increase of the number of EAWs—there are now an average of more than one thousand per month, the overwhelming majority of which relate to minor crimes.”

The human rights commissioner singled out the fact that the only condition for executing an EAW is that the suspect be accused of a crime carrying a minimum prison sentence of 12 months. There is no requirement that there be significant evidence against the suspect, let alone an actual conviction.

In a statement to the press, Catherine Heard of the British non-profit Fair Trials International said there was an extensive record of EAW abuses. “We have seen the lives and futures of many ordinary people—teachers, firemen, chefs and students—blighted by the European Arrest Warrant, a system that infringes basic rights and fails to deliver a fair and efficient extradition system,” she said.

European Union Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding told the website EUObserver.com that the European Commission was currently reviewing the EAW procedure and would publish proposals for amendment next month. These are unlikely to affect the case of Assange, however, she indicated.

Meanwhile the WikiLeaks website continues to publish thousands of US diplomatic cables, mainly from the decade ending in 2009. On Thursday, the Turkish Daily Taraf began publishing the 11,000 documents relating to Turkey from that period. Julian Assange announced an agreement with the newspaper, which does not provide for any monetary transaction.

The Turkish newspaper said it would disguise the names of powerless individuals who might be victimized by the Turkish military or government or by other political forces in Turkey. However, it maintained that “people who have the power to defend themselves in an impartial legal process or by employing their political and financial power will not be redacted no matter what judicial system they answer to.”

PATRICK MARTIN is a senior political analyst with the World Socialist Web Site.

Protected by a public brainwashed 24/7 the Big Lie walks amongst us with the cynical arrogance of a criminal sure to be beyond apprehension. The US is literally crawling with these corporate/plutocratic fronts. In this case, they naturally gain legitimacy by linking their fortune to an ambitious but unscrupulous politician. Cuomo is nothing if not Obama with an Italian face. Count your silverware.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZO7d9K31gU[/youtube]
By Kevin Connor  •  Originally posted Jan 20, 2011 at 13:46 EST

Andrew Cuomo: Yet another sellout. Don't fall for his siren song.

IN A PRELUDE to the looming budget battle, a shadowy group going by the name of the “Committee to Save New York” has started coordinating with the Cuomo administrationto promote the dawning of a new era of “fiscal sanity” in New York State. The group has amassed a $10 million war chest to run ads in support of a fiscal reform agenda heavy on budget cuts. One ad has already gone on the air touting Cuomo’s approach to the state’s budget problems.

Who, exactly, is behind the Committee to Save New York? To find out, LittleSis’s Cuomo Watch research group will be investigating over the course of the next month. The Committee has refused to disclose its donor list, but it has released its board list, and we have already added that info to the Committee’s page on LittleSis. We will be using that and other public record information to shed light on who, exactly, is behind these efforts, and what their true agendas and interests are.

It is already clear that one of the main forces behind the Committee is the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), an industry association comprised of wealthy real estate and financial interests. REBNY’s president, Steven Spinola, and chair, Mary Ann Tighe, are on the board of the Committee, and Committee co-chair Rob Speyer is on REBNY’s executive committee. Speyer’s real estate firm, Tishman Speyer, has reportedly donated $1 million to the Committee, and other members of REBNY’s board have also donated to the Committee, including chair emeritus Stephen Ross (a billionaire) and the Durst Organization (Douglas Durst is on REBNY’s board).

REBNY’s board boasts many super-wealthy real estate investors and bankers, including billionaires Richard LeFrak, Stephen Ross, Leonard Stern, Sheldon Solow, and Jerry Speyer. Large real estate management firms like CB Richard Ellis, conglomerates such as Vornado Realty Trust, law firms such as Weil Gotshal Manges, and financial firms such as Barclays gain a voice in government through REBNY.

REBNY’s annual reports do not exactly paint a picture of an organization intent on tackling the state’s budget problems or easing the tax burden of the middle class. The reports detail a range of lobbying activities intended to lower the tax burden of big business and the super-rich, including advocating for equal income tax rates for billionaires and bus drivers, a continued “carried interest” tax break for hedge funds and real estate investment firms, and a continued tax abatement for condo owners in Manhattan. “Fiscal discipline,” in REBNY’s world, appears to mean helping wealthy, big business interests avoid paying taxes.

What does the Committee actually stand for?
Judging from press reports, REBNY has a direct line to Cuomo’s office, but that has come at a high price: 26 of the organization’s board members donated $10,000 or more to his gubernatorial campaign, an incredible level of support from one organization.

