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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Thursday Evening Open Thread: TAX THE RICH!

Thursday Evening Open Thread: TAX THE RICH!

by Anne Laurie|  April 1, 20216:06 pm| 139 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, President Biden, Proud to Be A Democrat

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Democrats spend 30 years operating in fear of being called tax hikers and big spenders; along comes Joe Biden saying hello I would like some tax hikes and big spending and America’s like pic.twitter.com/TbRxslQ7NA

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 31, 2021

For the last fifty years or so, the Wingnut Wurlitzer kept just enough voters mesmerized by the fantasy that someday *they* might be ‘The Rich’ (y’know, lottery tickets fund education!, so buy more scratch tickets!), and when that happened all the thimblerigging designed to keep the IRS away from the Actually Well-Off would be irksome to them, too. But TFG’s Oval Office Occupancy and its loud & proud Both front hooves in the public trough, boys! mantra destroyed any remaining vestiges of that theory all to hell, and good for President Joe for speaking truth.

"No one should be able to complain about that," Biden says of proposed corporate tax increase. https://t.co/neWodpyzdh

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 31, 2021

the other thing is that eating, or at least soaking, the rich is incredibly popular. the third thing is that in america we have done this before and it worked fine https://t.co/MXzgKtk6O1

— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) April 1, 2021

"I'm open to other ideas" for how to pay for it so long as the ideas wouldn't mean a tax increase for those who make less than $400,000 a year, Biden says of his infrastructure proposal.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 31, 2021

President Joe Biden is using his infrastructure plan to take aim at President Donald Trump's signature economic achievement: His corporate tax cuts.https://t.co/h031KnCGsB

— Brian Faler (@Brian_Faler) March 31, 2021

imagine being a republican president so uniquely disastrous that the next guy proposes roughly ten brazillion dollars in spending and everybody is like “welp, it looks necessary”

trump is a failure unparalleled in the annals of presidential politics. hoover ain’t shit.

— Peloton InfoSec Analyst (Incident Response) (@CalmSporting) March 31, 2021

This is wonky but big: Biden is not just calling for ending the global "race to the bottom" on corporate taxes but putting real U.S. muscle behind it.

Companies based in countries that don't adopt a strong minimum tax would lose deductions. pic.twitter.com/i4DnmhNlA7

— Seth Hanlon (@SethHanlon) March 31, 2021

republican strategy of trying to convince people they don’t actually like the shit they like has worked great so far!

— kilgore trout, a student of martial arts (@KT_So_It_Goes) March 31, 2021

Maybe it’s just the pandemic and all this backfires, or maybe it’s a shift in national attitudes and the Reagan era truly is history. Time will tell. Either way it’s unusual to see Dems unabashedly spending trillions of dollars and winning the battle of public opinion.

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 31, 2021

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Previous Post: « He’s an Idiot of a Certain Kind
Next Post: Ugly Truths, Good People and Hope for a Better Future Ugly Truths, Good People and Hope for a Better Future»

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  1. 1.

    trollhattan

    April 1, 2021 at 6:11 pm

    I predict corporations will be so peeved they’ll move offshore twice!

  2. 2.

    MomSense

    April 1, 2021 at 6:15 pm

    It feels like we are finally dismantling Reaganomics.  The country will be so much better off when we get rid of the last of that bullshit.

  3. 3.

    zhena gogolia

    April 1, 2021 at 6:15 pm

    @MomSense:

    Yeah!

  4. 4.

    Comrade Colette

    April 1, 2021 at 6:16 pm

    @trollhattan: Onto ever tinier islands!

    In other good news, the insurrectionist dickhead who tased DC police officer Michael Fanone in the neck, causing him to have a heart attack, has been arrested.

  5. 5.

    Brachiator

    April 1, 2021 at 6:25 pm

    I love the chart that shows how modest Biden’s proposed tax increases really are.

    Trump and McConnell didn’t just cut corporate taxes. The Republicans went through the tax code, individual, corporate, estate and trust and further entrenched a system that gives the most favorable treatment to investment and business income, and the least favorable treatment to wage income.

    Coming out of the pandemic, the Democrats need some smart people and staffers who can revise the tax code to maximize benefits to middle income individuals and small business. This is just as important as Infrastructure Week.

  6. 6.

    dmsilev

    April 1, 2021 at 6:29 pm

    Are you a Brood X cicada, or just someone emerging from pandemic isolation?

    Check all that apply:

    • You haven’t had any contact with friends or other members of your generation in what feels like 17 years.
    • You have lost all sense of how to interact with others, if indeed you ever possessed it.
    • You are no longer a prisoner to conventional beauty standards, if indeed you ever were.
    • You are not wearing pants and resent the implication that you will ever be asked to wear hard pants again, unsure how the geometry of that would even work.
    • A scientist quoted in the New York Times has described you, unprompted, as “really big and awkward.”
    • Your singing has been described as “cacophonous” and “shrill.”
  7. 7.

