ATONEMENT: as a governmental responsiblity

I just finished reading a book by St Anselm on atonement after finding out he was my theological counterpart (100%), even more the John Calvin (97%), so I figured I ought to know something more about him and read the book. (I found this out on an internet test that may or may not be very accurate.) For your information he. St. Anselm was the Bishop of Canterbury in 11^th Century.

For those of you who are not familiar with the doctrine of atonement, it is the belief that we ought to pay our debts to God, of which we are incapable of in and of ourselves; but that Jesus the Christ did it for us. A bit oversimplified, but you get the idea.

This began my thinking on atonements’ political counterparts. I have always hated self-aggrandizing statements such as: “a self made man,” “drawn up by your own bootstraps,” or as in the poem Invictus, “I am the captain of my ship the master of my soul…” Self made man my arse! Each of us is dependent upon parents (or at least a fertilized egg) for our existence. Human babies are the most dependent of all critters. That dependence carries through all of humanity. We are dependent upon each other whether we acknowledge it or not. Few of us grow our own food, we are dependent upon food growers; the same is true for shelter, clothing, and ipods. We are indebted to the world we live in for everything we have. We may bluster on about our hard work to pridefully talk about our various accomplishments, but that is sheer vanity. We work, all of us, some harder than others, but it is mainly luck and circumstance that enable us to succeed or not to succeed in life’s endeavors. For example, the folk in working poverty levels having three jobs to just make their family survive work just as hard and a major corporation CEO, and often much harder. Remember the TV show where bosses went to work in their own companies anonymously? They became less prideful and more thankful to their workers.

I believe that is the real cry of the WSO’s (Wall Street Occupiers) demonstrating around the country. They are not the slackers that their detractors say they are. They are demonstrating against the real slackers in our country, those ultra rich who mainly derive dividends from the work of others. That banker who manipulates the market for homeowners to lose their houses rather than working hard enough for them to succeed is just an opportunistic slacker. The big corporations who hire lobbyists to write and get bills passed in congress to benefit themselves at the expense of others are slackers. Politicians who depend on these lobbyists to do their work and fail to remember they are the servants of the public are slackers.

It is nice when the Rockefellers and Carnegies of times past gave the country libraries and other benevolence activities, but they could do that because the stood on the backs of those who did the real work to build their fortunes. Entrepreneurs, risk takers, should be rewarded for their risk taking, but so should those who helped them. Henry Ford showed great wisdom when he paid his workers well so they could afford the product they were building.

I am pleased that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet undertake wonderful philanthropies, but they also acknowledge, that their wealth comes from others and they have benefits others do not. Their debts to the country and the people in it and abroad are immense. So, I am glad they acknowledge that and seek to give back a bit. Atone; pay back debts. Unfortunately they are a minority of the ultra rich who have accumulated half the wealth of the country but obviously did not do half the work. They are debtors and need to atone; pay back their debts.

And that is one of the proper roles of government; to see that atonement takes place. Government is to ensure that there is justice and equity taking place in society. They are responsible to see that those who have been given much are required to give back much.

I frequently here the spurious claim, “it’s our money, and the damned government has no claim to it.” They reflect a prideful ignorance that must be taken to task. Everything they have they are indebted to others for the having of it. They are in debt to the parents who raised them, the schools that educated them, the employers who hired them, or the patrons who buy from them, the government infrastructure that enables them to share their work and product. They are debtors.

Partial atonement happens when a government sees that debts are paid with justice and equity. And our government has failed miserably as of late to do that. Our government has allowed a concentration of wealth in the hands of a few; that is completely immoral and unjust. We are acting more as an oligarchy than a democracy.

Though they may not articulate it in the way I have in this piece, it seems to me this is the cry of the WSO. May atonement be made, and justice be done.

Couldn't resist sharing this one.

Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer.  They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering.

Finally fed up, God said, 'THAT'S IT!  I have had enough.  I am going to  set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job.'

So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.

They moused. They faxed.They e-mailed.They e-mailed with attachments..They downloaded.They did spreadsheets!They wrote reports.They created labels and cards.They created charts and graphs.They did some genealogy reports.They did every job known to man.Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell.

Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed  across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off...

Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld.

Jesus just sighed....

Finally, the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their  computers.

Satan started searching frantically, screaming: 'It's gone!  It's all GONE!  'I lost everything when the power went out!'

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files fromthe past two hours of work.

Satan observed this and became irate.  'Wait!' he screamed.  That's not fair!  He cheated!  How come he has all his work and I don't have any?'

God just shrugged and said,

JESUS SAVES ...

Why Does Congress Do Nothing?

Because they already have everything they want. Or, those who control them already have everything they want. Tax cuts for the rich have been accomplished. Deregulation of industry has already been accomplished. Entitlement programs have already been cut. The voice of the regular middle class American has essentially been rendered mute.

Oh, I suppose they still have to destroy Social Security and the other safety nets of society and fight some more wars that appeal to them. But essentially they have gotten everything they want.

I wonder what the country would look like had that not happened. What if Reagan had never been elected? Or Bush had not had his two terms? I think the country and the world would be much different.

Note: At this point I confused myself in trying how to figure out how to run the numbers to support my theory. Fortunately Paul K. came to my rescue and just pointed out that we should compare average incomes to medians incomes. Brilliant! Average income is taking the total national income divide it by the population (by household.) the Median income is just what most folk get as an income. I’ll just insert his figures at this point:

In 1975, the average was 1.168x the median.  In 1980 it was 1.189x.  By 1982 it was 1.205x and in 2010 it had climbed to 1.366x.

2010 average (i.e. mean) household was $67,530.  So assuming the same total national income, if income distribution were the same as it was in 1975, median income would be $57,816 (dividing by 1.168x).  If it were the same distribution as 1982 it would be $56,041 (dividing by 1.205x).  But instead it's $49,445.  So most American households are well below 'average'.

So there you have it. If we hadn’t decreased the taxes for the wealthy, made them regressive instead of progressive, if we hadn’t lifted government restrictions on business, if we had whacked entitlement programs and the lot, most folk would have $6,596 more dollars in our pockets this year. Or should that be $18,085 more dollars in our pocket? Either way, the rich have managed to move money into their pockets and out of ours.

And this is what the right has called progress over the last 35 years. Go figure.

Paul says it this way, “Yeah the Right is suffered from what I would call 'catastrophic success'.  We're pretty much living in the neoconservative economic paradise now - low regulation, low wages, low taxes.  We're living the dream here!”

Great statement! You can hear the sarcasm drip in his last line.

Prophetic Cartoons

 

  

  

Super Gridlock

Well surprise surprise, the Super committee attempt to fix the budget or create a budget both parties could accept failed. Of course they failed, they never had a chance.

In a previous article, when I blamed the Tea Party for wrecking the GOP, I talked about the shift in American politics, especially in the last 35 years since Reagan took office. The GOP, with incredible pressure put on it by the extreme religious right, and the extreme politics of the Tea Party (which don’t agree internally) and a number of folk who want us to run pell mell back the 19^th century when the government exhibited very little control over anything. The point is the Republican Party is way way right of where it used to be prior to the Reagan years. And, as PK pointed out the Democratic party has moved towards the right along with them. But even with that movement they share NO common ground. Negotiation just isn’t possible when you hold intractable positions with no moderates to save the day. Actually, I think we have moderates they just don’t appear that was to extremists which dominate the GOP.

If you read Obama, he is quite moderate in his approach to government. The two Mormon Republican candidates, if they would grow a pair, and speak more honestly, might be there as well. I never thought I would ever see the day when Newt Gingrich would come out with a moderate position on immigration publicly, sounding like a man of reason. Good for him, but we should not forget his hateful and deceitful rhetoric of the past; but of course most will.

The hope in all of this us that it will help us see just how extreme and out of control and how rich people dominated politics have become. Republicans have to come to realize at some point protecting the ultra rich in this country is a losing proposition in every shape and form.

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Haven’t written much lately due to being possessed by demons and having the plague. But I’m a bit better now. Hope the country gets better too. The country needs a good sneeze to pop out all those little demons inhabiting us, and then we can quickly clamp our hands over our mouths to keep them from getting back in. Then we can say a collective, “Bless you.”

