An extra $345 to $500 billion toward paying down the deficit?

That’s right. What if we could put that kind of money toward our ‘ballooning deficit’ as the least hysterical Republicans refer to it? Wouldn’t you think that would be a good thing? Wouldn’t you think they’d be all over that? They aren’t. In fact, the Republicans and their Tea Party friends are considering cutting the budget of the very agency that could get that money.

It’s the IRS.

We’re talking about the ‘tax gap’. What, you ask is the ‘tax gap’. Simply speaking, it’s the difference between what ‘we the people’ are owed (through the IRS collection agency that we employ) by deadbeats or those who are simply math-challenged, and what they haven’t paid up.  There are a couple main components of the gross tax gap: Under Reporting, Under Payment, and Non-filing.

Under Reporting accounted for nearly 68% of the tax gap among individual filers in 2001. Imagine what it must be today. Of that, 60% is estimated to be from business and self-employment income, which is difficult for the IRS to verify.

As you can see, much of the under reported taxes are from individuals. Things like Estate, Excise, FICA and Corporate taxes are fairly easy for the IRS to verify automatically due to reporting requirements.

So why isn’t the IRS making some better efforts to take care of this problem? Remember the Grover Norquist maxim: Starve the Beast? Libertarians, Tea Party types and many within the mainstream GOP think the IRS ought to be abolished, but failing that, they can work at defunding it. And when you defund an agency enough, and it becomes dysfunctional, then you can self-righteously point and say “See. It doesn’t work. Get rid of it.”

Notice that it’s never news when government works well - keeping your federally inspected airliner safely in the air on your vacation trip through strict safety and training regulations for the airlines through the FAA, an effective Air Traffic Control System that covers the entire nation, a federally funded/financed system of effecient, modern airports around the nation, federally funded and run real-time weather reporting from federally funded satellites (so you don’t fly right into a big thunderstorm). And, if you should be in your own airplane, and the worst happens, it’s federally funded volunteers like me - in the Civil Air Patrol - using federal assets (those Cessna 182’s) and SARSAT that come looking for you.

What? Did you think all this came for free?

It’s only ‘news’ when government screws up. And being run by mere humans - people like me and you - that’s likely to happen occasionally.

However, there is another way of looking at taxes. Like maybe taxes are good. Douglas Amy, Professor of Politics, Mount Holyoke College says on his website Government Is Good:

To put it another way, you can’t support the things the government does – like caring for the elderly, establishing justice,  providing public education, fighting terrorism, and protecting the environment – and still maintain that the taxes that support those things are bad. Taxes are the lifeblood of government and so if government is basically good, then so are taxes.

Just a little Google research told me that the IRS has been trying to fix this problem for several years at least, but can’t get it done with ever decreasing funding. OMB Watch has this to offer:

The IRS has requested $13.3 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2012, a $1.2 billion increase over the agency’s enacted FY 2010 budget. House Republicans, however, are unlikely to grant that request, as they are currently attempting to cut $603 million from the IRS’s current budget. Much of the IRS’s requested FY 2012 budget increase will go toward increasing the agency’s ability to narrow the tax gap through better tax enforcement and information technology (IT) enhancements.

We want agencies to work better and more effeciently, but apparently we’re not willing to give them the tools to do just that - even with a clear, unambiguous objective.

It’s rather like a couple sitting down in marriage counseling and telling the counselor “I want things to be different.”

Yes, and just how do you want it to be different? And what ‘skin’ are you willing to put into the game to see that ‘different’ happens?

There’s the rub. Many couples just expect to keep on doing what they’ve been doing, expecting ‘different’ results. Doesn’t work very often.

Same with government.

Oh, BTW this same problem has surfaced in Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker would like to take the presumed ‘deficit’ out the of the hides of state employees (while getting rid of that pesky damned union representation and money that flows to Democratic candidates) rather than go after unpaid corporate incomes taxes that would damn near deflate that deficit.

Hmmmm. The man needs couples counseling.

-maven

S.B. 41 - Nevada public employees about to get hit by Wisconsin shit-storm

Nevada public employees had better get their umbrellas out, it was only a matter of time before the nastiness in Wisconsin slopped over into Nevada. Click on the image below, and you’ll be reading the pdf of S.B. 41 - the Sandoval Ghost Bill - in seconds.

