Have You PAID Your Billionaire Today - WH petition to close loopholes used by Needy Billionaires [View all]

“Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men” — Founding Father John Adams, 2nd President of the United States

Tax Loopholes are Big Business — over half a TRILLION dollars each year in lost government services goes from the Bottom 90% and to the Top 10% each year. This back door spending — aka Spending in the Tax Code — is the single largest category of federal spending, yet few Americans know this. Even fewer know that these loopholes are heavily weighted towards the Top 10%. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Government Accountability Office and the President’s 2014 budget, over 51% — or $520 billion a year — goes to the Top 10% each year. Once enacted, these tax expenditures never expire and are subject to NO budget limits or Congressional oversight. Since Congress creates them, the only way to stop loopholes is for Congress to repeal them.

This is a staggering amount of money that could be used for the nation’s business. The Founding Fathers strongly believed in the “common good” — funding public infrastructure like schools, roads, bridges and dams that are crucial for an economy to thrive. The American Society of Civil Engineers rates our nation’s infrastructure as D+. If this $520 billion were used to repair our infrastructure, it could create over 6.25 million new jobs, permanent jobs that can't be outsourced.

Needy Billionaires is an educational website that shows Americans the Big Picture about loopholes. It shows specific loopholes as well as Better Choices for our tax dollars that most Americans would prefer. It grounds it all in the Founding Fathers, who would roll over in their graves if they knew that Needy Billionaires like the ones they fought against are threatening our democracy again.

The website gives people the information they need to know to get involved in 2 ways: a) sign a WhiteHouse.gov petition asking the President to step it up and sharply increase using his bully pulpit to educate Americans about these loopholes, and b) call Congress to repeal them.

Here’s what $520 billion could pay for:

a) expand Medicare to another 49 million Americans - yes, we could have single payer TODAY

b) pay for 64% of the annual amount for Social Security

c) make all needed repairs to levees, dams, ports, toxic waste sites, water supply pipes and airports all across the country

BETTER CHOICES FOR OUR TAX DOLLARS

a) $140 billion for the 15% capital gains tax rate OR fix over 80% of our roads so we don’t have sinkholes big enough to swallow up fire engines (only $136 billion)

b) $42 billion for companies to park their profits offshore OR fix half of our bridges so they don’t fall down like in Minneapolis ($38 billion)

c) $49 billion for the Bottom 90% to pay the state and local taxes of the Top 10% OR double student aid

THE FOUNDING FATHERS

Unlike today’s Tea Partiers, raising taxes for education was considered an essential public service and necessary to protect our democracy. These quotes are all from Thomas Jefferson:

“I think by far the most important law in our whole code is for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom, and happiness ... crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils (tyranny, oppression, etc.) and the TAX which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the 1000th part of what will be paid to kings, princes and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.” (emphasis added)

“An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight. It is therefore imperative that the nation see to it that a suitable education be provided for all its citizens”

“I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power”

The Founding Fathers were all too familiar with the devastation wrought by their Needy Billionaires - both the economic damage (high costs for consumers and the loss of American businesses) as well as the destruction of democracy itself. Our forefathers said it best:

The fortunes amassed through corporate organizations are now so large, and vest such power in those that wield them, as to make it a matter of necessity to give to the sovereign - that is, to the Government, which represents the people as a whole - some effective power of supervision over their corporate use. In order to insure a healthy social and industrial life, every big corporation should be held responsible by, and be accountable to, some sovereign strong enough to control its conduct - President Theodore Roosevelt (Republican)

I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom - President Thomas Jefferson

(both quotes from Thom Hartmann's "What Would Jefferson Do?"

So, if you're tired of this massive Welfare for the Wealthy, go check out Needy Billionaires. Get informed about how badly our tax dollars are being squandered. Check out the sources for yourself. Once you've calmed down and the room is no longer spinning wildly around you, sign the petition and call Congress. Then pass it on. Let's go repeal some loopholes! You can Sign the Petition here.