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. Washington
ic h a e l L e ig h to n
D is tr ib u tio n M a n a m r : M a rk W a sh in g to n
C rfativf D ik k c t o k : P a u l N e u fe ld t
A ovfr i is in ii ; K a th y L in d e r
O o h i M a n a i . fr : S h a r o n S p e rry
R f p o r t i r : R a y m o n d R e n d le m a n
E i > itor - in -C hiff , P hri . ishfr :
E d it o r : M
The Port kind Observer welcomes freelance submissions Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly
labeled anti will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope All created design display ads
become Ihe sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without
the written consent o f the general manager, unless the client has purchased Ihe composition of such ad <) 2<K)K
THE PORTLAND OBSERVt R Al I RKIHTS RESERVED. REPRODI'CTION IN WHOLE DR IN PART
WITHOCT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED The Portland Observer-Oregon s Oldest Multicultural
Publication is a member of the National Newspaper Asstxialion -Founded in IRR5. and The National
Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. New York, NY. anti The West ( ’oast Black
Publishers Association
Posnusmi: Send address changes to Portland Observer,
Y O U R L O C A L L Y O W N E D , N E IG H B O R H O O D P H A R M A C Y A T A R B O R L O D G E
N IN T E R S T A T E A V E N U E & P O R T L A N D B L V D • 5 0 3 .4 6 7 4 8 4 8
w w w .n e w s e a s o n s m a r k e t.c o m • M O N -F R I 9 a m - 7 p m • S A T 9 a m - 6 p m • S U N 1 0 a m - 4 p m
P 0 B o x 3 1 3 7 . Portland, 0 R 9 7 2 0 S
CALL 503-2flR-(X)33 FAX 5O3-2RH-OOI5
newsVDortlandobsemr.com ads (g portiandobsener.com siibscriplionieportiandobsener.com