Daily Clips: October 16, 2015
Trump is racist…again: It’s disappointing that a known racist is leading in the Republican primary. Really marinate on that. A delusional megalomaniac is the preferred candidate for the majority of the Republican base. And lest you think his racism may recede as the spotlight intensifies, read this new story:
This week, a seemingly benign Q&A turned into an awkward cultural moment on the presidential campaign trail.
Joseph Choe, a Harvard student, stood up to ask Donald Trump a question about South Korea at the No Labels Problem Solver Convention in New Hampshire on Monday…
“Harvard?” Trump asked. “You go to Harvard?”
He does. There was some silence before Choe got the microphone…
“Basically, you said that South Korea takes advantage of the United States in terms of the defense spending on the Korean Peninsula,” [Choe] began. “I just want to get the facts straight.”
Before he could finish, Trump interrupted.
“Are you from South Korea?” he wondered aloud.
“I’m not,” Choe said. “I was born in Texas, raised in Colorado.”
Economists see BIG revenues if taxes go up for the rich: A majority of Americans think the wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes. And it turns out that if we actually raised the total tax burden of the richest Americans, the US government would raise a lot of money. Go figure. Here’s an excerpt from the New York Times on how higher taxes on the rich could benefit our nation:
The top 1 percent includes about 1.13 million households earning an average income of $2.1 million.
Raising their total tax burden to, say, 40 percent would generate about $157 billion in revenue the first year. Increasing it to 45 percent brings in a whopping $267 billion. Even taking account of state and local taxes, the average household in this group would still take home at least $1 million a year.
In sum, you cannot simultaneously claim to be worried about our national debt and then not raise taxes on the wealthy.
Here’s a great Robert Reich video on the deficit:
