Via the Economist’s View.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

What the republicans believe:

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Should We Feel Sorry for the Wealthy?

….Are the wealthy paying to much in taxes?: Ari Fleischer, the former White House Press Secretary for U.S. President George W. Bush, has been trying to make the case on Twitter that the wealthy are taking on more of the tax burden than ever….

What the republicans leave unsaid:

….Let’s take the top 1% first. Between 1979 and 2007 income for this group grew by 275 percent, and the share of income doubled from around 10 percent to around 20 percent of total income. However, the share of taxes for this group less than doubled. Thus, a doubling of income resulted in less than a doubling of taxes. Given that income growth outpaced tax growth, it’s hard to see how we can describe this as an increase in the tax burden for the top 1%….

[emphasis added]

It’s a wash for the “middle class”, but:

….Thus, the notion that the rich are paying more, and middle income families are paying less — that income is being redistributed from the rich to the middle — does not hold up to further scrutiny. The rich are doing better than ever, tax rates are at historic lows for this group, and their share of taxes has not risen by as much as their share of income….

[emphasis added]

And the bottom?:

….First, it’s highly misleading to just look at federal taxes for this group. The federal tax burden is relatively low for this group, but when state taxes, sales taxes, and the like are factored in the burden is relatively high….

….Mitt Romney pays 15 percent, or thereabouts (probably a bit more when state and local taxes are accounted for), while this group pays more than 15 percent in taxes even though their incomes are very low. Enough said about who faces a larger tax burden….

[emphasis added]

Go. Read the whole thing.

There’s a class war and the 1% are winning.

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C001135 01/20/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Mark Garnett 10363 County Road 9510 West Plains MO 65775 Garnett Wood Products Company, Inc. President 1/18/2012 $5,000.00

C001135 01/20/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Royal Oak Enterprises, LLC 1 Royal Oak Drive Roswell GA 30076 1/18/2012 $2,500.00

C001135 01/20/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Missouri Forest Products PAC 611 E. Capitol Avenue Suite 1 Jefferson City MO 65101 1/18/2012 $2,500.00

C001135 01/20/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Robert Carter 5263 E. Farm Road 174 Rogersville MO 65742 Ozark Hardwood Products President & CEO 1/18/2012 $5,000.00

C001135 01/20/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Packaging Service Company, Inc. 1904 Mykawa Road Pearland TX 77581 1/18/2012 $1,500.00

[emphasis added]

Previously: Campaign Finance: piling on (January 19, 2012)

Former State Auditor Susan Montee, an announced Constitution Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor, filed her January quarterly campaign finance report with the Missouri Ethics Commission on January 13th.

REPORT SUMMARY

MONTEE FOR MISSOURI [pdf] 1/13/2012

1. Total Receipts For This Election Previously Reported $0.00

2. All Monetary Contributions Received This Period $104,673.00

6. In-kind Contributions Received This Period $8,745.00

10. Expenditures made by cash or check this period $27,089.53

27. Money On Hand at the close of this reporting period $77,583.47

34. Total Indebtedness at the Close of This Reporting Period $0.00

[emphasis added]

And there’s been more coming in since the end of the quarter:

C111177 01/11/2012 MONTEE FOR MISSOURI The Law Offices of Michael L Walton LLC 34 N Brentwood Blvd # 212 St Louis MO 63105 1/11/2012 $525.00

C111177 01/12/2012 MONTEE FOR MISSOURI Greg Newell PO Box 407 Osage Beach MO 65065 Self 1/12/2012 $1,000.00

C111177 01/12/2012 MONTEE FOR MISSOURI Building Trades Political Education Fund 2300 Hampton Ave. St Louis MO 63139 1/12/2012 $1,000.00

C111177 01/13/2012 MONTEE FOR MISSOURI Russell Purvis 10104 N Helana Ave Kansas City MO 64154 Montee Law Firm Attorney 1/13/2012 $525.00

C111177 01/13/2012 MONTEE FOR MISSOURI Bartley Goffstein LLC 4399 Lacledge Avenue St Louis MO 63108 1/13/2012 $1,000.00

C111177 01/18/2012 MONTEE FOR MISSOURI Dollar, Burns, & Becker, LC 1100 Main Street Suite 2600 Kansas City MO 64105 1/18/2012 $1,000.00

C111177 01/19/2012 MONTEE FOR MISSOURI Heritage Residential Services, INC. 1100 N. Commercial Harrisonville MO 64701 1/19/2011 $525.00

C111177 01/19/2012 MONTEE FOR MISSOURI Asbestos Workers Political Account 400 S. Main Independence MO 64050 1/19/2011 $1,000.00

C111177 01/19/2012 MONTEE FOR MISSOURI Jared Reynolds 200 E. Southampton Dr. Ste 101 Columbia MO 65203 Wilkerson and Reynolds Wealth Management 1/19/2012 $1,000.00

C111177 01/19/2012 MONTEE FOR MISSOURI International Union of Elevator Constructors Local No. 3 – PAC Fund 5916 Wilson Ave. St Louis MO 63110 1/19/2012 $525.00

C111177 01/19/2012 MONTEE FOR MISSOURI Davis, Ketchmark, McCreight, & Ivers PC 11161 Overbrook Road, Suite 210 Leawood KS 66211 1/19/2012 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

These contributions will show up on the next quarterly report.

