410,000 companies inFloridasaw payroll taxes cut in half?

We invested almost $1.6 billion to improveFlorida’s highways and transit system and, in the process, created 20,500 new jobs?

We invested nearly $1.7 billion to save and additionally support nearly 26,000Floridateachers, police officers and fire fighters?

We spent nearly $1.3 billion to upgrade Floridaschools to 21^st Century standards while, in the process, created over 16,000 new jobs?

We spent $2.7 billion inFloridato refurbish and retrofit foreclosed homes?

We spent nearly $300 million to augment the job creating work ofFlorida’s community colleges?

We put the 498,000 long-term unemployed workers inFloridaback to work?

We placed 8,800 adults and 35,600 young people inFloridainto jobs through training in growth industries?

We cut the taxes of a typicalFloridahousehold – earning $46,000 a year – by $1,430 through an expansion of the payroll tax cut passed last December?

Let’s see, doing the math…okay, carry the one…that’s about $7.6 billion additional dollars flowing into Florida and almost 600,000 new jobs.

Somehow, I think we’d all say, “yes,” to such a bold investment in ourselves, our communities, our economy, our future.

The good news is we can say yes to these kinds of investments and more. They’re all part of President Obama’s American Jobs Act.

All we need is for the Congress of theUnited Statesto say, “yes,” and pass this bill.

The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple, according to President Obama: “put more people back to work and put more money in the pockets of working Americans. And…do so without adding a dime to the deficit.”

Sure, you say, “but how would we pay for such a clearly beneficial project? We don’t have any money.”

Actually, we do have money –  or could have the money. President Obama challenged Congress on Monday to cut $4.4 trillion from current spending and press forward on deficit reduction.

The single largest piece of these cuts – approximately $1.5 trillion – will come from tax reform. Everyone agrees the nation’s tax code is in need of reform.

The president wants Congress to lower tax rates, cut wasteful loopholes and tax breaks, reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion and enact the “Buffett Rule” raising taxes on people making more than $1 million a year to bring their tax rates in line with tax rates paid by middle-class families. (That’s the Warren Buffett rule, not the Jimmy Buffet rule…although he, too, will probably see taxes go up.)

Democratic leaders in the Senate have indicated they favor a tax surchage on incomes above $1 million.

The president wants Congress to allow the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 to expire, which will raise $866 billion. He wants to limit the deductions and exclusions of people earning more that $250,000 a year to raise $410 billion. He wants Congress to close loopholes and eliminate special interest tax breaks to raise $300 billion.

He also wants Congress to move forward with the $1.2 trillion in discretionary cuts enacted in the Budget Control Act; approve $580 billion in cuts and reforms to a wide range of mandatory programs; save $1.1 trillion from the drawdown of troops inAfghanistanand transition from a military to a civilian-led mission inIraq. Add to the mix, as well, $430 billion in additional interest savings.

Granted a one-time investment in the American Jobs Act adds to the deficit in 2012 – a bold and risky proposition for a president running for re-election in 2012 – but the project is fully paid for over 10 years and deficit reduction begins in 2013 as the economy grows stronger. Spending cuts-to-revenue ratio for the entire plan (including discretionary cuts) is 2 to 1.

Is it complicated? Sure. Is it bold and courageous? Without question. Can it pass the Congress? It can if the Congress puts our nation ahead of partisan politics.

Watch the President’s Speech to Congress, read more about the American Jobs Bill. 

Hundreds of thousands of red-winged blackbirds in Arkansas just droppin’ outa the sky? Deader ‘n a doornail?

Flyin’ around one minute, mindin’ their own business, eatin’ bugs and stuff and – then – WHAM! Blackbird not singing in the dead of night. Just dead.

And if that’s not enough, just a couple of days later – also in Arkansas – a 100,000 dead fish washing up on banks of the Arkansas River. Not all fish, just drum; thousands of ‘em…dead, too.

The Arkansas game wardens say the rest of the fish – bass, crappie, catfish – are all safe to eat. Um…yea…no thanks.

What kind of conclusions can we draw from this unusual behavior?

