Meet The Real Stephen Fincher...6/30/11

Rep. Stephen Fincher(R) ~ District#8-Tennessee ...Useless !

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Records show Rep. Stephen Fincher raked in another $88,000 in crop payments from the federal government in 2010 — at the same time he was campaigning against government spending. During his career as a subsidy farmer, Mr. Fincher siphoned off $3,342,062 in tax dollars from the farm subsidy payouts, according to the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit consumer advocacy group. “Mr. Fincher is just another hypocrite who’s willing to slash spending for Medicare, women and children, but is happy to keep raking in tax dollars for himself,” said Chip Forrester, Chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party. “Mr. Fincher has shown us over and over again that his lips don’t tell the same story as his actions. “Mr. Fincher is feckless, pretending to be caught in a game. He says he’s just playing by the rules that Congress sets for farmers,” said Forrester. “But the fact remains, he had a chance to make meaningful changes to the farm program as a member of the House Agriculture Committee and he abandoned that post.”

BACKGROUND:

Fincher Continues to Criticize Federal Spending While in Congress. “The federal government simply cannot afford to keep spending money that it does not have. Washington must begin living within its means.” [Fincher Press Release, 6/1/11]

Fincher Received $87,738 in Farm Subsidies in 2010. While running for Congress, Fincher received $87,738 in farm subsidies for Stephen and Lynn Fincher Farms. Stephen and Lynn Fincher farms have received $3,342,062 since 1997. According to his 2011 financial disclosure, Fincher earned $103,882 in farm income from Stephen and Lynn Fincher farms. [Environmental Working Group Farm Subsidy Database, accessed 6/23/11; 2011 Financial Disclosure, 6/16/11]

Fincher Had Received $3.2 million in Federal Farm Subsidies. “Other freshmen not on the Agriculture Committee have done even better by the feds. The farm owned by Tennessee Rep. Stephen Fincher and his wife, Lynn, has received $3,254,324 from 1995 through 2009.” [Politico, 6/12/11]

Fincher Received Additional State Subsidies. “Republican Stephen Fincher, who has spoken against government spending and ‘bailouts’ in his congressional campaign, applied for and received a $13,650 grant from the state Department of Agriculture last year, records show. The state grant is in addition to federal farm subsidies of at least $3.2 million he and his wife have received over the last 10 years.” [Commercial Appeal, 10/14/10]

Fincher Recently Gave Up Spot on the Agriculture Committee. “Fincher won a coveted appointment to the House Financial Services Committee — a move that forced him to give up his spot on the Agriculture Committee […] Fincher will no doubt reap the other great benefit of the Financial Services Committee: It’s a lot more lucrative to serve on a panel that interests banking lobbyists than on a panel that handles agriculture policy. Fincher was one of the better-funded first-time candidates in 2010.” [National Journal, 6/10/11]

Editorial : It seems that Rep. Fincher talks out of both sides of his mouth ! Tennesseans , you got what you asked for !

The Rich, Do not Want to Pay Tax`s !

The Growing Desperation of the Don't-Raise-Taxes-on-the-Rich-Crowd
by : Robert Reich, Former Secretary of Labor
Posted: 06/16/11

The much-vaunted Republican pledge not to raise any taxes is crumbling. Today 34 Senate Republicans voted to end the special tax breaks for ethanol.

According to no-tax-increase purists like Grover Norquist, this is tantamount to a tax increase.