    Patricia Kayden

    April 1, 2021 at 6:29 pm

    Dear @SenRonJohnson: You stated about the pro Trump mob that “I knew those were people that loved this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break a law.” Read this article about of one those folks who electroshocked a police officer. t.co/WmbERNCZqH— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) April 1, 2021

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2021 at 6:30 pm

    I’m not sure why Biden isn’t open to the SALT changes?  Isn’t that the law that was used to screw the blue states?  If I’m right about that, it seems like we should want that change.

  9. 9.

    Ksmiami

    April 1, 2021 at 6:37 pm

    @WaterGirl: absolutely and it helps finance the governments of blue states as well. The end of the Salt deductions was red state taker war on blue states and should be dismantled

  10. 10.

    Gravenstone

    April 1, 2021 at 6:42 pm

    @Comrade Colette: That’ll be fun when those tiny islands grow tinier due to rising sea levels.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    April 1, 2021 at 6:45 pm

    @Ksmiami:

    We need to find something to tax that’s unique to deep red states.

  12. 12.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2021 at 6:48 pm

    @WaterGirl: @Ksmiami:

    Actually, now that I think about it, the response by Psaki/Biden was the same as her response to the (bullshit) suggestions by the Republicans.

    At first that seemed odd, for the reasons I suggested, but now that I think about it, they can’t say “sure, SALT is gone” when they are saying  “we’re happy to hear suggestions as long as you make it clear that there’s a way to pay for it” to the Republicans.

    It’s actually the smart play.

  13. 13.

    Chief Oshkosh

    April 1, 2021 at 6:49 pm

    @Baud: Guns, bullets, beers, and bibles.

    SATSQ

  14. 14.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2021 at 6:49 pm

    @Baud: Let’s just say that no state can get more back from the federal government than what they put in.  That ought to cover the red states nicely.

  15. 15.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    April 1, 2021 at 6:51 pm

    @Baud: How about stupidity?

  16. 16.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    April 1, 2021 at 6:52 pm

    @Chief Oshkosh: I’m Ok with this list except for beer. Lay off my beverage man.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    April 1, 2021 at 6:57 pm

    I was unaware of this particular evil.

    Biden administration announces end to Trump-era rule that rejected certain immigration applications with blank spaces

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    April 1, 2021 at 6:58 pm

    So close…

    Both front hooves in the public trough, boys

    Both front hooves trotters in the public trough, boys!

    ;)

  19. 19.

    Martin

    April 1, 2021 at 6:59 pm

    @Baud: My longstanding idea is that the cost of gun violence for the preceding year should be totaled up, divided by annual ammunition sales, and applied as a tax. Best I can tell, it’s about 8 billion bullets sold annually in the US, and $212 billion cost of gun violence, so add a $26.50 tax per bullet.

    If the cost of violence goes down, the tax goes down. Everyone now has the same set of incentives.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    April 1, 2021 at 7:00 pm

    Pelosi hopes to offer SALT relief in infrastructure package

  21. 21.

    Jay

    April 1, 2021 at 7:01 pm

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    how would you tax stupidity?

  22. 22.

    Martin

    April 1, 2021 at 7:01 pm

    @Baud: Christ_the_unix_community_infects_everything.

  23. 23.

    Brachiator

    April 1, 2021 at 7:01 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Let’s just say that no state can get more back from the federal government than what they put in.

    Wouldn’t this just punish poor states?

  24. 24.

    Mike in NC

    April 1, 2021 at 7:01 pm

    I applaud Joe’s move to repeal Fat Bastard’s rotten tax cuts for the top 1% parasites.

  25. 25.

    smith

    April 1, 2021 at 7:02 pm

    @WaterGirl:  The fun thing about this is the down-home Goobers would love it. They think their taxes are subsidizing all of “those people”  in the blue state cities.

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    April 1, 2021 at 7:03 pm

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Now that it’s getting (or stuttering toward getting) warmer, FYI.

    Drinking Beer Makes You More Attractive… To Mosquitoes

  27. 27.

    Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    April 1, 2021 at 7:04 pm

    Since it’s an OT thread:

    I got my first shot. Pfizer.  The system in Albuquerque was fast, maybe 17 minutes (with the mandatory 15 observation)

  28. 28.

    different-church-lady

    April 1, 2021 at 7:05 pm

    I don’t doubt Americans are much more amicable to taxing the rich (whether corporate or individuals) when it’s accompanied by recent cash payments. In other words, when they can actually feel the money moving directly and immediately  from “them” to “us.”

  29. 29.

    rikyrah

    April 1, 2021 at 7:11 pm

    ???

