The Best Tax Plan Money Can Buy

 

Looks like the Republicans' new tax bill's a done deal.

It will give big corporations licenses to steal.

They get permanent relief for sitting on their butts;

Middle class gets screwed, again, with temporary cuts.

Corporation leaders have no plans to reinvest;

They've said that they'll buy back stocks and pay down interest.

No new jobs or higher wages on the drawing board.

Still, they'll get a tax break that the country can't afford.

Bernie Sanders called it "looting..." I tend to agree.

Debt grows by a $1,000,000,000,000.00.  (Trillion, with a T.)

GOP says wealth will "trickle down" and help the poor

Even though that's never worked when we've tried it before.

I fear it's too late to stop it... Pointless to resist,

Since the wealthy donors to Republicans insist

That, if they don't pass this bill, the money well runs dry.

Now they'll get the best tax cuts their lobbyists could buy.

Boycotting Burger King

If corporations are people they aren't very patriotic people.

Burger King bought "Timmy" Hortons.  It's Canadian.

Picture Dunkin' Donuts, multiply by Starbucks, then

You will get a good idea of just how big they are...

So Canadian, their founder was a hockey star.

In what's known as "tax inversion" Burger King can claim

They, too, are Canadians.  Although that's pretty lame;

U.S. taxes corporations with headquarters here

On the worldwide profits that those corporations clear.

Other countries tax on profits companies make there.

Now big corporations all buy businesses somewhere

Taxes aren't as high as here. ('though Burger King has said

That is not the reason they've climbed in Tim Hortons' bed...)

Maybe not.  Yet, still, the consequences are the same

And they're just the latest in this tax evasion game.

There are calls to boycott them; their move will make us broker...

But I'd be a hypocrite because I am a smoker.

Here in Massachusetts, cigarettes are twice the price

Of New Hampshire's cigarettes; they take a smaller slice.

Still, at least they get a piece; the Bay State? None at all.

Me boycotting Burger King would take a lot of gall. 

Dear Washington, D.C. ... Unsolicited Advice for the Sequestration

I'm talking to all of you... Don't make me come over there.

Here's what drives me crazy with this impasse on The Hill;

It's a demonstration that there is no more good will.

All our politicians know that sequestration's dumb,

Yet no one will give the other side a single crumb.

They would take a chainsaw to the budget - not a knife -

When we need a scalpel to prevent more fiscal strife.

No one wants to bear the brunt of partisan attack,

Too aware that someone waits to stab them in the back.

If they can't forge trust then they need courage (for a change).

Maybe that Grand Bargain's still something they can arrange.

Give them their means testing if they'll give you the tax code;

Anything is better than this constant crisis mode.

The 112th Congress - Fiscal Slope?

Cartoon by Jim Morin/The Miami Herald

Have you heard the latest?  Fiscal cliff?  It's now a slope.

Isn't an emergency.  No worries.  We can cope.

'though I am an optimist, I think I'm losing hope.

I'm afraid that Congress plans to vote themselves more rope.

I'm not seeing signs that it's a compromise they seek.

Are Republicans too old to hear the People speak?

President Obama's holding meetings all this week,

Looking for solutions and a paddle for the creek.

Aren't there any Congressmen or women - just a few -

Who are just as sick and tired now as me and you

Of the party politics (and Mitch McConnell's view)?

Must be some  agreement on what government should do.

First let's pass extensions for the middle-class, tax cut;

Then address the code itself. Find loopholes you can shut.

Even Grover Norquist can't mind that and he's a nut.

Steer us towards the middle...  Left and  Right are in a rut.

(P.S. Dr. Seussilitis symptoms getting out of hand

If you think I'm crazy, I completely understand.)

Race for the White House - Stick a Fork In It.

I think this goose is cooked.  (Photo/The New Yorker)

Should Obama lose this race to Romney, I'll be shocked...

Never mind the millions Crossroads GPS has stocked.

Maybe the economy is not in perfect shape

But, poor Mitt has blundered once again - and it's on tape.

Mother Jones released remarks that he made "off the cuff."

I have listened to it and it's pretty damning stuff.

Said that half our people are just victims who won't work.

Romney, yet again, has come off looking like a jerk.

True that many do not pay a federal income tax;

Doesn't mean they sit around at home and just relax.

Need to have some fat to spare to put "skin in the game."

(This archaic tax code that we've got is what's to blame.)

Said the Middle East is doomed and there could be no peace.

Romney's put his foot in it...  Will wonders never cease?

How the polls are even close I - frankly - do not know.

Think, this time, Mitt Romney's dealt himself a fatal blow.

Race for the White House - Joe Biden Unchained

Tighten up those seat belts people - Biden's off his leash.

Have you heard the news about his latest rally? Sheesh!

Told a group of voters (more than half of whom were black)

Wall Street wants them back in chains...  Of subtlety, no lack.

Biden does this kind of thing, and yes - he does it well.

Picks a fight the other side must then respond to. Swell.

Charming politicians with a gifted turn of phrase

Are not what the country needs to listen to these days.

People who are serious (and - no - there aren't enough)

Don't want the distractions of this petty, high-school stuff.

Tell us what you plan to do to fix the growing debt;

Big ideas like mortgages or, even better yet,

How about some tax reforms?  Let's simplify the code.

Running out of space to kick that farther down the road.

No, it isn't sexy but, with Biden's gift for words

It provides some humor for us patriotic nerds.

Vice President Joe Biden