McCain Would Tax Health Care Benefits

Earlier this week, I wrote about the differences between the tax plans proposed by Obama and McCain and the comparative benefit of Obama's plan for working class and middle class people. When I wrote that, there was something I didn't know about John McCain and taxes — something that puts the two candidates in even starker contrast.

Despite having claimed publicly and repeatedly that he would not raise any taxes, McCain's tax plan would in fact do exactly that. (Some people have a word for that. It starts with an L.) If John McCain becomes president, he will tax your employer-provided health care benefits. That means if you're a teacher like me, with absolutely no change to your actual income, McCain's plan would in effect treat you as though you'd just received a huge raise of thousands of dollars.

His so-called offset for this proposal would be to provide a tax credit of $2,500 per person, or $5,000 per family. Never mind the fact that the average employer-provided health care costs employers roughly $8,000 dollars a year. McCain is more than happy to treat you as though you've just received a $3,000 raise.

Why are middle-class people and fiscal conservatives voting for this man?

Calling All Fiscal Conservatives

Today's Website O' Awesome is brought to you by Alchemy Today, a burgeoning political blog:

ObamaTaxCut.com

Using data compiled by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center and further publicized in the Washington Post, Alchemy Today has created a widget that allows you to compare the tax cuts you would receive under the tax plans proposed by Obama and McCain.

It's actually quite fascinating. Under McCain's tax proposal, my husband and I would receive a $40 tax cut. Under Obama's plan, we would receive a $971 tax cut. Our present income would have to more than triple before we'd get a better deal under McCain. Furthermore, we'd have to make more than $250,000 before Obama would increase our taxes.

The bottom line: If your combined household income is $200,000 or less, you will pay less taxes under Obama than McCain.

Plus, widgets rock.

Added note: Further research into the the Washington Post's findings indicates that you would have to make more than $600,000 a year before you'd see a tax increase under a President Obama. Huh. I guess Rush Limbaugh must have just been, you know, misinformed or something.

Quiz Blog Part Two: Petro

Yesterday I posed the query: What nation provides the largest quantity of crude oil and petroleum products to the United States?

And you are truly gold-star worthy if you guessed...

CANADA!!!

Yup. Our partially French-speaking neighbors to the north are the single most effective crack peddler supporting our, in the vernacular, "addiction to foreign oil." Here are the top five:

1. Canada (17.2%)
2. Mexico (12.4%)
3. Saudi Arabia (10.7%)
4. Venezuela (10.4%)
5. Nigeria (8.1%)

Surprised? I was. I suspect FOXNN might be, too. Or, you know, not.

This and other fascinating information about America's foreign oil dependence is available here at the Department of Energy's website. And by "fascinating information" I mean tidbits like the fact that the U.S. is currently the third largest oil producer on the planet. Want to guess where we rank in consumption?

In the meantime, however, I am pleased to announce that we can now officially blame Canada. Like so:



(Warning: Video not entirely safe for work...)

Quiz Blog Part One: Petro

Gold star to anyone who can answer this correctly without resorting to Google:

What nation provides the largest quantity of crude oil and petroleum products to the United States (clocking in at an impressive 17.2 percent)?

I'll post the answer tomorrow. And you only get a silver star if you Google it!

Panic at the Disco

There's something wrong with the economy. I know it. You know it. I've had to restructure my personal finances to accommodate rising gas costs. The condo diagonally above us has been empty for over a year. IndyMac got bailed out — no, seized — yesterday (and I only kind of even know what that means). Smart people are telling me to get out of the stock market. Not that I'm in the stock market (I won't even buy into a poker game for more than three bucks), but it's well-intended and urgently delivered advice.

And while I've read many attempts at analyzing fragments of the problem, I've had a hard time wrapping my head around exactly what the hell is going on.

Today I read an interesting and historically informed article attempting to holistically answer that question: The Panic of 2008: A Turning Point.

Check it out.

Lieonomics

Every time I get into an argument about guns with a gun rights advocate, I hear about this study that purports to prove that cities with laws permitting concealed weapons have lower crime rates. This is an assertion I've heard from several people on several occasions, and the study they describe is always the same. I've never been able to find any research corroborating the assertion, and I've looked more than once.

Turns out there's a reason for that. It was likely bogus. The article, entitled "More Guns, Less Crime", was penned by conservative economist John R. Lott — a fellow who has asserted that abortions are good for crime rates, and apparently has a habit of creating internet sock puppets to comment positively on his work online.

His book is, of course, titled Freedomnomics. Sigh.

Win-Win. Win.

Gosh, why didn't anyone just think of this sooner? We're saved!

McCain: I'll Cut the Deficit by Winning Iraq War

Considering McCain's assertion that U.S. troops staying in Iraq for 100 years would be "fine with him," I can't say this gives me a lot of economic confidence in a McCain presidency.

Not that I really had any, given that he's already admitted he's "not an expert" on "this stuff." Of course, he now denies having said that. Someone really needs to tell McCain about the YouTube:

While I Wasn't Blogging: News You Might Have Missed

When I was a kid, my parents (posterity and my mother would like me to note that credit here is in fact due to my grandparents) got me a subscription to Ranger Rick magazine. Through reading that magazine I learned about meerkats, cool bugs, and why chopping down the rain forest is bad. I also learned about the Exxon Valdez.