And stay tuned, since the timing of this bill is leaving bloggers and others scratching their heads. Gov. Sandoval told the media he didn’t have such a bill as this. Yet … yet, it seemed to have been there all the while. Gosh, maybe it got lost in all the giddyness of being the new governor.

The Sausage Factory poses one possibility:

“You have to wonder why our press corps intentionally led the public to believe our governor was staying away from the collective bargaining fight while at the same time that same governor had requested a bill that would essentially do away with with those bargaining rights.

Maybe if SB41 included something about prostitutes they would have noticed”

Readers may want to look at observations about SB 41 on Nevada State Employee Focus.

US Uncut.org: Time to make tax dodger corporations pay their share

I wrote a post on February 3 - USA Uncut? Can we finish what UK Uncut has started? - and apparently some other people were thinking the exact same thing. Or, I’m just brilliant, and these other folks caught on. I’ll go with the former to be safe. UK Uncut.org was such an obviously grand scheme that we had to give it a go on this side of the pond.

Thanks to Wall Street, there’s no doubting that our country is in a heap o’ trouble paying the bills. To try and balance these budgets on the backs of taxpayers, public employees, teachers et al who’ve already been brought to the brink by Wall Street’s antics is ludicrous. This is especially so when you remember that middle-class wages have, essentially, ‘flatlined’ over the last 30 years (also when adjusted for inflation).

For some bitter icing on the cake, corporate profits have ballooned over the last couple of years - while the middle-class is going down for the third time.

American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or noninflation-adjusted terms. New York Times. November 23, 2010

You are now making - adjusted for inflation - about 1% more than your parents did 30 years ago, or about $280. You say “Hey, my family was doing better, and buying more than my parents were.” That’s probably because both of you are working - harder and longer. For less. And, barely hanging on.

Thanks to the Desert Beacon! And the Economic Policy Institute

Yet, as Robert Reich points out, the American economy is twice is large as it was back in the day. Huh? So, where has all the money gone? Certainly not to the states and localities. Was Wall Street able to steal that much? Well, Wall Street was able to steal a lot. And, whatever was left over, went to the upper 1% of earners - I know, the word ‘earners’ makes me laugh, too. It’s hard to imagine the like of John Harrah - heir of casino mogul, Bill Harrah, an ‘earner’. The lad has probably never exactly sweated a mortgage payment on the $75 million, 36,000 sq. ft RancHarrah estate in Reno, Nevada.

Between the Bush tax breaks, and Obama’s extension of same, the slashing of the estate tax rates and lower capital gains taxes - it’s been one big, long payday for America’s wealthy.

It’s time to pay the piper.

Click to read more ...

"The next man that makes a move ... Wisconsin gets it"

Don’t Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s threats to the AWOL Dems remind you a bit of the great scene in Blazing Saddles:

(click on the picture to watch the scene)

Yup. He’s gonna blast the Wisconsin public employees if those goldarned Democrats don’t get themselves back in the state and vote!

Walker unveiled his budget today, and should’ve slipped the drapes back on it.  The budget cuts spending by 6.7% or $4.2 billion, and the Governor went on to say:

“It’s true we are reducing aid to local government by just over one and a quarter billion dollars, but we are providing almost $1.5 billion in savings through our budget repair bill. If the 14 Senate democrats do not come home, their local communities will be forced to manage these reductions in aid without the benefit of the tools provided in the repair bill. On the other hand, if the Senate democrats do come home, local units of government overall will actually see a net increase in revenue plus savings of more than $150 million.”

That’s right, boys. Ride on back to Wisconsin, or the localities ‘get it’. Or not.

Wisconsin State Senator Jon Erpenbach weighs in on Rachel Maddow:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Friday Fish Wrap: February 25. 2010

BREAKING: Last night at 1am, Wisconsin Assembly Republicans held a vote for literally a few seconds in which they rammed through Gov. Walker’s radical bill to cut worker benefits and rights. It was a stunning abuse of power.

Now, the only thing keeping this horrible bill from becoming law are state Senate Democrats — who boldly left the state and are blocking the Senate from voting.

