Stop the belly aching, whining and "joking" about todays "tea party" tax protests!

The real questions are obvious and are being avoided.

Why aren't WE out there demonstrating against unfair taxes?

That's OUR issue!

And why is the far right being handed an open and uncontested field on this issue?

That's not a very smart thing to do

And yet "the left" is continuing to leave it up to "tea party" outfits to organize bogus tax protests, giving them a clear field and broad public attention when they pretend to be "populist" defenders of working folks.

Liberal and progressive organizations could have organized massive anti-tax demonstrations today, far bigger than anything the right-wing could have organized, against the unfair share working people pay in taxes.

Why should working people pay hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes to fund foreign wars, cover tax cuts for billionnaires and pay for Wall Street bankster bailouts?

Tax the rich, not working people!

We do have a few progressive organized tax protests today in Minnesota. This should be happening on a massive scale coast to coast.




Tax Day demonstrations to highlight burden on working people
13 April 2010

Last-minute tax filers will be greeted by members of AFSCME Council 5 on Tax Day, April 15, at post offices in Anoka, Bemidji, Brainerd, Cambridge, Duluth and Minneapolis. Union volunteers will ask taxpayers a simple question: “Are you tired of paying more so the rich can pay less?”
Volunteers will be at the post offices from 4 to 6:30 p.m., the union said.

Tax breaks for the rich cost Minnesota more than $1 billion each year. According to the Minnesota Department of Revenue’s 2009 Tax Incidence Study, the richest Minnesotans pay less than 9 percent of their income on state and local taxes. Meanwhile, middle class families pay more than 12 percent. Learn more at www.TaxTheRichest.com.

“Working families pay their taxes,” said Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5. “We think it’s time for the richest Minnesotans to pay their fair share, too. It’s the fairest way to fix the budget and invest in a better future for everyone. It’s simply wrong to cut education, health care and public safety in order to protect the rich.”

AFSCME Council 5 is also taking its “Tax the Rich” message to the airwaves this week. The TV spot was broadcast during the Minnesota Twins home opener on Monday and statewide on cable stations. It will also be heard on 80 radio stations and during Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s “Good Morning Minnesota” show on WCCO-AM.

AFSCME Council 5 is a union of 43,000 workers who advocate for excellence in public services, dignity in the workplace, and opportunity and prosperity for all working families.

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4435

k/r

With Tax Day again upon us, two story lines will predictably dominate the media coverage on April 15th. In their perpetual war on taxes, conservatives will claim that rates are too high even as those Americans who receive tax credits get "welfare." Meanwhile, frothing-at-the-mouth Tea Partiers will protest about being "Taxed Enough Already."

Sadly, the numbers tell a different tale. After a decade of the Bush tax cuts, it's clear that only one side is fighting - and winning - the class war. As for the Tea Baggers, they aren't merely, as Jon Stewart suggested last year, "confusing tyranny with losing." They are confused about so much more.

Here, then, are 10 Inconvenient Truths for Tax Day:

1. Over 95% of Working Households Got Tax Cuts
2. Only 2% of Tea Baggers Know Obama Cut Their Taxes...
3. ...and 52% of Tea Partiers Think Their Taxes are Fair...
4. ...and Think the Federal Tax Level is Over Double What It Is
5. 1% of Families Earned 24% of All Income...
6. ...and 57% of All Capital Income
7. 400 Richest Taxpayers Saw Incomes Double, Tax Rates Halved
8. Only 1 in 500 Families Pay the Estate Tax
9. Corporate Taxes Have Plummeted as a Share of GDP
10. The U.S. Loses $345 Billion a Year to Tax Evasion and Fraud


http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/10-inconvenient-truths-for-tax-day

Do you think the "Bush tax cuts" mainly benefited the wealthy or working people?

Over 95% of Working Households Got Tax Cuts.

As promised, President Obama delivered tax relief to over 95% of working American households. But you don't have to take the White House's word for it. As Nate Silver, Citizens for Tax Justice and others also documented, "President Obama Cut Taxes for 98% of Working Families in 2009."

As it turns out, the $160 billion in tax cuts provided to families and businesses this year by the Recovery Act also produced an average IRS refund of over $3,000, a 10% jump from last year.

