It's Time For An ANTI-NORQUIST PATRIOT PLEDGE!!!

The Grover Norquist anti-tax pledge is the lynchpin that holds the GOP's fiscally irresponsible GOP policies together. It's time the Democrats target this pledge by demanding they sign a counter pledge similar to the below:


I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office of which I seek. While in office my primary obligation is to those I represent and to the People of the United States.


I further affirm that I will not let commitments, oaths, or pledges made to others restrict my ability to arrive at the best policy decisions or come before my sworn obligations stated above.


Signed___________________




revised 10-15-12


ulTRAX

A Proposal For An Occupy Wall Street Manifesto

The term traitor has both legal and moral definitions. In the moral sense, we hold the following to be TRAITORS to the United States and its People.

1: Politicians in BOTH parties who passed irresponsible tax cuts with the deliberate intent of creating massive debt as a backdoor way to undermine our social safety net. This has not just created massive interest payments... almost $3 trillion alone in the Bush years, stolen from trillions from our children, but also sabotaged government's ability to respond to emergencies.

2: Politicians in BOTH parties who put ideology over common sense and passed free trade which exported our jobs and undermined our economy and standard of living to benefit a few corporate investors. This has not only undermined our defense industry but is now crippling our economic recovery.

3: Politicians in BOTH parties who permitted advanced technology transfers to Red China and have allowed the US to become financially indebted to the Red Chinese who now have the power to destabilize the US. In a mere 15 years we have undermined our own economy and created a powerful economic and military rival.

4: Politicians in BOTH parties who deregulated the banks and commodity sectors letting the greedy predators run wild to prey on homeowners, small investors, and our retirement funds. They have robbed our youth of a future. They sabotaged the productive parts of our economy and allowed it to be replaced with irresponsible speculation and gambling. Like in 1929 this ultimately crashed the entire economy.

5: Politicians in BOTH parties who bailed out Wall Street predators and thieves without massively reforming our economic system so the Crash Of 2008 could never happen again.

6: Politicians in BOTH parties who refused to bring these predators and thieves to justice and allowed them to keep wealth they stole from the rest of us.

7: Politicians in BOTH parties who have refused to try to free us being held hostage to foreign oil from a hostile region of the world.

8: Politicians in BOTH parties who for political gain got the US bogged down in illegal wars of aggression... weakening our military and economy while undermining US credibility around the world, then passed the bill on to our children.

If our ENEMIES had done this to our nation, all real patriots would have declared war on these traitors long ago. Our goal is to REVERSE THE ABOVE and see that those who did this to our nations are either punished in elections or by the law!!

IS STARVE THE BEAST TREASON?

Just what is Grover Norquist's strategy of "Starve The Beast"? It was once a fringe far Right wing strategy to use fiscal irresponsibility as a political weapon. The GOP would rack up debt with irresponsible tax cuts and reckless spending to benefit their wealthy and corporate constituency. And and when the political pendulum shifted and the Democrats took power, that new debt would restrain them.

Eventually this fiscal irresponsibility would create a financial crisis where the GOP could go in for the kill and go after Democratic programs they knew could never get voters to weaken or kill through the ballot box.

Starve The Beast is now the mainstream in the GOP with the vast majority of GOP representatives and senators having signed Grover Norquist's pledge to pursue this strategy.

Given Starve The Beast calls for the willful sabotaging of government revenues and the creation of massive debt, it is a deliberate attack on the fiscal health of government and affects government's ability deal with emergencies.

At what point does this strategy cross the line into treason? Has it already?

Proof Reagan's Tax Cuts FAILED As A Stimulus?

Last week Limbaugh was again spouting the Right's nonsense that tax cuts are some magic bullet for the economy as if the evidence wasn't in from the Bush2 years. Tax cuts them failed to either stimulate the economy or inoculate the economy against recession. We might have avoided that mistake if we just went back and learned from an earlier example... the era of Voodoo Economics.

