Reply #12: AMEN to Hartmann!

[pnorman]

I've been paying for XM for the past few years, and Thom Hartmnan is all I really use it for. I have a recording device set up to auto-save Hartmann and Randi Rhodes, but much of the time, I don't bother listening to her.

What I really like about Thom is that he's courteous and ON POINT with ALL his guests, thereby making them behave in return. It even worked with David Horowitz fercrissakes! No matter WHO they are, they can be made to contribute something to the store of knowledge, if they DON'T scream. Thom keeps them from screaming, and the guest leaves in sincere cordiality. Now, Randi .......

pnorman
On edit: I was just reading Thom hartmann's book, "Unequal Protection", and cme across this:

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CORPORATE INSIDERS RUN THE GOVERNMENT

In May of 2001, the idea of taxation without representation came full circle when a government leader proposed that we shift all tax burden back onto the people, lowering corporate income tax to zero. Paul O'Neill is a multimillionaire who has been a top executive at Alcoa and International Paper, two of the world's largest multinational corporations. At the time of this writing, O'Neill is Secretary of the United States Treasury, appointed by the Bush administration and approved by the Senate.

In May 2001, O'Neill suggested that corporations should be totally exempt from all income tax. He said that the roughly 10 percent of federal funds they currently pay in corporate income taxes to provide for and administer our commons is too much; corporations should be just as tax-exempt as churches and synagogues.

O'Neill also called for the abolition of Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare for working people because, he told a reporter for London's Financial Times, "able-bodied adults should save enough on a regular basis so that they can provide for their own retirement, and, for that matter, health and medical needs." In O'Neill's opinion, corporations should pay no taxes Land individuals should pay all costs of the federal government while also trying to pay for their retirement and all of their own medical costs.

Social Security is half-paid by the employer. If companies don't have to pay for it, the difference does not pass through to the employee-the worker's total tax burden goes up by another 734 percent of her income, and the employer's labor cost goes down correspondingly.