The truth is, Republicans are divided between those who want to bring down the budget deficit and those who want to shrink government. Ending a special tax subsidy helps reduce the deficit but doesn't necessarily shrink government. That's why Norquist and his followers have insisted any such tax increase -- including even the closing of tax loopholes -- be directly linked to a corresponding tax cut.
In order to save face on today's vote, Norquist says renegade Republicans will still be considered to have adhered to the pledge if they vote in favor of an amendment offered by Senator Jim DeMint to eliminate the estate tax. Talk about grasping at straws. DeMint's amendment isn't even up for a vote. In short, the no-tax pledge is evaporating in the fresh air of reality. What are anti-tax Republicans to do now? For one, continue to distort the arguments of those who believe corporations and the rich should pay more taxes. For example, in the lead op-ed piece in today's Wall Street Journal, Cato Institute fellow Alan Reynolds claims a higher marginal tax on the super rich will bring in less revenue. Reynolds uses my tax proposal from last February as his red herring. "Memo to Robert Reich," he declares, "The income tax brought in less revenue when the highest rate was 70 percent to 91 percent [between 1950 and 1980] than it did when the highest rate was 28 percent." Reynolds bends the facts to make his case, picking and choosing among years. In truth, the most important variable explaining the rise and fall of tax revenues as percent of GDP has been the business cycle, not the effective tax rate. In periods when the economy is growing briskly, tax revenues have risen as a percent of GDP, regardless of effective rates; in downturns, revenues have fallen. Reynolds also distorts my proposal, implying that the bracket on which I call for a 70 percent tax is the same as in today's tax code. Wrong. My proposed 70 percent rate would apply only to incomes over $15 million. $15 million, Alan ! Under my proposal, incomes between $5 million and $15 million would be subjected to a 60 percent rate, and incomes between $500,000 and $5 million to a 50 percent rate. Importantly, my proposal calls for a substantial rate reduction for families with incomes under $100,000. (Conveniently, Reynolds fails to mention this.) Reynolds entirely ignores my central argument, which is that rather than depress economic growth, higher taxes on the rich correlate with higher growth. During almost three decades spanning 1951 to 1980, when the top rate was between 70 percent and 91 percent, average annual growth in the American economy was 3.7 percent. Between 1983 and the start of the Great Recession, when the top rate dropped to between 35 percent and 39 percent, average growth was 3 percent. How to explain this ? Easy. Since the early 1980s, a larger and larger share of total income has gone to the top (the richest 1 percent of Americans got 10 percent of total income in 1980, and get over 20 percent now). That's left the vast middle class with insufficient purchasing power to boost the economy - without going deep into debt. Lower tax rates on the rich -- including lower capital gains rates -- have exacerbated this regressive trend. Finally, having misread the facts, distorted my proposal, and ignored my argument, Reynolds fails to rebut my conclusion that raising middle class purchasing power by lowering their tax rates while raising the rates at the top will help spur growth, to the benefit of all. Top earners will do better with a smaller share of a more rapidly-growing economy a larger share of a slower-growing one. If I were a cynic, I'd say the Republican right is showing signs of desperation.

Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at http://www.robertreich.org/

Editorial : The Rich do not want pay tax`s. Hey, neither do I ! Folks somebody has got to pay and that somebody is US, the middle class.

It`s Trade, Trade, Trade !

National Call-In Days to Stop Free Trade Agreements
Make Calls Next Week on Tuesday and Wednesday...

The House Ways and Means Committee announced that they will start work NEXT WEEK on free trade agreements with Colombia, Korea and Panama.

Now is the time to turn up the heat!

Please call your U.S. Representatives on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, June 21 and 22. View the InfoAlert outlining the problems with these agreements: http://bit.ly/mkLSe8

Check out the AFL-CIO ad that just ran in Politico, an influential D.C. publication, that denounces the Colombia agreement: http://bit.ly/ioeo7c

Call Your Representative on Tuesday or Wednesday !

Dial the Capitol Switchboard toll-free at:
866-311-1889

Ask for your Representative. In Tennessee : Click link below !

http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/topics/Elected+Officials

Tell your Representative you are a constituent and you want him or her to OPPOSE the Colombia, Korea and Panama free trade agreements. Ask for his or her position.

Underdog = Don Jones

Hey Senior`s...Whoops, That`s Me !

Hey Senior`s...whoops, that`s me ! Better listen up !

Hands Off Social Security & Medicare !

Protesters Spread the News: Keep Hands Off Medicare
by James Parks, Jun 13, 2011

U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards addresses protesters opposing the Republican budget and supporting Medicare.

About 100 working men and women told Congressional Republicans to “Keep Your Hands off Medicare” Monday in front of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., where CBS was hosting a town hall meeting with members of Congress. Holding signs with headlines from various newspapers about the Republican budget’s proposal to replace Medicare with underfunded vouchers for private insurance, the protesters lined up and unfurled a banner that read, “No News Here…Republicans Want to Eliminate Medicare to Give Tax Breaks to Millionaires.”
Passers-by honked horns along busy Pennsylvania Avenue at lunchtime, tourists walking by gave the demonstrators the thumbs-up sign and one woman pushing a stroller invited the protesters to move to Canada where she lives “because we have health care there.” Carrie Biggs-Adams, a member of NABET-CWA from Burbank, Calif., said she was protesting the Republican budget plan to privatize Medicare, cut corporate taxes and taxes for the wealthy, cut Medicaid funding repeals health care reform and cost up to 2 million jobs. She said the budget, which was proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) wouldn’t solve any of the country’s real problems. She said it was built on “fairy tales” and “lies.” Instead of giving tax cuts to millionaires, she said we should make sure they pay their fair share and tax their offshore profits as well. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) told the crowd that Medicare is not charity. Working people have paid into it for years. She added: (House Democrats) are going to stand with the American people who paid into Medicare. We know Americans want and deserve Medicare. She said Republicans had to hold a town hall meeting behind closed doors because they couldn’t hold one in their districts due to mass opposition to their votes for the Ryan budget.

Editorial : Republicans are not running scared. If elected, they will end Medicare and Social Security as we now know it ! They have proved that, by their attacks on Free-Democratic Trade Unions.

Don't End Medicare

GOP’s Social Security Privatization 2.0

Republicans are rolling out another plan to "privatize" and end Social Security as we know it, turning seniors’ guaranteed benefits into a guaranteed gamble. The last time they tried this was 2005. Just think, if they succeeded then, seniors would have lost trillions more in the 2008 financial crash. We protected Social Security then. Let’s stand together to protect it again now. Help us get 100,000 signatures for our petition calling on House Republicans to drop their reckless plan to end Social Security as we know it. Add your name and then spread it far and wide to your friends and family. Ever since Republicans began their radical push to end Medicare for America’s seniors, while giving more tax breaks to America’s billionaires, we’ve been holding them accountable. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out our powerful video of real Americans telling their own personal stories of how they rely on Medicare benefits -- then sign our petition telling Republicans to drop their disgraceful demands to end Medicare. Tea Party Launches “Super PAC” Want to see something really scary ? This week, the Tea Party’s biggest Washington, DC lobbying group ripped a page out of Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers’ playbooks by forming a “Super PAC” that can spend unlimited amounts of secret money attacking Democrats. This has raised the stakes for the upcoming June 30th Federal Election Commission (FEC) fundraising deadline.

Goodyear Moving Operations to South Korea ! .

Associated Press

Goodyear Sells Tire Wire Business to Hyosung
06.10.11

AKRON, Ohio --

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said on Friday that it has agreed to sell its tire reinforcement wire business to South Korea's Hyosung Corp. for $50 million.
The business makes the wire at facilities in Asheboro, N.C. and Colmar-Berg in Luxembourg, and employs about 600 people. Goodyear said the two companies will also sign a multi-year supply agreement when the deal closes, expected in the third quarter. The deal requires government and regulatory approvals.
Goodyear said the sale is not expected to result in a significant gain or loss. Hyosung is based in Seoul and has made tire reinforcements since 1968. It bought Goodyear's global tire fabric operations in 2006.

Editorial : Can this be interepted as more USA job losss ? Ask those in Asheboro N.C. ? I think it does ! I`m sure the Union caused it. *ROFLMAON*! Is Goodyear to become the Wal-Mart of the Tire business ? Kinda looks like it.

The War on Unions ?

Is The USA Going to Become a Third World Country ? !

By Don Jones = Underdog...