Do you honestly believe that small tax cut has achieved a fair and progressive income tax system?

I'm surprised you're satisfied with this and are against taxing the rich.

End all of the tax loopholes for the rich, make corporations pay taxes once again and give working people a permanent and sizable tax cut.

Perhaps you can provide a link to any legislation that proposes to do that .... if such legislation actually exists.

I'm waiting!

...at least for those earning >$250k/year.

1. Over 95% of Working Households Got Tax Cuts

Unless you have a machine to turn back time, Bush's tax cuts are in the past. Obama's tax cuts did not only go to working Americans, his cuts are working.

The poster talked about Bush's tax cuts to the rich and didn't consider Obama's tax cuts to the poor and middle class.

He may have been asleep in a cave for the last year and three months.

Not that I'm not all for doing it anyway.

But we can't just follow the Tea Party around doing pathetic little "counter-protests" either, I think the teabaggers learned that lesson during the Iraq protests (although they always seemed to get at least equal time in the MSM coverage, even if there were like 5 of them).

We need to protest our own issues... tax burden should be one of them, the redistribution of wealth that's been going on for decades should be one of them

I'm not protesting my taxes because I don't think they're that bad. And I know what they pay for.

But protesting against taxes and protesting what the taxes go toward are two different protests. I'd be part of the latter, but not the former.

... but it seems the thread has quickly become a perceptive defense of Obama, since the 'lowest in 60 yrs' tag line invalidates this particular point of entry into what the OP's getting at. Just a guess ...

So that got me off track.

I get enough knee-jerk bitching about taxes around here. I work in a business that is paid for by taxes and I have to justify every single thing we spend our money on every minute. So when I hear about how we should be out protesting against taxes, I tend to respond too quickly.

Yes, I'd protest against what our money goes toward, but not against the concept of taxes.

Exactly. I continue to protest against the wars, against the money going to the war machine, but not against taxes themselves.

If a few trillion dollars wasn't spent for foreign wars, Wall Street bailouts and tax cuts for the rich do you think the taxes of working people would:

1. Go up.

2. Go down.

3. Stay the same because Congress would easily vote to spend those funds on massive public works projects and social programs .... once 100 Democrats are elected to the Senate.

I'd have to go with #2 while I would personally favor a combination of #2 and #3.

Change the cause: Stop spending such massive amounts on the war machine and there will be more for other things. Don't deal with the symptom: Simply cutting taxes will only take money away from other more needy things.

Protesting taxes is stupid. Protesting what a huge amount the tax money goes for will actually have the potential to change things.

And you must be even happier with the low taxes the rich pay.

That's nice.

I'm not.

And I don't like the regressive tax system that started under President Reagan and continues today.

Just one question. Why do you oppose the tax demonstrations being organized by unions in Minnesota?

What's stopping you.

And I've never even heard about the tax demonstrations being organized by unions in Minnesota.

"Then get out and protest. What's stopping you."

Well, the only thing happening here is "tea bag" organized protests. If I lived in Minnesota I'd participate in the union organized protests.


"I've never even heard about the tax demonstrations being organized by unions in Minnesota."

It's a big part of the opening post.

You might want to read it.

And please don't review any movies you haven't seen.

Thank you.

Sure I don't like that it goes to wars but I think there are plenty of good things the government could do with it.

Hell, that could in fact easily help finance a national single payer health system!

:)

Minnesota Tax Day Rally: 'Tax the Rich'
By Staff | April 15, 2010

St. Paul, MN - Protesters assembled in the rotunda of the Minnesota state capitol here on April 15 for a rally to demand that the state government not “balance the state budget on the backs of working and low-income people.” The rally called on politicians to instead, “tax the rich.”

“In the midst of the greatest economic crisis in generations, the governor and legislature are preparing a budget that will put the worst effects of the economic crisis on the backs of low-income and working people. Cuts are being proposed that will have a huge impact on working people and low-income families and individuals. The rich created this economic crisis. Let them pay for it!” said Deb Konechne, of the Welfare Rights Committee, a member group of the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout, which organized the event.

The governor and state legislature are preparing a budget that will result in massive cuts to programs that provide needed services and jobs for many low income, disabled and working people across the state.

