UFCW President Joe Hansen on President Obama's Plan to Put Americans Back to Work

Last night, President Hansen released the following statement in support of President Obama's jobs plan:

“President Obama’s plan for job creation, including a private fund to rebuild our roads and schools, a tax cut for companies that hire workers and help for the long-term unemployed, is a good start. The nation’s job crisis demands leadership from President Obama, but he cannot revive the economy alone. Bold leadership is also needed from Republicans in Congress and the business community in order to create jobs that can support a family and rebuild the middle class.

 “We will never win the future by turning a blind eye to the devastating impact of unemployment and underemployment on our country. It is time for Republicans in Congress to put our country ahead of politics and support the president’s plan to put Americans back to work. It is also time for America’s business leaders to make a patriotic commitment to invest in good jobs in America and provide their employees with decent wages and benefits with the end goal of giving the middle class the purchasing power it needs to revive the economy.

 “The wasted economic potential of the millions of Americans who are unemployed or underemployed is a national tragedy. But the tragedy goes deeper than statistics alone. In all this turmoil, many Americans believe they will never achieve the American dream of owning a home, sending their children to college or retiring comfortably. If Republicans in Congress and America’s business leaders continue to put corporate profits ahead of job creation, our country will never fully recover from this downward economic spiral.”

Shame on Whole Foods: Demanding Tax Breaks to Open DC Store--While Ordinary Americans Struggle to Make Ends Meet?

Yesterday’s Washington Post noted that Whole Foods is demanding $8 million in tax breaks to open a new store in Southeast D.C.  At the time of D.C.’s worst budget crisis in decades, a company that had a 61% increase in profits for the first quarter of this year and more than $9 billion in sales last year is telling us they need D.C. government funds more than children and the needy.

There has been outrage across America over government handouts to banks and large corporations. Funding to save failing companies has been derided as “socialism”. But where is the outrage when a large profitable and successful out-of-town company demands tax breaks in order to do business with D.C. residents?

Whole Foods clearly doesn’t need our help, especially when we are cutting back in every area of government spending. Let’s use our limited and precious public resources to help those that need it most, rather than padding the bottom lines of huge corporations.

At times like this, everyone should share in the sacrifice. Including the very profitable Whole Foods. After all, that's the right thing to do.

Who Should Pay More in Taxes? The Rich, or the Rest of Us?

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No doubt you've heard talk show hosts and media people on TV and radio getting outraged at the fact that only 47% of Americans paid taxes this year. But look closer at that 47 % number, says David Leonhardt of the New York Times. It's not accurate to say that because of the growing gap in income (which is why so many people pay no taxes) the rich are somehow carrying the load for the rest of us in a way that's unfair or overburdening.

As Leonhardt points out:

State and local taxes, meanwhile, may actually be regressive. That is, middle-class and poor families may face higher tax rates than the wealthy. As Kim Rueben of the Tax Policy Center notes, state and local income taxes and property taxes are less progressive than federal taxes, while sales taxes end up being regressive. The typical family pays a lot of state and local taxes, too — almost half as much as in federal taxes.

There is no question that the wealthy pay a higher overall tax rate than any other group. That is an American tradition. But there is also no question that their tax rates have fallen more than any other group’s over the last three decades. The only reason they are paying more taxes than in the past is that their pretax incomes have risen so rapidly — which hardly seems a great rationale for a further tax cut.

So we can we do about our budgeting problems? How can we prevent cutting services in federal programs and military spending? Leonhardt, again:

The answer is that tax rates almost certainly have to rise more on the affluent than on other groups. Over the last 30 years, rates have fallen more for the wealthy, and especially the very wealthy, than for any other group. At the same time, their incomes have soared, and the incomes of most workers have grown only moderately faster than inflation.

So a much greater share of income is now concentrated at the top of distribution, while each dollar there is taxed less than it once was. It’s true that raising taxes on the rich alone can’t come close to solving the long-term budget problem. The deficit is simply too big. But if taxes are not increased for the wealthy, the country will be left with two options...It will have to raise taxes even more than it otherwise would on everybody else. Or it will have to find deep cuts in Medicare, Social Security, military spending and the other large (generally popular) federal programs.

One more question for Leonhardt: why, exactly, do talk show host and big media figures spend so much time talking up this 47% number as if the rich are paying far too much already? As Leonardt points out:

Well, it’s hard not to notice that the talk show hosts themselves tend to be among the very wealthy.

No doubt, like the rest of us, they don’t particularly enjoy paying taxes. They are happy with the tax cuts they have received lately. They would prefer if other people had to pick up the bill for Medicare, Social Security and the military — people like, say, firefighters, preschool teachers, computer support specialists, farmers, members of the clergy, mail carriers, secretaries and truck drivers.

So who should really pick up the bill for these things? The rich, who are making more than ever and paying less in taxes, or the rest of us--barely keeping up with the cost of living in today's tough economic climate? Someone clearly needs to pay their fair share.