     

    Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) Tweeted:
    NEW: Rep. Matt Gaetz showed nude photos of women he said he’d slept with to lawmakers.
    Multiple sources tell @CNN.
    W/ ⁦@jeremyherb⁩ & ⁦@FoxReports⁩:  t.co/zWB6XmX3BW twitter.com/ryanobles/status/1377751252445069312?s=20

  30. 30.

    Ksmiami

    April 1, 2021 at 7:11 pm

    @Baud: Stupidity and biscuits

  31. 31.

    rikyrah

    April 1, 2021 at 7:11 pm

    @Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]:

    YESSS ??

  32. 32.

    Ksmiami

    April 1, 2021 at 7:12 pm

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: I see you beat me but I posted downthread…

  33. 33.

    JPL

    April 1, 2021 at 7:13 pm

    @Baud:  Good.

  34. 34.

    craigie

    April 1, 2021 at 7:14 pm

    @Baud: Ignorance?

  35. 35.

    gratuitous

    April 1, 2021 at 7:14 pm

    From what I can see, the Biden proposal has Mitch McConnell so bamboozled he’s complaining that it’s simultaneously going to raise taxes and add to the deficit. If you’re paying for stuff, how does that add to the deficit? That was not, of course, a consideration in 2017 when every extra dime in the Treasury was siphoned off to the wealthy in yet another exercise of “It’s never worked the way we claim it will, but maybe this time?”

  36. 36.

    craigie

    April 1, 2021 at 7:16 pm

    Maybe it’s just the pandemic …, or maybe it’s a shift in national attitudes and the Reagan era truly is history.

    Why not both? And no, I don’t think this backfires.

  37. 37.

    Martin

    April 1, 2021 at 7:16 pm

    @Brachiator: Yeah. Further, what states get back is kind of odd. CA gets a lot back from the feds because we have a shit-ton of military bases thanks to being large, having a variety of biomes, and having a coast. Should we have to pay in for that? Should Arizona be punished because they pull in a lot more Medicare and SS money than they pay because people who lived in other states routinely move there to retire.

    I always thought there should be a tie between wages and welfare, so when Walmart underpays employees and they qualify for food stamps, that Walmart needs to pay for that. They get a choice – raise wages, or pay for the federal benefits. I’d like to see more programs structured like that.

    I mean, minimum wage for tipped employees in Texas is $2.13. It’s $19 where I live. Thinking one group of these employees is going to be a lot more dependent on federal benefits than the other.

    Similarly, the current Medicaid budget for CA is $112B. The total state budget for Texas is … $112B – for everything – schools, roads, voter suppression, medicaid – everything. Now, CA has more people than Texas, but not THAT many more.

  38. 38.

    Jay

    April 1, 2021 at 7:18 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Not all Red States are poor, many just don’t pull their own weight tax wise while sucking every Federal dollar they can.

    many of the actually “poor” States are that way because of the economies and tax structures they have enabled.

  39. 39.

    Ksmiami

    April 1, 2021 at 7:18 pm

    @gratuitous: I hope Mitch just chokes on Biden’s dust… Worst, most malevolent Senate leader ever.

  40. 40.

    Ksmiami

    April 1, 2021 at 7:19 pm

    @Jay: Texas is one of the only red states that gives more then it takes in – to the detriment of millions of Texans

  41. 41.

    Brachiator

    April 1, 2021 at 7:20 pm

    @gratuitous:

    From what I can see, the Biden proposal has Mitch McConnell so bamboozled he’s complaining that it’s simultaneously going to raise taxes and add to the deficit.

    Ha! Good point. Biden could easily say that, unlike Trump’s tax cuts, the new proposals are fiscally responsible.

    Also, Fed chair Powell has said that he is not all that concerned about the deficit.

  42. 42.

    Dan B

    April 1, 2021 at 7:21 pm

    @Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]: Seattle has been slow with the vaccinations.  We have the lowest infection and transmission rate of the 20 biggest metro’s in the US.  It also seems like we have the most people who want the shots.  It felt great to get my first shot even though it wouldn’t be effective for weeks.  Glad to hear you got yours!  Only a few more days till party time, if you remember how!

  43. 43.

    tom

    April 1, 2021 at 7:22 pm

    OT, but just got Moderna number 2!

  44. 44.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 1, 2021 at 7:22 pm

    @WaterGirl: We are supposed to be one country.

  45. 45.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    April 1, 2021 at 7:22 pm

    @Jay: Lottery tickets with even shittier odds? I don’t know, I didn’t know I’d be asked about implementation.

  46. 46.

    Jay

    April 1, 2021 at 7:24 pm

    @Martin:

    California expanded Medicaid, Texas didn’t.

    It’s not as simple as just comparing dollars in and Population.

    A lot of Federal Monies to the States are program based, often SJI incentives, or economic/infrastructure incentives, that Blue States eagerly accepted to try to “lift all boats”, that Red States spurned.

