She’s the candidate with a plan for everything: That’s Elizabeth Warren’s brand. But even that sells her ambitions short, as we discovered after a tour of her 60-some policy papers. Ms. Warren is proposing a transformation of American government, business and life that exceeds what the socialist dreamers of a century ago imagined.
Her standing in the polls has fallen after missteps over Medicare, but she is still in the top candidate tier. Her ideas deserve to be taken seriously because they show where the American left wants to go:
• Wealth tax: Tax net worth over $50 million at 2% a year, and 6% above $1 billion. To prevent the rich from yachting off, add a 40% “exit tax” on assets over $50 million upon renouncing U.S. citizenship. Estimated revenue: $3.75 trillion over a decade from 75,000 households. Most economists, including many Democrats, call that number a fantasy. Courts might also find the tax unconstitutional.
• Medicare for All tax:Charge companies with at least 50 workers an “Employer Medicare Contribution,” equal to 98% of their recent outlays on health care, while adjusting for inflation and changes in staff size. These varying fees “would be gradually shifted to converge at the average health care cost-per-employee nationally.” Estimated revenue: $8.8 trillion over a decade. If receipts fall short, add a “supplemental” tax on “big companies with extremely high executive compensation and stock buyback rates.”
• Global corporate tax: Raise the top business rate to 35%. Apply this as a world-wide minimum on overseas earnings by U.S. companies. Businesses would “pay the difference between the minimum tax and the rate in the countries where they book their profits.” Apply a similar minimum tax to foreign companies, prorated by the share of their sales made in the U.S. Estimated revenue: $1.65 trillion over a decade.
• Corporate surtax: Tax profit over $100 million at a new 7% rate, without exemptions. This would go atop the regular corporate rate. Estimated revenue: $1 trillion over a decade from 1,200 public companies.
• Slower expensing: “Our current tax system lets companies deduct the cost of certain investments they make in assets faster than those assets actually lose value.” Closing this “loophole,” she says, would raise $1.25 trillion over a decade.
• Higher capital gains taxes: Tax the investment gains of the wealthiest 1% as ordinary income, meaning rates near 40% instead of today’s 23.8%. Apply the tax annually on gains via a “mark to market” system, even if the asset hasn’t been sold. Estimated revenue: $2 trillion over a decade.
Never in American history has the debate over income inequality so dominated the public square, with Democratic presidential candidates and congressional leaders calling for massive tax increases and federal expenditures to redistribute the nation’s income. Unfortunately, official measures of income inequality, the numbers being debated, are profoundly distorted by what the Census Bureau chooses to count as household income.
The published census data for 2017 portray the top quintile of households as having almost 17 times as much income as the bottom quintile. But this picture is false. The measure fails to account for the one-third of all household income paid in federal, state and local taxes. Since households in the top income quintile pay almost two-thirds of all taxes, ignoring the earned income lost to taxes substantially overstates inequality.
HEALTH CARECOMMENTARY
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was recently on comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show to discuss, among other items on his agenda, his vision for health care in America.
In one interesting statement, Sanders described the rollout of his plan: “I want to expand Medicare to include dental care, hearing aids, and eyeglasses, and then what I want to do is lower the eligibility age the first year from 65 down to 55, then to 45, then to 35, then we cover everybody.”
There is a sleight of hand here.
What Sanders seems to be describing is the gradual expansion of the existing Medicare program, which currently covers Americans 65 and over, to include everyone eventually. In reality, Sanders’ signature bill, “Medicare for All,” is anything but Medicare.
The demand for socialism is on the rise from young Americans today. But is socialism even morally sound? Find out more now >>
Medicare comes in several forms, including Parts A and B, which pay for inpatient and outpatient visits along a fee schedule with premiums and deductibles, and Part C, also known as Medicare Advantage.
This is the system that covers 60 million Americans and enjoys high satisfaction ratings.
Medicare for All would scrap all of this.
One of the most misleading aspects of Medicare for All is that it is not Medicare at all.