In February 1981 the Reagan admin wrote of their new economic plan

The program we have developed will break that cycle of negative expectations. It will revitalize economic growth, renew optimism and confidence, and rekindle the Nation's entrepreneurial instincts and creativity.

The benefits to the average American will be striking. Inflation—which is now at double digit rates—will be cut in half by 1986. The American economy will produce 13 MILLION NEW JOBS by 1986, nearly 3 million more than if the status quo in government policy were to prevail. The economy itself should break out of its anemic growth patterns to a much more robust growth trend of 4 to 5 percent a year. These positive results will be accomplished simultaneously with reducing tax burdens, increasing private saving, and raising the living standard of the American family.

Source: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=43427

In reality, just 5 months later, the economy sank into what was then the worst recession since the 30's. Unemployment hit a peak of 10.8% by December 1982... higher than it was under Obama. The unemployment rate remained over 8% for nearly 2 years, from March 82 through January 84.

Source... you'll have to construct your own tables here: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?bls

As for the actual job creation numbers under Reagan?

FOX says "Under Reagan, 9.5 million jobs were created from January 1981 to December 1986."

source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,242424,00.html

That's it? Even when Fox gives Reagan an extra YEAR, Reagan could not meet his own job creation prediction of 13 million new jobs by 1986 (Jan 86) and was 3.5 MILLION jobs off.

I don't know where FOX got it's 9.5 million new jobs number but at the BLS site http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?bls you can also run the job numbers.

In February 1981 when that White House reported predicted 13 million new jobs by 1986... the total workforce was estimated to be 108,242,000. In January 1986 the number was 116,682,000.

Where Reagan predicted 13 million jobs... it looks like a mere 8.4 million were created. That's 4.6 MILLION off Reagan's prediction.

Reagonomics was a utter failure yet the Orwellian Right has erased this failure from the minds of GOPers just as they are busy erasing the Bush2 failures.

So why would someone want to deliberately the public believe in a FAILED policy?

Because the REAL intent of these irresponsible tax cuts was NEVER economic stimulus but a reason the far Right can never admit to... to sabotage government revenues and drive up debt hoping to eventually bring us to the point we are at now... where the Right hopes to drive a stake in the heart of all those New Deal and great Society programs they've always loathed. To preserve this strategy the Orwellian Right has rewritten history and turned irresponsible tax cuts not just into a shining success but into a religion. They know fully well facts really don't stand a chance when the Right wing faithful inoculate themselves against them.

ulTRAX

The Tax Code And The Citizens United Decision

I assume most of us are troubled by the USSC Citizens United decision. While I’m all in favor of an amendment to clarify that constitutionally a person can only be a NATURAL person not an artificial one, the bar to passing a constitutional amendment is ridiculously high and could take years to pass… if ever.

But are there are other possible avenues of attack to push corporations out of politics?

What about the IRS tax code?
Currently religious and non-profit entities receive tax-exempt status on the condition they NOT engage in political campaign activities. This is NOT considered a restraint on their First Amendment free speech laws. If these groups violate this agreement, they lose that perk.
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=161131,00.html

Corporations receive numerous benefits such as limited liability protections and tax benefits such as the ability to write off expenses all designed to facilitate commerce.
Why can’t the tax code be changed to make these tax benefits conditional on corporations NOT engaging in political campaign activities?

Technically this would NOT be a restraint on corporate free speech any more than it is with those religious and non-profit organizations.

Corporations, likewise, would remain free to engage in political activities. Only they, too, would be faced with the choice that such involvement would end all of those special benefits in the tax code. Changing IRS code could possibly be done in time to prevent a massive avalanche of corporate money from affecting this year’s election.

Currently a proposal floated by Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Chris Van Hollen does NOT include this approach. You can read their proposal here: http://vanhollen.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=169969

I urge you to contact Chuck Schumer at 202-224-6542 and Chris Van Hollen at (202) 225-5341.