You remember the Exxon Valdez.







To put the following paragraphs in context, in February of 2008 Exxon announced the largest quarterly profits that any U.S. company has ever reported. Ever. Profits so high that the corporation made approximately $1,300 a second in 2007.

$1,300 a second.

Puts our offshore drilling "debate" in perspective, no?

Given that reality, I find it beyond appalling that our highest court in the land (emphasis, apparently, on "high") reversed the $2.5 billion dollar ruling against Exxon in the Exxon Valdez case as "excessively punitive." Excessively punitive to a company that made $2.5 billion dollars in less than three days last year.

Is it even possible to punish this in excess?



According to the Supreme Court, the "reasonable" cost of atonement for the Exxon Valdez oil spill is not $2.5 billion, but $507 million — an amount which the corporation is projected to make in less than one day. And that $2.5 billion was already down from the $5 billion that Exxon was originally ordered to pay by "a jury of its peers."

But see, Exxon doesn't have any peers. Except for maybe Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who had to recuse himself from the case because he owns Exxon stock.

Of the people, by the people.

I'd Like a Refund on My Refund

According to President Bush, the long-awaited tax rebate checks that comprise the backbone of the bi-partisan economic stimulus package are set to start going out on Monday. As a married filer with a fortuitous SSN and a proclivity for direct deposit, that means I should be getting my $1,200 in the next few days. (Too bad my TV decided to turn pink this week, but I digress.)

In his speech, Bush attempted to bolster consumer confidence by saying, "This money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we're seeing at the gas pump and at the grocery store, and it will also give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown."

Um, offset the high prices "we're" seeing at the gas pump? First of all, take your "we" and shove it, President Silver Spoon! Second of all, I thought the purpose of these rebate checks was to stimulate consumer spending across sectors of the economy, thereby reviving flagging retailers — not to grease the palms of the oil profiteering pirates who are largely responsible for this mess in the first place. To be crystal clear, what we have here is the President publicly stating that American should spend the tax dollars they are about to receive in the mail to increase the profits of the oil companies. Somehow I have a sneaking suspicion that this is pretty much what he was envisioning all along — "Go ahead and jack up prices, INSERT STUPID NICKNAME HERE. Bushie's got it covered."

Hell, why not save postage and just cut out the middle man? Go ahead and make mine out to Exxon Mobile.

What's That Go to Do with the Price of Rice in Sioux Falls?

In one of the more baffling abdications of journalistic responsibility in at least, I don't know, a month, the mainstream media continues to by and large ignore the fact that our planet is experiencing an increasingly serious food shortage. But it might get harder for the likes of Chris Matthews and Larry King to keep their heads buried in the mineral-depleted soil as the soaring costs of basic foodstuffs begin to impinge upon the U.S. marketplace. Already in the past week, multiple reports of rice and grain rationing are coming out of cities as disparate as San Francisco and Sioux Falls.

Ironically, this is partially a robbing Peter problem — diversion of edible crops to the manufacture of biofuels has helped to shape the situation. Another component is the incessant plundering of grain fields to feed the nation's millions of dead cows walking.

But really, can our busy journalists be blamed for getting distracted by things like Miley Cyrus' green bra? I mean, it is Green Week or whatever, right?

And Road Runner for Veep Veep?

Apparently Obama has offered the Treasury Secretary position to Hannah Montana. I can only say that she's bound to be a step up from the current guy.

Out of the Frying Pan into the Popper

Problem: Reliance on foreign oil.

Solution: Fuel cars with corn instead.

New Problem: Rapidly spreading global famine leads to accusations that biofuels constitute a human rights violation.

New Solution: Given our proclivity for invading four-lettered nation-states that begin with the letter I, move that we invade Iowa and nationalize all arable land.

Or, we could always do that potato famine thing again.

Do Not Collect 200 Gajillion Dollars

And I quote: "Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is in talks with Microsoft about joining in its contested bid for Yahoo, according to people involved in the discussions."

Okay, first of all, "people involved in the discussions." "People" involved in the "discussions." What does that even mean? My husband and I are presently people involved in discussions. According to us, Dick Cheney's skin is made of calcified American cheese that hardened during his journey from the Death Star to planet Earth. Think the much-vaunted New York Times will pick that one up?

Furthermore, I find myself suddenly in the grip of a most terrible fright. If Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch breed, what will their children look like? Will there be horns? Glasses? Horn-rimmed glasses... that eat babies? Run, little Yahoo, run! Get thee to a nunnery!

Or at least a nice partnership with Papa Google. Although here again I am baboozleplexified by the odd lack of journalistic... journalism. Yahoo's own website is carrying a story that claims the company views Google as a potential alternative to the Microsoft buyout, but that very story contains the following quote: "A Google spokesman declined to comment, saying he was not aware of the story." So Yahoo is, what, floating the story in the hopes that the gods of Google will shrug and assume that they must not have noticed the Yahoo merger amidst all of their other corporate congealments?

