SoakTheRich.us started as a series of pie charts and turned into something much bigger. Here’s why!
Promising the moon and hoping no one will ask, “hey, what’s a moon cost these days, anyway?” turns out to be the one business model Progressives endorse. If you’re an Obama bundler, a union boss, or Ezra Klein, it’s great news — you can get rich selling snake oil, riding a limo to Occupy Wall Street rallies, or trying to make intensely stupid things sound smart.
If you’re a productive human being, the results are less sunny: national debt now exceeds GDP and has piled up to roughly $50,000 per American.
That’s where Soak The Rich comes in. Corporations and CEOs have tons of money, and the U.S. has tons of debt, so the math should work out: Tons – Tons = No worries! Using Soak The Rich, you can track the impact of doubling corporate income taxes and taking CEO pay from S&P 500 companies simply by clicking industries in a list. There’s even a “Soak All Industries” button for the benefit of MSNBC employees!
When you’re done, you can see detailed results and brag about your good deed on Twitter.
Hear a friend or relative parroting the “fair share” meme? Share Soak The Rich and then ask if they have any better ideas!
Last year while governors across the Midwest worked to reform broken public union laws, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) slandered them in a speech that could have easily been written by one of the millionaire “leaders” at SEIU, NEA, or AFSCME.
During one of his stemwinders about the wondrous things unions do, Sherrod dropped a reductio ad Hitlerum on Governor Kasich (OH), Governor Walker (WI), and Governor Christie (NJ):
Bizarrely, Sherrod claims he’s not comparing Kasich, Walker, and Christie to Hitler, Stalin, and Mubarak in the middle of comparing them to Hitler, Stalin, and Mubarak. While he’s conflating overdue reforms with mass murder, Sherrod also repeats one of his favorite deceptions by pretending government unions are the same as private industry unions.
Progressive loon Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has argued time and again that unemployment benefits are a great way to create jobs. As RedState readers know, Pelosi isn’t the only congressional Democrat to build a career coaxing the masses into Washington’s crushing embrace.
Where there’s a Progressive economic fallacy, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is never far away. Sherrod seems to think the U.S. economy performs best with bureaucrats working all the levers. This is his 20th year in Congress, so maybe we should forgive his ignorance of how a free market works!
As an Ohioan, Chris Matthews fawning “you’re the best there is on this argument” is not what I hope for from my senator.
I am impressed, though, with the way Sherrod Brown knows what every wealthy American is going to buy! I wonder how long he had to look into his crystal ball to be absolutely sure extending unemployment benefits is better for the economy than letting citizens keep and invest our own money.
The Right Scoop has footage of Sherrod making a more detailed (but equally laughable) case on the Senate floor around the same time as this Hardball spot.
Like Pelosi, Sherrod also argued for the “stimulus” effects of unemployment benefits in the summer of 2010:
Many have lost their job and, as a result, they lost their health insurance. After that, they lose their home or apartment because they can’t afford the mortgage or rent. Passing an extension of unemployment insurance isn’t just the right thing to do – it will also help stimulate the economy and serve as a critical part of a jobs agenda that puts the middle class first.
Emphasis mine. Sherrod’s solutions for the crises in health care, housing, and unemployment are one and the same – government redistribution, paid for by “The Rich” with a wave of the hand.
Self-righteous demands for shortsighted spending are exactly what we should expect from a Progressive who can’t even manage his own property taxes. The silver lining: Sherrod Brown is up for reelection in November, and Ohio is not California.
Transcript from the Hardball clip follows.
Sherrod Brown: These tax cuts for the rich that Bush did twice, Chris, in ‘01 and ‘03 as you know, resulted in very little economic growth. We saw only 1 million jobs created in the Bush years, 22 million created in the Clinton years, when we reached a balanced budget with a fairer tax system, and there is no, there’s no real history illustrating that these tax cuts for the rich result in jobs. It’s extending unemployment benefits that creates economic activity that creates jobs – not giving a millionaire an extra 10 or 20 or $30,000 in tax cuts that they likely won’t spend because they’re already buying what they’re gonna buy anyway.
