Nothing says "fun" like a bunch of drunken bloggers sitting around a table discussing tax policy. No, really… nothing does say "fun" like that. In fact, I think we’re going to have to invent a whole new word.
Joining me in a wonkishly entertaining and surprisingly passionate discussion of tax restructuring were Mollie, Will, Carl, Sandeep, Lee and newbie Ray. Topics of discussion included Washington state’s incredibly regressive tax structure and creative proposals to fix it, plus Eastern Washington secession (the great state of Martha?), Eastern King County secession (wouldn’t it be great to have two Democratic counties in the region?), the partisan battle over vote-by-mail, and Congressional Republicans’ refusal to prohibit spending on illegal surveillance.
The show is 53:09, and is available here as a 34.2 MB MP3. Please visit PodcastingLiberally.com for complete archives and RSS feeds.
[Recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to Confab creators Gavin and Richard for producing the show.]
Goldy, thanks for letting me join in last night. BTW, the Hinchey vote is going to be next week. It’ll be interesting to see what Reichert does about this one. We’ll see how much he really cares about the will of Washington voters…
Uh, Goldy … “succession” is what happens when King Jeb ascends to the throne upon King George’s abdication … I think you meant “secession” which is what a bunch of crybabies who don’t want to pay taxes talk about all day long in redneck coffee shops. You know — the guys with beer guts who DON’T WORK and therefore don’t OWE any taxes.
Of course, these clueless yokels don’t realize that if they had their own county, or state, or whatever … they not only would have to pay TAXES, but they’d have to pay MORE taxes, because they’d no longer be able to suck the Seattle Tit. These are the same idiots who were against raising the gas tax (which doesn’t raise gas prices at all) because they didn’t want to “subsidize Seattle’s bridges.”
(snicker) (snark) (honk)
In case we have any new trolls here, who weren’t around for the discussions of Timmy the Liar’s failed I-912 initiative, King County motorists pay $127,000,000 a year more in gas taxes than gets spent in King County. The rest goes to the yokel counties to subsidize their roads. In fact, 31 of Washington’s 39 counties receive more road money than they pay in gas taxes. If it weren’t for the generosity of Seattle drivers, they would be riding mules on dirt paths, instead of driving their 4X4 pickups with duallys on paved all-weather roads.
There aren’t many things rednecks are good at, but ingratitude is one of them.
How many of you trollfucks are gonna bow down and kiss the Bushies’ feet for taking away your sales tax deduction? How do you like this REPUBLICAN TAX HIKE on Washington citizens so Bush can give another tax cut to east coast zillionaires?
Hey, if you LIKE that tax increase, you’ll LOVE what the Bushies are gonna do to you with the AMT, which recaptures ALL of the Bush tax cuts that went to the middle class, and actually RAISES TAXES on the middle class. Only people with incomes over $1 million a year will end up with a net tax cut from Bush’s tax policies. If you ain’t one of those — you’re fucked.
To repeat, please: succession: what we do when kings die.
secession: what we do when we’re redneck retards who want to take our ball and make a new home.
Bush, of course, knew all along the AMT would override the already small percentage of his tax cuts that went to the middle class — and didn’t plan, and never intended, to do anything about it.
Roger Rabbit is pro-secession. We should let the yokels have their own county. However, we’ll KEEP the I-90 corridor, since our taxes paid for it. You guys can have the trailer parks and clear cuts. We’ll build a footbridge across I-90 connecting the two parts of your county, wide enough for your mules to walk across. We’re also gonna build a 40-foot high cyclone fence with dogs and armed guards along our common border to stop illegal immigrants from FREELOADER COUNTY from poaching our services that we pay taxes for. If you want parks, libraries, fire departments, Medic 1, telephones, etc., you’ll have to pay for ’em yourselves.
Roger… you are of course right, and I am as always, not only grateful for the correction, but an incredibly crappy proofreader.
Fixed it.
Could someone explain to me the term Boomer approach in relationship to Eastern WA and taxes.
How about scrapping the current income tax and replace it with the alternative minimum tax? Less deductions for everyone, easy to compute, and probably higher taxes for everyone, too.
George Bush the idiot son has RAISED taxes:
on future generations of middle and lower income people.
Harry @11,
If you are referring to the discussion during the podcast, I believe what we were referring to is the paternalist attitude of Seattle liberals towards Eastern WA, where we continue to support exporting urban tax dollars to rural areas, despite the common misconception that the opposite is true.
secession: worked out real well for South Carolina in 1860, huh? I guess the Republicans are forgetting their roots and want to take lessons from the losers in that war. But history and rational analysis was never their strong suit.
14.
Yes, thanks Goldy. Even after a went back on the recording, I wan’t sure.
BTW. Keep up your podcasts and do more radio. It’s good stuff, and informative. Also needed.
The South was forced back into the union at gunpoint, by the Republicans and the Northern Army.
Rabbit,
What I can’t figure out is what is wrong with zillionaires – east or west coast? Is there something wrong with being rich? Explain.
18.
Yes, the well being of 95% of the population are at the whim of the wealthies.
Ronald Reagan’s anti-government, market-fundamentalist philosophy now dominates American political thought. Following the tenets of Reaganism, Bush has followed the lead to implement the most undemocratic American government in the post-World War II era, maybe since the country was founded.
Paul Krugman argues: “One should regard America’s right-wing movement — which now in effect controls the administration, both houses of Congress, much of the judiciary, and a good slice of the media — as a revolutionary power in [Henry] Kissinger’s sense. That is, it is a movement whose leaders do not accept the legitimacy of our current political system.”
Reagan believed that the federal government was the nation’s biggest domestic problem, and he severely reduced that government’s capacity to serve the people and undermined representative democracy. His belief n unfettered free market, deep reductions in the top income-tax rates, and massive deregulation for businesses greatly increased the political power of the wealthiest citizens and corporate America. We now live in the plutocracy Reagan foisted on us.
Reagan began embeding control from the top and imposed more far reaching White House authority over the federal agencies than at any time in the past. This consolidation of power now requires extensive secrecy and elaborate lies in the Bush presidency to keep decision-making information from the public and Congress. What is released is distorted, sometimes to appear to do the opposite of what a policy actually accomplishes.
Since Reagan, Republicans in Congress always puts special interests – what is good for the wealthiest, most powerful citizens and corporations — over the interests of the people. America is the world’s greatest representative democracy no longer.
Das,
There’s nothing wrong with being rich. But there is a problem when wealth is so great that it a small number of very wealthy people can subvert democracy and restrict our liberties.
Seven American Flags Are Set Afire in Brooklyn — Published: June 23, 2006