Daddy on the Edge of the Same Old Song and Dance

I saw this in the news;

" The president unveiled an austere federal budget that calls for elimination of 115 long-established programs, significant reductions in defense and most domestic outlays and only slight increases for the administration's top priorities.

The administration's new budget is designed to advance the president's agenda within the modest bounds permitted by tough new spending caps, while still meeting the deficit reduction targets. Yet the funding shifts and program curtailments it proposes are certain to provoke bitter struggles among affected interest groups and their allies in Congress. Liberal Democrats already are accusing the president of failing to honor his campaign promises to reverse the effects of years of Republican rule and reinvigorate social spending."

There. He's doing it. Happy now? This is what we need, right? This is what the Tea Party and the Republicans in Congress have been screaming for, isn't it? Cutting social programs, tough new spending caps, deficit reduction targets - surely, this is the answer. Surely, this plan will lead us into a better, brighter future.

The only problem is, this isn't the future. This is the past.

The quote at the top of this page was from 1995, describing then President Clinton's new budget. A lot of what was happening then is happening now, to be sure - a democratic president pushing health care reform, a midterm election that resulted in a whole lot of Republicans feeling all full of themselves (the term "uppity" comes to mind) and, so hellbent was this uppity new Republican Congress on showing President Clinton who was boss, that they shut down the government as a last ditch effort to "get this liberal spending under control".

Clinton got re-elected. Guess that whole "Show 'em who's boss" thang didn't work out that well for the Repubs, did it?

You'd think that these people would remember that, especially if you were there while it was happening. Y'know who was there? John Boehner. Y'know what he was doing? Handing out checks from the tobacco lobby to members of the House. Check it;

Why would he do such a thing? Simple - in a rare act of intelligence and rationality, the House was going to vote in favor of ending government subsidies to tobacco growers...and Big Tobacco was having none of that...

The irony is totally ludicrous - these same people that want to repeal the Health Care Bill (call it ObamaCare at your own peril - I'm throwing banana cream pies in the faces of people that utter such tired rhetoric) - these same people are responsible for subsidizing tobacco growers to the tune of $944,104,224 since 1995. 1995 - that same year John Boehner acted as big tobacco's ATM machine, dispensing commission checks to members of Congress on the floor of the House - to vote against cutting the tobacco subsidies. Since then, we've paid almost one billion dollars to Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man. But Health Care is Bad? Welcome to the Republican Bizarro World.

Daddy's not going to preach about the evils of smoking; having smoked for over 30 years, that too would be ironic. Besides, the facts are already well documented -

Over 4000 chemical compounds are created by burning a cigarette, many of which are toxic and/or carcinogenic. Carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide and ammonia are all present in cigarette smoke. Forty-three known carcinogens are in mainstream smoke, sidestream smoke, or both.

Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body and diminishes a person’s overall health. Millions of Americans have health problems caused by smoking.

Smoking is a leading cause of cancer and death from cancer. It causes cancers of the lung, esophagus, larynx, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, pancreas, stomach, and cervix, as well as acute myeloid leukemia.

Smoking also causes heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis and emphysema, hip fractures, and cataracts. Smokers are at higher risk of developing pneumonia and other airway infections.

A pregnant smoker is at higher risk of having her baby born too early and with an abnormally low birth weight. A woman who smokes during or after pregnancy increases her infant’s risk of death from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Men who smoke are at greater risk of erectile dysfunction.

Cigarette smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke cause an estimated 438,000 premature deaths each year in the United States. Of these premature deaths, about 40 percent are from cancer, 35 percent are from heart disease and stroke, and 25 percent are from lung disease. Smoking is the leading cause of premature, preventable death in this country.

This is a no-brainer (so even Michelle Bachmann will get it) - subsidizing tobacco is wrong, it's deadly and it's stupid. And, if you're serious about cutting the deficit, it should be first on the list. Easy Peasy.

You wanna fix the budget, Uppity Republicans of 2010? Start there. End the subsidies for Big Tobacco. And this time...finish the damn job.

Do It,

Daddy

Daddy on the Edge of "The Welfare State"

So, I started out as diligent little blogger person, searching for stats - facts and figures, charts and graphs to back up my seemingly Un-Daddylike position that supporting all of the greedy little thieving welfare queens in our country has simply got to stop. And then I thought, I don't need no stinkin' stats! I'm fueled by rage! Powered by righteous indignation! I'm having a Tea Party in my pants! So here I go - catch me if I fall.