Well, we could point to potential environment conditions in Arkansas. But that would be like shooting dead fish in a barrel. Besides, it doesn’t get serious in Arkansas until Razorback hogs start droppin’ like flies.

Those folks really need to learn to filter the run-off from their stills. Or, at least, quit tryin’ to feed the moonshine to wildlife.

We could go all apocalyptic and suggest these are signs of the final days. But I’d only go there if someone with orange skin was to become Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re all for advancing people of color. But orange? Really?

Nevermind, I’m quite sure all this has nothing to do with birds droppin’ outa the sky or fish washin’ up dead.

The world’s pollution is safe as long as the Republicans are in charge.

Game wardens now tell us the birds suffered “acute physical trauma leading to internal hemorrhage & death.” Whoa…a rough way to go. Lightning, they said, or maybe bottle rockets and M-80s from the still people.

Okay, but then, how do we explain this huge crack opening up in Africa?

Geologists point out the African and Arabian tectonic plates meet in the Afar desert of Northern Ethiopia. (The desert is so-named because it’s Afar piece from anywhere else.)

The plates, say the geologists, have been spreading apart by 1 inch each year for the past 30 million years. But an eruption of the Dabbahu Volcano in 2005 at the northern end of the Afar tore apart the 35-mile gash in a couple of days.

Scientist say the Red Sea will eventually dump into the new rift and a new ocean will be born…or made…or filled…whatever.

Not to worry, though, this probably won’t happen for another million years, which kinda kicks the whole end-of-the-world-in-2012 thing down the road a piece.

Assuming we survive the orange people.

Words and gossip can once again flow freely over the InnerTubes. But diplomats should be warned against assessing the dimensions, quality and value of Ukrainian nurses’ racks attending Moammar Gadhafi.

The matter is not put to rest, however. The U.S. government is actively seeking ways to bring this 21^st Century tattle-tale to justice – or, rather, the U.S. version of justice for people who spread information across the globe. It’s embarrassing, after all, and by golly no one is entitled to embarrass the government of the United States! We can more than adequately handle that ourselves!

Speaking of that, the Senate cleared the great tax deal yesterday and sent it to the House of Representatives, where feisty Democrats say they will strip out of it a boondoggle for the 100 or so wealthiest families who might have to pay a bit more in taxes when old codgers die and pass along millions to their trust-fund babies.

Ha! That’ll show ‘em, by golly.

They won’t really do it, of course. They’ll feign ferocity and, in the end, vote to go along with the tax deal.

But wouldn’t be funny if they really voted to strip out of the bill the estate tax silliness? That would, of course, alter the bill and require it to go back to the Senate where Republican senators say they would, then, reject it completely.

This would send the entirety of Washington into apoplexy. The Senate would freak out. The President would freak out.

The year would end and millionaires and billionaires would have to, collectively, come up with $300 billion to help reduce the federal deficit.

Of course, taxes would also go up for what’s left of the middle class, too; and we’d lose that extra $19.95 in our pay each month. Unemployment benefits would have to be extended under a separate measure. But fixing these problems all possible – assuming Democrats have any spine left, which is iffy at best.

If Congress walked away for the year and let the tax cuts expire, the poorest 20 percent of Americans would have to pay an additional $393 in taxes in 2011. The middle 20 percent would have to pay $1,521 more and the richest 1 percent would see their taxes go up by nearly $77,000.

But, you see, there is actually a bigger picture than this. It’s called the future of the country (what a concept).

James Kwak, writing in the Baseline Scenario, argues letting the tax cuts expire is far better in the long run for the middle class than extending the current – and modest – tax cuts because increasing revenues now and over the next 10 years will help keep Social Security and Medicare afloat.

But Republicans are not interested in that. No, sir. You see the end game here is to see Social Security and Medicare destroyed…dismantled…go away…everyone for themselves.

Not to worry, the rich will be just fine.

BREAKING: Federal judge in Virginia rules unconstitutional key provision of Obama health care reform bill…but refuses to freeze it or invalidate it. Go figure.