  47. 47.

    rikyrah

    April 1, 2021 at 7:26 pm

    @Baud:

    ?????

  48. 48.

    NotMax

    April 1, 2021 at 7:28 pm

    @Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    *waves to former Mauiite

  49. 49.

    JPL

    April 1, 2021 at 7:28 pm

    @tom: Congrats!

  50. 50.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 1, 2021 at 7:28 pm

    @Baud: I have done many of my immigration applications myself, if I were going to do it in the Orange Clown era, I would have probably gone with a lawyer.

    Having dealt with Indian bureaucracies I never ever leave anything blank.

  51. 51.

    James E Powell

    April 1, 2021 at 7:29 pm

    The tax rates that Clinton got passed in 1993. Were they so bad? Right-wingers were screaming about balancing the federal budget for like a million years. Then Clinton did it and they decided it wasn’t important anymore.

    Related: I’d like to see the cap on social security tax go up faster, then be eliminated.

  52. 52.

    Brachiator

    April 1, 2021 at 7:30 pm

    @Martin:

    I always thought there should be a tie between wages and welfare, so when Walmart underpays employees and they qualify for food stamps, that Walmart needs to pay for that. They get a choice – raise wages, or pay for the federal benefits. I’d like to see more programs structured like that.

    This gets interesting. Walmart can afford to pay more, but this may not be true of other companies in the community.

    I like Biden’s increase of the Earned Income Tax Credit. Maybe we should think more about a universal basic income.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    April 1, 2021 at 7:32 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Maybe Trump got the idea from Modi.

     

    @James E Powell: I think they were the highest since before Reagan, relative to the base.

    But we’re not supposed to give Clinton credit for anything,I think. (And the increases weren’t used to pay for a specific program, I think)

  54. 54.

    Jeffro

    April 1, 2021 at 7:35 pm

    @Baud: Rampell covered this particular insanity in a column or two. Truly evil.

  55. 55.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 1, 2021 at 7:36 pm

    @Baud: I left India when Modi was a minor cog in the Sangh wheel. Indian officialdom is the definition of hell.  Always has been. You have to submit things in triplicate with a stamp paper.

    We (India and the US) inherited our love for paperwork from Mummy.

    So when people complain about the DMV, it never impresses me much.

  56. 56.

    Jeffro

    April 1, 2021 at 7:36 pm

    @tom: congrats!  I’m joining your club next week  ;)

  57. 57.

    Baud

    April 1, 2021 at 7:39 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    That would drive anyone to fascism.

  58. 58.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 1, 2021 at 7:39 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Jeremy Herbb@jeremyherb
    NEW: Rep. Gaetz bragged about his sexual escapades to colleagues, showing nude photos and videos of women he said he slept with, including while on the floor, sources tell CNN. One video showed a naked women with a hula hoop.

    I wonder how many interns have just been assigned to combing through footage of Gaetz on the floor looking for him showing his phone to… Jim Jordan? Cawthorne?… and then they all giggle like eighth graders.

  59. 59.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 1, 2021 at 7:40 pm

    @NotMax:

    I hate beer and never drink it, but mosquitoes adore me all the same.

    #IGuessISureExplodedThatTheory

  60. 60.

    phdesmond

    April 1, 2021 at 7:42 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Limiting the itemized deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) to $10,000 is irksome to middle-class taxpayers who make above a certain income.

  61. 61.

    Patricia Kayden

    April 1, 2021 at 7:42 pm

    Biden praises Cabinet diversity during first meeting: This "looks like America" t.co/m6Ni5jPD72 pic.twitter.com/lQz8AgfakD— The Hill (@thehill) April 1, 2021

  62. 62.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 1, 2021 at 7:42 pm

    @Baud: You are kidding but that is the attraction to many. He is getting things done, cutting the red tape..

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    April 1, 2021 at 7:43 pm

    @tom:

    I got my Moderna Number 2 today as well.

    Hooray!

  64. 64.

    phdesmond

    April 1, 2021 at 7:46 pm

    @Baud:

    tax kudzu.

  65. 65.

    HumboldtBlue

    April 1, 2021 at 7:48 pm

    Phils win! Phils win! Phils win!

  66. 66.

    Baud

    April 1, 2021 at 7:50 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Undefeated season.

  67. 67.

    Jeffro

    April 1, 2021 at 7:51 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: the guy with Gaetz’ name – almost! – greeted the news on Twitter with an

    OH COME ON!

  68. 68.

    sdhays

    April 1, 2021 at 7:52 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: They also love type O blood. They particularly like my father and my wife for that reason.

  69. 69.

    Benw

    April 1, 2021 at 7:52 pm

    @Baud: and the SP is projected to go 32-0!

  70. 70.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2021 at 7:52 pm

    @Baud: My mom used to ask my sisters and I if we stayed up at night thinking of ways to annoy her.

