Showing posts with label Senate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Senate. Show all posts
Friday, April 1, 2022
Friday, October 28, 2016
Ron Johnson Invests In Irish Company That Resembles A Tax Shelter
GOP Senator Invests In Irish Company That Resembles A Tax Shelter
While it may be perfectly legal, Ron Johnson’s stake in the multimillion-dollar firm with one employee sure seems odd.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who has defended corporate tax dodging throughout his Senate career, owns part of an Irish company that bears some of the hallmarks of a tax avoidance scheme.
Johnson has a 9.9 percent stake in DP Lenticular, a Dublin-based company, according to his Senate financial disclosure for 2015. His investment is worth between $250,001 and $500,000 and he earned $5,001 to $15,000 in dividend income from the company that year, the disclosure indicates.
The 9.9 percent stake is just below a cutoff that requires private citizens to disclose their ownership. Americans who own 10 percent or more of a foreign business must report it to the federal government. Now that Johnson is a member of Congress, he has to report all of his assets.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Gerrymandering Reinforces & Enables Further Polarization
More revisionist fantasy was presented as reasoned analysis in a recent op-ed from Nolan McCarty, Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal. The authors claim, Gerrymandering Didn't Cause America's Polarization.
They begin, "The right wing of the Republican Party has embraced a fundamentalist version of free-market capitalism and succeeded in winning elections."
The authors continue, "The "blame it on the gerrymanders" argument mistakenly assumes that because redistricting created more comfortable seats for each party, polarization became inevitable."
Conversely, as an example, which Bloomberg reported, "Michigan’s 14th congressional district looks like a jagged letter ’S’ lying on its side. From Detroit, one of the nation’s most Democratic cities, it meanders to the west, north and east, scooping up the black- majority cities of Southfield and Pontiac while bending sharply to avoid Bloomfield Hills, the affluent suburb where 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was raised. Its unusual shape is intentional. Michigan Republicans, seeking to maximize their political strength, drew the district lines -- and the residential patterns of Democratic voters made their job easier. Michigan’s 14th district underscores how Democrats across the U.S. are bunched in big metropolitan areas, resulting in the party’s House candidates often winning by wide margins on Election Day while Republicans capture more seats because their voters are spread out."
The Bloomberg reporters continue, "It’s a prime reason Democrats fell 17 seats short of winning a House majority in 2012, even as their congressional candidates drew about 1.4 million more votes than Republicans nationwide."
The only reason just a few extremists can polarize our politics is because of gerrymandering.
Ignoring what gerrymandering is - manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency to favor one party - the McCarty, et al. purport the myth that somehow this all happened naturally. People just sorted themselves geographically, ideologically and culturally. Yet, in the real world, gerrymandering is done to maintain power. Without manipulating the boundaries of electoral districts, Republicans would not be in power right now. They wouldn't be able to shut down government.
As Gary Giroux explains, "A majority of Americans disapprove of the Republicans in Congress, yet the odds remain in the party’s favor that it will retain control of the House. One big reason the Republicans have this edge: their district boundaries are drawn so carefully that the only votes that often matter come from fellow Republicans."
Next, for some odd reason, the authors use the Senate for an example, "Consider, for example, the rise of the mastermind of the government shutdown, Sen. Ted Cruz. The Texas Republican won his seat, as does every member of the Senate, in a statewide race, without any benefit from gerrymandering. The same is true for other tea party stalwarts in the Senate such as Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah." The only problem here, Democrats control the Senate!
"The number of politically safe seats in the House isn't fully explained by gerrymandering, either. Other, longer-term trends play a role, too," the authors claim.
They begin, "The right wing of the Republican Party has embraced a fundamentalist version of free-market capitalism and succeeded in winning elections."
The authors continue, "The "blame it on the gerrymanders" argument mistakenly assumes that because redistricting created more comfortable seats for each party, polarization became inevitable."
Conversely, as an example, which Bloomberg reported, "Michigan’s 14th congressional district looks like a jagged letter ’S’ lying on its side. From Detroit, one of the nation’s most Democratic cities, it meanders to the west, north and east, scooping up the black- majority cities of Southfield and Pontiac while bending sharply to avoid Bloomfield Hills, the affluent suburb where 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was raised. Its unusual shape is intentional. Michigan Republicans, seeking to maximize their political strength, drew the district lines -- and the residential patterns of Democratic voters made their job easier. Michigan’s 14th district underscores how Democrats across the U.S. are bunched in big metropolitan areas, resulting in the party’s House candidates often winning by wide margins on Election Day while Republicans capture more seats because their voters are spread out."
The Bloomberg reporters continue, "It’s a prime reason Democrats fell 17 seats short of winning a House majority in 2012, even as their congressional candidates drew about 1.4 million more votes than Republicans nationwide."
The only reason just a few extremists can polarize our politics is because of gerrymandering.
Ignoring what gerrymandering is - manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency to favor one party - the McCarty, et al. purport the myth that somehow this all happened naturally. People just sorted themselves geographically, ideologically and culturally. Yet, in the real world, gerrymandering is done to maintain power. Without manipulating the boundaries of electoral districts, Republicans would not be in power right now. They wouldn't be able to shut down government.
As Gary Giroux explains, "A majority of Americans disapprove of the Republicans in Congress, yet the odds remain in the party’s favor that it will retain control of the House. One big reason the Republicans have this edge: their district boundaries are drawn so carefully that the only votes that often matter come from fellow Republicans."
Next, for some odd reason, the authors use the Senate for an example, "Consider, for example, the rise of the mastermind of the government shutdown, Sen. Ted Cruz. The Texas Republican won his seat, as does every member of the Senate, in a statewide race, without any benefit from gerrymandering. The same is true for other tea party stalwarts in the Senate such as Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah." The only problem here, Democrats control the Senate!
"The number of politically safe seats in the House isn't fully explained by gerrymandering, either. Other, longer-term trends play a role, too," the authors claim.
Again, without such manipulation, Republicans wouldn't be able to shut down the government or obstruct the Affordable Care Act. If not for gerrymandering, the Republicans wouldn't have the House.
For Further Reading:
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Elizabeth Warren 2016
It appears as though if we (Democrats, leftists, Labor, environmentalists, the reality-based, etc.) really want change, we need Elizabeth Warren leading the way. The strongest, most relentless, and most lucid voice of public service and public policy.
[source]
Monday, April 22, 2013
Friday, March 29, 2013
Republicans, Or The Better Alternative
Why Does Anyone Still Take Paul Ryan Seriously?
Paul Ryan's House Budget Echoes Republican Vision From 2012
In A Stinging Post-Mortem, GOP Promises To Change
What they've really promised is to be more elusive and vague in their messaging, and more active in their marketing.
House Progressive Have The Best Answer To Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan's House Budget Echoes Republican Vision From 2012
In A Stinging Post-Mortem, GOP Promises To Change
What they've really promised is to be more elusive and vague in their messaging, and more active in their marketing.
"The way we communicate our principles isn't resonating enough," said GOP Chairman Reince Priebus.See, Republicans don't want to change their racist, homophobic, business-pandering, class warfare, corrupt, regressive ways. They just want to reword their message so voters will think their sow's ear is a silk purse. Republicans have learned nothing.
House Progressive Have The Best Answer To Paul Ryan
The correct counterpart to the unbridled ambition of the Ryan budget isn’t the cautious plan released by the Senate Democrats. It’s the “Back to Work” budget released by the House Progressives.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Friday, December 17, 2010
A Deliberately Obstructionist Body
Lets get rid of the Senate. It's an antiquated, inequitable entity that no longer serves any purpose other than obstructing the governance of our country.
For Further Reading:
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