Associated Press
We talked several weeks ago about the non-partisan Congressional Research Service pulling a report that documented what many already knew: giving tax breaks to the rich helps concentrate wealth at the top, but it does not boost the economy. By all accounts, Republican lawmakers, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), had the report killed.
But the ongoing effort to find out exactly what happened continues.
Democrats still want to know why the Congressional Research Service withdrew a report that found no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth. Their suspicion that it might have been because of Republican political pressure is being piqued by internal correspondence between CRS officials and senior GOP aides.
A series of email exchanges from Sept. 25 and Sept. 26 obtained by Roll Call reveals displeasure among staffers for Senate Finance ranking Republican Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
For weeks, the official Republican line has been that GOP policymakers and even folks outside Capitol Hill raised concerns about the economic report, but did not explicitly call for the analysis to be withdrawn.
Roll Call's report features a series of complaints between Republican Senate aides, including one in which a McConnell aide specifically lamented "partisans" misusing the CRS's conclusions, adding that "a retraction should be considered." Arguably more damaging is an email from a high-ranking CRS employee, who told a colleague at the time, "Now they are asking for the report to come down," in reference to Hatch and McConnell staffers.
This is consistent with what Thomas Hungerford, the CRS researcher who produced the report, told the Huffington Post earlier this month: the analysis was taken down due to "pressure from the Senate minority."
In other words, the GOP denials about the Congressional Research Service are looking a little shaky.
As for the bigger picture, I suspect this seems like inside baseball -- most folks have probably never even heard of the Congressional Research Service -- but I continue to believe it matters.
To reiterate a point from earlier in the month, it's important to understand that the Congressional Research Service, generally recognized as Congress' own think tank, has a well-deserved reputation for non-partisanship. The CRS is counted on to provide lawmakers with the most reliable and accurate information available, and the notion that partisan lawmakers can pressure, censor, and possibly even intimidate independent researchers is simply unacceptable.
In other words, we just can't have public offices' scholarship being stifled because Republicans find reality politically inconvenient. Our system of government isn't supposed to work this way.
Republicans have adopted trickle-down, supply-side economics as the foundation for their entire worldview. The Congressional Research Service used reliable, objective information to report what most mainstream economists widely accepted -- if the goal is boosting economic growth, giving people who are already rich a tax break doesn't do anything except make the gap between rich and poor more dramatic.
But as is the case too often on the right, it's easier to bury reality than deal with it.
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And this is the party that is so worked up about Benghazi and Susan Rice?
ya beat me to it . None of them are now qualified to be Secretary of State
Secretary of State? None of them are qualified to be secretary of the Ladies Garden Club and Lyin' Ryan Fan Club.
All of these gop/tp Gomers need to be Trashed just as They Trash truthful and factual reports and OUR Country and OUR Progress as a Nation ! JOBS,JOBS,JOBS - Oh , That's Rite , They Have Also Trashed ALL of these advancements for America and Americans as well ! They Certainly Do support Communist Countries and Jobs Over-seas Though , Now Don't THEY ! Disgusting that "Those kind of People " Are In the Seats of Power In AMERICA, In the Year of 2012 ! Ridiculous !
As was stated in the article, most people do not know what the CRS is, and the media is in no mood to educate. The rethuglican onslaught about Benghazi is just another smoke screen. Feed the media beast and they will stay focused on that issue. If they relent on Susan Rice, the media may try to find another story of the week and in their search may find out about the CRS.
Typical rethuglican methodology. Nothing to see here, move along folks . . .
It seems no qualifications are required for UN Ambassador. One just parrots what one is told.
If anyone is the world's authority on parroting what he's told, it would be ol' Shootie. Hasn't had a thought that didn't come from the Wingnut Wurlitzer since he started his career trolling liberal websites.
But then, invulnerability to irony or shame is a prerequisite for that gig.
Steve 1, Shooter 0
Nah, that was a trey. Steve 3, Shooter 0.
The Congressional Research Service used reliable, objective information to report what most mainstream economists widely accepted
Right. But that's only one side of the story. In order to present a full and fair picture, you also have to include opinions from idiots.
Your forgot your /snark label.