There is much more research to be done on REBNY and other groups associated with the Committee. Who are they? What do they lobby for in Albany? What aspects of the budget and tax code benefit them? Do they pay their taxes?
Is this the Committee to Save New York, or the Committee to Scam New York? Join the research group to help us find out.
Note: For analysts who are more interested in the shadowy ways of Washington, Sunlight Foundation is leading an exciting investigation of Super PACs, the outside groups made possible by Citizens United that spent hundreds of millions of dollars influencing last year’s election. Go here to sign up for the research group and research a few Super PACs: where are they located? Who are their main officers? Do they have a website? Help us find out.

5 Responses to “Who is the Committee to Save New York?”
1. Albanius Says: 

February 2nd, 2011 at 7:23 pm
Is there a way to discover whether David H. Koch has contributed to the Committee to Starve NY?
2. Kevin Connor Says: February 3rd, 2011 at 1:56 pm
They aren’t disclosing their funding sources, though Koch and his wife Julia have given Cuomo himself $87,000…a pretty tidy sum. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have contributed to CSNY, but nonprofits don’t have to disclose funders.
3. Rose Says: February 7th, 2011 at 7:39 pm
I am disgusted that my 20 yr old daughter just got a job with these people at Committee to Save NY. They dropped her off in the middle of a “less than desirable” neighborhood with a small group all several blocks from one another. She was assigned a partner who never answered his phone, didn’t reply to her texts and didn’t show up within 30 minutes as planned. What kind of practice is this? She expressed she felt unsafe. The shuttle driver told her he was busy and couldn’t pick her up! Busy doing what if his job is to play driver to this group!!!! He came a long while later after she threatened to call the police. I am very angry that they want her to promote politics, which she is great at, but are not taking safety issues seriously!!! Today is her second and last day! Her safety is important to ME.
4. Barbara Young Says: February 13th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
  My daughter is an international studies major hired by this committee to save new york on a part time basis during her college semester. She was extremely disillusioned by the lack of organization, the lack of safety, and the secretive nature of the canvassing procedure. Her safety was also at stake on several days of working, and she was left stranded in neighborhoods with transportation not arriving until hours later. It is irresponsible and unconscionable to take young and enthusiastic college students and use them like this. What a welcome to the world of politics in New :York.
5. Jim Pharo Says: March 4th, 2011 at 6:31 am
 Why is being present in “less desirable” neighborhoods a safety issue? The people that live there deal with it every day.  
I’d be very curious to know what neighborhood(s) exactly you’re kids found so unsafe. Given the very low crime rate in NYC, it’s hard to read this as anything other than racial…
______________

Committee To Save NY Back On The Airways, Featuring McCall
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 9:16 am by Liz Benjamin
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The business-backed, pro-Cuomo Committee to Save NY has launched its long-awaited second round of TV and radio ads in support of the governor’s budget.

The new spots started running this morning, with radio ads – both a NYC and upstate version – running statewide and TV in NYC metro area on both cable and broadcast channels, according to CSNY spokesman Bill Cunningham.
One of the radio spots features former state Comptroller H. Carl McCall, against whom Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched a primary challenge during the 2002 gubernatorial campaign – a move that angered the African-American community and very nearly cost Cuomo his political career.

Since then, McCall has become one of Cuomo’s most active surrogates, speaking out on his behalf both during the 2010 governor’s race, co-chairing his transition committee and taking his side in the battle against the public employee unions during the early days of his tenure.

A female announcer then talks about the number of people New York has lost in recent years and says there’s “hope” in the form of Cuomo’s budget – “a plan to move New York forward” without raising taxes.

“What it means is that people will want to invest here, it means jobs can be created here so that we can have the kind of sustainable stream of income that will enable us to provide better services to people as we go forward,” McCall adds.
Listeners are urged to “lift our voices” in support of Cuomo’s plan by visiting CSNY’s Website, LetsFixAlbany.org.
The TV ad, which appears below, stars average New Yorkers talking about high taxes in New York and the need to create more jobs so “we’ll all be much better off in the end.”

No word on the size of this buy. But one thing is certain: Cuomo and his allies are sitting on a big pile of resources.
CSNY met its initial $10 million fundraising goal some time ago, according to key committee members, and the governor has been adding to the $4 million he had left over from the 2010 campaign to prepare for a potential air war over the budget.

But now that Cuomo has successfully neutralized the two biggest players in budget battles past – GNHYA and SEIU 199 – he only has the teachers and public employee unions to deal with. So far, NYSUT is running one ad, but it’s a pro-millionaire’s tax spot, not an all-out assault on Cuomo.
FROM: CAPITOL CONFIDENTIAL
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/59320/committee-to-save-ny-back-on-the-airways-featuring-mccall/

FROM: POLITICS ON THE HUDSON BLOG
Pro-Cuomo group launches new ads
The Committee to Save New York, a business-backed group that is supporting Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s agenda, including his nearly $133 billion budget proposal, is on television and radio with new ads today. Former state Comptroller H. Carl McCall is featured on the radio ad, which has separate versions for upstate and metropolitan New York City audiences.