Written by Alex Newman
Under the guise of keeping America “competitive” in the looming high-tech future, the globalist Council on Foreign Relations is urging policymakers at all levels to dramatically expand the size and scope of government. The bloated welfare states in Sweden and Denmark are cited as examples of the “advantages” of massive government programs to take care for people. Without the sort of fundamental transformation of America envisioned by the CFR, the nation will supposedly be left behind in the emerging new paradigm, the organization claimed. Critics, though, blasted that idea.
In its new report, dubbed “The Work Ahead: Machines, Skills, and U.S. Leadership in the Twenty-First Century,” the CFR Task Force offered a broad array of policy recommendations for federal, state, and local officials. These range from ever more immigration and a greater role for government in various facets of the economy, to a dramatic expansion of the welfare state modeled on Big Government schemes from Northern Europe. The CFR’s demands regarding education, which are a key component of the report, will be covered in an upcoming article.
Some of the leaders involved in creating the CFR report told The New American that without implementing the sought-after changes, America would be left behind as the world moves toward a globalized future of fast-moving technological progress. But experts and legislators invited to participate in the scheme who spoke to The New American sounded the alarm about the CFR’s vision. Among other concerns, they warned that the controversial CFR report and outreach efforts selling it to policymakers reveal a hidden plan to push a dangerous agenda and bring state and local officials into the establishment’s globalist orbit.
One reason why the CFR’s pronouncements are so important is because of the key role they play setting policy. Indeed, looking at its membership and influence, many analysts consider the CFR to be a key Deep State hub in America. The late U.S. Admiral Chester Ward, a CFR member for almost 20 years before defecting and blowing the whistle, explained that this enormous power is used for neferious purposes. In fact, Ward said, the main objective of the organization is to undermine U.S. sovereignty and facilitate the merger of the United States into what he described as an “all-powerful one-world government.”
The way it advances its objectives was explained by Admiral Ward, too. “Once the ruling members of CFR have decided that the U.S. Government should adopt a particular policy, the very substantial research facilities of CFR are put to work to develop arguments, intellectual and emotional, to support the new policy, and to confound and discredit, intellectually and politically, any opposition,” he said. “The most articulate theoreticians and ideologists prepare related articles, aided by the research, to sell the new policy and to make it appear inevitable and irresistible.”
“By following the evolution of this propaganda in the most prestigious scholarly journal in the world, [CFR mouthpiece] Foreign Affairs, anyone can determine years in advance what the future defense and foreign policies of the United States will be,” the respected admiral warned after ditching his membership at the CFR. “If a certain proposition is repeated often enough in that journal, then the U.S. Administration in power — be it Republican or Democratic — begins to act as if that proposition or assumption were an established fact.”
While that may not be true in the Trump era, when voters and their president have openly rejected globalism, it certainly has been true for decades, if not generations, regardless of the party formally in power. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted publicly that the CFR told her what she should be doing and how she should be thinking about the future. Former Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, joked that he worked for CFR boss Richard Haass. Even many top “Republicans” are involved.
Of course, the latest CFR agenda starts with a kernel of truth. As anybody with common sense can see, the economy is changing and will be undergoing further changes in the years ahead. As a result of technological developments, the future of work will look very different in 30 or 40 years than it does today. Many Americans will lose their jobs. All that is true. Of course, it would be difficult to sell enormous policy changes if the entire premise behind them was nothing but fiction, obviously.
But the agenda being pushed is another matter. Under the pretext of responding to the obvious changes coming in the years ahead, the CFR — a leading Deep State institution in America that has dominated foreign policy for generations — is pushing what critics warned was a dangerous scheme to expand the power of government. The plan also advances globalism at every level of society, a key goal of the CFR dating back to its founding. In short, it is a massive and dangerous power grab that should be resisted, critics told The New American.
Policy Proposals
The movie Titanic had one really good scene. The ship had already swiped the iceberg. The behemoth continued sailing along and appeared to be doing just fine. But one person on the ship, Thomas Andrews, knew that it was doomed. Andrews was a naval architect who was in charge of the plans to build the ship.
After he tells the captain and some other key people on the ship that it is going to sink, they react in disbelief. One declares that the ship can’t possibly sink.
