Representative Jan Schakowsky’s Statement
On WLS’s Don & Roma radio show yesterday morning (September 15, 2011), Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky claimed that Americans aren’t entitled to all of their own money. Teenager Tyler Hinsley, at the GOP presidential candidate debate in California, asked, “Of every dollar that I earn, how much do you think I deserve to keep?” Co-host Don Wade asked Schakowsky to answer the same question. After delaying for as long as she could, she finally answered. “I’ll put it this way, you don’t deserve to keep all of it. It’s not a question of deserving, because what government is, is those things that we decide to do together. And there are many things that we decide to do together like have our national security. Like have police and fire. What about the people that work at the National Institute of Health who are looking for a cure for cancer,” Schakowsky said. Further, Schakowsky declined to answer what percentage of a person’s income he/she deserves to keep. “I pay at a 35% tax rate, happy to do it.” Rep. Schakowsky is not unique in her opinion. Her views are typical of a liberal view that sees a person’s earnings as belonging first to the state. She says one reason the 2009 stimulus was not successful was that it was not large enough.
Representative Schakowsky and her Husband
Janice D. “Jan” Schakowsky is the U.S. Representative for Illinois’s 9th congressional district. She is a Democrat. Her husband is Robert Creamer, a convicted felon. He was sentenced to five months in federal prison for writing rubber checks and failing to pay withholding taxes. He also faced 11 months of house arrest once he finished his sentence. Creamer has strong ties to Obama. Creamer had been teaching a group of young volunteers for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. The idea of a convicted felon who kited checks lecturing idealistic Obama campaign workers on how to raise money and get elected is, uhhhh, a bit much. He was a registered lobbyist working against the Senate confirmation of UN ambassador John Bolton, paid by the George Soros-funded “Open Society Policy Center.”
Schakowsky’s Own Jobs Bill
At a rally at Chicago’s Goudy Elementary School, Schakowsky previewed her “Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act,” a bill modeled after FDR’s Work Progress Administration (WPA). It is proposed to cost $227 billion and would be implemented over two years, financed by separate legislation introduced by Schakowsky called the “Fairness in Taxation Act,” (see below). The congresswoman said that her plan will create 2.2 million jobs and decrease the unemployment rate by 1.3 percent. “The worst deficit this country faces isn’t the budget deficit,” Schakowsky said. “It’s the jobs deficit. We need to get our people and our economy moving again.”
Schakowsky Discusses Obama’s “Jobs Bill” Speech
“… the American people are waiting for the government to come up with a plan, which the president did tonight, on how are we going to put Americans back to work, how are we going to put money in their pocket so they can actually go out and be customers and be the job creators that are going to help, as he put it, to jumpstart our economy. I thought that was a very practical speech, as well as a very inspiring speech. I think a lot of people who have been wanting to hear the president with his strength and inspiration actually saw that president tonight.” “Well, where the heck are those jobs going to be if the federal government doesn’t help to jumpstart those jobs.” “… I certainly would rather focus on what he talked about is the fairness in our tax policies, that – and I don’t understand even why they, the Republicans laughed when he referred to Warren Buffett, who said, you know, tax me more. The American people understand that there is not fairness right now in who’s actually footing the bill …”
I find it most interesting that Schakowsky thinks “the American people are waiting for the government to come up with a plan.” I guess she thinks the American people are helpless without government.
Schakowsky’s “Fairness In Taxation Act” H.R. 1124
Says Rep. Jan Schakowsky, “We have a growing crisis of income inequality in this country. We are at levels of income disparity that we have not seen since right before the Great Depression in 1928.” She continues, “The Republicans also want to slash the bedrock safety net programs by promoting deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other vital domestic spending programs.”
She continues, “By introducing new tax brackets, we ensure a basic principal of fairness: those who have benefited the most from the opportunities that our great country provides should also invest in making those opportunities a reality for all Americans The Fairness in Taxation Act asks the very rich to pay their fair share by enacting tax brackets for income starting at $1 million and ending with a $1 billion bracket.” The new brackets would be:
- $1-10 million: 45%
- $10-20 million: 46%
- $20-100 million: 47%
- $100 million to $1 billion: 48%
- $1 billion and over: 49%
Nowhere in her “Fairness In Taxation Act” does she mention the work done by “the very rich,” nor does she ever define fair. But… judging from her statement made yesterday, we taxpayers can now see her definition of “fair.” Fair, to her, seems to mean “send it ALL to the government. After all, we know what is best for you.”
But that’s just my opinion.