Reply from Congressman Emanuel Cleaver concerning OrphanWorksActof 2008

[Jeffrey Watts]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 5:10 PM, Jon Pruente <jdpruente at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Fuel costs aren't tied to the tax rate, but rather the value of the
> dollar (through equity adjustments) and market rates.  Food costs have
> been historically low due to govt sponsored subsidies that prevented
> the market from raising prices in reaction to economic conditions.
> Now the prices go up and people scream bloody murder at the correction
> in prices that were artificially low.  How is that related to the tax
> cuts?
>

Fuel costs are DIRECTLY affected by the value of the US dollar.  The US
dollar has been plummeting in recent years due to the increasing debt load
of the US government and the subsequent devaluation of US Treasury bonds.
The tax breaks dramatically increased that debt load, and therefore
contribute to the devaluation of the US dollar.

The dropping dollar increases fuel costs (as oil is traded in dollars),
which not only affects costs of basic goods (as they must be shipped) but
also dramatically increases the cost of cereal food products such as wheat,
corn, soybean, etc as farmers are planting corn in droves to be used in
ethanol production, which due to the high fuel costs is now very lucrative.

So yes, the tax breaks and poor fiscal management of the GOP and Bush have
directly lead to higher fuel prices and basic goods costs.  Yes, speculation
and increasing demand also contribute, but the poor financial footing the US
government has right now is a major problem, one that will only get worse as
we spend spend spend and yet are foolish enough to want lower taxes.  Can't
have both.


> You still haven't answered what I asked: How did the tax cuts (that
> have brought more revenue to the treasury) ruined the economy and done
> anything to the war?
>

Tax cuts while spending billions on a war is something this country has
never done before.  You must either cut expenditures or raise taxes, should
you choose to engage in warfare.  This is common sense, and the failure of
our government, lead by the GOP, to do this has lead to our historically
high national debt and the devaluation of the US dollar.


> And how is that a part of the tax cuts? I'm not arguing good vs bad on
> Bush as a whole, but the tax cuts.  Govt spending is the real bad
> issue right now.  That's where the debt and deficit come from, read
> the facts.
>

Of course you aren't, because people that voted for him now want to pretend
that they didn't.  The GOP put us in the hole by cutting taxes and
increasing spending.  Unfortunately given the challenges this country faces
I don't feel that we can get ourselves out of it quickly.  The levers of
power are manipulated by government largesse, and until there's a balanced
budget amendment to compel Congress and the President to be fiscally
responsible that won't happen.

But at least with the Democrats in power we won't keep up the tax breaks for
the wealthy.  Trickle-down economics is bunk.  Taxes need to go up, spending
needs to go down.  Operating at a deficit can no longer be allowed to
continue.

Jeffrey.

-- 

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from
oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that
will reach to himself." -- Thomas Paine
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://kclug.org/pipermail/kclug/attachments/20080813/45ce38a6/attachment-0001.htm>