Ring, Christmas bells, merrily ring…tell all the world the tax deal is king…”

Oh, the weather outside is frightful but the tax talk is so delightful. But since we’ve no place to go, let the snow job go on in the Congress…” Or something like that.

It’s a good tax deal, says the White House and the Congressional Republicans and most Congressional Democrats – except, of course, those looking out for the working people of ‘Murka.

Take Sen. Bernie Sanders, for example. Bless his heart, he stood for 8.5 hours on the Senate floor Friday afternoon and into the evening filibustering the tax deal. It was a real filibuster, too, not those fake or threatened filibusters the Senate Republicans have used so effectively to frightening their Democratic colleagues.

Sanders actually took the floor of the Senate and kept talking for over eight hours, without stopping except to catch his breath, never relinquishing the floor.

But the tax deal will be adopted anyway.

President Clinton says the deal is as good as we’re gonna get in this era of Republican insistence on tax breaks for the millionaires and billionaires.

The New York Times this morning points out a “hefty chunk” of the deal, which will add nearly $900 billion to the deficit, is really good for the middle class – what’s left of it – and will benefit, too, the lower class – which is the rest of us outside the top 2 percent of the wealthiest.

The good ol’ New York Times, the Gray Lady; remember when it thought going to war in Iraq was such a great idea?

Anyway, the NYTimes piece points out the annual adjustment to the alternative minimum tax will increase in 2011 insulating couples making as much as $74,450, up from the current limit of $72,450. This will cost $137 billion.

Actual wage earners, if any remain, will also see a reduction in the Social Security tax. A one-year payroll tax cut for incomes up to $106,800 will go from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. Couples earning that much will see as much as $4,272 extra in 2011.  That tax break will cost $112 billion.

Extension of the jobless benefits will cost $57 billion.

The deal also includes a temporary repeal of the limit on itemized deductions and an absolute repeal of the scheduled phase out of personal exemptions: another $21 billion to the deficit.

Just makes me want to cry…like John Boehner.

Thank God. We can all rest easier now knowing this may put in end to the publication of diplomatic gossip. Of course, I’m not sure now where we’ll get our tidbits about Moammar Gadhafi’s hot Ukranian nurses.

Hmmm…maybe Scotland Yard could help us capture bin Laden.

Oh well, the Assange and Wikileaks case certainly teaches us how the most powerful people in the world can get retribution if you piss ‘em off.

In other BREAKING NEWS on this Pearl Harbor Day, reports continue to surface about a cave in at The White House. Not to worry, the building is still intact. It’s just that the President, himself, appears to have caved in and agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

Glad we didn’t take seriously all that campaign talk about ending the Bush tax cuts.

But the tax cut deal is good news! We were worried the millionaires and billionaires might have to fork over more of their riches to taxes and help reduce the U.S. debt. Thankfully, they can now go off to St. Bart’s for the holidays without a worry in the world.

Maybe those millionaires and billionaires will spend their holidays dreaming up new jobs for everyone, since the Republicans on Capitol Hill promised that will be the result of extending those tax cuts…as evidenced by the enormous number of jobs created since the tax cuts were enacted in 2003 and 2004. In fact, the millionaires and billionaires are really going to have to think hard to dream up new jobs because jobs already created are so plentiful.

The President, himself, said the tax deal will create “millions of new jobs. “ Paul Krugman, writing today in the New York Times, points to the OCB estimates which suggested extending the Bush tax cuts will reduce uemployment by 0.1 to 0.3. percent in 2011 and twice that in 2012.

But, hey, what’s $700 billion to the budget deficit when we’re reducing unemployment by 0.1 to 0.6 percent?

The good news is what’s left of the middle class will also get to keep its tax cut. The average U.S. household, which has an income of $49,777 will continue to get a tax break of $2,142. A family which earns $311,330 will get to keep $9,318. The President really wanted them to keep only $8,012.

And unemployment pay will continue for one more year for the 9 million Americans considered now chronically unemployed.

But that shouldn’t be a problem because all the millionaires and billionaires spending the holidays down on St. Bart’s will come back with “millions” of jobs for those 9 million people chronically umemployed.

What could possibly go wrong?

