Tag Archives: Marco Rubio

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Jobs V Loopholes


By ThinkProgress War Room

7 Tax Loopholes the GOP Loves to Love

In less than two weeks the very damaging across the board “sequester” cuts will kick in unless Republicans agree to a replacement that is a balanced compromise including both new revenues from closing tax loopholes and smarter, more targeted spending cuts.

When it was convenient for them to do so, Republicans including Speaker Boehner and Mitt Romney argued vociferously for closing loopholes and ending wasteful giveaways in the tax code. But now that push is coming to shove, these Republicans are refusing to help protect the economy and jobs by replacing the sequester cuts with new revenues from closing loopholes.

This intransigence has real consequences. As the president laid out yesterday, these cuts will cause pain:

So these cuts are not smart. They are not fair. They will hurt our economy. They will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls. This is not an abstraction — people will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again.

Here’s a look at the top seven loopholes and giveaways that Republicans think are more important than protecting our economy, jobs, the middle class, and the most vulnerable among us:

  1. Extra tax breaks enjoyed by the wealthiest Americans — $520 BILLION
  2. Tax break for companies that ship jobs overseas — $168 BILLION
  3. Special tax breaks for the largest oil companies — $25 BILLION
  4. The loophole that allow people like Mitt Romney to pay a lower tax rate than middle-class workers — $21 BILLION
  5. Tax deductions for vacation homes and yachts — $10 BILLION
  6. The corporate jet loophole — $3 BILLION
  7. Special write-offs for horse breeders (aka the Bluegrass Boondoggle) — $126 MILLION

BOTTOM LINE: The Republicans are choosing to protect millionaires and special interests like Big Oil and Wall Street instead of funding our military and programs vital for the middle class and the health of our economy.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Annals right-wing media failure: how a joke became an attack against Chuck Hagel.

Florida’s GOP governor will expand Medicaid under Obamacare.

Marco Rubio is no savior for women.

800.000 defense workers to be furloughed because of the sequester.

Fox News: Al Jazeera America is a plot to activate Muslim sleeper cells in Detroit.

Supporters of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline outspend opponents 35 to 1.

The latest sneak attack on unions.

The science of addictive junk food.

How the sequester cuts hurt the long-term unemployed.

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DOMA


By ThinkProgress War Room

BOTTOM LINE: The Defense of Marriage Act is discrimination, the American people don’t like it, and it’s time for it to go away.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Georgia will probably execute a man with an IQ of 70 tonight, which is unconstitutional.

Marco Rubio wants to have it both ways on immigration reform.

Chinese Army linked to large-scale hacking campaign.

Supreme Court to take case that could make Citizens United even worse.

Missouri Republican wants to make it a crime to even propose gun violence prevention measures.

Fox News host calls the idea of universal preschool “immoral crazy talk.”

Anti-Obamacare GOP governors inadvertently expand federal power over health care in their states.

No, rich people don’t flee higher taxes en masse.

GOP “makeover” hits a snag: Republicans refuse to actually change.

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Truth


We The PeopleSo you know we’re not here to blow sunshine up your nether regions. We’re not out to preach. Our only goal is to make sure everyone gets the unfiltered, unadulterated facts about tobacco. So every smoker and non-smoker can agree on one thing: they know what’s up.

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is talk cheap or Republicans


merycorp&valentineWe hear pundits, hosts and journalists ask if the talk is cheap, but it turns out republican talkers are and until you actually listen or read between the wall of words do you find out what exactly are Republicans at the local, state and federal level doing, saying or pushing… and it’s all about austerity, the privatization of ALL Social Services, controlling women’s choices and even more cheap talk. While March 1st looms, the American media asks who is to blame for the Sequester , are more gun safety laws practical, why did Republicans reject VAWA while seemingly pushing us into questioning drones when 90% of us prefer drones to boots on the ground. I am all for following the rules regulations … our constitution, but there is a fine line that the professional left is crossing when the focus should be on the clock that republicans still seem to be trying to turn back .  As March Madness gets closer and closer we see republican members of Congress say Election2013 taught them there is a need to be more practical … but all you have to do is tune into republican debates and the votes being recorded on the floor of Congress to find out just how cheap the talk truly is.

