US Politics Mega-thread - Page 311

On July 02 2013 07:39 coverpunch wrote:
Treasury audit also found that 292 Tea Party and 6 progressive groups were probed with extra questions.

On July 02 2013 07:23 Ghostcom wrote:
If I understand the route an amendment has to take correctly surely there should be no way for something this controversial to pass?

EDIT: To pass an amendment needs 2/3 in both houses and ratification by 3/4 states - correct?

On July 02 2013 09:02 DeltaX wrote:


How many progressive (and other liberal sounding groups) and tea party groups applied in the first place? I understand the numbers are lopsided, but without the totals you shouldn't really make any conclusions.

Big, profitable U.S. companies paid an average federal tax rate of less than 13 percent in 2010, according to a new study -- or about a third of the statutory rate many of those same companies are lobbying hard to cut.

Profitable companies with more than $10 million in assets paid an average rate of 12.6 percent of their global profits in 2010, the latest data available, according to a new study by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog. That compares to the statutory corporate tax rate of 35 percent.

"When some U.S. corporations use unjustifiable loopholes and offshore gimmicks to avoid paying Uncle Sam, their tax burden is shifted onto hardworking American families and small business," Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who commissioned the study, said in a statement, according to The Hill. "Today’s GAO report quantifies just how much of the corporate tax burden has been shifted onto other taxpayers: America’s large, profitable corporations are now paying a lower tax rate than our teachers and firefighters.”

Even when foreign, state and local taxes were added, the average corporate tax rate rose to just 17 percent, according to the GAO. And when unprofitable companies were added to the mix, the average tax rate still rose to only 22 percent of profits.

The study, which the GAO conducted at the request of Sens. Levin and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), comes at a time when U.S. companies are complaining that their tax rate is among the highest in the world and should be cut to help them stay competitive.

Their heavy lobbying has impressed President Barack Obama, who has said the corporate tax rate should be cut to 28 percent. But it has not convinced most Americans, who oppose lowering taxes for corporations, according to a new survey conducted by a corporate lobbying group called RATE, short for Reforming America's Taxes Equitably.

On July 02 2013 09:13 NovaTheFeared wrote:


That's correct. 2/3 in both houses and a majority in 3/4 state legislatures. There is exactly a 0% chance of such an amendment passing. The states which have already legalized gay marriage almost amount to the 1/4 to block by themselves. It's very unlikely it would get through the Republican House, has 0 chance in a Democratic Senate, and has 0 chance of ratification.

Apparently a few stupid Republican lawmakers want a culture war on this losing issue for them. I've seen the polls, support for gay marriage has reached the tipping point where more support than oppose, and this trend will continue. Making it an electoral issue will assure defeat.

On July 02 2013 10:29 coverpunch wrote:
I will point out a couple things about taxes:

-for all the complaining, there are two sides to this. On one hand, the US has the highest stated tax rate in the world. On the other, the US tax system has so many loopholes that what people and corporations actually end up paying is around the OECD average. Even President Obama has an income that easily puts him in the top 1% where he is "supposed" to pay 39.6% tax, but in actuality, he pays around 20%.
-Any measure that does not include foreign, state, and local taxes is extremely flawed. England's, California's and San Francisco's taxes are no less obligatory than the federal government's.
-Note that the tax year they used is 2010, which includes many companies that carried losses from 2008 and 2009 forward. This is reflected that effective tax rates are significantly lower than in 2008 and 2009. 2010 is the trough year for tax revenue around the world.

On July 02 2013 12:18 JonnyBNoHo wrote:
Yeah, the tax code sucks. It's full of loopholes and tax expenditures that let individuals and businesses pay far less than the statutory rate. Supposedly no one likes it, but voters and politicians keep pushing for more of it.

On July 02 2013 12:18 JonnyBNoHo wrote:
Yeah, the tax code sucks. It's full of loopholes and tax expenditures that let individuals and businesses pay far less than the statutory rate. Supposedly no one likes it, but voters and politicians keep pushing for more of it.

A judge ruled Monday that a public school district can teach yoga, siding with administrators who argued the practice is a secular way to promote strength, flexibility and balance and rejecting pleas of parents who said the classes are inherently religious and violate the constitutional principle of separating church and state.

Yoga is a religious practice, but not the way that it is taught by the Encinitas Union School District at its nine campuses, San Diego Superior Court Judge John S. Meyer said.

Meyer emphasized that the school district stripped classes of all cultural references, including the Sanskrit language. The lotus position was renamed the "crisscross applesauce" pose.

The judge said parents who objected relied on personal opinions, some culled from Internet searches.

"It's almost like a trial by Wikipedia, which isn't what this court does," said Meyer, who took nearly two hours to explain a decision that explored yoga's Indian roots and philosophy.

Dean Broyles, an attorney for Encinitas parents Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock, said he would likely appeal.

"It was the judge's job to call balls and strikes and determine the facts. I think he got some of the facts wrong," he said.

The district is believed to be the first in the country to have full-time yoga teachers at every one of its schools. The lessons are funded by a $533,720, three-year grant from the K.P. Jois Foundation, a nonprofit group based in Encinitas that promotes Asthanga yoga.

On July 02 2013 16:08 KwarK wrote:
At least they're not challenging critical thinking in schools as spreading the atheist religion. Small victories.

On July 02 2013 16:08 KwarK wrote:
At least they're not challenging critical thinking in schools as spreading the atheist religion. Small victories.

On July 02 2013 12:18 JonnyBNoHo wrote:
Yeah, the tax code sucks. It's full of loopholes and tax expenditures that let individuals and businesses pay far less than the statutory rate. Supposedly no one likes it, but voters and politicians keep pushing for more of it.

On July 02 2013 16:13 farvacola wrote:
The part about Sanksrit is hilarious to me. I can already picture the type of people who are immediately suspicious of something like a foreign alphabet, and then it hits me that the US is pretty full of 'em. Gotta say, considering the state of some schools in the US, there does seem a modicum of injustice in a public school district being able to afford a staff of yoga teachers. That's California for ya