6/09/11

War has been declared on the middle class. How ? Republicans have learned that through unions, the middle class have an input in their work place. They don`t want you and I to have a say, in where we work. Why ? They want you to compete with third world countries in labor cost. It can`t be done. You take Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, they close down a domestic plant in Union City Tennessee(UC) and build those tires in Chili South America or China. Ship those tires back over to the good ole USA, the price never lowers. Free-Democratic Trade Unions negotiate livable wages and at one time medical benefits and retirement. In China, they have state operated unions. Not so good. In Chili, they murder Union leaders at their leisure. I really hate to call it a class war, but that is exactly what is going on. Here are questions for those opposed to free democratic labor unions ? What is wrong with me having a say in my work place ? What is wrong with electing my own union representatives ? What is wrong with negotiating on my own behalf or those who elect me ? I have never met a Union Official who wanted to put their employer out of business. I have always advocated, that with descent and livable wages comes responsibility, of building the best made union/company product possible. In my case Goodyear Tire`s ! In fact, that is being proven now in Union City TN. It seems that my/our plant is building the best tires and is the most productive plant in North America ! They are Union and doing a great job. They are scheduled to shut down this year. I now come back to original question, as to why this Republican assault on Unions/Middle class ? Adolph Hitler made a speech in Berlin Germany in 1933. The crux of the speech was do away with unions, kill all union officials. It was done ! Where did that get us ? All I`m asking is a level playing field for Americas Middle Class/Union Workers. No special privileges. Just an even chance to compete. American Union Workers can and will compete with any workers in the world and win. Oh yes, one more thing, as a union official, I`ve never killed anyone. I have no connection with the mob. Free-Democratic Trade Unions are the most needed self operated organization in the world. Also the purest form of Democracy, I know of ! If you do not understand that fact, Please read about Union Organizing in the 20`s and 30`s ! "God Bless America"!

Fiat Lux

Republicans Continue Attack on Free Democratic Trade Unions

Alexander(R)TN ~ Graham(R)S.C. ~ Demint(R)S.C.

Declare War on Middle Class, Under the Guise of Helping the Middle Class - Right to Work for Less Law ! Zeig Heil !

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) today introduced the Job Protection Act (S. 964), a bill to preserve federal law’s existing protections of state right-to-work laws.
On April 20, the acting general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board moved to stop Boeing from building airplanes at a nonunion plant in South Carolina, suggesting that unionized American company cannot expand its operations into one of the 22 states with right-to-work laws, which protect a worker’s right to join or not join a union. Alexander said: “This is not just about South Carolina and it’s not just about making airplanes – this is about jobs in every state in the country, and whether or not manufacturers are going to be able to make in the United States what they sell in the United States. I can’t think of one single action the federal government would take that would make it harder to create new jobs in Tennessee than this Boeing complaint, if it’s allowed to move forward.” Graham said: “The NLRB is doing the bidding of the unions at a great cost to South Carolina and our nation’s economy. I do not believe unelected bureaucracies should be allowed to go down the road the NLRB is charting. The foundation of the NLRB complaint against Boeing would destroy the American business community’s ability to negotiate and make rational business decisions. Our legislation prohibits the use of statements made during negotiations – involving legitimate business concerns – to be used as a legal basis for a violation of the National Labor Relations Act. It is time for Congress to speak out in a common-sense way against the outrageous and frivolous complaint by unelected bureaucrats at the NLRB.”

DeMint said: “Right to work states are winning the future for America's economy, yet this administration seems intent on stamping out this model of success. Right to work states have more business growth, more new jobs, and faster rising incomes than forced-unionism states. What the NLRB has done in the Boeing case is a threat to workers and businesses in every state. The NLRB is encouraging companies to take their jobs and investment overseas. This is a reprehensible act and an obvious kickback to union bosses the President is depending on helping his reelection. Unless we pass this bill, every worker and business in this nation is under the threat that if they don't do what union bosses want, this administration will come after you. Businesses have the right to invest in any state in America and states shouldn’t be penalized for protecting the rights of their citizens not to be forced to pay union dues. Right to work states should be applauded, not attacked, as they are attracting new investment and creating new jobs precisely because their policies encourage innovation and competition.”

The bill would:

•clarify that the NLRB would not be able to order an employer to relocate jobs from one location to another.

•Guarantee an employer the right to decide where to do business within the United States.