On Wednesday, Senate Democratic Leader Mark Miller joined thousands of PCCC members on a call and vowed that he and other Democratic senators will “never stop fighting.”



If you want to help Wisconsin working families and Democrats fight this battle and win, then contribute to ActBlue today. Click on the image below:

Well, with that out of the way  ….

IT’S SNOWING!!!!!!

We awoke to about eight inches of new powder in the driveway, and it’s been coming down at about two inches an hour since. I’m taking a break from the shovel and the snow plow right now. I think I can skip the treadmill and such today.

Normally, I don’t wade into the boring little world of show biz - filled with inflated egos, the delusional and addicted, but today, I’ll make an exception to illustrate a point. The following is a quote from Charlie Sheen of ‘Two and A Half Men”:

“I’m tired of being told ‘You can’t talk about that, you can’t talk about that.’ Bull S-H-I-T. There’s something this side of deplorable that a certain Chaim Levine — yeah, that’s Chuck’s real name — mistook this rock star for his own selfish exit strategy, bro. Check it, Alex: I embarrassed him in front of his children and the world by healing at a pace that his unevolved mind cannot process. Last I checked, Chaim, I spent close to the last decade effortlessly and magically converting your tin cans into pure gold. And the gratitude I get is this charlatan chose not to do his job, which is to write. Clearly someone who believes he’s above the law.”

Talking to TMZ, Sheen said, “I violently hate Chaim Levine (Chuck Lorre). He’s a stupid, stupid little man and a p**sy punk that I’d never want to be like.”

Charlie should be the next head of the GOP. He delusional enough, arrogant enough, bigoted enough, detached from reality enough. He’s perfect for the job.

Can you say “Too crazy for prime time”? This congenital idiot just threw away a $2 million per episode job for booze and a hooker. Such can be the power of “stupid, stupid little (men) and … p**sy punk(s)”

Yesterday was productive. I got some wonderful Minneola Tangelos at Costco in order to make some marmalade and candied orange peel. I had wanted the candied orange peel for a cookie recipe but when I checked it out online (none to be had here in Reno, Nevada ) I about had a stroke when I saw the price. Needless to say, I’d just make my own.

Yummm.

Now, if we can just not keep picking at the orange peel for handy candy … I think a ziplok and way up in the baking cabinet might be the answer. Don’t despair, Natacha. I’m going to send a jar and a baggie to you, laboring away at school down in Louisiana.

If you’ve never tried the candied orange peel, do. It’s really quite easy. I’ll probably post a bit about it on the Food page.

Do you really think I’m joking when I suggest that Crazy Charlie oughta join the crazy ranks of the GOP? Not really, when Georgia Representative, Paul Broun, chose to become another EPIC FAIL for the country - he decided not to ‘dignify’ a question at a recent Town Hall meeting when a constituent asked “Who is going to shoot Obama”. Broun “moved on” according to his press secretary.

Hmmmm. And this is the same guy who, during the State of the Union speech, was tweeting that - who he had referred to as a Nazi-like Marxist dictator:

“Mr. President, you don’t believe in the Constitution. You believe in socialism.”

This is not to say that Dems don’t occasionally shoot themselves in the foot rhetorically. I’m from Nevada. We have Sen. Harry “Don’t Shoot Self in Foot” Reid, who this week make the bonehead remark during his speech to the Nevada Legislature that the state’s famous legalized ‘Oldest Profession’ ought to be made illegal again. Sheesh.

But that can’t even come close to the mean-spirited, even treasonous, bile that spills out of GOP mouths.

I really do believe we’re in for the political ride of our lives.

Ooooh, the wind is really picking up outside my window.

Providence Road Island teachers have something to worry about. The school board voted to send out termination notices to 2,000 teachers. It’s bad here in Nevada, but not yet that bad. Newly minted Governor, Brian Sandoval, has been engaging in fiscal sleight of hand, trying to grab $425 million from the school districts debt service reserve funds to try and balance the unbalanceable state budget.