Chris Matthews: You’re the best there is on this argument. Sorry, I’ve gotta ask you one last question…
News broke last month that Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was delinquent on his property taxes due September 2011 until early February. Sherrod, who angrily demands bigger central government and higher taxes from “The Rich,” paid the nearly $900 in taxes, penalties, and interest due for his $222,000 D.C. condo only after being questioned by a reporter.
“I was late,” he said on a conference call with reporters when asked about the recent delinquency. ”I misplaced the bill and I paid it as soon as I found out. I paid a penalty for being late, and it won’t happen again.”
Senator Brown lost a tax statement and forgot to pay until a reporter came calling months later, but there’s no cause for alarm! He paid the penalty for his delinquency, and it won’t happen again.
When a reporter noted that it also happened five and six years ago, Brown said, “I misplaced it then. This is a small apartment. I’m not in D.C. nearly every week, I’m here when the Senate’s in session, I’m here three or four nights a week. I paid the penalty. And in no way, obviously, was I avoiding taxes.”
Because “the dog ate it” worked so well the first time around, Sherrod tries the same excuse for three consecutive property tax bills in 2006 and 2007. With no reporters reminding him, Sherrod actually fell so far behind on property taxes his condo was listed for public auction! Odd that a U.S. Senator would forget the existence of taxes for months on end, springing into action only when his property is on the line.
I love Sherrod’s volley of additional excuses. It’s a small apartment! He’s there less than 57% of the time! He’s been serially delinquent with payments, but was in no way avoiding taxes by not paying taxes! Obviously.
Since his election to the Senate, Sherrod has paid over $850 in penalties and interest for his failure to submit D.C. property taxes on time. That’s peanuts for a millionaire who promises trillions to interest groups and insists soaking the rich & slashing the military will pay for it.
Remember, Sherrod is a Progressive who thinks a republic of 300 million can – and should – be ruled by a few thousand bureaucrats in Washington. He’s unable to keep track of his mail and pay his taxes on time twice a year, but that doesn’t stop Sherrod from making big plans with your money!
Demanding bigger government while failing at his most basic civic duty: one more way Sherrod Brown resembles President Obama’s worst cabinet appointees and staff.
I’m relieved Obama for America is pushing every class warfare chip to the middle of the table. If Americans get a better look at Progressivism’s ugly mug and still vote Democrat in November, the country deserves to go bankrupt!
To simplify mockery of their candidate for those of us with apolitical day jobs, Obama for America has assembled “Truth Teams” – Attack Watch in more sheepish clothing – in a handful of swing states. At the Ohio Truth Team announcement, it was suggested that crashing GOP events may be on the Obama cheerleaders’ agenda.
“We’ll do it in an appropriate, mindful way, recognizing the importance of the conversation,” said Ohio Democratic chairman Chris Redfern, also a truth team member. “The truth team, we envision, will be more of a rapid response, taking a message directly at locations where those individuals who align with super PACs or organizations in support” of GOP presidential hopefuls are present.
Emphasis mine. Given his history, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern is a hilarious addition to an Obama group allegedly aiming for mature conversations. In the waning days of the 2010 campaign:
[...] the camera was rolling as Redfern leveled the expletive at critics in the Tea Party, who, in his words, believe health care is a privilege, not a right.
“If your kids are going to graduate from college, now he or she gets health care, your heath care, while he or she looks for a new job,” Redfern said. “It’s in the very base terms we win these arguments. Every time one of these (expletive deleted) says, excuse my language…”
In the e-mail, Redfern then asks for a $10 donation to his “swear jar” to “help the Ohio Democratic Party and its candidates get our message out and stick it to our opponents.”
He wrote, “I have been amazed by the outpouring of support the Ohio Democratic Party has received after I spoke out forcefully and unapologetically on behalf of working families.”
What a mindful, appropriate brush for Chris Redfern to paint his political opponents with! Now that the Super Obama Truth Squad has recruited the hateful creep who called the enemies of Obama’s totalitarian health insurance plan F-ers at a 2010 union event, they’re armed to the teeth with truth!
