A Few Issues You May Not See In The Paper

A newspaper only has so space they have to report each day, national news broadcasts only have a 1/2 hour and local news is, well "news" is a loose term for a lot of them. But lucky for us the internet has unlimited space and so all the stuff you can't get from other sources, you can find with a little effort online. So I have a few issues I just came upon Wednesday that I thought was worth talking about.

First, this most likely will make the papers but I want throw my two cents in anyways. Congressional Republicans refused to temporally suspend work on tax cuts that would almost solely benefit the rich. Democratic leaders in the House and Senate sent a letter to Republicans saying, "Now is not the time to cut services for our most vulnerable, cut taxes for our most fortunate and add $35 billion to the deficit." Congressional committees had been called upon to come up with $35 billion in spending reductions over five years to programs including Medicaid to the poor, student loans, pension insurance and food stamps by September 16th. At the same time, the committees will also approve a $70 billion tax cut which are extensions of reductions on capital gains and dividends which also affects almost solely the rich.

Not done with tax cuts yet. Later on in the week, the Senate is expected to vote to permanently ban the estate tax (aka, death tax.) In the same week that Hurricane Katrina will become the most expensive natural disaster in history, and that Iraq war thing still going on, Bill Frist and his GOP thugs are a passing a $1 trillion tax break for billionaires. The estate tax is perhaps the most fair tax this country has ever had. It is only paid by extreme multi-millionaires and billionaires. As it stands now, the first $3 million of a couple's wealth is exempted from the tax with the current 2005 tax rate at 47% By 2009, the exemption rises to $7 million per couple while the tax rate drops to 45% In the next decade, the estate tax is projected to raise appox. $1 trillion in revenue. I thought we had proved trickle down economics do not work?

The next story has to do with the UN report on the Oil-For-Food program. As expected, the report came down hard on Kofi Annan, his son and the UN security council for extreme mismanagement. But also in the 1,000 page report, was a section about U.S. approved smuggling of oil. The reports says, "while US Navy ships were patrolling the Gulf in February 2003, making a show of boarding and searching leaky dhows and small ships, they turned a blind eye to tankers carrying $54 million of Iraqi oil under the scheme on Jordan's behalf," the Reuters article said. A total of 7.7 million barrels of oil were smuggled at prices around $7 per barrel. The sale was arranged for Jordan businessman who has been quoted as saying he had, "the Pentagon in one pocket and the CIA in the other." The entire article can be read here.

Article Author: John A. Conley

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