Author: Randy Slovacek

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Lobbying for tax giveaways, corporations hoard record amounts of cash instead of hiring

From ThinkProgress: American corporations are holding more cash on their balance sheets than at any time in nearly a half century, as they continue to save instead of investing or hiring workers, according to a Federal Reserve report released Friday.

According to the report, non-financial corporations held more than $2 trillion in cash at the end of June, a $88 billion jump since the end of March. Cash holdings made up 7.1 percent of all company assets, the highest level since 1963.

Meanwhile, Republican candidates continue to endorse drastic reductions in the corporate tax rate, even as American corporations pay one of the lowest effective tax rates in the developed world.

Those who favor lower corporate tax rates and bigger giveaways continue to argue more cash on hand will equal more jobs created. The Fed’s latest report, however, is more evidence that equation simply doesn’t work out.

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Prop 8: Federal judge orders trial tapes released

A federal judge has ordered the unsealing of a video of the court trial that resulted in California’s ban on gay marriage being ruled unconstitutional.

“No compelling reasons exist for continued sealing of the digital recording of the trial, U.S. District Court Judge James Ware said in a decision issued Monday. He stayed his decision, which is posted here, until September 30 to allow for any appeal.

Same-sex marriage opponents had sought to keep the trial recording under wraps, citing what they contended were assurances from the judge who handled the trial and later retired, Vaughn Walker. Those opposing public release of the video also argued that release was effectively barred by a Supreme Court order overturning plans for a live, closed-circuit broadcast of the trial to various courthouses across the country.

However, Judge Ware said that the Supreme Court ruling didn’t amount to a requirement to seal the video and that the recording had been used both by the judge and at trial.
(more at Politico)

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Congressman “only has $400K” after taxes to feed his family

Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) appeared on MSNBC with Chris Jansing this morning to attack President Obama’s new deficit reduction plan, which includes some tax increases on the wealthy.

Fleming, a business owner himself, said that while his businesses made $6.3 million last year, after you “pay 500 employees, you pay rent, you pay equipment, and food,” his profits “a mere fraction of that” — “by the time I feed my family, I have maybe $400,000 left over.”

Jansing pointed out that whining about tax increases while making $400,000 annually is “not exactly a sympathetic position.” Fleming could only respond by saying that “class warfare has never created a job” and that his success is a “virtue.”

And how hard does the congressman work to make the equivalent of eight median household incomes? Fleming told the Wall Street Journal that “he spends very little time on day-to-day management, though he weighs in on broad strategy decisions.” “I monitor the reports. I’m certainly in communication with the managers,” he told the paper.

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President Obama announces debt reduction plan

President Barack Obama called for $1.5 trillion in new taxes Monday, part of a total 10-year deficit reduction package totaling more than $3 trillion. “We can’t just cut our way out of this hole,” the president said.

Obama’s plan would end Bush-era tax cuts for top earners and would limit their deductions.

Responding to a complaint from Republicans about his proposed tax on the wealthy, Obama added: “This is not class warfare. It’s math.”

28 recent polls show Americans support some tax increases as part of any serious deficit reduction plan.

Coupled with about $1 trillion in cuts already approved by Congress and signed by the president, overall deficit reduction would total more than $4 trillion, a number many economists cite as a minimum threshold to bring the nation’s debt under control.

Key features of Obama’s plan:
• $1.5 trillion in new revenue, which would include about $800 billion realized over 10 years from repealing the Bush-era tax rates for couples making more than $250,000. It also would place limits on deductions for wealthy filers and end certain corporate loopholes and subsidies for oil and gas companies.
• $580 billion in cuts in mandatory benefit programs, including $248 billion in Medicare and $72 billion in Medicaid and other health programs. Other mandatory benefit programs include farm subsidies and federal employee benefits.
• $430 billion in savings from lower interest payment on the national debt.
• $1 trillion in savings from drawing down military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.
• $48 billion – The administration’s Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee, which has been proposed multiple times but never moved in Congress, would require the nation’s biggest banks to pay any outstanding costs associated with the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). I would expect the Tea Party to support this whole-heartedly.
• $4 billion annually – Repealing tax subsidies to the hugely profitable oil and gas industries.

More from the AP

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Michael Sullivan, Australian Rugby League footballer

(via homorazzi) Meet a 31-year old Australian named Michael Sullivan. This guy is a professional rugby league footballer for the Bulldogs of the National Rugby League (NRL).

After the former gambling addict finished his contract with the Bulldogs, he signed on as the Captain/Coach for the Orange Cyms in Group 10 Country Rugby League.

He and his former Bulldogs teammates Nick Youngquest and Daniel Holdsworth posed for the Gods Of Football charity calendar.

Happy Sunday!

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Brad Pitt in this week’s Parade Magazine on marriage equality

Brad Pitt has some very supportive words for the LGBT community in this weeks Parade Magazine:

“What are you so afraid of? That’s my question. Gay people getting married? What is so scary about that? It’s complicated. You grow up in a religion like that and you try to pray the gay away. I feel sadness for people like that. This is where people start short-circuiting—instead of being brave and questioning their beliefs, they are afraid and feel that they have to defend them.”

“I don’t mind a world with religion in it. There are some beautiful tenets within all religions. What I get hot about is when they start dictating how other people must live. People suffer because of it. They are spreading misery.”

“Can you believe that we’re still fighting for equality in America? To be against marriage for everyone is utter discrimination. I feel strongly about that because if equality of marriage doesn’t happen now, the next generation will have to deal with it.”

“It is an amazing thing that New York has finally gotten same-sex marriage. But the real problem is that the federal government hides behind states on this issue. It is blatant, ugly bigotry, and the federal government shouldn’t be doing that. You’re denying some Americans the right that all Americans have, to live their lives as they choose.”