My Opinion of The Obama Tax Cuts

I just watched the live press conference held by Obama to address the tax compromise reached between the President and Republicans. If you haven’t heard, Obama agreed to extend the Bush-era tax cuts on the wealthy for two years in return for the following tax breaks desired by Democrats:

1. Parents raising children and paying for college tuition

2. Small-business tax cuts

3. A cut in payroll taxes

The compromise also prolonged unemployment benefits for 13 months, a provision pressed by Democrats, opposed by Republicans.

In the weeks leading up to this deal, the Republican majority in congress made it clear they would obstruct any form of tax legislation unless the President extended the Bush-era tax cuts. Obama caved to republican demands recognizing the impending damage of not letting taxes rise amid the economic recession. The President’s parable was, we typically don’t negotiate with hostage takers, but if it’s clear the hostages are going to be harmed, and those hostages are the majority of Americans, a negotiation is necessary.

I’ve been a Republican in the past, but I can’t in good conscious align with a party that will sacrifice all in the notion of one ideal, especially when that ideal is harmful in the current economic climate. Trickle-down economics does not offset deficits, does not create jobs, and does not help the neediest. Period.

Conversely, certain Democrats chafe because they view Obama’s compromise as his acceding to Republican obstructionism. These Dems say he’s stepping away from his principles, that he’s teaching Republicans to wield the power of blackmail. They ignore that failure to compromise would have left the economy, middle-class Americans, and poor Americans further crippled. This, as our nation claws itself out of a slick-walled recession pit.

As a result of this compromise, all Americans are taxed less than under W. Bush, Clinton, and H.W. Bush, when the tax cuts were first enacted. This is good because, for the time being, we need to grow our economy out of the recession. To do that, American people need money in their pockets (tax benefits for mid-class). Businesses need money to grow and hire (business tax cuts). Students need specialized education and training (tax breaks for parents paying their children’s tuition). The jobless don’t need additional hardship in this country, which we laud as humane and developed (unemployment benefit extension). And perhaps a little bit of the money saved amongst the the richest will trickle down through the economy too (Bush-era tax cuts). And therein lies the genius. As we battle the slump, a capital infusion will grease the economy's gears and hopefully give Obama some political capital for the next election.

The danger is that the cost of these tax breaks is tallied at $900 billion. Lay that beside our $14 trillion deficit and it’s no big sum, but it marks what's close to the last pilfering our nation's coffers will withstand.

Obama explained that a lot of those millions, billions, and trillions were warranted. “We’ve had two years of emergency, but we’ve got to have a larger debate about how we’re going to compete in the 21st century.”

To compete, as he said, we need to focus heavily on infrastructure, education, and green energy. These are the programs that will root America in 21st century economics. Unfortunately, they're all primarily funded by the government. The government gets money from taxes. That is a truth. There's no way around it. Starting in 2011, the government is getting less tax revenue than before, while our debts and deficits are greater than ever. The bottom line is, we can’t climb out of the deficit, we can’t compete in the 21st century without a greater tax base.

To keep the tax breaks, as the Republicans so desire, the government would have to make corresponding cuts. The first programs to go: infrastructure, education, green energy. These cuts will bleed or kill us in the long term.

Education – The most popular story running in the New York Times today was about Test Scores From Shanghai Stunning Educators because they’re astronomically better than ours. We rank 24th in the world for quality of education. That’s a harbinger for a power shift.

Green-Energy—Our dependence on oil and coal destroy the environment. Foreign oil funds the terrorists who attack us here and in the Middle East. The US could use tax revenues to fund programs for clean energy: domestic natural gas, electric cars, nuclear, wind, solar. A dramatic shift would be precipitated by governmentally funded programs. A dramatic shift would give the US political clout for bullies like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq because we would no longer need their oil. A dramatic shift would save our planet.

Infrastructure—The biggest economic lead possessed by the US now is in telecommunications. The tech sector gives the US billions of jobs and distinguishes our nation abroad as other countries look to us for innovation. China-based companies such as Huawei, however, are quickly growing, gaining revenues, and building out telecom infrastructure due largely to consolidated funding efforts from their governments. There’s no political bickering in the People’s Republic of China. Agreed? Cutting our telecom infrastructure will debilitate our communications, usurp our lead, and help usher a power shift.