...and what's been keeping me up nights for awhile now is remembering how I let them get this far. For decades, I've been too busy reading my books and playing D&D instead of watching these people. I hope my son can forgive me.
No more.
Set your goals to something reasonable. Hope your son lives long enough to curse you on his deathbed.
If my grandchildren grow up to pass my name down as a curse to their grandchildren, I'll be doing better than I (as a Boomer) deserve.
Why would largenose need one, Joan? This is the objective truth about "journalism" these days; one side that's fact-based, one side that's nothing but right-wing bulls#!t...
The GOP's 'concerns' about the report were never, ever about its accuracy; they were about it's potential impact on Romney's chances of winning the election.
On the contrary - They are extremely worried because of how accurate it is ;)
Beware of those who campaign for elected office, then when elected, wage war on the institutions of government and sane policy proposals.
The elected members of Congress need not politicize everything before them, but Congressional members who wear the Republican brand are showing themselves lacking of political leadership, unwilling to entertain beneficial national policies, and now, undermining empirical findings because such findings show the inherent flaws in supply-side economics!
Why do Republicans insist on pooping in the Halls of Congress? -Kevo
What does accuracy have to do with anything? We're an empire, after all -- we create facts.
Just today, a Republican senator (Durbin?) claimed that raising taxes on the top 2% would provide enough money to run the government for only a few weeks, and worse, it would have a negative affect on the economy BECAUSE THE PEOPLE WITH THE MONEY to invest in the growth of the economy (presumablywith jobs from new small business ventures) would be discouraged by the tax increase. Republicans have been sanctimoniously presenting this propaganda since Obama became the Democratic Presidential candidate.
However, since the mid-term elections in 2010, they have known taxes would not go up. Yet capitalists (people or groups with "capital") have tied their purse strings tighter every day. Grinning and gloating, no doubt, at the perceived "failure" of the president to improve economic conditions.
That is why the report by the CRS is so important for the advancement of truth. I never saw it; but I found something close through a link on--of all places-- NEWSMAX, written by an economist for Moneynews shortly before the election. (I read NEWSMAX to learn what the extremists on the right are thinking. )
I hope you will read it. I really,really hope you will forward this to your representatives and senators and persuade them to read it, research it further and respond to you and Congress. I am not an economist, but I understood the "money velocity" immediately. You will, too. Thanks for listening!
(Aaaagggh! As I type, Speaker Boehner is voicing the same objection to raising taxes on the super rich! Will someone at MSNBC please do something more about this BIG LIE ? This would be a great topic for Rachel Maddow to expand with graphs, charts, interviews, and historical data.)
Wealth Imbalance Is Hurting the Future of Our Economy
Friday, 19 Oct 2012 07:42 AM
By Barry Elias
"When more than one-third of a nation’s wealth is owned by 1 percent of the population, an economy suffers. This is the case with the United States. According to a study performed by the University of California, Santa Cruz, the top 1 percent of U.S. households owned 35.4 percent of all net worth in 2010. This was up 50 percent since 1979 when their share was 20.5 percent.
From 1980 to 2007, the share of income for the top 1 percent (including capital gains) more than doubled, from 10 percent to 23.5 percent, while their share of taxes rose slightly more than twofold, from 19 percent to 40 percent. Following the financial implosion, their share of income and taxes fell to 18.2 percent and 36.7 percent, respectively. These data are a compilation from The World Top Income Database and The Tax Foundation.
This extraordinary wealth accumulation has eroded the economic and financial infrastructure of the United States. During this period, the economic multiplier (monetary velocity) fell more than 50 percent, according to the Federal Reserve Board. This means each dollar spent generated 50 percent less additional income.
This dynamic is a result of inefficient resource allocation. In general, wealthy households consume a smaller proportion of their income, and their investment portfolio is weighted more heavily toward financial assets, not long-term business ventures. Financial assets are primarily zero-sum, speculative transactions that tend toward wealth transfer, not wealth creation.
(It is) Direct entrepreneurial investment (that) tends to increase employment and income more effectively and efficiently.