    These people must have actually stayed up at night dreaming up ways to fuck people over.

  71. 71.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2021 at 7:54 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hula hoop woman is gonna be pissed.  Unless the hula hoop was a thing he did with all the women.

  72. 72.

    Mike in NC

    April 1, 2021 at 7:55 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: Who could ever forget Trump’s insatiable need to be constantly praised by his feckless cabinet? It was truly nauseating to read about.

  73. 73.

    Uncle Cosmo

    April 1, 2021 at 7:55 pm

    @Comrade Colette: ​Thanks so much for the link to a paywall. Fuck Bezos with one of his Blew Whorigin firesticks.

  74. 74.

    sdhays

    April 1, 2021 at 7:56 pm

    @WaterGirl: Actually, they don’t need to stay up late at night to do that. Every waking moment is laser focused on fucking the right people over.

  75. 75.

    stinger

    April 1, 2021 at 7:58 pm

    @tom: Congratulations! Today is my own Freedom Day — it’s been 14 days since my 2nd, and I am fully vaccinated! (Free from exactly what, I couldn’t say, still need to mask and distance in most situations, but that’s what it feels like.)

  76. 76.

    Ken

    April 1, 2021 at 7:58 pm

    @Mike in NC: I always imagined those cabinet meetings looked something like this.

  77. 77.

    Baud

    April 1, 2021 at 7:59 pm

    @stinger:

    I can’t wait to get fully vaccinated so I can safely spend all my free time in Balloon Juice.

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2021 at 7:59 pm

    @rikyrah: The same multiple sources who were happy to have him be a rising star in their party.

  79. 79.

    Redshift

    April 1, 2021 at 8:05 pm

    Ironically, I think the Republicans did us a big favor by making a giant tax cut for the rich their only big legislative accomplishment of the Trump Administration. So we’re not raising taxes, were just rolling back tax cuts that didn’t produce any of the benefits that were promised.

  80. 80.

    Baud

    April 1, 2021 at 8:07 pm

    @Redshift:

    A lot of Dems are emboldened because the Republicans were such hypocrites under Trump.

  81. 81.

    HumboldtBlue

    April 1, 2021 at 8:07 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: ​
     

    I do like the new extra innings rule starting with a runner on second but I’m still adamant the NL should keep the DH but this will be the last season we see the pitchers bat.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    April 1, 2021 at 8:08 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Is the extra innings rule permanent?

  83. 83.

    NotMax

    April 1, 2021 at 8:08 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Science says if you did drink beer you’d be the Pied Piper of Skeetertown.

    :)

  84. 84.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2021 at 8:10 pm

    @rikyrah: So this scumbag thinks the US House of Representatives is a frat house, or what?

  85. 85.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 1, 2021 at 8:12 pm

    @Baud: Bush cut taxes twice while adding two wars to the national debt, but trump may just have killed off the myth of “fiscal responsibility”, outside of Joe Manchin’s office.

  86. 86.

    MagdaInBlack

    April 1, 2021 at 8:16 pm

    @rikyrah: This just keeps gettin’ better and better. So you think any of those pictures he was showing off were of some one who was under 18

    That opens up quite the can of worms, doesnt it?

  87. 87.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2021 at 8:16 pm

    Ridiculous framing in an article in the Washington Post:

    So while nearly every American would benefit from Biden’s ambitious investments, more than 95 percent of Americans are excluded from helping to foot the bill, according to Tax Policy Center fellow Leonard Burman.

    Because Joe Biden wants to overtax those rich people and corporations to fund the Infrastructure program, 95% of Americans are excluded – EXCLUDED! – from helping to pay for it.

    Un-fucking believable.

  88. 88.

    Geminid

    April 1, 2021 at 8:17 pm

    @WaterGirl: Joe Biden might be open to reinstating the SALT deduction.  But he may be waiting for the many Republican Congressmen representing relatively affluent homeowners to step up and bargain.

    There is also an idea among some people on the left that since this tax deduction seems to benefit only the relatively affluent, it is anti-progressive.

    This is somewhat of a misconception. The SALT deduction encourages the more affluent to “grin and bear it” when it comes to funding state and local services. That is the reason Republicans killed this widely used deduction, even while they were creating so many other tax breaks.

  89. 89.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2021 at 8:17 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: Just locker room talk.  Boys will be boys.

    At least that’s what they told us in 2016.

  90. 90.

    Redshift

    April 1, 2021 at 8:20 pm

    @Baud:

    A lot of Dems are emboldened because the Republicans were such hypocrites under Trump.

    Yeah, but they’ve always been complete hypocrites on the deficit. Saint Reagan doubled the national debt – more debt than all presidents before him combined, and they worship him. Ever since, they hate deficits when Democrat is president and love them when a Republican is, and the press takes their “concerns” seriously every time.