Tell us, Ohio Obama Truth Ninjas: How many of the 2.2 million Ohioans who voted to block Obamacare’s key mandate last November are F-ers? If it’s true that Ohio voters who oppose your preferred statist policies are F-ers, what is it we’re guilty of effing?
Follow Jason on Twitter: @jasonahart. Apologies to Cheddar the Bulldog, whose owner submitted an un-doctored version of the above photo to Wikimedia Commons with a public domain license.
When Sherrod Brown (D-OH) spoke at the Ohio Education Association Representative Assembly last spring, he had a receptive audience for his class warfare routine. Since Sherrod is the most extreme leftist in the U.S. Senate and must face Ohio voters this fall, the state’s public union fight was a perfect chance to remind Big Labor he’s their man.
By the end of his 40-second detour into the Progressive causes and glorious federal programs conservatives are attacking, Sherrod had built up a 9x attack multiplier! This sort of word power makes Sherrod Brown a rhetorical king, so long as no one ever asks how to pay for the bankrupt boondoggles he adores.
Similar to the speech where he slammed the faith of the governors on Big Labor’s enemies list, Sherrod gets so wound up talking about conservative attacks that he forgets to explain his alternative! It’s a shame, because Sherrod Brown has had decades in Congress to cook up the perfect tax-and-spend formula.
Still, think how grateful young Ohio teachers should be that Sherrod Brown is protecting their union bosses. If not for Sherrod, Ohio teachers might be paid based on merit! Public layoffs would consider factors other than tenure! Teachers would be asked to cover slightly more of their benefits so schools could avoid layoffs altogether! What a dystopian ruin Ohio would be if the Ohio Education Association had slightly less power.
Sherrod Brown is consistent, at least. He always credits Big Labor and bureaucracy with America’s success, while treating union bosses as the backbone of American society.
I’d like to extend a special thanks to the Columbus Education Association for sharing Sherrod Brown’s energetic pandering to a crowd that demands the impossible from Ohio taxpayers. You can see Sherrod’s keynote and footage from his Q&A session on the union’s YouTube channel (for now).
Transcript follows of the clips featured above.
Clip 1, Sherrod Brown: The vote in November on SB 5 [the union reform bill] repeal is the most important election in the country, the most watched election in the country, because of the attack – the attack on worker and collective bargaining rights, the attack on voting rights, the attack on women in Columbus, in the state legislature. In Washington, the attack on Head Start, the attack on Pell grants, the attack on public radio, the attack on Medicare, the attack on Social Security. All these things, I think, are absolutely hostile, absolutely enimical to what we, as a nation, have stood for for 75 years. The reason we have a prosperous middle class in this country, more than anything, is in the 1930s Congress passed, with Franklin Roosevelt signing, collective bargaining rights.
Clip 2, Sherrod Brown: How can young people not have second thoughts about a profession when the politicians that run our state – the conservative politicians that run our state – are attacking their profession and attacking what they stand for?
If you look at the votes Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) casts, the things he says, and the bills he sponsors, one thing is clear: Sherrod is a dyed-in-the-wool statist. For every domestic policy question, his answer is bigger central government.
Make a list of federal bailouts and entitlement expansions from the past several years, and Sherrod Brown’s name comes up constantly. Here’s Sherrod at a June 2010 pep rally for a public union bailout:
For Sherrod, falling tax revenues present a familiar math problem. Union pay and benefits should never decrease, so when tax hikes are a political non-starter it’s time for more deficit spending! Sherrod steps in with free money to balance the equation, waving research from a union-funded Progressive group.
Sherrod Brown has built a 20 year Congressional career around our difficulty visualizing large numbers. Sherrod promises $75 billion as if he were bequeathing a gift to the peasants, knowing many voters actually believe “The Rich” can cover it – after forking over their fair share to fund Obamacare, the auto industry bailout, the stimulus bill, underwater mortgages, food stamps, unemployment benefits, and so on.
