H.R. 1464, the Inclusive Prosperity Act, would impose a financial speculation tax (better known as a "Robin Hood tax") on stocks, securities, and derivatives, and the bill would also exempt folks who make less than $50,000 annually ($75,000 for married couples) from paying any taxes on their financial transactions. Banksters think folks should have more "skin in the game"? You know, when they're not busy figuring out which bills to pay this month? Well, that latter tax break would help accomplish that. I think H.R. 1464's tax rates are too low, and taxing derivatives less than stocks and other securities strikes me as backward, and I would also raise the exemption for married couples -- I know your bills don't double when you get married, but $75,000 still seems a bit low to me, and it's no wonder Republicans got so much mileage out of the "marriage penalty" meme back in the day. Generally, though, H.R. 1464 is on the right track. So Friends of the Earth helps you voice your support for H.R. 1464 and the principles contained therein. Their action tool lets you advocate for a stronger bill, like I've done above.
If you've missed previous opportunities to tell property developers to abandon plans to build a big shopping mall in the Grand Canyon, then Sum of Us still helps you do that. That's right, Confluence Partners plans to deposit malls and hotels and fast-food eateries and the like into the middle of America's largest national treasure (not to mention Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni holy sites). Does the Grand Canyon really need a mall? Have Americans decided that looking into the Grand Canyon has ceased to be a profound and humbling experience? Has tourism fell off so badly that Americans just need more to occupy them when they're in the Canyon? Of course not -- all that's happened is that some private corporations decided they wanted to get in on the action; in essence, they aim to be parasites feeding off the great body of the Canyon. But though right-wingers might call me "quaint," there really are some things more important than mammon. One of these things is holding onto our national treasures so that future generations can know where we came from and where we're going. And a big fancy IMAX theatre doesn't do that.
Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior has actually noticed that our government charges a pittance in royalties to coal developers who mine on public lands -- a pittance that amounts to, well, we could call it any number of things, like a tax break, a welfare handout, or even a bailout. No, seriously: when coal corporations effectively pay about half the mandated royalty rates on coal, they're getting more than they deserve, and they're only getting it because they already have the money to lobby our government into doing their will and not ours. You know there'll be right-wingers who oppose closing the loopholes because ZOMG TEH GUBMINT INTERFEREZ IN TEH MARKETZ!!!! Yet it's exactly that government interference (at the behest of corporations, remember) that opens these loopholes that cost we-the-taxpayers money. So Wild Earth Guardians helps you tell the Office of Natural Resource Revenue to close these loopholes. Wild Earth Guardians does say closing these loopholes will "keep the coal in the ground," but even if we don't pursue that as a policy goal, closing the loopholes is still the right thing to do.
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