Speak out 11/19/15

Refugees

All of these pandering pols who tried to outdo one another in opposing taking in any Syrian refugees (Chris Christie said he wouldn't take in an orphaned Syrian toddler) may have overreached in a very big way. It turns out that many evangelical and Christian organizations think political refugees fleeing persecution and almost certain death should be treated in a humane way and not rejected out of hand because of hysterical xenophobic fear mongering designed to translate into votes at the ballot box.

No such power

Governors have no power to determine who may/may not settle in their state, though their putrid political pandering and posturing would lead you to think they did.

Tax myth

There is an urban myth that the super rich paid taxes of 90 percent in the 1950s. The rate on paper was symbolic. Huge tax deductions that were stopped under Reagan allowed the top earner to pay an effective rate that was lower than today. Working professionals could easily drop their effective tax rates to zero by taking writeoffs that only existed on paper. Because of the changes in the deductions, the addition of tax credits and other programs, the biggest change is that the middle- and lower-income groups pay less of a percentage in taxes than in the '50s.