[Dialogue] Fw: Our USA national priorities - Tax Breaks vs. BudgetCuts

Wed Mar 9 08:13:17 CST 2011

I would have to look up the stats, but the numbers I've seen are that by far the majority of people in the country who fall below the federal government's poverty guideline (which is way too low at just over $20k for a family of 4) are the very young, the very old, the chronically ill and the working poor (full-time jobs but still below the poverty line.)

Randy

--- On Tue, 3/8/11, George Holcombe <geowanda at earthlink.net> wrote:

From: George Holcombe <geowanda at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Fw: Our USA national priorities - Tax Breaks vs. BudgetCuts
To: "Colleague Dialogue" <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Date: Tuesday, March 8, 2011, 9:21 PM

Not to be snarky, Geri, but I've worked with the poor and homeless in several places most of my life, and I've yet to see the cheating you report.  Mostly because the laws are such that more are excluded than helped.  If you go through the steps to get benefits, they take up a good deal of time and effort.  The welfare "queens and kings" are hard to find, even harder to document.  I have yet to see an unbiased study that demonstrates large amounts of cheating. 40% of our children are in poverty today and we are hemorrhaging homeless folks.  The average age of homeless people in Texas is 11. The wealthiest among us have a far better chance of avoiding taxes and cashing in on the public trough at astronomical amounts.  The middle class is crashing. The largest transfer of wealth to the top 1% of the population is unknown in prior history and is escalating.

The difficulty in our present situation is that at a time we need a better educated, more mobile young people, education is a non-priority, and increasingly out of reach of the middle class, let alone the poor.  It is difficult to collect great statistics for more than a few reasons, but I imagine the situation is much more dire than Janice's chart suggests.

I agree this is not a matter of left or right, it's a matter of looking squarely at the situation as it is and looking for workable solutions.  Due to the way we elect people to public office, I don't see any from that corner.

I'll be glad to discuss this off line if need be.  The Order moved to work with the poorest of the poor to learn and practice transformational methods from the ground up; I imagine that is the place to look for the new today.  Maybe it's coming from the Middle East.

George Holcombe
14900 Yellowleaf Tr.
Austin, TX 78728
Mobile 512/252-2756
geowanda at earthlink.net

‎“...we have the choice: we can gratefully cultivate the relationships that make us part of a vast network, or we can take them for granted and allow them to wither and die.”  Brother David Steindl-Rast, Deeper than Words

On Mar 8, 2011, at 5:20 PM, Geri Tolman wrote:

Am I the only one who is skeptical about these numbers and categories? 
I haven't done the reading....do they explain how one calculates the "Cost of “estate planning” techniques used by wealthy to avoid taxes"?

My healthy dose of skepticism is based on personal knowledge of too many people who cheat the welfare system to get food stamps and low income housing benefits.  Not saying there aren't people who legitimately need these services, just that there is way too much fraud and abuse. 

Lists like these, whether from the left or the right, suggest that there are easy solutions to very complex problems, and raise the emotional hackles which tend to get in the way of generating clear-thinking solutions.

Respectfully,
Geri Tolman

From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Janice Ulangca
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 2:02 PM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: [Dialogue] Fw: Our USA national priorities - Tax Breaks vs. BudgetCuts

Information on what is up for cutting, and what's not, during budget discussions in the U.S. Congress going on this week and next. Info is pasted into this message.  In the attachment, it's neatly arranged in columns - hope you can open it.  A link to sources for these figures is below.
Janice Ulangca

Programs at risk             Tax breaks for the wealthy
$11.2 billion Early childhood programs     $11.5 billion Annual cost of estate tax cuts for millionaires
$8.9 billion Low income housing programs   $8.9 billion Mortgage interest deduction for vacation homes (10 years)

$7.6 billion Supplemental nutrition for poor families (WIC)  $6.7 billion Cost of “estate planning” techniques used by wealthy to avoid taxes
$4.6 billion Teacher training and afterschool programs      $5.2 billion Cost of removing limit on itemized deductions for high income
                                                                                                                                  taxpayers (in 2011)
$4.1 billion Job training for unemployed and new workers   $4.1 billion Cost of tax breaks for offshore operations of U.S. financial companies
$2.5 billion Low income energy assistance (LIHEAP) grants for poor  $2.5 billion Tax breaks for oil companies (write-offs
                                                                                                                                   for drilling and oil well costs in 2012)
$2.5 billion Community health centers   $4.9 billion Cost of extending alcohol fuel tax breaks
$2.0 billion Homeless assistance grants  $2.3 billion Tax loopholes for managers of hedge funds and private equity funds
                                                                                               (in 2012)
$420 million Legal services for the poor  $312 million Company write offs of punitive damages (10 years)
$317 million Title X family planning      $303 million Special tax breaks for timber industry

$44 billion All programs at risk combined
$42 billion One year cost of extending Bush tax cuts for top brackets (2012)

See this link for more information and sources for these amounts.  Most figures are from various government sources.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/02/tax_breaks_infographic.html

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