All I know is that if I have to start typing my search queries into the image of Bill O'Reilly's gaping maw, I am going to officially become a Luddite.

Give Me That Old Time Social Stratification

This just in: 80,000 jobs slashed in March! Unemployment rate surpasses five percent! Even Ben "Just Go Buy More DVD's or Something" Bernake admits recession is all but inevitable!

But for those of you who had the good fortune to be on the friendly end of the government's recent bailout of your imploding multinational corporation and find yourself with a few extra million to throw around, may I suggest a diamond-studded thong? With its 518 brilliant-cut diamonds and 27 white gold tassels, really, it's quite tasteful.

Speaking of government bailouts, Bill Maher made a good point — why is it that when we socialize corporate profits it's the Attack of the Red Menace, but when we socialize corporate losses it's good business? And why aren't we socializing Homeowner Joe's losses?

I think it's time for the man behind the curtain to start singing for his supper.

There Is a Specter Haunting Laughter Shrapnel

So, I appear to be a bit of a commie, having scored a -9.75 on Political Compass' economic continuum (-10 being the greatest possible left-leaning score). My merrily Marxist -9.75 is paired with a -8.36 on the Libertarian/Authoritarian scale, which means that I literally make Gandhi look conservative.

I just need some pasty, tea-fed troops to lie down in front of, I guess.

The Political Compass' U.S. primaries page is also worth a look. This bit made me laugh:

"While Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel are depicted on the extreme left in an American context, they would simply be mainstream social democrats within the wider political landscape of Europe. Similarly, Hillary Clinton is popularly perceived as a leftist in the United States while in any other western democracy her record is that of a moderate conservative."

Sadly, the only candidate even in the same time zone as my clearly insane level of leftyness is Ralph Nader; meanwhile, Mitt Romney is a fascist.

Laissez Not So Fair

The Federal Reserve acted today to further attempt to stave off an impending credit crisis.

How, you ask? By instituting a mandatory cap on interest rates charged to consumers? Perhaps a government subsidized mortgage assistance program (which would benefit both the residents and the banks)? Or maybe by providing low-interest, short-term loans to economically troubled parties?

If you guessed option number three, you get a cookie. But that's all you'll get. The feds aren't offering this bailout package to actual human beings who could benefit from it. Rather, they are making available $100 billion in loans to troubled banks... who will then turn around and loan that very same money out to their customers at marked up interest rates.

Somewhere Adam Smith is puking into his cravat.

Would You Like Blood on Your Hands with That?

According to this Human Rights Watch article, "The Chinese government should abolish the use of income-generating child labor schemes in middle and junior high schools because of their chronic abuses." Should. As in, currently does not. Apparently, while the government approves of such, ah, occupation learning practices as improving school facilities or "producing small handicrafts over summer breaks" (read: Crappy Meal toys) as a part of the state-approved Work and Study Program, recent reports have surfaced that students are being placed in heavy manufacturing positions as part of state school curriculum.

I know what argument I'm going to marshal the next time a student tells me I give too much homework.

Or... the next time Schwarzenegger announces impending statewide education budget cuts...

A Modest Proposal

ATTN: Californians

Do you enjoy shouldering a disproportionate amount of the federal tax burden? Handicapping our biotech industry because someone somewhere in Arkansas thinks stem cells are people? Watching in disgust as the American economy tanks while we remain one of the top ten economies internationally?

If not, then get involved with the Californian independence movement and join the fight for secession!

Now I know what you're thinking — if we secede we'll have to pay really high tariffs on all those wonderful manufactured goods from Michigan and Pennsylvania and whatnot. Oh really? What manufactured goods? All those jobs have long since been outsourced to Mexico thanks to NAFTA! As a nation located in North America, the People's Republic of California (working title) would continue to profit hand over fist off of the indentured servitude of Mexican children. Thanks to the Clintons (who rammed NAFTA through congress in 1993), California can retain its top-tier economic status without its citizens having to feel honor-bound to pay twice as much for domestically manufactured goods.

What's more, we've been producing the lion's share of the nation's food for the past 50 years, averaging $32 billion in profits annually. You want cheese from our happy cows, Las Vegans? Better double down.

Of course I anticipate that there may be problems, namely illegal immigration. We just need to lay it down up front. Texans need not apply, and should probably go get a job, the lazy bastards.

Come on, fellow golden staters, and join with me now. Free the Bear! Free the Bear! Free the Bear!

The Eight-Year Itch

Last night while I was at the gym, I saw a woman on a treadmill gazing transfixed at one of the myriad ceiling-mounted televisions with one of the most rapt expressions I’ve ever seen on a human face. Curious to see what she watching, I sleuthily glanced in the mirror and discovered it was, lo and behold, CNN election coverage. Well, color me pleasantly surprised!

Thing is, I glanced over a few minutes later and the station had switched to ads – itch cream, station wagons, weed killer. Same damn expression. Barely even blinking.

This woman was either an actual zombie, or really itchy. I don’t know. But here’s one reason she should be more interested in the democratic process than her rhododendrons — unemployment just hit a two-year high.

Can’t stave that itch off with no snake oil, lady.