So the danger is that, in the torrent of Tea Party tax furor, Americans will be blinded to what’s really happening.

The Republican tax cuts for the wealthy and the estate tax proposal ( which helps only 39,000 Americans) are piling onto a deficit by adding to China’s credit in treasury bonds while draining funding for programs that will make the US competitive in the future.

Query Letter

David Leavitt, editor

Subtropics

P.O. Box 112075

4008 Turlington Hall

University of Florida

Gainesville, FL 32611-2075

Dear Mr. Leavitt,

My 15,000 word story is as deeply philosophical as it is fast-paced, and as it deals with interesting and psychological subject matter, your audience will likely find it an enjoyable read.

In reading several of the stories in Subtropics, I realized that your readers enjoy complex narratives involved in expounding the machinations of complex characters’ heads. Additionally, I noticed that Subtropics editors have fatigued of first-person fiction and are skeptical of second person; fortunately, "The Inversion" is written in third.

The story tells of a young man, grown weary of his life, who decides to commit himself to the task of his own undoing. In a delusional pursuit of infamy through what he calls, “a higher ideal,” James Wallace Bently tries to make himself as miserable as possible. The story follows his tragic journey, taking readers through the labyrinth of his mind, the influences of his past and the consequences of his actions. A surprise twist at the end brings closure to the story, while leaving readers enlightened but somewhat saddened.

Thank you in advance for considering "The Inversion."

Sincerely,

Chilton Tippin

(915) 637.4360

Chilton.l.Tippin@tcu.edu

Encl: Manuscript and SASE

Nitesh Kalwar

Three years ago Nitesh Kalwar lay in his bed in the Nepalese hamlet of Birgunj and fretted about his future in America.

“I didn’t know many schools here in the U.S.,” Kalwar, a junior business and finance major, said. “I was so worried that I corresponded with over 800 schools, sending e-mails.”

Of those 800 schools, Kalwar somehow narrowed it down to TCU.

“To be honest, I didn’t come to TCU on purpose—it wasn’t my first choice,” he said. “I thought the brochures they sent to international kids were kind of stupid.”

However, the generous financial aid and the allure of a small community won him over, he said.

“I expected more tall buildings,” he said. “Even my town has some four-story buildings.”

Kalwar said he now feels at home.

“I truly like TCU because the faculty and staff and the students are very friendly,” he said.

Since his arrival, he has excelled in his classes and founded or joined over seven clubs.

“Freshman year I wasn’t involved in anything,” he said. “Later on I realized that I wanted to get more involved.”

Kalwar said the there was a lot to learn about Fort Worth when he first got here, and the culture shock was overwhelming.

“I remember they asked, ‘Why do you think we’re called cowboys,” and I said, ‘Maybe because you eat cows a lot.’”

In Nepal cows are venerated as sacred animals, he said.

“The first thing I needed to figure out was what do I eat; it was hard for me to figure out what to eat.”

After the uneasy first-year, Kalwar’s transition became easier and he started to immerse himself in the culture and society of the university.

Kalwar joined Frog House, Students for Asian-Indian Cultural Awareness, student government association, and Financial Management Association. He later became president of SAICA and treasurer for Habitat for Humanity. After that he started the Cricket Club. Kalwar also works part time for the help desk in the library.

“Getting involved has made my experience here at TCU so much more rewarding,” he said. “I’ve met so many more people.”

Kalwar said that due to the instability of the Nepalese government, there are not many opportunities for students in his home country. As a result, most of his friends from back home, like him, moved abroad upon completing high school.

“A lot of students study accounting and nursing because there are markets for these in Australia,” he said. “They study these even if they don’t want because they can have opportunities.”

Since arriving at the university three years ago, Kalwar has not returned Birgunj or seen his family.

“I have missed them very much,” he said. “But I’m finally going to see them this summer, so I am excited.”

Jennifer Kowalewski

Jennifer Kowalewski, assistant professor, brought two things with her to the university: her love for teaching journalism and her desire to research political communication.

