Politics – Page 12 – GEORGE ROTHERT

Financial & Tax News Bites

The current occupant of the White House read this off the TelePrompTer during his visit to Nancy Pelosi’s house:

Wages are rising at the fastest pace in decades, and growing for blue collar workers, who I promised to fight for, faster than anyone else. We passed a massive tax cut for working families and doubled the child tax credit. The United States economy is growing almost twice as fast today as when I took office, and we are considered far and away the hottest economy anywhere in the world.
(Interesting that Republicans no longer vilify the President for using a TelePrompTer.)

Wages supposedly rising and taxes lower, yet there are seven-million Americans who are three months or more behind on their car payments. This seems counter-intuitive as so many have been enjoying larger take-home pay during the past year.

Could be those behind on car payments intended to get caught up when they received their tax refunds. Oops. Many early tax-return filers are distressed to discover their refunds are smaller than they expected, averaging 8.4% less. (The scolds out there tell us a tax refund means we have given the government an interest-free loan during the year.)

When the much-vaunted tax changes went into effect, the IRS issued revised withholding schedules for employers to use. Cynics say the new tables were skewed too low to make the alleged tax reduction appear larger than it actually was.

So much winning.

Don’t Worry – Earth Will Be Fine

If you’re concerned about our Mother Earth, don’t be. The planet we inhabit will be just fine. A few thousand years after humankind is gone, Earth will have recovered from the damage done during the very brief time it suffered human infestation. The reign of people will be just a tiny blip on the planet’s many-billion-years history.

In case you were holding on to hope that the coming environmental apocalypse might somehow be prevented, our leaders are doing what they can to assure that any hope is misplaced. The current occupant of the White House has appointed an oil-and-gas lobbyist as acting Secretary of the Interior and a coal lobbyist as acting Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The President has announced both as nominees for permanent positions.

Which brings us to the Oyster Problem.

A Very Brief History of Black History Month

Historian Carter G. Woodson declared the second week of February as “Negro History Week” in 1926. He chose that week because it coincided with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln on the 12th and Frederick Douglass on the 14th.

Black History Month became official in 1976 when white people recognized it. President Gerald Ford announced it was time to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” Subsequently, each year the President has proclaimed February as Black History Month.

Notably, in his 2017 declaration the current occupant of the White House, a renowned historian in his own right, stated, “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice.”

From the 2019 declaration:

This year’s theme, “Black Migrations,” highlights the challenges and successes of African Americans as they moved from farms in the agricultural South to centers of industry in the North, Midwest, and West—especially the migrations that occurred in the twentieth century. Through these migrations, millions of African Americans reshaped the demographic landscape of America, starting new lives in cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, and New York City.

Read the entire proclamation here (not likely that it was written by the current President).

Before Nancy Pelosi There Was Thomas B. Reed

“The best system is to have one party govern and the other party watch.”

The current occupant of the White House, the greatest negotiator ever, the purported author of “The Art of the Deal,” met his match with Nancy Pelosi. Speaker of the House Pelosi learned her deal making from her father, a mayor of Baltimore, and later in the bruising political environment that is San Francisco. She has the current President so flustered that the best he can come up with for a denigrating nickname is an ineffectual “Nancy.” Pelosi, in turn, said that the border wall, “is like a manhood thing for him — as if manhood would ever be associated with him.”

The Speaker’s power that Nancy Pelosi is exploiting goes back more than a century when another powerful politician wielded the gavel. Thomas B. Reed was Speaker of the House from 1889-1891 and again from 1895-1899.

John Boehner: Still Smokin’

“I’m all in on marijuana.”

Republican John Boehner resigned from the House of Representatives in 2015 after nearly twenty-five years, the last five as Speaker. He has since found a life after politics.

John Boehner appears in cannabis ad: pic.twitter.com/fSR06lcFjV
— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) January 9, 2019

“I’m all in on marijuana.”

The Border, the President, the Wayback Machine

IOKIYAR (It’s OK if you are Republican)

The current occupant of the White House gave a speech to Americans about the urgency of U.S. taxpayers funding a border wall. (As with the deficit and Mexico paying for the wall, Republicans no longer mention the president’s TelePrompTer use.) The major television networks acquiesced and broadcast the scripted, sometimes coherent harangue. Never mind that in 2014 the same networks declined to give airtime to the President – that would be Barack Obama – addressing the nation about border security. The reason given? It was too political. Previously, the networks did air George W. Bush’s immigration speech.