Made in America

Good Morning American has been doing pieces on getting Americans to buy American goods which in turn will create American jobs for some time now. It’s really a neat idea and a feel good idea. It also points out to us how incredibly dependent we are upon foreign markets to maintain our consumer society ways. Its  good to support American small businesses and the free market. No complaints there.

I also read from Martin A Sullivan an article from his www.blog tax.com an article titled, “Why Should Americas Promote Foreign Job Creation?” Sullivan’s point is that multinational corporations play a vital part in our economy. We indeed live in a world economy and we need to appreciate that. We worry about our multinational corporations going to other countries rather than staying here (better corporate tax rates) but that does not seem to be happening.

When we see what is going on in the European markets right now they very much reflect our own problems. We all seem good at mismanagement and not controlling debt and overspending. Yet the key word here is competition. The European and American as well as other world markets need competition to get the best products at the best price; that’s the idea of capitalism. Thus when other countries do well, we can do well as well. Remember the Marshall plan when we helped out to countries the Allies conquered in WWII? A lot of complaining went on about that, but it was in our self interest to develop those markets so we had markets to sell to.

What Sullivan is talking about is finding good tax policies in all this; primarily reforming our own tax code. He says, “Proponents of reduced taxes on foreign operations of U.S. companies like to argue that direct incentives for foreign job creation will indirectly benefit U.S. job creation. I like to refer to this as trickle-sideways economics, a notion we should find no more compelling than trickle-down economics.” Neat phrase.

I also remember PK advocated zero corporate tax; I’m still working on that one as they still would use community resources and need to help pay for community education, but they shouldn’t be used as cash cows for communities either. I also imagine PK understands this article better than I.

Anyway, it was a neat blog.

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On another point we are now seeing the ads pour in about fighting a recall our Wisconsin Governor who is promoted as the who saved Wisconsin. We’re going to see a lot of this. What I would like to see is a comparison of  median standard of living comparison of the results of his cuts and aid to business.

Everybody see high unemployment rates, but do we really see the overall backwards slide of middle class standard of living. Half pictures often dishonest as the analysis, is only part of the problem.

Self evident truths

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The men who wrote the Declaration of Independence for our country were for the most part upper class, wealthy, well educated and slave owners. In other words the words they wrote didn’t even apply to themselves or their lifestyles. Yet in these amazing words they held up an ideal for a fledgling country, they did not fully comprehend. Heavens, the language is even sexist.

Many in our country today, are bigoted in terms of race, religion, social background, educational levels, sports team affiliations, car or tractor types; you name it. We seem to have made it a national pastime of how vilify each other and talk about differences between up that we believe are very important.

And yet we still believe in these words in the Declaration of Independence of what we can be and are from time to time. They embody our ideals for ourselves and have been a beacon of hope for people in other countries. They are simultaneous truths and lies about what the human condition can and could be.

Where did these values our founding fathers pen come from? What is their genesis, where their visions begin? They came in part from the political and economic philosophers of their day and beyond. They came from a search for a new beginning in a new land and opportunities. They came from a variety of places. One of the basic places from whence they came is where values, morals, and ethics have come from over the centuries, the church.

While it is true many of the founding fathers were deists and not particularly interested in institutional religion, they too shared the values that churches advocated for years. We also know that the history of the Christian church is filled with horrendous acts committed on the basis of religious belief, such as the crusades. Nevertheless, the Christian churches as, well as other major religions of the world, are great repositories of human values and beliefs

In my many years in the institutional church I have had a love hate relationship with the institutional religion, yet, in the those years I have found and enjoyed multitudes of people who share the same basic values I have and used those values and beliefs in their daily lives. They, like myself, fail in living out those values constantly, but they are still the basis of who we are. They give meaning and purpose in live. They give us our dreams and visions. They call out of us the best God has placed in us. They lead us to be able to make statements such as, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The institutional church and all religions, like the governments that govern are fraught with frail human beings who fail to live up to our ideals. But they are what we have and they serve us well when we remember to be good citizens of our countries and well as God’s kingdom.