Jennie Eisert, a member of Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout, said, “The wealthy have enjoyed years of state and federal tax breaks, which has led to an enormous concentration of wealth in this country. But what have the wealthy done with this bonus? They ran the economy into the ground. Now state and federal government are preparing huge budget cuts.”

“People are losing their jobs and homes. It is time the rich make up the difference and pay higher taxes so low income and working people get a break,” Eisert continued.



http://www.fightbacknews.org/2010/4/15/minnesota-tax-day-rally-tax-rich


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Bemidji Tea Party protests government spending
April 16, 2010

Across the downtown at the same time, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees held a counter rally urging U.S. postal patrons to support their call for taxing the rich.

“We can fix the state budget with fairness and compassion if the richest Minnesotans pay their fair share of taxes,” an AFSCME statement says. “It’s simply wrong to continue shifting their burden onto the middle class, the jobless and vulnerable.”

The union workers ask Minnesotans to stop the cuts and demand revenues.

Information provided by AFSCME shows 2011 tax rates will have a Minnesota household with income of less than $11,202 having a tax rate of 22.1 percent, while a household income of $136,995 or more will have a rate of 10.1 percent, representing the top 10 percent of Minnesota wealth.

“It’s time the rich paid their fair share,” AFSCME said. “Demand fair taxes to fix the budget and invest in a better Minnesota,” the statement said.

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/article/id/100017886/

If the media really were fair and balanced the left would be given as much air time as the Becks, Limbaughs, teabaggers, and Palins of the world.

Outside of Minnesota labor unions, what is the "left" doing today to protest the regressive and unfair tax system?

Meanwhile the "tea bag" rightists have been given a clear and open field on the tax issue while some liberals argue we should do not to protest unfair taxes! Now that/s smart!

Some here apparently believe we have a totally fair, just and progressive tax system simply because a very small tax cut was passed by Congress.

At the same time, Congress has approved hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts for the Wall Street banksters and hundreds of billions of dollars for needless foreign war adventures.

I guess we should just ignore that.

Look we had that huge march in DC in 2006 - guess what? We didn't get a minute of airtime. But 300 teabaggers protesting on a street corner? Holy shit! We got to get every available news outlet on it now!!!

Perhaps the tea bag outfits got media coverage because most of their "organized" opponents were sitting at home contemplating their navels instead of being out in the streets.

You're not one of those "I'm tired or marching" folks who always pop up whenever someone proposes mass actions, are ya?

How many years and mass protests did it take to achieve major labor, civil rights, women's rights and gay rights reforms?

Many.

You won't get instant gratification and "revolution".

Facts are, taxes went down for 98% of the households in the nation this year. I think your OP is stupid, and stokes a non issue for gods know what reason.

Yes. All of the people in my working class neighborhood are just so happy paying taxes to cover the wars and Wall Street bailouts.

And they also believe we have a fair tax system and if anything the rich pay way too much in taxes!

You must live in that same neighborhood!

That would be a fantasy working class neighborwood where everyone is talking about how little taxes they now pay and how fair those taxes are.

So ya wanna give the right-wing a free ride on the tax issue. That's the ticket!

I really don't understand why you find it so difficult to understand why and how this tax system is unfair, regressive and uses our money for horrible things like the needless foreign wars and bailouts to the ruling rich.

Don't you get it?

So you got a huge tax cut. Good for you. My wife didn't.

How much money did your "tax cut" actually amount to? Or how much less was withheld from your regular paycheck than before the cut. A couple of bucks a week?

The other side has for the most part made this day their day to protest. Sure you could try to counter protest on this day. It might work. Chances are the other side will just count your numbers with their numbers and ignore completely your message. You'd be much better off finding a better day to protest. In this end the other DUers are right Obama is going to let the Bush tax cuts end and already cut income taxes on the lower brackets. Actually protesting might also make you look really petty. I mean liberal legislators are likely to ignore you as they just made changes and you haven't even given them time to come into effect. Timing a protest is important. Tea baggers look so stupid because they are protesting things that didn't happen, don't exist or aren't currently on the legislative bench. I'd hate to look to much like a tea bagger.

What your taxes pay for is of course a completely different protest :)

But we should be.