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Senate Democrats To Push ‘Buffett Rule’ Bill This Week

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) announced Monday that he will unveil “Buffett Rule” legislation this week. President Barack Obama highlighted the need for such a measure at the State of the Union earlier this month and will likely continue to call for it throughout his presidential re-election campaign.

Whitehouse is expected to introduce the Paying a Fair Share Act on Wednesday. His proposal would codify the “Buffett Rule,” named after billionaire Warren Buffett: It would require people who make more than $1 million to pay a 30 percent effective tax rate. Tax loopholes now allow some of the wealthiest Americans to pay lower tax rates than people in the middle class.

“Our tax system is long-overdue for reform,” materials from Whitehouse’s office stated. “In his State of the Union address, President Obama proposed adding to the tax code a ‘Buffett Rule,’ which would ensure that millionaires and billionaires pay at least the tax rate paid by middle-class families. Senator Whitehouse’s Paying a Fair Share Act would codify that proposal, bulwarking the system against gimmickry and abuse.”

Full Story Here: Senate Democrats To Push ‘Buffett Rule’ Bill This Week.

A Better Question Might Be, ‘How Is It NOT Fascism?’

Have you ever spoken to someone who lived through a fascist regime? If and when you do, you might be surprised at what you hear. When they get talking, most people who lived through Mussolini’s Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal. Videla’s Argentina, Vargas’s Brazil or Bordaberry’s Uruguay paint surprisingly benign pictures of daily life in those places.

Most Americans who’ve lived abroad have, at one time or another, had the experience of talking with a foreign friend who, though never having lived in the US, is pretty well convinced that they understand the cardinal elements of our culture.  Why?

Because for years, that person has consumed a non-stop diet of Hollywood movies and TV programs.

When, after fully acknowledging cinema’s great value as a tool of cultural knowledge, you try and let them know there are many important social realities this medium cannot convey, they often become annoyed or indifferent.

Full Story Here: A Better Question Might Be, ‘How Is It NOT Fascism?’ | Common Dreams.

GOP Senator: We Need ‘Child Labor’ To Fight Obesity Epidemic

At a recent town hall in Osage, Iowa, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) responded to a question about the Labor Department’s stricter limits on child labor by claiming that they could exacerbate the child obesity epidemic by making kids less “active”:

Concern was raised about the proposed Department of Labor’s intent to greatly limit child labor on family farms.

“This farm bill will greatly affect our FFA and 4-H programs,” said Grassley. “Kids won’t be able to help on farms not owned by their parents.

“It’s interesting that this child labor bill goes against Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity initiative,” said Grassley. “How can kids be active if they are limited by this law?“

Full Story Here: GOP Senator: We Need ‘Child Labor’ To Fight Obesity Epidemic | ThinkProgress.

Free Trade Makes the Rich Even Richer

America’s failed trade policies and broken campaign finance system are inextricably linked. That much is proven by the fact that the vast majority of Americans oppose these policies, yet members of both major parties are forging ahead with more disastrous trade pacts. The average American has come to realize that North American Free Trade Agreement style trade pacts do nothing more than lead to the loss of millions of jobs and enrich a few multinational corporations in the process.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll from last year found that 69 percent of Americans believe that free trade agreements have cost America jobs. Just 18 percent believe that those agreements have created jobs.

The majority of Americans believe that free trade has hurt the nation overall. That’s up from just 46 percent in 2007 and 30 percent in 1999. But in this case, those opinions don’t matter, because it is the moneyed interests that make the political world go ‘round.’

Full Story Here: Free Trade Makes the Rich Even Richer | Economy In Crisis.

REALITY-BASED Community

Those of us in the REALITY-BASED Community cannot afford to forget THIS:

“….The aide said that guys like me were ”in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. ”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

Without a Doubt – By RON SUSKIND  – - October 17, 2004
http://www.cs.umass.edu/~immerman/play/opinion05/WithoutADoubt.html