In Ohio, Sherrod is a key part of the industry thriving on this lie. If we oust him this fall, Policy Matters Ohio, Progress Ohio, Innovation Ohio, and the Ohio Education Association – plus locals of AFSCME, SEIU, and assorted openly Socialist groups – lose a seasoned class warrior and a reliable vote in Congress.
On top of the Local Jobs for America Act and the other programs listed above, here are a few other entitlement increases & federal bailouts Sherrod has hawked recently:
As a rule, Sherrod Brown’s ideas would be unwise even if we could afford them. Since we can’t, Sherrod is willfully contributing to a $15 trillion deficit – which he tries to blame on national defense and the Bush tax cuts.
Sen. Sherrod Brown: Uh, Wendy Patton will talk in a few minutes about Policy Matter Ohio’s report that shows our region is facing elimination of critical public services at a time when we simply cannot afford that. The legal — the National League of Cities said last week 7 in 10 city managers and mayors are cutting jobs and services because of a loss in property – in property tax, especially in commercial real estate. But you don’t need me to recite these statistics, you know them because you live them every day, you’re seeing people still that can’t find work when they’re trying to.
[...] Sen. Sherrod Brown: That’s why what you need from me and from Mayor Plusquellic and from Mayor Jackson is to take action. That’s why I will introduce next week when I return to Washington The Local Jobs for America Act, would help cities and municipalities save or create jobs even as they face these awful budget crises. This legislation is aimed at putting people back to work and turning them into taxpayers rather than benefit collectors. The bill would direct [Applause from the crowd] …the bill would direct $75 billion dollars over the next 2 years, uh, to cities, towns, and counties to save municipal jobs and prevent layoffs so that, so that fire- so that our, our, our cities, our communities, our counties are protected – firefighters, emergency medical personnel, law enforcement, all the services that are essential in a civilized society to a normal, decent life.
For Ohio Governor John Kasich, Tuesday’s annual State of the State address offered an important venue to talk up his administration’s achievements and goals. Kasich gave this year’s speech at Wells Academy, a school in Steubenville, instead of the traditional Statehouse venue.
State Rep. Bob Hagan (D – Youngstown), a Progressive kook’s Progressive kook, bused in 35 protestors for the event. Worse, Hagan handed out several tickets for Kasich’s speech to Occupy protestors ranting outside.
Rep. Bob Hagan (second from left) and Rep. Dennis Murray (second from right) are thanked by Occupy protestors for Hagan’s tickets to the State of the State address
2:36 [...] Cat calls and chants have started from the balcony from protestors.
2:38 [...] People have been removed from the auditorium, but more calls coming from the balcony. [...]
2:39One particularly loud woman has just been led out…”John Kasich is selling out Ohio!” she yelled as she was led out the back. Now a male voice can be heard.
2:40 [...] Meanwhile, man is led out of the room. Things seem to have quieted down now.
Rep. Hagan, too pathetic to face the derision that comes with disrupting a state event, sent in Occupy protestors to attack Governor Kasich. Wonder if he’s any relation to the “Hagan” who rallied protestors before Kasich’s speech?
“Governor Kasich has crossed the line many times,” Hagan said to the crowd.
When Big Labor, environmental activists, Democrats, and Communists are all equally enraged by your governor, it’s likely your state is on the right track!
For more from Ohio, follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart
The Senate Bill 5 campaign proved Ohio voters remain too receptive to union rhetoric. Trying to rehash the same arguments during a presidential campaign already focused on Progressive class warfare would be a nightmare.
Class: During a 2010 strike, Ohio Education Association staff hung a banner telling the OEA boss to kill himself.
The ridiculousness of public unions prompted me to start writing and researching with a purpose beyond, “here’s what annoys me today, and I know my friends wouldn’t want to hear this rant.” I wish I were more effective at making the case for union reform! If you could find another sap who spent more free time than I did over the past year arguing for the need to reform Ohio’s government union law, I would be amazed. On this subject, Ohio conservatives have a lot of work left to do.