Let’s make sure we have this straight:

Unemployment benefits for about a third of the 6.2 million now chronically unemployed have already started to expire and will continue to expire through this glorious holiday season.

Tax cuts for what’s left of the middle class, sponsored by the Obama Administration and approved by the Congress as part of the stimulus act in 2009 are also set to expire on December 31.

Tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, sponsored by the Bush Administration and approved back in 2003 and 2004 – as we were fighting two unnecessary wars – are also set to expire on December 31.

Congress doesn’t really need to take any action on the tax cuts. They simply expire.

Congress does need to vote to extend unemployment pay for those out of work.

Got it straight, so far?

Good.

But here’s the deal: Republicans and some Democrats say they won’t vote to extend unemployment benefit or to extend tax cuts for what remains of the middle class UNLESS the tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires can also be extended.

Seems fair.

Wait…no it doesn’t.

Republicans and some Democrats are willing to let hungry people get even hungrier through this glorious holiday season to stand on the principle that millionaires and billionaires should continue to pay less in taxes.

In addition to being morally reprehensible, this principled stand of Republicans and some Democrats will add $700 billion to the debt of our great nation. And this after Republicans took back the House in the November elections promising, in part, to reduce the national debt.

I have a few questions:

1. Are you freakin’ NUTS??

2. Do you take us for fools?

3. What part of, “morally reprehensible,” don’t you understand?

INTERPOL, Situation Room

“Gentlemen, I’ve called you here because we need to issue a Red Alert.”

“A Red Alert? Wow, that’s sounds important. What’s a Red Alert?”

“It’s an important alert, not to be confused with a Blue Alert or a Green Alert.”

“Yes, sir…and why are we issuing a Red Alert?”

“We have a rampant information spreader, a RIS, on the loose, gentlemen, someone so despicable they would willingly publish on the InnerTubes information embarrassing to diplomats worldwide!”

“Excuse me, sir, but are we sure spreading information – even embarrassing information – on the Internet is a crime? I mean, isn’t that pretty much why the Internet exists?”

“You don’t seem to suitably ascertain the severity of this problem, young man. We’re talking major diplomatic embarrassment here!! This man, Julian Assange, has a website, Wikileaks, devoted to peeling back government secrets and diplomatic gossip from around the world. This is much more severe than the website devoted to peeling back the onion, Wikileeks.”

“But, sir, are we sure this is a crime?”

“Doesn’t matter. This man has embarrassed the United States by publishing diplomatic gossip and revealing the results of inter-office fantasy baseball leagues and it must be stopped!”

“But, sir, I’ve read the released cables and, well, to be honest they don’t exactly tell us anything we didn’t already know: Saudi Arabia worried about Iranian nuclear weapons? The U.S. worried about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons? That Alexander Putin is an alpha dog? Don’t we already know these things?”

“Look, young man, did you join Interpol to rid the world of its top criminals or did you join Interpol to argue?”

“But, sir, Assange’s mother has asked us not to hurt him.”

“Mother, schmother…we must protect the United States’ right to diplomatic gossip!!”

“Begging your pardon again, sir, but we’ve been nearly 10 years now trying without success to capture Osama bin Laden. Do we really need to divert our resources now to capturing a guy who puts information out on the Internet?

“Aren’t there far more nefarious undertakings afoot? Like the Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats in the U.S. Congress conspiring to cut unemployment benefits to those without jobs at Christmas time? That seems far more criminal to me.”

“Who cares about such trivial matters, young man?” We already have the fire built and the stake whittled. We need someone to burn!!”

But you can’t hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn’t we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn’t this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg – isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!

[Leads the Deltas out of the hearing, all humming the Star-Spangled Banner]

Only 1 to 2 percent of us are millionaires and billionaires and control nearly all the money in this great country of ours.

Heck fire, there’s around 15 percent of all the money left for the remaining 98 percent of us. That seems fair.

Not that money’s all that important, you understand. It’s just money and it can’t buy happiness.

What it can buy, though, is the Congress of this great country of ours.