Let’s look at some of the past quarter’s contributions:

CONTRIBUTIONS AND LOANS RECEIVED

MONTEE FOR MISSOURI 1/13/2012

Sharon Kosek 2 Wishbone St. Joseph MO 64506-1635 Retired — Retired 10/14/2011 $25.00

Stuart Block 3144 N Broadway St. Louis MO 63147 Cash’s Scrap Metal & Iron — President 11/7/2011 $1,000.00

Ham Henderson 223 S. 17th Saint Joseph MO 64501 Retired — Retired 11/10/2011 $6.00

Randy Adams 6810 SE 110th Road Easton MO 64443 KCP and L Lake Road Generation — Union Coal Handler 11/10/2011 $100.00

Charlotte May 2825 Scott St. Joseph MO 64507 Retired — Retired 11/10/2011 $30.00

Fred Jonas 15211 E. Mayes Rd. Independence MO 64050 Local 8 Plumbers and Gasfitters — Training Coordinator 11/15/2011 $50.00

Jeff Bauer 901 E. Battlefield Springfield MO 65807 Strong Garner Bauer Law Firm — Attorney 11/16/2011 $100.00

Operating Engineers #101 6601 Wincheste, Ste 280 Kansas City MO 64133 11/23/2011 $2,000.00

Plumbers and Gasfitters’ Local Union 8 8600 Hillcrest Rd Kansas City MO 64138-2781 12/2/2011 $500.00

Lucile Layne 13226 Old 12 Rd Tipton MO 65081 Retired — Retired 12/2/2011 $50.00

[emphasis added]

You get the picture. It’s coming from retired folks, organized labor (working people!), and attorneys.

Raising money for Democrats is a bit more work than it is for republicans.

Announcer: Secretive oil billionaires attacking President Obama with ads fact checkers say are not tethered to the facts, while independent watchdogs call this president’s record on ethics unprecedented. And America’s clean energy industry, two point seven million jobs and expanding rapidly. For the first time in thirteen years our dependence on foreign oil is below fifty percent. President Obama kept his promise to toughen ethics rules and strengthen America’s energy economy.

President Obama: I’m Barack Obama and I approved this message.

It’s time.

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C001135 01/19/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Democratic Governors Association – Missouri 2201 Wisconsin Avenue, NW Suite 320 Washington DC 20007 1/19/2012 $55,000.00

[emphasis added]

Even when your opponents consistently self destruct it’s nice to have friends.

Via Twitter:

@clairecmc Claire McCaskill

I was not a co sponsor of PIPA. I cannot support it in its current form.I will post blog on my Tmblr later to explain. #PIPA 53 minutes ago

And…

An Updated Analysis: Why SOPA & PIPA Are A Bad Idea, Dangerous & Unnecessary (January 18, 2012)

Cass County Prosecutor Teresa Hensley (D) will be challenging Representative Vick Hartzler (r) in the 4th Congressional District.

We received the following via e-mail (not from Teresa Hensley’s campaign):

Cass County Prosecutor Teresa Hensley

Teresa Hensley is the Prosecuting Attorney for Cass County, where she has built a record of protecting our community by convicting child abusers, drunk drivers and domestic violence offenders. A native of Cass County, she is active in her church, supports 2nd Amendment rights, and supports local small businesses through her work with the chamber of commerce. Hensley will provide a strong independent voice for the middle class. She believes it’s wrong for politicians in Washington to be more concerned with scoring political points and looking out for special interests than getting things done for the people they represent. In Congress, Hensley will work with anyone from any party to jumpstart our economy.

Teresa Hensley has deep roots in Cass County.  A life-long resident, she graduated from Raymore-Peculiar High School before earning a BA degree from William Jewell College and a law degree from the University of Missouri Kansas City.

Hensley remains active in the day-to-day life of the community.  She was a former Raymore Alderman, former Raymore Planning and Zoning Board member, and former member of the Missouri Child Abuse and Neglect Review Board.  As a former member of Hope Haven of Cass County, she remains active with the Domestic Violence Coalition.  She is a member of the Bel-Ray Sunrise Lions Club, a Paul Harris Fellow through the Harrisonville Rotary, a member of Harrisonville Business and Professional Women, Harrisonville and Raymore Chamber of Commerce, and a life-long member of the St. Paul’s United Methodist Church.

