Monthly Archives: April 2012

Salon: Does anyone realize what the GOP just did?

Republicans save an unpopular tax loophole that favors the super-rich, and they might just get away with it

-By Steve Kornacki

April 17, 2012- Senate Republicans used a filibuster to kill the Buffett Rule last night. There was no surprise in this. Without substantial GOP defections, there was no way Democrats would have the 60 votes needed to force an up/down vote. They ended up with 51, with one Republican (Maine’s Susan Collins) crossing over to side with them, and one of their own (Arkansas’ Mark Pryor) joining the GOP blockade.

Bloomberg: How to Pay No Taxes: 10 Strategies Used by the Rich

-By Jesse Drucker

April 17, 2012- If you have lots of money, Tuesday, April 17, was one of the best tax days since the early 1930s: Top tax rates on ordinary income, dividends, estates, and gifts remain at or near historically low levels. That’s thanks, in part, to legislation passed in December 2010 by the 111th Congress and signed by President Barack Obama. Starting next January, rates may be headed higher.

For the 400 U.S. taxpayers with the highest adjusted gross income, the effective federal income tax rate—what they actually pay—fell from almost 30 percent in 1995 to just over 18 percent in 2008, according to the Internal Revenue Service. And for the approximately 1.4 million people who make up the top 1 percent of taxpayers, the effective federal income tax rate dropped from 29 percent to 23 percent in 2008. It may seem too fantastic to be true, but the top 400 end up paying a lower rate than the next 1,399,600 or so.

Think Progress: PROGRESSIVE VICTORY: ALEC Ends Its Guns And Voter Suppression Task Force

-By Scott Keyes

Mother Jones: Wendy’s: We’re Done With ALEC, Too

-By Andy Kroll

April 11 2012- McDonald's, it turns out, isn't the only fast-food giant to have cut ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council, the corporate-funded organization that writes up model bills for thousands of state lawmakers nationwide. Wendy's said on its official Twitter feed on Tuesday night that it, too, had left ALEC. "We decided late 2011 and never renewed this year. It didn't fit our business needs," the company tweeted. Wendy's is currently not a member of ALEC, it stressed.

Bob Bertini, a spokesman for Wendy's, confirmed the move. "The tweet is correct. Wendy's is not a member of ALEC. Last year, we made the decision not to renew for 2012," he wrote in an email to Mother Jones.

Think Progress: The Contango Game: How Koch Industries Manipulates The Oil Market For Profit

-By Lee Fang

April 13, 2012- In recent weeks, gas prices around the country have surged to levels unseen since the 2008 oil spike. However, market fundamentals are not driving the nearly $4.00/gallon gas prices. In fact, under the Obama administration, oil production is at record highs and there is adequate global supply of crude. As Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioner Bart Chilton has explained, rampant oil speculation, which is at its highest level on record right now, is to blame for current prices.

Huffington Post: FreedomWorks, Koch Brothers Clash Over Cato Institute Takeover Bid

-By Paul Blumethal

April 12, 2012- A split is opening up between two forces that helped to launch the Tea Party in 2009. FreedomWorks, a free market/limited government advocacy group, released a statement Thursday criticizing the move by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch to sue for majority control of the libertarian Cato Institute.

"As representatives of FreedomWorks, a grassroots organization that fights for constitutionally-limited government and individual freedom, we have grave concerns regarding the potential damage to the cause of liberty that will result from the dispute that has erupted between the Board of Directors of the Cato Institute and various parties at Koch Industries," says the statement from FreedomWorks' top three officials — Chairman Dick Armey, the former congressman from Texas; Co-Chairman C. Boyden Gray and President Matt Kibbe.

NJ.Com: Some of Christie’s biggest bills match model legislation from D.C. group called ALEC

-By Salvador Rizzo

April 1, 2012- TRENTON — Let’s say you’re a state lawmaker, passionate about charter schools, and you want to turn this passion into laws that create social change. What you need are bills. And you want them fast — ready-made, just add water, written in language that can withstand partisan debate and legal scrutiny.

There is a place that has just what you want.

It’s called the American Legislative Exchange Council, a little-known conservative group headquartered in Washington, D.C., and funded by some of the biggest corporations in the United States — most with a business interest in state legislation.