Showing posts with label U-2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label U-2. Show all posts

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Obama Tax - Not Buffett, Not Reagan, Not JFK, Not Bush, but Maybe the Bono Tax - Hell, Even "U-2" Will Skip to Holland

" And upon this Rock . . .I shall . . .Uh, . . .an Unpresented, er . . ."

Pecunia Non Olet - Money does not stink.

So this President gave another speech where he said it was “crazy” -- that's a quote -- that certain tax loopholes make it possible for multimillionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary. That wild-eyed, socialist, tax-hiking class warrior was Ronald Reagan.

“He thought that, in America, the wealthiest should pay their fair share, and he said so. I know that position might disqualify him from the Republican primaries these days but what Ronald Reagan was calling for then is the same thing that we’re calling for now: a return to basic fairness and responsibility; everybody doing their part. And if it will help convince folks in Congress to make the right choice, we could call it the Reagan Rule instead of the Buffett Rule.”
President Barack H. Obama

President Obama has fuel for his fires. Like a fourteen year old boy with a box of Blue Tips and a yet un-Green cityscape (formerly called prairies in Chicago) full of cast off Goodyears, Firestones and knock-offs, the President manages to spark distractions from his apologetic, miscued and failed Presidential time served.

Instead of a crafting and presenting a sound bi-partisan path to recovery and prosperity, President Obama has deftly avoided his homework for now going on . . .his full term. Rather, he has chosen to divide the nation by race, class and religion. I guess that is pretty much DNC, MSNBC, ACLU and Planned Parenthood political savvy at work.

In response to no budget at all and as counter to the Ryan Budget, as well as the Obama Deficit Commission's recommendations, President Obama is opting for the Buffett Rule.

Warren Buffett, that is; not Jimmy Buffett. This is the ever-popular tax rich populist, Us v. Them gambit employed with so much heat in Ireland, Portugal and Greece.

Yesterday, President Obama took a page from the Rachel Maddow NHS snarky playbook and tried to stretch the Buffett tax into a Reagan tax. Fair enough. That's savvy politics.

In reality, rich folks no matter how really, really, really committed to Social Justice, Peace, Health and fighting Poverty Globally they might be, their piles of well-earned loot will find a haven from the broiling waters of mandated obligation.

There is no more self-statedly committed Man of the Cause than the Mick singer Bono of the formerly Irish and now global rock band U-2.

U-2 fans wave Irish Tri-colors, the old Orange White and Green and wail the anthems of 'What They Have Been Looking For. . ." U-2 packs the house and the fields beyond, good luck to 'em!

Ireland's economy went down like Bobby Brown. Still on the canvas. Bono preached that the government was obliged to address poverty. The Irish Government complied and set a tax-loophole cap.

Bono and U-2's pounds, crowns, guineas and Euros buggered off to the Netherlands. Rich people can afford sound principled and law abiding financial advice, no matter what one's political, social, moral, and ethical outlook. An avuncularly chubby and charitable candy maker's profits found equally safe and happy returns on their Swiss Bank investments, as any former Geheime Staatspolizei gold tooth collector.

Pecunia Non Olet - unless it is the DNC and Obama Campaign 2012.

President Obama will use any crisis Trayvon Martin, Wisconsin Recall, the up-coming NATO Chicago Weekend, beating the Bishops, or good old MSNBC Class War to squeak out a win in November.

The Buffett tax should be called the Bono Tax, because once Hollywood, Wall Street, Trial Lawyers, Al Sharpton and Michael Moore are asked to buck up, like Bono, they will bugger off.

Picking up the loss of the 1% will be the tax-paying 46%: skilled tradesmen, teachers, cops, firemen. pawn-shop owners and bail-bondsmen.

Pecunia Non Olet. Some people do.

*

The U2 frontman regularly meets political leaders to lobby on behalf of developing nations and has visited countries including Ethiopia and Mexico to try to improve the lives of the world's poor.

But U2 sparked criticism in 2006 by shifting part of their business affairs from Ireland to the Netherlands
At the time, Irish politicians branded U2's move a cynical ploy, leading to accusations that, while the band were urging the Government to give more money to relieve poverty, they were denying it the funds to do so.

Last year, U2 members were the highest-earning musicians in the world, raking in approximately £80 million.

Protesters also aim to draw attention to what they say is the 'bigger picture' of the impact of tax avoidance on Ireland's economy.

They plan to float an oversized bundle of fake cash across the crowd, from an Irish tricolour on one side of the spectators to a Dutch flag on the other, during the band's set at the rock festival in Somerset on June 24.

Tax expert and anti-poverty campaigner Richard Murphy said: 'If Bono thinks he is A spokesman for U2, who are on tour in Vancouver, was unavailable for comment yesterday and Glastonbury organisers also declined to comment.

The band's manager, Paul McGuinness, has previously claimed: 'U2 is a global business and pays taxes globally... at least 95 per cent of U2's business takes place outside of Ireland and as a result the band pays many different kinds of taxes all over the world.'

Bono has been reluctant to explain the tax strategy, but the band's guitarist The Edge has admitted: 'Of course we want to be tax-efficient – who doesn't?'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1394422/Saint-Bono-facing-huge-Glastonbury-protest--avoiding-tax.html#ixzz1rpLSX5M6