It's Monday, and that means it is time for yet another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly blog round-up. Posts included in the round up are submitted each week by Alliance member blogs. This week's round-up is compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.

It's Monday, and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's Weekly blog round-up. The round-up is compiled from posts submitted by member blogs.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson takes apart the new GOP Business tax in Tearing At The Margins Tax.

This was originally posted in 2006 but has gotten a lot attention on other blogs lately, so in case you missed it then, enjoy. And even if you've read it before, hopefully it will put a smile on your face again.

Dear Mr. Bush

Memorial Day is the day that we honor men and women who have died to protect this country. Did you know that Memorial Day started after the Civil War? General Logan, a Union soldier, had been impressed with how the South had honored their dead. Memorial Day was called Decoration Day until after World War II.

I remember my Mom and Dad calling it Decoration Day. When I was growing up, it was a pretty big holiday. There was always a parade. Then we would go to the cemetary and lay flowers on everyone� grave. We would have a picnic and later that evening, there would be fireworks at the city park. That has gone by the wayside though. We don�t celebrate it like we did.

John McCain is telling that America's problems are psychological. Well, the Ohio Democratic Party decided to ask the average person on the street what they thought.

What do you think?

MKC

In my last posting I put the lie to the claim that the rich pay more than their share of taxes. Let me now put the lie to the claim that Republicans are tax cutters. They are tax shifters.

If you were to name the least favorite tax to Republicans like it would be hands down, the progressive income tax. Recall what it was called in the last posting - "legal plunder." So, how do they want to pay for the public goods and services we all need? Well, they want to shift the system from the more progressive taxes , which emphasize ability to pay as a factor in setting rates, to ones which ignore ability to pay and emphasize "flat , one size fits all equality". Consumption/sales taxes are one example. Such taxes have the impact of shifting tax burdens from those who are benefitting to most AND can afford to pay their share to those who are less able to do so. In other words, the game is shift the tax burden

By lightseeker2

It is coming up on April 15th, so it is time for what may become an "evergreen" piece for me. For those who have not wasted too much time reading everything they can get their hands on, an "evergreen" is a news story that never gets retired, it is recycled every year. This evergreen I am going to call Tax Lies that Republicans Tell. It will be a tale of falsehoods, half-truths and tax shifting.

Lets start with this:

The U.S. Income Tax Burden:
The Income Tax Burden is defined simply as who pays U.S. income taxes in the form of individual and corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, and federal excise taxes. Based on this information, the following conclusions clearly emerge:

* An enormous percentage of taxes are payed by a minority of Americans:
o The Top 1% of taxpayers pay 29% of all taxes.
o The Top 5% of taxpayers pay 50% of all taxes.
* Our tax system is not so much progressive as it is confiscatory -- Frederic Bastiat called this phenomenon "legal plunder." A

Every word in the quoted material is true, yet the conclusion drawn is a bald face lie. More below.

The subprime loan had put a crimp in financial institutions bottom line. Never fear! These corporations have found a way to bail themselves out.

Hundreds of thousands of Capital One and Bank of America cardholders have been notified in recent months that their interest rates are going up -- in some cases to as much as 28% -- even though they haven't been missing payments.

You all know by now what happened on “Super Tuesday”. Things are up in the air and there was no clear winner. It looks like we are going to hear a lot from our presidential candidates until March 4th. Our votes will matter. I did a literature search, and here is some articles of interest I found.