Transportation Spending: More Republican Falsehoods

   A Republican would not tell the truth even if their life depended on it. It just is not in their genetic make-up to do so.

Surprise! Republicans lie about 'wasteful' transportation spending

by Laura Clawson  for Daily Kos Labor    Mon Oct 31, 2011

When Oklahoma Sen. Tom "Dr. No" Coburn and his partners in intransigence want to depict funding for transportation enhancements as wasteful, they take two deceptive approaches, an AP fact check finds. First, they exaggerate the amount spent, saying that states are required to spend 10 percent of federal transportation money on the transportation enhancements program. In fact, it's 10 percent of one specific piece of federal aid, which amounts to just 2 percent of total federal transportation money.

Then they really go to work, spinning tales of specific outrages that have wasted federal transportation funding while our bridges crumble. The big problem with that is that, as the AP's Joan Lowy details, Coburn and allies like John McCain start with a list of 39 allegedly wasteful projects, out of more than 25,000 done in the program's nearly 20 year history, and even so many of their examples are false:

Coburn's list includes a 1996 grant for preservation of a "factory used to make saddletrees" — the foundation of a riding saddle — in Madison, Ind. Not mentioned is that the grant wouldn't qualify for enhancement money under current program rules, according to Transportation Department officials.

The Texas Department of Transportation is described as spending $16.2 million in enhancement money to restore the Battleship Texas, docked in the Houston Ship Channel. If so, they weren't federal transportation dollars. U.S. transportation officials said an application for the money was turned down.

The list cited landscaping to screen a junkyard in Aiken, S.C. After checking with state and local authorities, federal officials said the project was canceled years ago and again, no funds were awarded.

Then there are the cases where federal transportation money was actually spent, but Republicans are misrepresenting what it was spent on. They love to talk about the turtle tunnel in Florida, which allows turtles to cross under a busy section of road and not be run over. But as I've previously pointed out, even if you don't think saving wildlife is a worthwhile activity, that tunnel helps prevent traffic accidents that had been caused by drivers swerving to avoid turtles (and, Lowy notes, alligators and other animals). What's more, the tunnels came in under budget, where Republicans are claiming that the project is over budget and that expenditures are continuing.

Similarly, Republicans have represented a simulator theater at the National Corvette Museum as being entertainment, a chance to feel what it's like to drive a Corvette. But really, it's "a driver-education classroom for free driving classes for older people and teenagers."

It's the $16 muffin all over again, and it's the best they've got: lies, more lies and misrepresentations.

Originally posted to Daily Kos Labor on Mon Oct 31, 2011

Also republished by Daily Kos and Class Warfare Newsletter: WallStreet VS the Working Class Occupy movement..

Technorati Tags: Tom Coburn,Republicans,John McCain,D.O.T.,Transportation Spending,Current Events,An American Gothic,Politics

Tax Havens Cost the Middle Class Untold Billions

by Kenneth Thomas      Tue Nov 01, 2011

Cross-posted from Middle Class Political Economist.

As I argued yesterday, when taxes are reduced for one group, government must raise taxes on someone else, run bigger deficits, or cut programs. Tax havens, jurisdictions with strong secrecy provisions and low or zero tax rates, are one way that rich individuals and corporations reduce their tax payments, both legally and illegally. A recent book by Ronen Palan, Richard Murphy, and Christian Chavagneux summarizes the latest work on tax havens and contends that they form a central part of the global economy. Tax Havens: How Globalization Really Works presents data that 30% of multinational corporations' foreign direct investment passes through tax havens like Bermuda, Ireland, or Luxembourg, overwhelmingly for tax purposes. Tax havens, then, are far more central to the global economy than we generally suppose.

How much does this cost average taxpayers? In a separate report, Murphy calculated that wealthy individuals have roughly $11.5 trillion in tax havens, which at a 7.5% rate of return would generate $860 billion in income each year. If, on average, these people faced a 30% marginal tax, that would come to $255 billion annually that the rich avoid in taxes. Needless to say, this is a best guess, since the value of these assets is not disclosed publicly. See his report for more details on how he generated those figures.

That's just individuals. The situation with corporations is murkier still. While corporations set up subsidiaries in tax havens for the obvious purpose of reducing their tax, Palan et al. say there is no solid estimate of the overall cost of these activities. The Government Accountability Office reported in 2008 that of the largest 100 U.S. companies, 86 had subsidiaries abroad, and 83 of these had subsidiaries in tax havens. Bank of America had 115 subsidiaries in tax havens, including 59 in the Cayman Islands. Citigroup had a whopping 427 tax haven subsidiaries, including 91 in Luxembourg and 90 in the Cayman Islands. Goldman Sachs only had 29, 15 in the Cayman Islands.

I mention the Cayman Islands because President Obama has long been a critic of tax havens, saying during the 2008 campaign of Ugland House in the Cayman Islands, "Either this is the largest building in the world or the largest tax scam in the world. And I think the American people know which it is." Palan et al. report that the Caymans are the sixth largest financial center in the world, with $1.9 trillion in assets in December 2007. However, since taking office, the President has not succeeded in passing a version of the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, which in its original form he co-sponsored with Carl Levin, Norm Coleman, Ken Salazar and Sheldon Whitehouse.

Tax havens could not exist without the financial services industry, which provides the tax lawyers, accountants, and other professionals who make it possible for the rich and corporations to reduce their taxes. Collectively, they and their clients are the 1%. Occupy Wall Street has highlighted the abuses benefiting them, and tax havens are most definitely part of their pattern of abuse. Tax havens have proved amazingly resilient, however, and it will take sustained political pressure to shut them down.

Originally posted to Kenneth Thomas on Tue Nov 01, 2011

Also republished by Class Warfare Newsletter: WallStreet VS the Working Class Occupy movement. and Community Spotlight.

 

Technorati Tags: 99%,Occupy Wall Street,Tax Havens,The Economy,Current Events,An American Gothic