According to a study just out by the Center for Responsive Politics, nearly half the members of Congress – 251, to be exact – are millionaires. Seems about right: 2 percent of all Americans are millionaires. Half the members of Congress are millionaires.

Betcha the last dollar I have the other half pals around with and gets campaign contributions from millionaires.

So, it’s really of little consequence to Congress when Republicans stand firm to block the extension of unemployment pay as they did last night. This would be the Alfred E. Newman view of the economic plight of fellow ‘Murkins.

Oh yea, and extending the Bush tax cuts for the super wealthy? Sure, the millionaires in the Congress are all for that.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, most of the millionaires in Congress got even richer over the last couple of years. Nice work if you can get it.

Here’s how the Center’s website, Open Secrets, puts it:

“In 2009, the median wealth of a U.S. House member stood at $765,010, up from $645,503 in 2008. The median wealth of a U.S. senator was nearly $2.38 million, up from $2.27 million in 2008. For all members of Congress regardless of chamber, median wealth in 2009 reached $911,510, up from $785,515 in 2008.”

Fifty-five members of Congress are worth $10 million or more and eight members of Congress are worth over $100 million.

End unemployment benefits? Extend tax cuts for the super wealthy? Cost this great country of ours $700 billion? Hell, that’s a no-brainer.

Fortunately for the rest of us, some millionaires in this great country of ours actually have a conscience, if not a sense kindness toward the financial plight of our land.

Calling themselves, Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength, the group includes ice cream wunderkind Ben Cohen (Ben & Jerry’s) who will also offered a new flavor, Fiscal Strength Fudge (no, just kidding).

On its website the group proclaims:

“For the fiscal health of our nation and the well-being of our fellow citizens, we ask that you allow tax cuts on incomes over $1,000,000 to expire at the end of this year as scheduled.

“We make this request as loyal citizens who now or in the past earned an income of $1,000,000 per year or more.”

Maybe, the millionaires in the Congress will take a clue from this group and decided it’s really, really okay if wealthy Americans pay the taxes they fortunate lives allow them to pay.

Just a thought.

Notice the strutting peacocks among the wounded fowl and notice, too, how some ducks are more lame than others.

For Charlie Rangel, the lame duck session in Congress will be more like the lame dip, evade, dodge, sidestep, elude and, maybe, escape session.

“Campaigning is very different from governing,” said President Obama to reporters aboard Air Force One as the giant bird also winged its way back to Washington from Asia.

“All of us learn that. And (the Republicans are) still flush with victory, having run a strategy that was all about saying no. But I am very confident that the American people were not issuing a mandate for gridlock.”

The President, for his part, wants Congress to approve an arms deal with Russia and the Korean trade deal.

But most of the squawking and strutting and plucking will be all about tax cuts: most notably the Bush tax cuts set to expire for the struggling and down-trodden millionaires and billionaires of this country – who, as it turned out, just bought the U.S. House of Representatives on November 2d.

The new owners – the millionaire and billionaire ‘Murkins – really, really want to keep dodging taxes and even though they don’t take formal possession of the House until January they’ll be making sure their pet ducks do all they can over the next couple of weeks to help ‘em out. Little help here!

Oh sure, the deal-making has already begun. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, was all over the Tee Vee Box on Sunday saying maybe tax cuts can be extended for those making less than $1 million a year. What a guy!

But notice something significant: the Congress doesn’t have to do anything on the tax cuts. They could just let them expire. That would be a do-nothing Congress with some actual benefit to the nation.

James Kwak, noted scholar, current Yale Law School student and co-author along with MIT Economist Simon Johnson of the Baseline Scenario, says the Congress should do nothing on the Bush tax cuts.

Says Kwak to the Lame Ducks:

“The question is: Is it better to extend the tax cuts for everyone or for no one? The answer is to extend them for no one.

“The Bush tax cuts have always overwhelmingly benefited the rich, not the middle class, and that is no less true today than when they were enacted. They were bad policy then and they are bad policy today. Extending the tax cuts would dramatically enrich the wealthy relative to everyone else. 65.5 percent of the total benefit would go to the top quintile by income, 26.8 percent to the top 1 percent, and 14.7 percent to the top 0.1 percent.”