The fact is even after stating they know they need to open up their party to more diversity,  republicans continue to support rep.Paul Ryan and his pathway to prosperity, yet, it still seems to favor only the wealthy.  In 2012, Mr. Ryan seemed to have promised to save Medicare, close loop holes and of course cut spending by trillions.  The problem is, it will still be off the backs of those in need and with the hit our economy took it amazes me that the Republican Party of No thinks Americans don’t see that Mr.1%  and his crew are still in full effect though it’s 2013, but then again cheap words can mask the most blatant of realities. It only takes a republican secret filibuster blow for the Middle and Lower classes to suffer on the way toward that republican mission to cut slash and burn public service jobs while handing out thousands in tax breaks to millionaire and billionaire … friends

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a message from Alan Grayson



The Republican Credo.                      

           

           

Alan Grayson was back on MSNBC on Monday night, telling it like it is.  The subject was Senator Rubio’s attack on President Obama.  Rubio said that we “have not seen such a divisive figure in modern American history,” and Rubio criticized the President for graduating from Harvard Law School.  Rubio hit President Obama, and Alan hit back.  Here is what Alan said:

SHARPTON: Congressman, let`s start with you. Senator Rubio thinks the President is divisive. What do you make of that?

GRAYSON: Well, remember how President Obama first came to the public`s attention seven-and-a-half years ago. He gave a beautiful speech in which he called for one America. Not a blue America or red America, but one America. And that speech enabled him to win the Democratic nomination – because that was an idea that appealed to Americans across the board – and then to win the presidency. But what he has been faced with from the Republicans is implacable division.   Division just for the sake of division. Disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing. Look what happened with the healthcare bill: more than 150 Republican amendments included in that bill, and no Republicans voted for it.

SHARPTON: Yes.

GRAYSON: Look at the “grand bargain” on the deficit that the President proposed, to end the deficit. The Republicans wouldn’t even show up and negotiate for it. But they`re not just guilty of division, they`re also guilty of subtraction. The Republicans have subtracted jobs.  They`ve subtracted health care.  They`ve subtracted from public education.  And they want to subtract Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, student loans and unemployment insurance.

SHARPTON: Now, it`s interesting you say that, Congressman, because the fact of the matter is when you deal with this question of divisiveness and partisan politics, the President has been criticized by members of his own party, some of us that are progressive, for leaning over too much. And now to call him divisive; it almost is laughable, in some circles.

GRAYSON: Right.  I think that soon they’ll wheel out Roger Clemens and he`ll say that the President is guilty of using steroids.  That makes as much sense as what Marco Rubio said. . . .

SHARPTON:  Now, Congressman, let me go back to you. It`s a lot of ugliness and di-viss-iveness, or de-vice-iveness, as Joe said, whichever [way] you want to pronounce it. Governor Chris Christie attacked the President this weekend while he was addressing Kentucky Republicans. [Christie] said, and I`m quoting him, “President Obama has cared more about posing and preening than progress.” And then Congressman Joe Walsh‘s town hall this weekend, a constituent at Walsh`s town hall attacked the President, and Congressman Walsh listened and said nothing. Let me show it to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: He should have said it before he was elected and said, “I`m a socialist, I believe in socialism, communism, nazi,” whatever, and say “this is where I want to lead the country,” not do it underhandedly.

REP. JOE WALSH (R), ILLINOIS: However you want to label and define it, don`t you think now after three-and-a-half years as a country, now we have a really good idea where the President wants to go.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Well, absolutely because he feels he has everyone by the cojones, now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: I mean, real ugly kind of crazy, shrill language, but it`s being entertained, and in some cases being recycled, by some of the leaders in the Republican Party in some cases.

GRAYSON: You`re going to see nothing but personal attacks against President Obama for the next six months, because we`ve seen nothing but personal attacks against him for the past four years. You know, [like] this whole question of his birth certificate. When has a white president ever been asked to produce a birth certificate?  It`s all nothing but personal attacks, because they have no answers for anything. All they can do is make ad hominem [personal] arguments. There`s a Harvard phrase for you:  ad hominem arguments. They`ve got no health policy worth discussing.  Their health policy is basically, “Don`t get sick.” They`ve got no educational policy worth discussing.  And their economic policy is “reverse Robin Hood.” They`re stealing from the poor, and giving to the rich.

SHARPTON: Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, I have to go. Joe Madison, always good to have you on. Thank you both for your time.

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