    That finally seems to have broken, much to my surprise. I don’t know if it’s that they didn’t do anything but tax cuts and judges for four years, or that Republicans haven’t managed their usual deficit chorus, but either way I’ll take it.

  91. 91.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2021 at 8:20 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: Settle down!  You’re phanatic!

  92. 92.

    Comrade Colette

    April 1, 2021 at 8:21 pm

    OK, bird mavens, I need help. There’s a very pretty, entirely unwelcome female cedar waxwing IN MY LIVING ROOM. I can’t persuade her to go out. It’s a small room and the door and windows are wide open, but she alternates between fluttering around the ceiling and pretending to be a bird statue on a hihg shelf when I get close. It’s getting chilly and windy and I want her to leave so I can close up, plus I’m irrationally scared of fluttering things so I freak out whenever she moves.

    What do I do?

  93. 93.

    MagdaInBlack

    April 1, 2021 at 8:21 pm

    @WaterGirl: Interesting new way of framing it, that “helping pay for” part. It’s usually something about how people shouldn’t be ” forced to pay for”

  94. 94.

    Scout211

    April 1, 2021 at 8:21 pm

    WaterGirl,

    Where did threads 2-4 of the “I got the shot!”go?  I couldn’t find them.

  95. 95.

    Scout211

    April 1, 2021 at 8:22 pm

    @Comrade Colette:

    Do you have a butterfly net?  Fishing Net?

  96. 96.

    zhena gogolia

    April 1, 2021 at 8:22 pm

    @Comrade Colette:

    Would it help to turn out all the lights?

  97. 97.

    Jeffro

    April 1, 2021 at 8:22 pm

    @WaterGirl: great context there, WaPo and Burman

    Gee, could it be that the top 5% have been sucking up all of the economic gains of the past 20-30-40 years, and most especially benefitted from the W and trumpov tax giveaways?

  98. 98.

    geg6

    April 1, 2021 at 8:25 pm

    @James E Powell:

    Not only were they not concerned about paying off the deficit, but once it was paid off, they were screaming about how awful a surplus was and we had to cut taxes drastically in order to get rid of the dreaded surplus that evil commie Clinton created.  I remember this very clearly and I was astounded by their hypocrisy at the time.  I am not so naive now.

  99. 99.

    zhena gogolia

    April 1, 2021 at 8:26 pm

    @Comrade Colette:

    I had a mourning dove in my bedroom once. I was freaking out, but a brave friend came over, and when the bird sat on the bed, he threw a blanket over it, carried it to the window, and the bird flew out.

  100. 100.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 1, 2021 at 8:26 pm

    @Comrade Colette:
    STEP 2: Remove the Bird from Your Home

    Start by opening the chosen exit window or door as wide as possible. Then, close all blinds and drapes over the rest of the windows, and switch off all lights inside the house, so that the open window acts as a bright exit sign. The feathered intruder will associate this light with open air and will hopefully fly toward it. If the bird still hasn’t made any moves after some time, you may need to guide it that way.

    will it work? I don’t know…

  101. 101.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 1, 2021 at 8:26 pm

    OT: Update on my historical research project.

    I am delving into the history of Indo European languages. BJP-Sangh verse keeps insisting that India is the ancestral home of Indo-European languages when recent research puts the the home of PIE (proto-Indo European) in the Steppes.

    This has been a contentious matter for over 150 years and some of the older papers on this topic are eye-poppingly racist.

  102. 102.

    Comrade Colette

    April 1, 2021 at 8:27 pm

    @Scout211: No. I have a flyswatter, but of course I don’t want to hit her. I have the curtains and other doors closed, but she keeps flying between high shelves and the curtain rods, never comes down to the top of the door.

  103. 103.

    HumboldtBlue

    April 1, 2021 at 8:27 pm

    @Baud:

    As far as I understand it and the DH rule will be in place this season but unsure if it’s permanent.

  104. 104.

    Redshift

    April 1, 2021 at 8:28 pm

    @Geminid:

    This is somewhat of a misconception. The SALT deduction encourages the more affluent to “grin and bear it” when it comes to funding state and local services. 

    As opposed to doing what, though? It’s my understanding that there’s now solid research that the threats of rich people to move because taxes are too high are mostly bunk, and very few actually do that.

  105. 105.

    Comrade Colette

    April 1, 2021 at 8:29 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks, I was just looking at that! Too bad birbs can’t read and follow those instructions.

    I’m seriously freaked out, still have work to do, and Monsieur Colette is sitting in the back yard being no help at all – even though she came in on his watch.

  106. 106.

    Geminid

    April 1, 2021 at 8:31 pm

    @Comrade Colette: That’s a tough one. But that bird won’t suffer too much overnight, I don’t think, if you just turn the lights off and leave it. When morning comes you could try holding up a sheet and herding it toward an open door. I’ve never used a sheet, just shooed birds out by waving at them, so that’s just an idea.