She grew up in Cass County where her parents and family still reside.  She opened a law office with her husband Kenny Hensley in 1991 in Raymore and was there until she became Prosecutor in 2005.  Kenny and Teresa have one son, Frank, age 28 living in Los Angeles, California.

Hensley is a certified family law mediator, she has taught criminal law at William Jewell College and before becoming Cass County Prosecutor was a partner and practicing attorney for fourteen years with the Hensley Law Firm in Raymore with her husband, Kenny.

She was appointed to the position of Cass County Prosecutor in January of 2005 and was elected to the position in November of 2006 and again in 2010, for a four year term beginning January 2011.  Hensley recently received the 2010 Missouri Attorney General’s Justice Award for Domestic Violence Prevention.

The contrast between candidates couldn’t be more jarring.

Brad Lager pulled in $733K in the 4th quarter. But if we go to a chart, we find that 2 donors made up over 2/3rds of that total (500K total), and that 17 donors made up 95% of that 733K. So the donors who didn’t give $5K or more donated $33K to Lager

Peter Kinder raised $118K in the Q4. So thanks to big money, an incumbent just got outraised by a 6:1 margin. Kinder has $1.3M on hand right now and still thinks he could run for Governor one day.

Former State Rep Judy Baker of Columbia is entering the Lt. Governor field. Presumably she knows fewer people who are willing or able to drop $250K on a campaign contribution.

Update: I dug into the 1K-5K (no donations were made between $2501 and $4999). So the 1-5K made up $28500 and donations under $1K made up $4770.44. The 1% (0.65%) to Brad Lager are donors who donated less than $1K to him in the last quarter.

In chart form-

Previously on ShowMeProgress:

Campaign Finance: Add big contributions, stir, voila, instant campaign! – part 2

Campaign Finance: Add big contributions, stir, voila, instant campaign!

There are two declared candidates for State Treasurer who filed January quarterly campaign finance reports with the Missouri Ethics Commission.

The republican challenger, Representative Cole McNary, filed his report on January 16th:

REPORT SUMMARY

FRIENDS TO ELECT COLE MCNARY [pdf] 1/16/2012

1. Total Receipts For This Election Previously Reported $6,675.00

2. All Monetary Contributions Received This Period $23,949.00

10. Expenditures made by cash or check this period $23.81

27. Money On Hand at the close of this reporting period $52,486.50

34. Total Indebtedness at the Close of This Reporting Period $0.00

[emphasis added]

McNary campaign web site: “More Information Coming Soon”

We await the event with great anticipation.

And that grassroots momentum?:

CONTRIBUTIONS AND LOANS RECEIVED

FRIENDS TO ELECT COLE MCNARY 1/16/2012

11. TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED AT FUND-RAISERS AS REPORTED INLINE 8 ON FORM CD1A $0.00

12. TOTAL ANONYMOUS CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSON GIVING $25 OR LESS $0.00

13. TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSONS GIVING $100 OR LESS $0.00

14. TOTAL IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSONS (NOT COMMITTEES) GIVING $100 OR LESS $0.00

What is it with statewide republican candidates and the statistical improbability of not receiving any small dollar contributions?

Let’s look at some of the itemized contributions:

CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED – SUPPLEMENTAL

FRIENDS TO ELECT COLE MCNARY 1/16/2012

John Danforth 911 Tirrill Farms Road Saint Louis MO 63124 Bryan Cave 12/30/2011 $1,000.00

Friends of Tilley 100 S Jackson Perryville MO 63775 12/30/2011 $1,000.00

Citizens for Diehl 2404 White Stable Road Town and Country MO 63131 12/30/2011 $5,000.00

Friends of Chris Molendorp PO Box 722 Belton MO 64083 12/30/2011 $4,999.00

Citizens for Timothy W Jones PO Box 434 Eureka MO 63025 12/30/2011 $1,000.00

Ameren UE PAC 101 Madison Street Jefferson City MO 65101 11/11/2011 $1,175.00

[emphasis added]

What, nothing from organized labor (working people!)? So much for the grassroots.

We have to look at the expenditures:

EXPENDITURES AND CONTRIBUTIONS MADE

FRIENDS TO ELECT COLE MCNARY 1/16/2012

Fundraising Expense $23.81

[emphasis added]

That’s it.

In contrast.