In a recent presidential debate, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney claimed that he could increase economic growth, help the poor and middle class and maintain the share of taxes paid by the top 5 percent of households at approximately 60 percent. To accomplish this, he might need to consider increasing the share of taxes paid by the top 1 percent, given their extraordinary wealth accumulation over the past 30 years."
© 2012 Moneynews. All rights reserved.
Read more: Wealth Imbalance Is Hurting the Future of Our Economy
No matter which side is unhappy about a report coming out of the CRS, neither side should be able to have a report removed.
Imagine the Republicans if this report had been taken down because of pressure from the White House.
That's just what I was thinking. Did the GOP forget (obviously being tongue and cheek here, they know just what they're doing) that the CRS report is for the entire Congress not just the GOP. It seems to me that Democrats should be very incensed that one party decided that it was better for both parties if the report didn't exist.
Imagine if a report came out that said there is no connection between man and global warming and then Democrats quietly had that report silenced. I don't think Republicans would be as quiet as Democrats are about this CRS report.
It's called a double standard. Also known as hypocrisy in action.
But the protection from this happening is supposed to be our two party system.
The Democrats are the majority in the Senate.
Why aren't they protecting our rights?
Yet the CRS dutifully pulled the report. Someone in the CRS brass needs to go in front of a committee and explain themselves.
Actually, the report is still available at this website: http://www.dpcc.senate.gov/files/documents/CRSTaxesandtheEconomy%20Top%20Rates.pdf I just checked.
Plus, we all know how difficult it is to get pictures/files/postings actually deleted from the internet. Guess the Republicans need to get a bit more educated on that fact.
I agree with BDOP4. If this group is such a bastion of nonpartisanship, a hearing should be held to let the service's leaders explain the rationale, rather than just hearing from the author.
So their aides , who actually read the report, wanted to kill it because it could be used by partisans? Gosh let me know who those aides are in case they decide to run for office. I would hate to vote for such partisans of the republican give to the rich party.(one must wonder if those aides were provided by lobbyists or evangelists or perhaps Norquist?
Lions and tigers and bears...Oh my!!!
It seems with the unraveling of the Norquist Spock hold on the Republicans we get more insight into the never ending saga, " How to fix an election when you know you're going to lose". In this episode...
Everyone recalls Ann Coulter's words of wisdom...right???!!!
"Mr. Christie,
If you don't run and Mitt Romney is the nominee, we will lose the election".
Oops a Daisy
Please don't mention Spock and Norquist in the same sentence like they correlate to each other. Spock is such a superior being to Norquist even though he's fictional.
Is it just me, or does anyone else see the similarity to evangelicals denying science when it doesn't fit with their storyline? Geez, if you don't like the truth, just stuff it into a corner somewhere and maybe no one will notice.
Evening and gels lick alls, their a bunch of old perverts. Don't stick the baby in the corner, though. Ignore all the people, they'll be dead soon anyway or will they?
Don't need no facts I's got my belief! Don't need no truth I got's my Church fed religion!
You make a great point. (don't remind them that their god obviously chose Obama)
Just a random thought for the day, but I like this definition:
In other words, what cannot be known (and I'm intentionally leaving out science here) must be held in a place where you understand that it may not be true but decide to trust its veracity. There's an element of intention. What I find frustrating in the Bible-thumpers' message is their complete lack of doubt, disguising as Faith.
I saw a show on the history channel or somewhere, they said we as humans appear to be "hard wired" for faith. They actually have discovered an area of the brain that when stimulated causes a religious experience -well at least it makes the subject think they had one.
(googled it and got The God Gene)
Yeah, well, the word religion refers to "tying back" (ligature being a related word). It's certainly human nature to want to explain things, rather than holding a tangle of random thoughts. All cultures do this, including and perhaps especially aboriginal cultures. (Think superstition and appeasing the gods.)
My reflection on faith is that someone who's done any real work in this area realizes that dogma is dangerous. That's all.
Hell, they deny Jesus because he doesn't fit their storyline...
The whole "beyond faith" because I have first hand knowledge of gad, should be accounted for in their religion, but since it itsn't it thereby invalidates that religion.