Big Labor’s pockets are deep, and any attempt at union reform means attacking the strength of people who get rich pushing class warfare for a living.
This brings us back to Ohio.Ron Paul supporter and Tea Party consultant Chris Littleton is spearheading an effort to put Right-to-Work on Ohio’s November ballot. If successful in getting enough signatures to have the initiative placed on the ballot, Littleton and his compadres will likely do nothing more than ensure an Obama victory in Ohio.
With unions collecting more than $8 billion per year in union dues, no amount of money Littleton can raise will be enough to outspend the unions on the issue Right-to-Work—as evidenced by the recent fight over SB5 (Issue 2) in November.
In fact, union bosses and Democrats are likely hoping for Littleton to get enough signatures to put Right-to-Work on the ballot. [Don't be too surprised if unions, either directly or indirectly through third-party operatives, quietly encourage people to sign the petitions.] Once Right-to-Work is on the ballot, unions can turn Ohio into World War IV (again).
Regardless of the amount of money Littleton and his associates may make from putting Right-to-Work on Ohio’s ballot, his efforts put the rest of the nation at risk of seeing Barack Obama win Ohio and, as a result, likely re-election. This is something that, hopefully, even Littleton’s presidential pick, Ron Paul, would see the practical ramifications of avoiding if it meant putting Obama back in the White House for four more years.
Even though Ron Paul has been cagey on stating he would not run as a third-party candidate, his son, Rand Paul, has stated that it would be impractical, knowing that it would ensure an Obama victory. Hopefully, his Ohio supporters are as practical in that regard when it comes to placing Right-to-Work on November’s Ohio ballot.
As the saying goes: “Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.” Or, in the case of Ohio, another way to put this is: Forego the battle for now, if it helps you win the war later.
With the nation nearing $16 trillion in debt and owing $117 trillion in unfunded liabilities, despite the legislature in Indiana winning Right to Work, putting a Right-to-Work initiative in Ohio is not worth the risk. Not now. Not this year.
I’ve got no beef with Chris Littleton. The 1851 Center and the Ohio Liberty Council do good work, as brilliantly demonstrated by the success of the Ohio Healthcare Freedom Amendment last November. I don’t expect many people to care about my opinion, but I will not be signing a petition to get Right-to-Work on the 2012 ballot.
When not attacking American companies, President Obama gets downright romantic about the grand things American companies do with the Washington’s guidance. China is frequently a source of envy (see: passenger rail boondoggles), because China’s statist capitalism-lite floats Obama’s boat. As America’s most statist senator, Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is on board for anything involving more government!
Sherrod asked President Obama about his plans for a federal manufacturing and energy policy during a February 2010 Democrat meeting:
President Obama knows what’s best, and seems annoyed by the democracy blocking his path. For all his worries of “falling behind” autocratic China in the race to throw money at unmarketable products, we have to wonder how much of the New York Times coverage he was briefed on the week before!
In the United States, power companies frequently face a choice between buying renewable energy equipment or continuing to operate fossil-fuel-fired power plants that have already been built and paid for. In China, power companies have to buy lots of new equipment anyway, and alternative energy, particularly wind and nuclear, is increasingly priced competitively.
[...]
As in many other industries, China’s low labor costs are an advantage in energy.
Emphasis mine. Impromptu poll: Do you think Sherrod Brown or President Obama comprehend how expensive capital is, or realize China’s population and infrastructure are different from ours? Do you think they would cross Big Labor in order to compete with Chinese manufacturing in a meaningful way?
What the average person might call “reality” is only a cloud of pesky details for Barack Obama and Sherrod Brown to wave aside. Green energy is A Good Thing, so taxpayers should happily spend money on green energy while coal & oil companies take their medicine and ask for more. Pipelines are right out. Sure, we’ll lose the occasional half billion or so funding the endeavors of Obama donors, but that’s part of the fun!
In matters of manufacturing and green energy – as with most everything else – Sherrod Brown is a cheerleader for Obama’s worst Progressive tendencies. For a Senate seat the GOP can retake this November, look no further than Ohio!
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