Kwak says the single most important non-action the Congress could take would be to let the tax cuts expire – for everyone, rich and middle class – and thereby reduce the federal deficit and help ensure the survival of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.

“The CBO (full document, Table 1-7) projects the cost of those tax cuts in 2020 at $368 billion, or 1.6 percent of GDP. The tax cuts mean the difference between a federal deficit of 3.0 percent of GDP (probably sustainable) or 4.6 percent of GDP (probably unsustainable).”

Read the full post here.

It remains to be seen if the Lame Duck Congress also lost its spine in the November elections. How much spine does it take to simply do nothing?

After all, it wouldn’t be the Congress of 2010 that raised taxes. It would be the President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress in 2001 and 2003 that actually raised taxes on January 1, 2011.

But one would be wrong.

No matter what we do, we seem intent – at least lately, with the rare exception – on voting ourselves right smack into a deep hole. Quit digging, already, ‘Murka! What are you thinking?

Clearly, we’re not thinking clearly.

Okay, okay, okay…so we decided it’d be a great idea to put the Grand Ol’ Tea Party back in control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Well, to be honest, we actually put the Huge Corporations and Richest One Percent of ‘Murkins in control of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Grand Ol’ Tea Party is just the front group.

But we thought this would be a good idea because we didn’t seem to like the efforts being made by President Obama and the Democratic congressional majority to fix the disasters left us by the Grand Ol’ Tea Party the last time they were in control.

Disasters…don’t like fixes…let’s try disasters again. Okay, got it. Aye, aye, cap’n…full speed into the hurricane!

Oh yea,…and we did this even though every poll indicates ‘Murkins hate the Republicans even more than they hate the Democrats. And this makes some twisted kind of sense when one considers this stat: 34 percent of all ‘Murkins blame bankers for the Great Recession; of those who blame the bankers, Republicans held an 11 percent advantage over Democrats.

So, let’s review. If indeed, these mid-terms 2010 were all about a referendum on President Obama, let’s review what ‘Murkins don’t like about what Obama has done in his first two years:

1. We don’t like federal agencies being ordered to indentify and cut wasteful spending.
2. We don’t like women getting paid the same wages as men.
3. We don’t like ending the war in Iraq.
4. We don’t like further research on embryonic stem cells.
5. We don’t like funding science and research labs.
6. We don’t like increased spending for crumbling bridges and roads.
7. We don’t like increased spending for Internet access to schools.
8. We don’t like new school construction money.
9. We don’t like closing the Guantanamo gulag.
10. We don’t like rescuing the U.S. auto industry.
11. We don’t like that the economic bleeding was stopped and a slowly restoring economy.
12. We don’t like trying to save mortgages from foreclosure.
13. We don’t like ending torture.
14. We don’t like stopping the spread of nuclear weapons around the world and attempts to account for weapons already in existence, reducing them.
15. We don’t like better body armor for our troops.
16. We especially don’t like efforts to reduce our man-made contributions to climate change.
17. We sure didn’t like the Cash-for-Clunckers program because we used up all that money almost overnight.
18. We don’t like busting Somali pirates on the high seas.
19. We sure as hell don’t want every American to have access to good health care. Oh, hell no!
20. We don’t like American Cubans being able to visit their families back in Cuba.
21. We don’t like closing down offshore tax dodges nor getting the Swiss government to cooperate with U.S. officials on tax cheats who store money in Swiss banks.
22. We don’t like ending tax breaks for corporations who move jobs to other countries.
23. We don’t like tax cuts for ourselves.
24. We don’t like lower drug costs for seniors.
25. We don’t like consumer protections against predatory credit card companies.
26. We don’t like children going to college.
27. We don’t like peace in the Middle East.
28. We don’t like more loans being made available to small businesses.
29. We don’t like women on the U.S. Supreme Court, especially Latin women.
30. We don’t like expanded health care for veterans.
31. We don’t like holding Seders in the White House and we don’t like acknowledging Muslims.

And that’s just a partial list.

In short, we really don’t like progress and we don’t want our nation to change – ever!