If gad is so gosh darn prevelant that he talks to every baptist, shows his finger to every mormon, has the mother of jeesus show hersef to every catholic,, etc.,, the bibble should then discuss it; as in "since you have advanced past faith to first hand knowledge you, of course, are most certainly heevan-bound and/or go out and shew the shew, change water to vino, and would somebody please move that mountain,,,, sumthin, sumthin,,,
I'll let Cartoon clean this mess up.........
Yep, when the evidence doesn't support the faith-based ideology, the evidence must be hidden.
This is not new. And on supply-side nonsense, it's almost not even important. There's so much empirical evidence that SS is a complete fraud (for those silly enough to believe it wasn't ridiculous at first glance) that the CRS report is almost just piling on. Still, the fact that the Senate GOP put the screws on it is just one more data point to tell us what today's GOP is.
Good thing they can't put the kibosh on climate scientists, though they have certainly tried.
And yet they've fooled nearly half the country that taxes are too high and that's why jobs aren't being created.
The CRS report needs to be reinstated and it absolutely must be used for partisan purposes to rid supply-side from the taxation debate.
Well, yes the CRS report needs to be public. But it'd be better if Democrats just simply went on the attack and educated people. That is the biggest mistake Democrats have made -- they have failed at taking their own side, at educating people, and at letting the idiots control the message.
It's really time that Democrats make laughingstocks of Republicans. That should not be hard because Republicans are really out on a NotReality limb with their faith in SS econ., their denial of science (global warming, evolution, Earth, Akin/Mourdock nonsense, etc.).
Seriously, this is my question. Why aren't dems more outraged? Suppression of information is a big deal. Rather than legitimizing fake outrage by giving a private CIA briefing to 3 random
redubrepublican Senators they should be bringing objective information out to the public. Write your representative and tell them to ask where the CRS report is.Economics may not be everyone's favorite topic, but basic economic literacy has to become some part of the national conversation. Dems can't keep letting loudmouth ideologues control the message. This is one area where democrats keep failing big time.
If the election has shown anything it's that the public is paying attention. No better time than now to step up and call them out on their "voodoo economics".
::rant::
And as a Christian, I resent the republican hijack of faith. Not all Christians are science/gay/women hating idjits. Moral majority my butt.
::end of rant::
And it's really hard to erase anything from the internet, including this report. Find it here: http://www.dpcc.senate.gov/files/documents/CRSTaxesandtheEconomy%20Top%20Rates.pdf
Thanks for the link Joan. But the dems need to talk it up, not quietly put it on a website where only people like us will seek it out.
Alexa, I agree. Please scroll up to my post about Wealth Imbalance.The article by Barry Elias is worth forwarding to as many people you know. It may have been a summary of the CRS report. Barry Elias also wrote one about the economic condition of the Middle Class today because of the Wealth Imbalance over three decades.
Strangely enough, I found this author/economist on a Moneynews page from NEWSMAX link about a week before the election ...I am not a conservative, but I read and listen to as much as I can stand of their media in order to understand what some of my friends believe. Every now and then, Newsmax throws a crumb to liberals. This is one of those crumbs.
Time for GOP heads to roll over this. It's absolutely unconscionable.
Roll Call's report features a series of complaints between Republican Senate aides, including one in which a McConnell aide specifically lamented "partisans" misusing the CRS's conclusions, adding that "a retraction should be considered."
And McConnell never considers his "adding that 'a retraction' should be considered" as being just a tad "partisan" ?
If the Republicans call a report that points out something they don't like as being 'partisan', then insist it is changed, or quashed, that's OK with them. But if it isn't withdrawn or changed, then they say it's being "partisan" to the Democrats, and that's NOT OK with them.
MSNBC needs it's own little PSA shown at some point in each of their news programs, possibly run during their ad breaks, that shows "What Your Government Did Today..." just type, or one sentence clips, or bullet points, anything that shows what's actually going on. Just shine a light on what they did today.
One minute could do it. Not a big segment or interview. The montage of clips that begin "Now with Alex..." and Lawrence O'Donnell's programs are really effective... things like that only just a little more to specific subjects.