We may call this the Post-Christian era, and in many ways it is, especially in Europe where many belong but few are active in churches. Yet, they still return to baptize their church, marry in them and are buried by their rituals. Their influence is still important, indeed, in my belief, essential to humankind marching forward to its destiny. And those who forget its history, and values and traditions are often the ones that detract and demean the forward movement of human history.

Read history, study religions, and examine values and beliefs. They will stand you in far better stead than the news media with its connections to industries, the powers that be, and the political rhetoric of those who seek to advance their own agendas and over the common good.

The founding fathers knew that democracy was based upon a well educated populace who knew this history, their values, and their religious beliefs. We are struggling with that primary educational purpose today. Be smart it is a civic and religious essential.

Austerity and the 'Planned' Recession

So the other day the San Francisco Fed came out with a report saying our chances of a new recession in the 1st quarter of 2012 are better than 50-50.

More nations in the Eurozone are already starting to slip into recession. Greece never got out - Italy's rolling over, and now Portugal, and maybe Netherlands and Belgium. As the sovereign debt bond sell-off spreads beyond the fringe and is now reaching some of the 'core' Eurozone, the wave of austerity sweeping governments is spreading with it as they scramble to get their budgets in line to hold the Euro together.

Economists across Europe are warning of the recessionary risks that the austerity measures are building. Meanwhile the Supercommittee in Congress is deadlocked which promises another imminent fiscal crisis here as we had in August.

Nobody has a pro-growth agenda, everywhere there is an austerity agenda. A recession appears imminent, and the governments of the advanced economies appear to be doing everything they can to make it happen.

Misleading Labels

Paul here - I read the Financial Times a lot on my Nook. It's one of those few papers that, unlike most of the domestic media, breaks beyond the one-dimensional tit-for-tat political version of dumbed-down economic news and gets into some serious analysis of the interplay of economics and politics in a global context.

But while they usually have a very three-dimensional analysis on things, even they've fallen into this pattern of calling the Occupy Wall Street and similar movements "anti-capitalist" protests. Which, at least here in the U.S. I don't think is the case. People aren't against capitalism. They're against what it's been morphed into. They miss the old capitalism that existed earlier this century - when taxes were more progressive, income distribution was more broad, unions were everywhere and jobs were plentiful. When corporate profits went hand-in-hand with job creation, where now we have near-record profits with persistent unemployment. They want capitalism to WORK again.

So the media still doesn't 'get' it. Granted this is in part due the movement's nature - without clear leaders, the focus and messages have been a bit diluted and amorphous.

Has the Tea Party Wrecked the GOP?

Yes.

I may have mentioned in previous articles some of this information. Currently the most left leaning Republican in Congress is to the right of the most right leaning Democrat. In the past it was the moderates in each party that have been able to broker compromise so congress could get some work done for the good of the citizenry.

I don’t believe that the Democrats have moved further to the left, but I do believe that the Republicans have moved significantly, even radically to the right. And most of this is due to the Tea Party and its factions and their inability to compromise on anything. The religious right has played a similar role in the past and continues to do so.

The Tea Party is viewed as those folk who are conservative and libertarian and has been protesting since 2009. They want reduced government spending, are opposed to taxes in general, they want the national and federal debt reduced. There are members in congress who carry the Tea Party label but there is no central leadership of this group; though of the best known are: Ron Paul, Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, Eric Cantor and Michele Bachmann. 87% don’t even like the mainstream Republican leadership. And there is the rub. They are exerting so much pressure on presidential candidates; those candidates feel they must cater to the group to get elected. Thus moderate leadership is in real danger, and the country faces continuing congressional gridlock.

Mitt Romney, in my opinion is the only centrist candidate on the scene with the possible exception of Jon Huntsman, but both of them are Mormon which Americans see as the third most hated religion in the country. The rest of the field is just plain too radical.

The Tea Party bears little resemblance to their historical name sakes of the Boston Tea Party whose cry was, “taxation without representation.” All the while they support a system that has not worked for 35 years, supply side economics, which has caused the great imbalance of wealth in this country. Their agenda would make things all the worse. Given their druthers, I believe we would return to the chaos of the 1800’s where the economy was simply out of control before governmental safeguards were put in place to stabilize free enterprise. I sympathize with their anger but find it totally misplaced.