  107. 107.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2021 at 8:34 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    more than 95 percent of Americans are excluded from helping to foot the bill 

    “more than 95 percent of Americans won’t see their taxes increase to pay for it, but we’re finally going to tax the rich their fair share for the first time since the Eisenhower administration probably”

    Fixed for the fucknuts!  Pulitzer, please!

  108. 108.

    Kathleen

    April 1, 2021 at 8:35 pm

    @Baud: The money they get from blue states?

  109. 109.

    Ken

    April 1, 2021 at 8:37 pm

    @WaterGirl: I’d be willing to toss a few extra bucks to the government. Maybe I’ll fill in some of those “would you like to donate a dollar” boxes.

  110. 110.

    Gvg

    April 1, 2021 at 8:40 pm

    @Comrade Colette: do you have a lot of cardboard? Maybe sheets you can tape or tack to the ceiling down to the floor? I would try and funnel the bird to one specific door or window nearest to it.

    or try calling a bird rescue or pest removal service?

    I have had this happen but it was in the middle of the day on a weekend and nice weather. Took a couple of hours but I basically did nothing except lock up the cat and stay still. Not the same.

  111. 111.

    Kathleen

    April 1, 2021 at 8:41 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: When I contracted with former employer I supported overseas work groups who were testing new services in different countries all over the world. The Telco (I think it was TaTA) in India required detailed drawings of the service configurations in order to provide access to Giant Global Telecom Point of Presence.  It was the most complex ordering requirement any of us had ever seen!

  112. 112.

    Danielx

    April 1, 2021 at 8:43 pm

    Are we permitted to say EAT the rich?

  113. 113.

    lowtechcyclist

    April 1, 2021 at 8:44 pm

    “I’m open to other ideas” for how to pay for it so long as the ideas wouldn’t mean a tax increase for those who make less than $400,000 a year, Biden says of his infrastructure proposal.

    There’s still Warren’s wealth tax, that would qualify.

    But damn, I’m not even sure Bernie Sanders (who would have made a lousy President, and would have probably lost anyway) would have been this audacious.  And Bernie wouldn’t have been able to pull it off the way Biden is doing.

    After years of calling the Dems the Scared Rabbit Party – a designation they well deserved – I feel like I’ve walked through some sort of warp into an alternate timeline, because these Dems are going right in with (metaphorical) guns blazing.  If I’m dreaming this, turn off the alarm so I can sleep longer, okay?

  114. 114.

    Geminid

    April 1, 2021 at 8:44 pm

    @Redshift: Well, one alternative the relatively affluent have besides moving is to work hard to elect budget-cutting state and local officials. If they succeed, their poorer neighbors, including public employees, will pay the price.

    I think that is what the Republicans who ended the SALT deduction hope for.

  115. 115.

    Benw

    April 1, 2021 at 8:46 pm

    @Comrade Colette: Sorry you’re freaked out. I’d leave the bird some exit points and then just leave the room. Let it (and you!) get calm and then leave on its own.

  116. 116.

    Comrade Colette

    April 1, 2021 at 8:47 pm

    Ugh. Bird has finally gone back out, but my blood pressure is through the roof and I’m still shaking. It’s absurd how much this freaks me out.  I would never have been able to sleep knowing she was in my house, so leaving her inside was not an option.

    In between hyperventilating and shrieking, I thought it was fascinating that her defense mechanism was to perch on a houseplant and keep perfectly still no matter how much noise and movement I made until I actually touched her (gently, with the flyswatter).

  117. 117.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2021 at 8:49 pm

    @Scout211: Oh, sorry I goofed you up.  I thought the list was getting too long, so they are all under “I Got the Shot! (all).

    edit: oops, they were supposed to be.  I must have goofed up the link.  Give me a minute and I will fix

    edit: okay, fixed now.

  118. 118.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 1, 2021 at 8:50 pm

    as far as the SALT taxes go, a lot, maybe the majority, of vulnerable Dem House members are in the sort of districts where reinstating that deduction, even partially, would be very helpful in their re-election campaigns. As long as we’re not sacrificing to the false idol of debtanddeficit, this would be a good thing to let it look like they fought for, frame it as easing pressure on stressed state and local budgets

  119. 119.

    frosty

    April 1, 2021 at 8:51 pm

    @Geminid: We got a bat out by guiding it with a towel, like your sheet. It took awhile. I believe a tennis racket was also involved.

  120. 120.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 1, 2021 at 8:55 pm

    @frosty: ugh, bat in the house is the worst. I had one last summer– post-Covid– in the middle of the night. I managed to seal it one room, and it was pretty easy to get out the next day with a fishing net. Those little fuckers sleep soundly. Steam cleaned every surface in that room twice after that.

