US Tax Cuts, Expiration Dates And Fareed Zakaria

The US is up shit's creek - thanks to eight oppressive years under the BUSH regime and its policy we're in the worst off financially than we've been in for nearly half a century.

Republicans are bitching about lowering the deficit yet they are against allowing Bush tax cuts for America's wealthy to expire (just to let you know nearly HALF of Americans do not pay income tax). Allowing these tax cuts to expire across the board would lessen the deficit by 30% (yes, that's 3-0 percent) and take us back to a similar taxing system as the Clinton Admin (which saw the budget balanced for the first time in 40 years as well as a economic surplus - think Prada, Gucci and Chanel for daaaaysss).

Watch CNN's Fareed Zakaria's take on what America should be doing (following in the steps of Great Britain)-

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/08/01/gps.fareed.take.8.01.cnn

Please watch this and spread the word. Inform and empower yourself because it's taking a toll on ALL OF US.

There's A Class War Happening, It's Not Helping the Economy

This past May more than 2 million Americans were left without unemployment benefits and Congress has yet to extend these jobless benefits. Congress has had different opportunities to take such action, leaving these 2 million people (you are probably one of them) up the proverbial shit's creek. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), criticized the US for it's lackadaisical action.

The US, suffering its worse economic atmosphere since the Great Depression, will not see an upswing in jobs unless swift action is taken. Part of which is why the OECD has been harsh in its criticism and suggests government-sponsored programs that encourage private businesses to reduce workers' hours rather than lay people off -- something that "significantly reduced job losses" in 24 OECD countries -- and "well-targeted hiring subsidies" like tax breaks for companies that hire additional workers.

It's been over 30 days since these benefits expired and Congress recently took vacation for the 4th of July holiday. Not sweating it all huh? If something doesn't happen quickly, we are all bound to suffer. Take action, call you local congress person and lay on them! Tell them to get off their fat asses and extend unemployment benefits or they won't have a job next election either.

Here's a list of Congress people - http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml

Oil Activism

Activists holding signs stating "Big Oil Lies People Die" at today's Congressional hearing with oil execs testifying on the devastating Gulf of Mexico Oil disaster. Photo via Change Chevron, http://changechevron.org/

Side note: execs had also testified that a clean up plan for the Gulf included walruses. Unfortunately, walruses are not native to the Gulf. Embarrassing isn't it? These people are in charge of cleaning up a major environmental disaster yet they don't even know what animals are native to the gulf. Disturbing...

Find out more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/15/exxon-bp-ceos-it-was-emba_n_612837.html