Activism Change

AGRAN ARRESTED … BROWN SILENT — Followup

Question:

How to contact the Brown Campaign:  E-mail:      Compuserve: 75300,3105 But not this Brown with all his posturing sits quietly and does and says nothing while someone *else* is allowed to be victim to anti-demoratic realities Brown is both vocal about and partially a victim of himself.

Yes, please get in touch with the Brown campaign…they do actually listen sometimes. I wouldn’t bother contacting Clinton… -Tom

Response:

      Harel —       Citizens for Tax Justice did a study on the flat-tax idea.  It doesn’t take much figurework to realize that Brown’s flat-tax is a "soak the poor" plan.  Donald Trump’s current income tax rate is 31%.  Under Jerry Brown, it would be 13%.       I’m going to call CTJ for their study.  I’ll also try to get to you an article that appeared in the L.A. Times recently.       Steve

        Hardly. It does not raise enough revenue, but it would not soak the poor. Consider the following situation (using Maryland, Howard county as an example) Family income: $20,000 MD state and county tax = 7.5% Monthly rent = $600.00 (a decent rate in this area) Federal tax bracket = 15% Federal Std deduction (couple) = $5700 Md Std deduction (couple) = $5700 MD taxable income = $14,300 MD tax = $1072.50 Federal taxable income = $13,227.50 Federal tax = $1984.13 FICA = 7.1% = $1420.00 Total tax = $4476.63 Percentage paid = 22.38% of income Brown’s plan: Rent = 600 * 12 = $7200 MD tax = $1072.50 Federal taxable income = 20000 – 7200 = 12,800 Federal tax = $1664 Total tax = $2736.50 Percentage paid = 13.68% Hardly ’soaking’. This plan’s flaw is that it raises too little money in total – it gives people in the middle class and upper income class too much of a break. It helps the poor, but it also helps the well off, thus leaving the treasury emptier. This might still work if you wanted to advocate far lower levels of spending by the government – but Brown isn’t really advocating that. He wants to shift, not reduce. If you want to argue this plan, at least get the flaws right. Your arguements above show that you have never really LOOKED at the plan. It has warts all right – but NOT the ones you complain about. Jim Robertson

Response:

Enclosed are Brown’s email and other addresses, followed by my letter to a Brown delegate responding briefly re the "Flat Tax," followed by my reaction to Brown’s revolting behavior                 –Harel Barzilai How to contact the Brown Campaign:   E-mail:       Compuserve: 75300,3105   Mail:       Brown for President       2121 Cloverfield Blvd, Suite 120       Santa Monica, CA 90404   Phone:       (310) 449-1992   FAX:       (310) 449-1903   800 number:       (800)426-1112    Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.activism    some how i only caught part3 of 3 on the above mentioned subject    (flat tax).  could you please send me all 3 parts.  i am currently    doing research to support the flat tax.  looks like you have done this    and i would like to look at what you have written.  thank you.    a Brown delegate from Washington, dan burbank. Dear The letter was not mine. There were no parts I and II posted; PeaceNet’s "newsgroups" system is two-dimensional and I posted the 3rd "response" to the "topic" ("article") I posted. Enclosed are the others. It seems to me that the flat tax isn’t AS BAD as it originally sounded, but it is still no where near as progressive as someone like Brown should be offering, even if it is not as regressive as it sounds. The NY Times for crying out loud, hardly progressive let alone radical, wrote an editorial saying this has lots of potential positive sides, but that some modificadtion should be made to make it more progressive. I’m also enclosing some info from Stephen Smith of the Larry Agran ‘92 campain. I’ve been increasingly favoring Agran while cautioning Agran supporters and even Smith not to completely (mentally or verbally) trash Brown. Well what may be the last straw is Brown’s *latest* anti-demoractic antics in this state. Repeatedly Brown who paints himself anti-establishement, "take government back" and talks about the un-demoratic nature of the system, has failed to call for the inclusion of Larry Agran in national forums. Larry Agran, who is on the ballot in close to 40 states, who did not have the name-recognition advantage of Jerry Brown and refuses PAC money raised over $250,000, and polled ahead of Brown and not far behind Harkin in late January only to be exluded from the MacNeil/Lehrer debate, then the League of Women Voters followed suite, etc, continually denying Agran the visibility necessary for voters to even find out about him. Even Tsongas and Harkin, at a NH Dem. party forum on Health Care, asked the moderator to include Agran when he stood up and demanded to be included (the NH and national Dem. party’s screwing Agran over makes their, and the press’s treatment of Brown, which I’ve been vocal complaining about on the Nets, seem like a picnic). Actually the crowd’s "free speech!" cries may have been what saved Agran from being dragged off by the police then (they started to. But not this Brown with all his posturing sits quietly and does and says nothing while someone *else* is allowed to be victim to anti-demoratic realities Brown is both vocal about and partially a victim of himself. This is sickening, and I am posting this letter along with Brown’s email and paper mail addresses. Harel        Harel —        Citizens for Tax Justice did a study on the flat-tax idea.  It doesn’t take much figurework to realize that Brown’s flat-tax is a "soak the poor" plan.  Donald Trump’s current income tax rate is 31%.  Under Jerry Brown, it would be 13%.        I’m going to call CTJ for their study.  I’ll also try to get to you an article that appeared in the L.A. Times recently.        Steve

Response:

Filed under: Internet activism

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