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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 21, 2008)
May 21. 2008 Page A4 Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views o f the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. O pinion Giant Swindle on Taxes Mission accomplished for the wealthy H o i . ly S klar When it comes to cutting taxes for the wealthy. Presi dent Bush can truly say, “ M ission ac com plished." The richest I percent o f Americans re ceived about $49 I billion in tax breaks between 2001 and 2008. That’s nearly the same amount as U.S. debt held by China. Wall Street’s five biggest firms paid a record $39 billion in bonuses for 2<X)7, a year when three o f the companies suffered the worst quar terly losses in their history and thou sands o f jobs have been lost as losses mount from the sub-prime by which excludes tax-exempt interest income from state and local govern ment bonds, the richest 4(X) taxpay ers reported an average $ 2 14 million each on their federal income tax returns in 2005, up from $ 104mill ion in 2002. Thanks to tax cuts, it’s now com m on for the nation's richest bosses to pay taxes at a low er rate than workers. The 400 richest tax payers paid only 18 percent of their incom e in federal individual income taxes in 2005, down from 30 percent in 1995. While tax cuts help the superrich compete over who has the biggest subm arine-carrying super-yacht, Katrina survivors are being hit with foreclosures, and neglected levees and bridges around the country arc a disaster waiting to happen. Most of the provisions of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are sched uled to expire at the end of 2010. Its now common fo r the notion's richest bosses to pay taxes at a lower rate than workers. mortgage market. The International Monetary Fund says the United States is in the worst financial crisis since the Great De pression. Yet, we are borrowing money with interest to finance tax cuts for Wall Street executives. For Americans below the top per cent, the tax cuts have been a giant swindle. The bottom 99 percent of taxpayers were left with a bill of $3.74 in debt forevery $ I in federal lax cuts from 2001 to2006. Meanwhile, the federal budgets for environmental protection and housing for the elderly have been slashed more than 20 percent since 2001,adjusted forinflation.TheCom- munity Development Block Grant budget is down 32 percent and the lack o f health insurance is an epi demic. M ost households a re n ’t even earning as much as they did in 1999, adjusting for inflation. But the 4(X) taxpayers with the highest incomes doubled their incomes between 2(X)2 and2(X)5. According to the latest IKS data. President Bush wants to make them permanent. The richest I percent of households would receive nearly $1.2 trillion in tax cuts from 2009 through 2018, reports the Center on ! America’s Problem with Drugs P ro ject and H um an R ights W atch, the a r rests for drug related crim es in creased by nearly 5 00,000 in a tw o -y ear period. In 1980, w hen the co u n try w as first to ld to ‘ju s t say n o ,’ less than 6 0 0 ,0 0 0 peo p le w ere arrested for drug p o ssessio n . T he in crease in drug arrests can be d i rectly attrib u ted to A m eric a’s 'G e t T ough on D ru g s' p o lic ie s. D rug d ea le rs, h o w ev er, a re n ’t the ones being pu n ish ed . M ore than Too little treatment, too much imprisonment Budget and Policy Priorities. Tax cuts for the wealthy fuel ris by Jt dge G reg M athis ing inequality along with rising debt A m erica has a pro b lem and neglect. w ith drugs. T o be m ore sp e Taxpayers with annual incomes above$l million infiscal year 2012, cific, the w ay A m e ric a 's ju s for example, would increase their tice systeifl d eals w ith in d i after-tax income by 7.5 percent • viduals w ho have drug ad thanks to an average tax cut of d ictio n s is pro b lem atic. It is $ 162,000. The poorest 20 percent of also ex p en siv e, as w ell as ineffective. taxpayers would get an average tax Instead o f increasing state cut o f $45 on top o f decaying public and federal budgets to accom m odate for the services. growth in the prison pop« lation, which is largely Democratic presidential candi due to A m erica’s im prisonm ent over treatment dates Hillary Clinton and Barack policies, this country needs to focus on the root ( )bama promise to end the tax break s issues that cause drug addiction. for the wealthy. Republican candi D espite d u m ping m illio n s o f d o llars into date John McCain wants to extend anti-drug cam paigns in the 1980s, the A m eri them. W hat do you want? can g o v ern m en t has seen an increase in the Holly Sklar is co-author o f \ num ber o f ind iv id u als im p riso n ed for drug “Raise the Floor: Wages and Poli p o ss e s s io n . cies That WorkforAUofUs"And “A A ccording to a study by the S en ten cin g Just Minimum Wage: Good fo r \ Under the current system, no one wins. four fifths o f those arrested on d ru g -relate d ch arg es are arrested for p o ssessio n . A nd four in 10 o f those arrests are for m ariju an a po ssessio n . Instead o f g ettin g m u ch -n eed ed treatm en t, they are sent to ja il. U n d er the cu rren t sy stem , no one w ins. S tate and federal b u d g ets are m axed as they w ork to fund ex istin g and build new