Republicans didn't stop lying when Romney and Ryan got the boot... and they're only going to get worse. Somebody should keep the lights on them. Let the people know.
Great point about the partisan nature of the GOP. It is unbelievable that an objective report is partisan because they disagree with it but to leverage it to be altered or taken down is simply good governance.
When McCain and Graham hear about this, they're gonna have a lot of questions about Benghazi.
I hope Rachel covers this great detail - what they did was wrong and very dangerous for a free democratic country.
When your efforts at suppressing the vote fail. When your rants about the deficit are exposed as lies. When your birthers become a laughing stock. When you get your own ideas handed to you by your opposition and you vote against them. When you hear your chosen guru tell you Romney is ahead even after he has lost. When, after all that, you hold on to your chosen path, you may be an idiot.
Well, yes. But what really matters is: are you in power? (Or, as Humpty Dumpty explained to Alice: "which is to be master? That's all.")
"We have always been at war with East Asia."
Sorry, Orwell is such a snark treasure trove for these squirrels!
Basically, we have the scenario of mafia men getting arrested. Mafia lawyer given witness list and evidence.
Suddenly witnesses either die or recant, evidence disappears.
I always suspected there was something mob-like about Republicans. There's no democracy in the Godfather's "family".
This may become my catch-phrase of the week. Loved it!
The media needs to put McConnell's feet to the fire on the CRS findings.
Why just his feet...
Please, let's SMEAR McConnel.
Except we aren't lying... So smear isn't the right word,,. Kneecap, maybe..
Bring him up on ethics charges...
I'd almost pay money to watch some bullies chase him with scissors or give him a swirly or at least a wedgie. I'm not a mean or vindictive person, but some of these "public servants" really need to be taken down a peg or two.
I'd settle for ethics charges and let's try to deal with facts, at least.
this is exactly the kinds of things that msm should be reporting; but all they report are conspiracy theories of the right ! they saturate people w/that sh_t! then eventually it becomes the "truth"! there are no real msm journalists anymore ...
STFU , the gop/tp Do these things to themselves , Blatantly and in the Face of America and then expect every American to be as purposefully Ignorant as THEY,themselves ARE ! Don't be Stupid and Ignorant All at the same time !
The GOP is the ultimate one way street. Anything that even remotely challenges them with facts, must be covered up or bought off. McConnell needs to be replaced with someone who cares about America, and not so much about his own personal racial hatreds.
I am wondering why senate dems do not ask for it to be reinstated , and if the answer is " No " , then ask , " WHY NOT " ? ....
They did. The Democrats took the report and posted it to their own Senate website.
It's out there, just not anywhere someone from the right might accidently see it and be offended by the horrific reality of its facts.
I posted the link farther up the comment line.
http://www.dpcc.senate.gov/files/documents/CRSTaxesandtheEconomy%20Top%20Rates.pdf
There it is!
Give the President a bargaining chip...do a segment on the big picture from the 2012 election. The President has twice received more votes than Bush (both popular and electoral). More Americans voted Democratic for US Senator in 2012 than Republican, and the same probably holds across all the 2012 House races. The President won BIG but nobody is talking about this (yet a few Tea Party wingnuts win in 2010 and everyone talks for months and months and months).
So, the Repubs can pull out all the stops on Amb. Rice for accurately relaying intelligence report talking points with qualifications regarding ongoing investigations as a reason to make her unqualified to serve. But, it's okay to pull a report considered an informed opinion based on factual information provided by a non-partisan group just because they don't like the answer.
I think they need to look to their own house when it comes to cover-ups.
You notice they just keep repeating that they need more information. This is all they are doing, forcing an image (like they always do) that there's something hiding and conspiracy must be afoot.
When Collins came out saying that it was never clearer. They want Kerry so they can run Scott Brown for his seat.
Well, then I say let's ask if a Kennedy would run for Senate. Caroline? Robert? You would make a great Senator and good replacement for Uncle Teddy.
Oops, back on thread; the CRS report needs to be made public. Someone, please make it so.
But yeah, I can see the context, they know from cover ups. Projecting again.
Joan posted the link further up.
Thank you very much!
This is the information suppression that the senate should be investingating. Not Susan Rice!