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) filed his quarterly report on January 17th:

REPORT SUMMARY

CLINT ZWEIFEL FOR MISSOURI [pdf] 1/17/2012

1. Total Receipts For This Election Previously Reported $1,012,771.84

2. All Monetary Contributions Received This Period $111,165.00

10. Expenditures made by cash or check this period $30,151.60

27. Money On Hand at the close of this reporting period $802,856.09

34. Total Indebtedness at the Close of This Reporting Period $0.00

[emphasis added]

Some of contributions:

CONTRIBUTIONS AND LOANS RECEIVED

CLINT ZWEIFEL FOR MISSOURI 1/17/2012

13. TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSONS GIVING $100 OR LESS $2,410.00

Luke Scavuzzo PO Box 124 Harrisonville MO 64701-0124 Retired 10/27/2011 $25.00

Jill Schupp 418 N. Mosley Rd. Saint Louis MO 63141 State of Missouri — State Representative 12/12/2011 $1,000.00

Cement Masons Union Local 527 3341 Hollenberg Dr Bridgeton MO 63044 11/7/2011 $500.00

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen 1225 Wellington Way Liberty MO 64068-3223 11/29/2011 $500.00

Marvin And Judy Berkowitz 2 Homestead Acres Saint Louis MO 63132 UMSL — Professor 12/29/2011 $50.00

Hon. Teresa And Ken Hensley PO Box 620 Raymore MO 64083 Cass County — Prosecuting Attorney 10/27/2011 $500.00

[emphasis added]

And on and on.

Organized labor (working people!).

And, by the way, his web site is up and running.

Talk about getting hoist with your own xenophobia.

Antonin Scalia in Warrensburg, part 4 (March 7, 2008)

[Do you believe that there is a right to privacy under the United States Constitution?]

   Oh, there certainly is and it us, uh, contained in the Fourth Amendment. And it says “that the people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.” Period. There is not a generalized right of privacy, whatever that means. What is a generalized right of privacy [garbled]? One of our, one of our, one of our opinions says it means “the right to be left alone”. [laughter] Right. This is anarchy…

   …[wire tapping] So, there is no, what should I say, exclusion from democratic debate of – conversations. It’s something for the people to decide whether you should have wiretapping or not….[as practice now]…This generalized right of privacy which comes from, what is it, penumbras and emanations from the Fourth and a lot of other ridiculous stuff. Uh, you know the consequences of that? Surely one of the major policy issues around these days is whether, uh, the Federal government can listen in on these international phone calls to find what the bad guys are doing. It used to be up to the Congress to decide whether the danger was high enough and the risk of invading people’s privacy high enough to permit that. No longer. It’s a question for me now. It’s a question for me. That’s what happens when you, when you read more and more stuff into the Constitution – you reduce democracy.

“…There is not a generalized right of privacy, whatever that means…” That’s what Nino said.

Senator Brian Nieves (r) filed SB 676 yesterday. The bill summary:

Current Bill Summary

SB 676 – This act creates the Civil Liberties Defense Act. This act mandates that any court, arbitration, tribunal, or administrative agency ruling shall be unenforceable if based on a foreign law that does not grant the parties the same rights as the parties have under the United States and Missouri constitutions.

The act makes contracts that choose to apply a foreign law to contractual disputes or to have disputes settled in another country void and unenforceable in Missouri, if the foreign law would not grant the parties to the contract the same rights as the parties have under the United States and Missouri constitutions.

In some cases, a court may refuse to take jurisdiction over matters, where the court believes there is a more appropriate forum for the dispute. This act requires that the court hear the case in Missouri, if a state resident brings the case and if the court finds that not hearing the case in Missouri violates or would likely violate the rights of the person who brought the case.

The act does not apply to a business entity that subjects itself to a foreign law in a jurisdiction outside the United States. The act does not authorize courts to adjudicate religious matters.

This act is similar to SB 308 (2011).

There’s an interesting detail in the actual bill language [pdf]:

….The Missouri general assembly finds that it shall be the public policy of this state to protect its citizens from the application of foreign laws when the application of a foreign law will result in the violation of a right guaranteed by the constitution of this state or of the United States, including, but not limited to, due process, freedom of religion, speech, or press, and any right of privacy….

[emphasis added]

Right of privacy. That’s a very interesting choice of phrase.

Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965):

…The Connecticut statute forbidding use of contraceptives violates the right of marital privacy which is within the penumbra of specific guarantees of the Bill of Rights…

[emphasis added]

Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973):

….State criminal abortion laws, like those involved here, that except from criminality only a life-saving procedure on the mother’s behalf without regard to the stage of her pregnancy and other interests involved violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects against state action the right to privacy, including a woman’s qualified right to terminate her pregnancy….

[emphasis added]

Lawrence et al. v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003):

….It does involve two adults who, with full and mutual consent, engaged in sexual practices common to a homosexual lifestyle. Petitioners’ right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in private conduct without government intervention….

Is SB 676 an endorsement of all those penumbras and emanations? Just asking.