ja ils and p risons to house these m ostly low -level drug o ffen d ers. T hose im p riso n ed d o n 't re ceiv e co m p reh en siv e care that helps them deal w ith th e issu es that d ro v e them to d rugs in the first place. M any, upon release, return to th eir fo rm er life sty le and end up in jail again. T ax p a y ers lose b ecau se th eir d o llars fu n d th is v icio u s, in e ffec tiv e cycle. T h o se tax d o llars be m uch b etter sent on im p ro v in g ed u c atio n for young peo p le - keep in g kids o ff the street helps keep them aw ay from dru g s - and cre atin g “drug c e n ters” for th o se in d iv id u als arrested fo r sim ple p o s s e s s io n . T h o s e a r r e s t e d f o r p o s s e s s io n sh o u ld be o rd ered to trea tm e n t and p o st-tre a tm e n t, m o n ito re d fo r a set am o u n t o f tim e. O nly after rep eat o f fen ses sh o u ld ja il even becom e an o p tion fo r d ru g users. W ith access to in ten siv e p sy ch o lo g ical and drug co u n selin g , these m en and w om en have an o p p o rtu n ity to turn th e ir liv es aro u n d fo r good. E m phasizing treatm ent o ver im prisonm ent will not o n ly save ta x p ay e r d o llars, it will save lives. Judge Greg M athis is national vice presi dent o f Rainbow PUSH and a national board m em ber o f the Southern Christian Leader ship Conference. Workers. Husinessand our Future. " i Suhscrihcl 503-288-0033 ] Fair Lady or Sweetheart? I ■ O U U ^ t l 1 U C J F ill O ut & Send To: I |Jortlanb (Pbsmwr I I Attn: Subscriptions, PO Box 3137, Portland OR 97208 I s u b s c r i p t i o n s a re j u s t $ 6 0 p e r y e a r I (please include check with this subscription form) I 1 N ame : I A ddress : I T elephone : I I oremail subseriptions@portlandobserver.com J une P otter A costa As a w riter and lifelong devotee o f the English lan gu ag e, I am co n stan tly observing and listening to the w ay it’s used (and abused). Specifically, at the m om ent, one particular cause - o f several - is prom oting a w hole new term inol ogy for unm arried rom antic rela tionships. Oh please! Not “boyfriend/girl- friend,” as indicated in the A ssoci by I ated Press Stylebook, and so slavishly follow ed by both pri nt and broadcast jour n a lists. “ B o y frie n d /g irl- friend" can be used in c a sual high-school relation ships and is not appropriate for anyone over 18. W hen I heard a news report that David Letterm an’s “girlfriend” had given birth to a bahy boy, I alm ost flew through the television screen! Last year, when Portland T rail blazer Brandon Roy won the N B A ’s A R B O R LO DG E Boyfriend, girlfriend titles insult Up in arm s again, I called the Rookie o f the Year honor, press coverage show ed a photo o f Roy jew elry com pany, and talked with a with his “girlfriend" and their new lady (in the m anner o f m outhy old w om en!) about the need to get rid born boy. W hat an insult! The couple o b o f “girlfriend.” Since they seemed viously has a com m itm ent, to the to be engaged, fiancee w ould be extent that they are now together appropriate - or any num ber of parenting a baby. Surely, the young other descriptive words: C om pan lady deserves a m ore respectful ion, partner, special lady. O r what designation than “girlfriend." Her about “w om an friend?" I’m sur prised the feminist movement hasn’t name w asn 't even included! I called the Trailblazers, and the gotten behind this cause. W ell, evidently the lady at the lady I spoke with said that they had no influence. It was the jo u rn alist’s jew elry com pany had som e clout! T he very next day, a totally new call. I intended to write to Roy him self but d id n 't get around to it. com m ercial sounded from my ra A nother unw ritten letter added to dio. T he speaker used the pronouns “she" and “her," and it was perfect! my "good intentions" list. My all-time fa v o rite -a w inner in T he week before V alentine’s Day, a local jew eler was running a any language - is “friend.” It makes radio ad, addressed to the hypo no judgm ents, betrays no secrets thetical gentlem an o f a fictional and reveals no intimacies. Above all, it protects that precious intangible twosome. T he speaker advises the man to that is everyone’s sacred right - purchase just the right ring for his privacy! June P otter Acosta is a regu “girlfriend." Later in the com m er cial, it is m ade clear that they are lar contributor to the Portland Observer. planning to be married. C l’ r Í J o r t h n t b fes! U)e are a rejffar pharmacy I V W e fill p r e s c r ip tio n s — in c lu d in g a n tib io tic s , h ig h b lo o d p r e s s u r e m e d ic a tio n s , a n ti- d e p re s s a n ts , b irth c o n tr o l, a n d m o re , | r W e h a v e k n o w le d g e a b le , frie n d ly p h a r m a c is ts w h o h a v e th e tim e to s h a r e in fo r m a tio n . | r O u r p r ic e s a re c o m p e titiv e . W e a c c e p t m o s t in s u r a n c e p la n s a n d a re a d d in g o th e r s a s r e q u e s te d . I r W e s p e c ia liz e in c u s t o m c o m p o u n d in g M eot yo u r P h a rm a c is t M ebnda S u tle r (© b s c ru v r Established 1970 USPS 959-680 -------------------------------------------------------- 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Bivd., Portland. OR 97211 Charles H. 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