Andrews responds, “She’s made of iron, sir! I assure you she can. And she will. It is a mathematical certainty.”
It’s one of cinema’s great scenes as men wrestle with approaching doom, made all the stronger by Victor Garber’s superb performance. It’s also the perfect metaphor for our current moment in history.
People pay too little attention to math because numbers lie far less effectively than words. There comes a point when a nation has raced over the cliff, but it may take years before that reality becomes obvious to everyone.
This movie scene was on my mind heading into election night in 2016. All indications were that Hillary Clinton was going to be elected. Based upon the math, America as a nation appeared doomed. Clinton was eyeing the White House like a ravenous wolf and relishing the opportunity to cast misery across America.
But Wisconsin and then Michigan and finally Pennsylvania vomited on her pantsuit. On election night, I had no idea what we had just elected, but the fact that it wasn’t Clinton was more than enough for one night.
Three years later, President Trump has shattered conservative expectations and may go down in history as one of the greatest U.S. presidents. It brings to mind another historical surprise. Winston Churchill was elevated to leadership during England’s darkest days against all odds. He was under withering attack by both the opposing party and his own in those early months, and his survival as leader was very much in doubt.
Trump was also elevated under extraordinary circumstances that many would regard as a historical anomaly. As a New York real estate mogul and non-politician, he was declared unelectable by prominent and respected Republican pundits. The media initially pushed his candidacy with glee, assuming he would be the easiest Republican for their paramour to knock off in the general election. They were spectacularly wrong.
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www.prageru.com/video/why-i-dont-want-and-dont-deserve-reparations/
ovVIDEO PRAGER U I DON’T WANT OR DESERVE I Don’t Want and Don’t Deserve ReparationsThe Reparations Movement—a proposed government payout to descendants of slaves—is making a comeback. Super Bowl star Burgess Owens, who happens to be black and whose great-grandfather was a slave, finds this idea both condescending and counterproductive. He wants no part of it. In this video, he explains why.ement—a proposed government payout to descendants of slaves—is making a comeback. Super Bo
For those of you who live in North Carolina, scroll down to read the second article on how our Democrat Governor is planning to veto a bill that does not include Medicaid expansion. Nancy
So, it’s come to this: One of America’s major parties is in the grip of a crazy old communist — Bernie Sanders, 77 — and a crazy young communist — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29.
The two of them are driving the Democrats’ green microbus upon which the other presidential wannabes are scrambling to get aboard.
This column is about the crazy old communist — Vermont Sen. Sanders, who just announced his candidacy for the presidency and raised $6 million. He prefers the less scary term Democratic Socialist. But his Marxist economics, Marxist cultural activism and well-documented support for communist causes — such as Fidel Castro’s revolution in Cuba — speak volumes.
Quicker than you can say Joe McCarthy this will be dismissed as another Red Scare. But even though truth is not much of a defense in this fake news era, let’s look at Mr. Sanders‘ background, and you can make up your own mind.
At the University of Chicago, Mr. Sanders was a member of the Young People’s Socialist League. In 1963, he lived in Israel at Kibbutz Sha’ar Ha’amakim (KSH), which was co-founded by Aharon Cohen, who was arrested for spying for the Soviet Union in the 1950s.
According to Discoverthenetworks.org, “the founders of KSH referred to Joseph Stalin as the ‘Sun of the Nations,’ and a red flag was flown at outdoor events held at the kibbutz. Sanders stayed at KSH as a guest of the Zionist-Marxist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair (HH), which pledged its allegiance to the Soviet Union.”
HH founder Ya’akov Hazan lamented Soviet mass murderer Stalin’s death in 1953, saying, “His huge historical achievements will guide generations in their march towards the reign of socialism and communism the world over.”
In 1971, Mr. Sanders joined the Liberty Union Party (LUP), which called for a government takeover of all U.S. banks and private utility companies. In the mid-1970s, Mr. Sanders headed the American People’s History Society, which journalist Paul Sperry describes as “an organ for Marxist propaganda.”