    I told myself a bat in the house is traidiotnallly a sign of good luck. Since I didn’t get sick, I guess it came true.

  121. 121.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2021 at 8:58 pm

    @Comrade Colette: So glad that she found her way out!

    I read that it’s calming to breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, then exhale for 8 seconds.

    Maybe try that?

  122. 122.

    HumboldtBlue

    April 1, 2021 at 9:00 pm

    @Baud: ​
     

    Extra innings in permanent.

  123. 123.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 1, 2021 at 9:02 pm

    @Kathleen: Sounds about right.

  124. 124.

    Geminid

    April 1, 2021 at 9:08 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ending the SALT deduction may have cost Republicans some of the forty House seats they lost in 2018. I think the California delegation lost six seats that year, and the SALT deduction may well have been an issue in those and other races.

  125. 125.

    Scout211

    April 1, 2021 at 9:14 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Thank you! It’s nice to have them all back and in one place. Sometimes I like to read through those threads for a quick pick-me-up.   So many happy jackals. Reading everyone’s vaccination story just makes me smile.  ?

  126. 126.

    stinger

    April 1, 2021 at 9:15 pm

    @Baud: Why change what’s working?

  127. 127.

    Another Scott

    April 1, 2021 at 9:15 pm

    @Comrade Colette: Glad you were successful!

    A starling got into a colleague’s office one weekend and made a huge mess trying to get out.  I managed to find a cardboard box and trap it against the (sealed) window and finally got it outside.

    (It had flown in through an open loading dock door and made its way around 50 feet down a hallway before finding an open office door.  It would have been impossible to “shoo!” back the way it came in!)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  128. 128.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2021 at 9:16 pm

    @Scout211: Oh, good!  Sometimes I wonder if anyone looks at the stuff I put up in the sidebar.  :-)

  129. 129.

    piratedan

    April 1, 2021 at 9:18 pm

    @Comrade Colette: next time, open a can of tuna and place it on a tree branch….

  130. 130.

    KrackenJack

    April 1, 2021 at 10:35 pm

    @WaterGirl:
     

    Infrastructure for nothing and checks for free.

  131. 131.

    dmsilev

    April 1, 2021 at 10:43 pm

    Via FTNYT:

    Mr. Gaetz’s office issued a statement on Thursday night in a response to a request for comment.
    “Matt Gaetz has never paid for sex,” the statement said. “Matt Gaetz refutes all the disgusting allegations completely. Matt Gaetz has never ever been on any such websites whatsoever. Matt Gaetz cherishes the relationships in his past and looks forward to marrying the love of his life.”

    He’s planning on marrying his Twitter feed?

  132. 132.

    NotMax

    April 1, 2021 at 10:53 pm

    @dmsilev

    and looks forward to marrying the love of his life

    Immediately after Melania’s divorce is final?

    //

  133. 133.

    Richard Guhl

    April 1, 2021 at 11:21 pm

    @Baud: stupidity

  134. 134.

    Benno

    April 1, 2021 at 11:41 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Akhil Gupta and Matthew Hull have done some terrific research on this in India and Pakistan respectively. I’ve been working in Sindh for the last 8 years trying to update some of these structures, but wherever the British legacy falls, neoliberal imperatives raise their hydra heads.

  135. 135.

    Mai Naem mobile

    April 1, 2021 at 11:42 pm

    I was listening to Wash Journal this AM and some idiot calls in and says Democrats are all about going after tax payers blah blah – he goes on to talk about how Biden is talking about OMG!!! taxing households making over $400K not individuals making $400K. I’m just wondering how many people heard that and starting playing their tiny violins for the households making $400K.

  136. 136.

    Benno

    April 1, 2021 at 11:48 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ve had a few bats in the house, but my cat and dog recently conspired to drag a black kite (milvus migrans) inside. That was something.

  137. 137.

    Sebastian

    April 2, 2021 at 12:27 am

    @WaterGirl:

    This might be a dead thread but an easy way is to require minimum state income and corporate tax revenue before federal money is spent. Which should include all subsidies: farm, corporate, etc

  138. 138.

    terry chay

    April 2, 2021 at 2:02 pm

    @WaterGirl: it’s because SALT deductions are regressive tax. If the Republicans want to remove them to increase taxes, the democrats will oblige.

  139. 139.

    terry chay

    April 2, 2021 at 2:05 pm

    @WaterGirl: then we’d have to allow each state to have their own currency or we’d have the economic mess that are the PIGS in the EU. A single economic region will always mean a transfer of funds from economically strong regions to the disadvantaged. In our country that is the blue state red state divide (it’s actually urban/rural).

     

    even though I’m from California, we need to be above punishing red states. If the red parts of my state were a state it’s be bigger than every red state but Texas.

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