•Protect an employer’s free speech regarding the costs associated with having a unionized workforce without fear of such communication being used as evidence in an anti-union discrimination claim.

Editorial : Remember, these Senators all, voted against the minimum wage law ! Their so called Right to Work, is no more than an assault on the middle class !
You must understand, that none of the above is even close to TRUE ! Evidently, none of them have had to work for a living ? Adolph Hitler proposed something similar in 1933. Where did that get us ? WAKE UP AMERICA !

How Much Money is Enough ?

Our Growing Inequality in America !

Since the 1970s, the CEO class and their political allies have used policy to reshape our economy to their benefit. They’ve gotten excessive tax breaks for corporations and the very richest, trade policies that rob our communities of good jobs, deregulation that left average Americans unprotected from financial fallout and laws that encourage union-busting. Last year they even got a court case – Citizens United – that allows unlimited corporate dollars to influence our elections.

These policies matter a great deal. They are creating a massive wealth and income gap in our country. Take a look at the numbers:

The richest one percent of Americans owns over 35 percent – more than one-third – of our nation's wealth.

The four hundred wealthiest Americans now have more cash, stock and property than the combined total of half of America’s households.

Median CEO pay jumped 27 percent in 2010. Workers’ pay grew just 2.1 percent in 2010.

The average hourly wage in 1972, adjusted for inflation was $20.06. By 2008, the average hourly wage dropped to $18.52. In other words, income for the middle class has stagnated over the last 30 years.

In the early 1960s, the top fifth of wealth holders had 81 percent of all wealth, and the bottom four-fifths held 19 percent. But it has only gotten worse since then – as of 2009, the top fifth wealthiest Americans hold over 87 percent of the nation’s wealth. The bottom four-fifths hold just under 13 percent.

Let’s Fight Back – The next time someone tells you that our country is “broke” remind that person that there is plenty of wealth – it’s just not in the hands of the middle class. This isn’t good for us. It isn’t good for our democracy. And, it will get worse if we lose the state-level fights over collective bargaining rights – our tool to fight for fair wages and benefits. Please stay involved in state and national fights and watch for ways to get involved.

Big Oil & How They Do it !

THREE WRONGS DON'T MAKE BIG OIL RIGHT
Monday, May 30, 2011 Posted by Jim Hightower
Listen to Jim`s Commentary ...click below

http://www.jimhightower.com/sites/jimhightower.civicactions.net/files/18-19_rnc.mp3

http://www.jimhightower.com/

Reaping extravagant profits from $4-a-gallon gasoline, Big Oil has been pumping out the company line in an effort to deflect public anger from itself: "We don't set prices at the pump," the executives lecture to us. "The price of gasoline is determined by the cost of crude oil, and that price is set by the free market."

Wrong, Wrong, and Wrong. ! ! !

First, the market for crude is hardly "free." Production of crude oil is controlled by an oligarchy, plus the price of crude is being manipulated by high-flying, unregulated speculators. Second, the price of gasoline is not only determined by the cost of the oil, but also by add-on costs attached by the handful of corporations that refine oil into gasoline. Third, these few refiners also constitute a price-setting oligarchy (otherwise know as Big Oil) that rips us off at the pump with $4-a-gallon gasoline. Note that crude oil prices have fallen lately and consumer demand has also fallen, yet the price we consumers pay for gasoline has remained high. Curious, huh ? This perversion of the law of supply and demand comes courtesy of BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips – the chief oligarchs of Big Oil. To keep our prices high, they simply squeeze back the amount of gasoline produced in their refineries. They are now operating at only 82 percent of their processing capacity, an artificial manipulation that has cut the supply of gasoline by 900,000 barrels a day. By squeezing supply, they keep pump prices from falling, thus squeezing more money out of our wallets. With this squeeze play, refinery profits doubled in the last year. Big Oil could easily process more gasoline, lower our prices at the pump, and still make a big profit. But that's not enough for these masters of greed – they're out to make a killing.

"Refiners' big profits keep gas prices up , " Austin American Statesman, May 18, 2011.