First, let me say that, if you are just broke ass broke, and you need help, then you should have help - I'm all for that. If you're sick and can't care for yourself, you should have care. The weakest among us should be assisted by those of us who are not so weak - Jesus said it, Buddha said it, Ghandi said it, Clinton, King, Obama, Kennedy, and of course - Daddy says it.

However, if you do not need welfare - if you already make more money than you need and yet still insist on taking that which is meant for those less fortunate - well then, you are scum. You are disgusting, loathsome maggots feasting off of the flesh of our country - taking that which does not belong to you; that which you do not deserve, and in doing so, forcing the rest of us to pay for your gluttony. You are filth, and it is you that we speak of when we discuss "Welfare Queens".

Here are a few of those money grubbing bitches - those welfare queens that sit around all day with their other freeloading friends, trying to think of even more ways to steal from honest, hardworking Americans;


ExxonMobil
Sales: $311 billion
Pretax income: $37.3 billion
Income taxes: $17.6 billion
Tax rate: 47%

None of ExxonMobil's income taxes were paid in the U.S. In 2008 the company's income tax bill was $36 billion.

They paid ZERO. A pre-tax income of 37.3 BILLION and they paid ZERO. Daddy's pre-tax income was just slightly less than 37.3 billion frigging dollars, and let me tell you that Daddy paid taxes. Daddy's butt is still sore from the last tax payment. But hey, as long as I'm supporting poor, defenseless companies like little old ExxonMobil - I mean, somebodies gotta pay for all that boom, right? I wonder if my money is helping them dodge proper well drilling techniques, or going to purchase poorly misused and inadequate boom, or maybe my tax dollars subsidize the bird cleaning effort. Hey, as long as I'm doing my part to keep this poor company on it's feet!

Chevron
Sales: $172 billion
Pretax income: $18.5 billion
Income taxes: $8 billion
Tax rate: 43%

Chevron paid $19 billion income tax in 2008. Of this year's taxes, just $200 million were paid in the U.S.

Not as bad as ExxonMobil, but still - $200 million down from $19 billion? Methinks someone has found an offshore haven of sorts.But hey, we didn't need that $18.8 billion, did we? We'll get by - maybe we can have a bake sale!

Y'know that I could go on and on with this rogues gallery, but we have grocery shopping to do, so I'll wrap up with this one, which is by far my absolute Fav!

General Electric
Sales: $157 billion
Pretax income: $10.3 billion
Income taxes: (-$1.1 billion)
Tax rate: N/A

GE's financial services unit, GE Capital, keeps the overall tax bill so low. Over the last two years, GE Capital has displayed an uncanny ability to lose lots of money in the U.S. and make lots of money overseas, where tax rates are lower.

Read those figures carefully - that's a Negative $1.1 billion under Income Tax. Not only did they "owe nothing" in U.S. Income Tax, but they managed to record a tax benefit in excess of one billion dollars! I love that - they have an uncanny ability to lose money here and make it elsewhere! Y'know, there's a name for that ability. It's called Larceny.

The bottom line here is that you can blame the poor in this country all you like for "the strain on the system" that they cause through their needs, but it is nothing when you compare that amount to the enormous amounts of money that these companies deny the U.S. every year. We need to be clear on who's stealing from us. While it's comforting and easy to blame this guy -



the truth is that he's the least of our problems. He's a decoy, put out there by lobbyists, corporations and even those in our own government. They want us to focus all of our energy on that guy, so we don't notice this guy -



Pretty damned good decoy, huh? I'd have trouble telling these guys apart. This Welfare Queen to my right is Lee Raymond, Chief Fat Bastard of ExxonMobil, just looking all happy as a pig in shit over how he fleeces this country that he calls home. Bastard.



We've gotta stop this, and I'm certain we can. But this requires thought. It requires minds greater than Daddy's to figure out how to bring down these giants and steal their wallets. That's where you come in. We need ideas; we need to start a dialogue. Revolutions are won by those who show up - leaving some thoughts in the comments section is a damned good start.

Here's some music to get you excited - track 2 on the Revolution Soundtrack.

"The principles are clear and explicit. The free market is fine for the third world and the growing counterpart at home. Mothers with dependent children can be sternly lectured on the need for self-reliance, but not dependent executives and investors, please. For them, the welfare state must flourish."

~ Avram Noam Chomsky

Time to dethrone the Queens,

Daddy