Tuesday not a good day for right wing radicals

Maine voters squash governor’s attempt to kill a 38 year old tradition of election day voter registration at the polling place by a 100,00 votes.

Republicans say they have no interest in raising tax rates, leaving themselves room for raising new taxes.

The Tea Party is busy suing difference factions of the group.

Ohio governor’s controversial limits on the collective bargaining right of state employees defeated.

Arizona anti-immigration architect Russell Pearce, lost his senate seat in a recall vote.

Occupy movement of the 99% gaining ground across the country.

Mississippi rejects the idea of a fertilized egg as a person from the moment of conception defeated soundly.

75% of Americans agree on a tax increase for millionaires to pay for jobs programs [Boehner falsely claims it would affect half of the small business people, whereas it is on 13% who make over 1 million.)

Elections blocked right-wing measures on voting, labor, immigrant and women’s rights in Tuesday’s elections.

Do you suppose the public is actually rejecting the extreme positions in the Republican Party?

Gov. Walker’s Special Jobs Session

What jobs?

What they did put on the table after acknowledging they really can’t create jobs, just make Wisconsin more job friendly: Reduced fees for shooting movies in the state; give property owners the right to shoot folk trespassing or just wondering on and getting hurt on their property; reduce interest rates for corporations having to pay court-ordered paying to consumers injured or killed by dangerous products; made it easier to pollute the state’s waterways with mining waste etc.; hunters can now buy beer at 6 am rather than wait till 8 am and the don’t have to shoot a doe before bagging the big buck; get rid of sex education and the list goes on.

As Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan hit the mark when he dubbed it the "anything but jobs" session. Wisconsin is increasingly becoming a national laughing stock, especially as the legislature secures the arrest of 18 people for carrying cameras in the Capitol at the same time that they move forward with a measure to allow concealed guns in the Capitol and right onto the Assembly floor. Or "We’re taking a step back to the Flintstone era," said Senator John Erpenbach.

Gentleman Hugh

I just couldn't resist showing you myself in all my finery as we ready ourselves for a high seas, high mucky muck cruise. Note the picture angle as I look down my nose at lesser beings. At least it's not bad for a Walmart clearance $52 suit, plus a Penny's dress shirt, cummerbund, bow tie cuff likes and studs.


"Oh what do the simple folk do?"


Now to get Doreen into her finery for her shot.

Go Public

Have you ever compared how people walk in contrast to how they drive? When walking we are usually politely graciously sliding in and out of each other’s paths with a “pardons” or “excuse me’s,” thrown in; it is a civilized procedure that for the most part is enjoyable. Then people get behind the wheel, wildly swapping lanes, cutting each other off, honking the horns, giving each other the finger, refusing to yield and generally acting like deranged imbeciles. Why is that?

A similar thing seems to happen when folk talk about politics of Facebook or other anonymous types of conversations. Generally polite people who at a dinner table with the same folk the demean and deride in print, would never say the same things; usually anyway. We seem of have Jekyll and Hyde personalities.

Parker Palmer talks about the loss of public life in our society. Malls and replaced the shops where folk used to meet and talk while making their purchases. Online conversations just don’t have the same feel as a party phone line (think I just really dated myself there.) When I was a kid the rural families would all come to town on a Saturday night. Women folk would make weekly grocery purchases and converse, men would stand or sit with the hands inside the bib overalls and discuss farming and the issues of the day and the kids would head for the movies or a candy treat. It was a social time. There is no counterpart for that today that I can see. Mobs of people all over town having a good time socializing.

Now when folk gather in groups it’s a demonstration. Though it intrigued me following all the hoopla of the Tea Party gatherings in the Press and how long it took for the Media to report about folk gathering to protest Wall Street actions. And then at often these peaceful gatherings somebody blows it and people start banging each other around and causing a ruckus and we don’t like ruckuses.

When I was on my internship in New York City in the 60’s I would see folk standing in various public squares or parks talking to anyone who would listen about issues that were important to them. Now people go to the mall and if they did that the mall police would soon arrive and take them away so they wouldn’t disturb folk from America’s passion for buying stuff.

