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Thom's blog
This is President Obama’s parting shot to House Democrats...
The tax cut debate may be nearing an end…and it looks like progressives are going to get screwed. Over the weekend – Vice President Joe Biden met with top Democrats in the House of Representatives to discuss a way forward on a tax cut compromise with the Republicans. While much of the focus has been on the Senate - and whether or not they can secure 60 votes to pass tax cuts legislation – the real test will be getting enough progressive Democrats in the House to go along with a compromise that includes extending these cuts to millionaires and billionaires. The deal – apparently being worked out now between the White House and Republicans – includes extending the current tax rate for the rich another two years – in exchange for an extension of jobless benefits for the nation’s unemployed. According to the Constitution, legislation dealing with taxes or spending must originate in the House. So it looks like it will now be up to Nancy Pelosi to try to convince enough of her caucus – at least 39 Democrats – to hold their nose and support giving millionaires a tax break worth as much as 700 billion dollars. If she can’t do it – then taxes will go up for everyone at the end of the year. This is President Obama’s parting shot to House Democrats - who for the last two years stuck their necks out for progressive change – only to be repeatedly left high and dry. Many of them lost re-election because of it. So now that raising government income by increasing taxes on the rich to Clinton levels is off the table for our deficit reduction strategy – what’s left? Well- most likely spending cuts on entitlement and social welfare programs. This has been the Republican’s plan all along. After all – jobless benefits – the trade off Democrats will receive – are going to expire at least a year before the millionaire’s tax cuts. And when they do – and the Democrats no longer have a bargaining chip – guess who’s screwed? The nation’s working class.
-Thom
(What do you think Obama and Congress should do now? Tell us here.) |
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 9pm and 11pm... The Liberal Revolt - Tax Cuts. (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT, and catch past shows on Youtube)
Need to Know: Whistle blower protection act; Julian Assange & Wikileaks with Tom Devine, Legal Director-Government Accountability Project
Screwed: The Liberal Revolt - Tax Cuts
The rise of the Super PACS - 72 super PACs spent $83.7 million on election, financial disclosure reports show with Dave Levinthal, Communications Director for the Center for Responsive Politics
Time to Think the Unthinkable: A Democratic Primary Challenge To Obama's Reelection with Professor Clarence Jones, Scholar in Residence at Stanford University
Kate Middleton & the Trouble With Fairytales with Anushay Hossain, blogger/feminist
Green Report: As Climate Talks Plod Along, The World Burns with Brad Johnson, Reporter/Blogger w/Think Progress
Crazy Alert! Canadian coffee drinkers - drinking “cat poop coffee?”.
Daily Take: Afghanistan vs. Vietnam: has John Kerry has become the establishment?
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Read Thom's Book for Free!
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 "Mass Deception" exposes the new George W. Bush memoirMass Deception, the bold and critically acclaimed new book by criminologist Scott Bonn, reveals that the Bush administration lied about the threat from Iraq and committed war crimes throughout the invasion and occupation. Order it today on amazon.com. Visit and "like" the Mass Deception fan page on facebook. |
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The Daily Stack 
Quote: "All that serves labor serves the nation. All that harms is treason. If a man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool. There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other." -- Abraham Lincoln.
Hour One: What does the weekend's lack of Presidential leadership say about Obama's chances in 2012?
Hour Two: Catfood Commission Dead: Thank God...(S.Korea trade deal?) New York Labor activist Jonathan Tasini joins Thom.
Hour Three: Why do you object to returning the Clinton era tax rates that produced 20 million jobs and a balanced budget? I'll mix it up with Carrie Lukas, Vice President of the Independent Women's Forum.
Update from the Cancun Climate Summit from Tamar Sharabi, Reporter, Free Speech TV.
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Coming up on The Thom Hartmann Program
Hour Two: Could the collapse of the PIGS and the demise of the Euro trigger another worldwide financial crisis and how do we stop it? I'll challenge Desmond Lachman, economist with the American Enterprise Institute...
And, the best of the rest of the news and your calls right here on...
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Are Tea baggers and Republicans still brewing a Government Shutdown?
What's more important: Capitalism or Democracy?
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What if we stopped immigrant labor?
If we discourage illegal employers from hiring undocumented workers and insist that all immigrants go through full processing before they can work here, won't our prices go up?
The answer is simple: Yes.
But wages would also go up, and even faster than housing, consumer products or food prices. All working Americans would gladly pay a bit more at the store or restaurant if their paychecks were both significantly higher and more secure.
Every nation has an obligation to limit immigration to a number that will not dilute its workforce, but will maintain a stable middle class - if it wants to have a stable democracy. This has nothing to do with race, national origin, or language, and everything to do with economics.
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Thom and Louise Hartmann founded the New England Salem Children's Village in New Hampshire in 1979. With states delaying payment for the children they entrust to the village, they need help with cash flow urgently. Please help if you can. |
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