That this money is bespoke, as in tied to bond obligations approved by Nevada voters, seems to be irrelevant to the Guv. This is a fine example of what Republicans really mean when they say they want to balance budgets and lower deficits. It’s called “stealing from Peter to pay Paul”. Rather like a Ponzi scheme, ala Bernie Madoff. On a federal level, they steal from Mandatory Spending (entitlements like Social Security) to payoff the military-industrial-corporate complex where they got their campaign funding from.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Campaign finance reform, in the sense of publicly funded political campaigns, would put a stop these charades - and go a long way toward cleaning up government and making it far more responsive to the voters rather than special interests.

Meanwhile, silly, silly man, Sen. John Ensign, R-NV, says he’ll work hard for Nevada. Nobody who has been paying attention to John’s less than stellar career can figure out just what he’s going to work hard at … other than posing for photo ops, and repeating the mea culpa for his tawdry extra-marital escapades.

That the state GOP would substitute Dean Heller for Ensign is typical. One intellectually lazy, kiss-ass ideologue operative for another. Come campaign time, they could just Photoshop Heller’s face into all the Ensign stuff and call it a day.

I’ve said “YES” to this, and will try hard to make it, despite the snow, which is supposed to end tonight some time. I hope you will, too. Lunch at Adele’s could sweeten the experience. Click on the image above, to redirect.

Oh, and I got this from the folks in Wisconsin:

Dear Cynthia,
Thank you for your support. We really appreciate it.
In solidarity,
Martina Kunovic

Have a good weekend, and take care shoveling the snow. Slow and easy. Take breaks. Stay warm and cozy, and get out the hot cocoa. It should be an awesome ski season ahead - she said, adjusting the brace on her right knee. It’s doing better, but I know what the limitations are.

-maven        

Defend Wisconsin website

If you can offer some sort of support to the brave folks in Wisconsin, this probably the best place to go:

Rock On with Wisconsin Labor!

Show your support for working people now!

Turn up the sound! Stand up and Rock!

Wisconsin Public Employees, We Love You!

-maven

Union Now!

Quick Hits: Campaign finance reform, lowering minimum wage, Wisconsin

I spent part of my afternoon doing some more digging on campaign contributions from mining to candidates/incumbents. Fascinating work, that I’m actually enjoying. You’d be amazed at the number of ways campaign contributions can be ‘hidden’ in plain sight. You’d also be not so amazed at the candidates/incumbents - on both sides of the aisle - that have had their hands stretched way out there.

They probably justify it by saying “well, you’ve gotta get elected first and that takes money”. True, but those contributors won’t be back the second time if the candidate doesn’t step up and protect the contributors industry interests. Duh? Yet “We the People” fight publicly financed campaigns like it was some sort of anti-American plague.

I don’t get that. It’s not about free speech - although the Astro-Turf front groups representing the likes of the Koch Brothers would have you believe that it is. There’s Koch Brothers ‘free speech’ (the billionaire kind that gets you lunch with the entire committee) and then the John Q. Smith ($100 donor kind) that gets you a form letter from the candidate telling you that they appreciate your concern on Issue X. Not so very equal speech, is it?

No, publicly financed campaigns would be the most democratic, all-American thing we could do.

So as your access to legislators is being limited by the size of your wallet, critics of the Nevada minimum wage law are talking about decreasing the green in your wallet even further.

What? You don’t work for the minimum wage, so why should you care? Oh, but you do work for the minimum wage. Your wages are based on a percentage above whatever that minimum is - if it’s $10 an hour or $5 an hour. Lower the minimum wage and watch your non-minimum wage earnings start to roll backward. Your boss will explain the dynamics - with a pink slip - to you if you don’t ‘get it’, since he can now replace you with cheaper help.

The Senate Joint Resolution 2 is proposing to repeal the law that voters really, really supported in 2004 and again in 2006 - pegging the Nevada minimum wage at $1 above the federal minimum, if employers don’t offer health insurance.

If you think you’re struggling now, watch what happens if this repeal gets through. The casino’s will love it.

Now, imagine if you can what it would be like here in Nevada, if we got as charged up about injustice as the feisty folks in frigid Wisconsin:

I want to know where I can sign up or buy some of this righteous populist outrage. Gov. Walker is trying to get rid of an employees right to negotiate and collectively bargain to better their lot. Talk about anti-American, that’s Gov. Walker and his attempt to cripple collective bargaining by the public employees unions in Wisconsin.

Shame on him. Bravo to the protestors. A bratwurst in every pot!

-maven