We also work too much or play frivolously so that there is little time for any serious conversations. “Go Big Red!” is a far cry from a civil discussion about religion or politics. We live such privatized lives that we have little skill in real social interaction.

I believe this is part of the reason why the parties in congress seem incapable of truly talking to each other and looking for common ground. They don’t have any. Unless we find that common ground and learn civil discussion again our country will be in big trouble.

We need to go public. We have a little coffee shop here in Fountain City, where that type of thing happens. I need to go more often, I need it and most all of us do as well.

Liberal Arts and Civics

In Parker Palmer’s latest book he refers to Medieval curriculum which included: trivium –grammar, logic, and rhetoric; and quadrivium – arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. This was the original basis of a liberal arts education. In a more modern time when we had a new form of politics, democracy this also included political science, economics and history other social sciences. These were part of all school systems, elementary, secondary and higher education. Today I find as I talk to folk, college graduates or not they seem unaware of and lacking in liberal arts and we have become much more technological in our education, especially when it comes to economics and political science. Most folk seem to understand microeconomics ~ how to make a buck and keep it; well maybe not considering our personal debt equals the national debt. But few seem to understand macroeconomics, how national and international economics work. In particular a lot of folk seem totally ignorant of the role of government and macroeconomics to keep us from wild economic swings we had in the 1800’s. Keynesian economics should be a working part of every citizens understanding. I think this lays behind a lot of today’s extreme political economics such as is exhibited in the Tea Party rhetoric.

There was an article in a recent Christian Century titled: I love to tell the story, but I don’t know it. It is true in the church where many if not most members are biblically and theologically illiterate but it is also true in our understanding of politics and economics. We are doing a poor job of educating our citizens to be intelligent voters. We just know we don’t like what is going on but come up with absurd ideas as to how to fix things. We talk about kids being smarter today than ever before, which I think is untrue. Kids have a lot more data to deal with today but that does not imply they know how to organize it. Knowing how to text on your phone does not make you more literate, perhaps the opposite. We have become overly pragmatic in the sense of how to earn a living and how to play, but less able to be good citizens and morally aware and responsible.

To play with the old children’s story, it seems like the emperor is running around in no clothes again, but the general population this time thinks he wearing something.

Our citizens especially need to start looking around at the rest of the world and see where things are working and where things are not and have an understanding of why this is so. One of the benefits of retirement is I now have the time to study a lot of these things and have learned a lot about politics and economics and others things in my dotage. Others don’t have that advantage, but we do need to a better job of educating our citizens to be informed citizens so they can make intelligent decisions. If not, the Post-American age will come much sooner than we want. 

'Nuff said.

Pity the Wall Street CEO's

Johnson and Associates reported that on average Wall Street workers will get from 20 to 30% less in bonuses that last year due to the impact of tougher regulations since the financial crisis. Oh my, what will they ever do? Reuters says the bonuses are key for Wall Street folk, "Traders, bankers, and top executives typically receive base salaries of $100,000 to $1 million, but most of their compensations comes in the form of bonuses."


Here's an example. James Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan had a base salary last year of a paltry $1 million, plus a cash bonus of $5 million and stocks and options grants that took him to more than $20 million.


The financial crisis is really impacting these folk.

A 'New Normal'

So with Perry and Cain both proposing various 'flat' taxes, apparently with the goal of getting wealth and income even more concentrated than its already historic concentration levels, we probably have to start bracing for the results.

Actions have consequences which have now become apparent. Gearing the economy towards ever-greater wealth concentration eventually results in systemic demand failure. You can't have steadily growing demand from consumers when all the income increases are going to the top.

You can still have economic cycles, of course: but they will be much shorter. This is because without broad-based income growth, any economic growth has to come purely from credit growth. This means brief credit-fueled boom-bust cycles on the order of 2-4 years, rather than long broad-based expansions on the order of 7-9 years. Recessions (and/or depressions) will be much more frequent.

The self-destructive economic philosophies driving towards these conditions (and current politicians' efforts to make these conditions even worse) show no signs of abating, despite some signs of growing resistance at the street level.

Paul

Perry Tax Proposal

Here is how Perry tax cuts works. Surprise, surprise, the rich make out like bandits again. Millionaires tax rate goes down 20%. Flat wrong.