Kowalewski teaches the reporting and copy editing courses at the university, and she created and instructs a political communication course for upper-level students.

“I love being in the classroom,” Kowalewski said. “But I also love doing experimental and survey research on how the media influence public opinion.”

Kowalewski completed her doctorate in Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and came to the university in 2009.

Prior to that she instructed a news writing course at the UNC-CH, worked for 10 years at daily newspapers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, and got her masters in Journalism and Mass Communication at Ohio University.

She got her undergraduate degrees in journalism and political science from Ohio University.

As a reporter, Kowalewski covered everything from dog-sled races to political stories.

Her favorite types of stories were political stories and breaking news stories.

“I didn’t like the stories where people died,” she said. “Overall, I liked the stories where you had a happy ending—where nobody dies.”

After several years as a reporter she decided she wanted to teach her craft, Kowalewski said.

“When I went back for my masters, I really wanted to teach journalism,” she said. “However, in my masters program I was involved with some very research-oriented people.”

Now she focuses her research on the media’s influence on public opinion, conducting surveys and experiments on public opinion formation, she said.

Kowalewski looks at shows such as “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” to see how they affect people’s knowledge and cynicism of the news. She also tries to determine whether people who watch these shows feel they have can have an affect on politics themselves.

She plans to teach during the school year and do research during the summer, she said.

In addition, she will be overseeing the first group from the Schieffer School that is going to Washington.

The Schieffer program affiliated with the Washington Center to send five students for almost full-time internships in the nation’s capitol, she said.

The students can earn up to 18 hours of credit, Kowalewski said.

“It’s an exciting time to get that program up and running,” she said. “It will be nice to show the students what D.C. is all about.”

Overseeing that program includes going to D.C. several times throughout the semester to make sure the students are keeping up with their internships, she said.

Jeff Ferrell

Jeff Ferrell, professor of sociology, criminal justice and anthropology at the university, finds solace in trash, beauty in graffiti and love in the streets.

Ferrell has spent his life studying about, learning from, and writing on the scrounging-fringe groups of America, and he has done so from within their ranks.

“I’ve always kind of enjoyed living on the margins, even when I was a kid,” Ferrell said. “Combine that with my Ph.D. in sociology and I was compelled existentially and drawn to people in the margins.”

Ferrell has written 10 books and dozens of articles about his personal plunges into the margins, and that body of work culminated in the field of study he pioneered, “Cultural Criminality.”

“It is, at its most basic level, the study of people in the margins and how they live and how they survive,” he said. “It’s bringing together their culture and their values to be studied.”

His most recent work, “Empire of Scrounge” chronicles his experience as an urban dumpster diver.

After quitting his job as tenured professor at Southern Methodist University, he spent eight months rummaging through dumpsters, collecting metals, and literally living off of other peoples’ refuse.

Along the way he encountered a culture of what he calls “scroungers”—people who live entirely from what they collect from dumpsters.

“From being immersed in that society, I learned a lot about how they operate,” he said. “You learn when grocery stores no longer want stale produce, you learned which metals are more valuable and to collect aluminum cans. I had to figure out how to survive.”

Ferrell’s modus operandi for research is called Ethnography—a type of research in which you immerse yourself in the field.

“What I have realized is that it is a much more honest way to go about conducting research,” he said. “You get a real feel for what is going on, and you aren’t just observing from a non-invested position.”

Before “Empire of Scrounge” Ferrell did similar studies while writing his book “Crimes of Style: Urban Graffiti and the Politics of Criminality.”

In studying that book he immersed himself in the culture of graffiti, traveled with a “crew” that scurried through the streets of Denver at night, spray painting murals and tagging walls.

“It’s illegal,” Ferrell said. “But it’s not gangs or violent—usually.”

Ferrell teaches a class on Ethnography at the university, where students get to learn about and partake in field studies of their own.

“The students do this kind of stuff but, of course, not the dangerous stuff,” Ferrell said. “They do things like go out and observe social situations to learn how to pay close attention.”

One of the tenets of ethnographies is learning to be attentive, he said.

“Most of my colleagues who got Ph.D.’s usually went the way of sitting in classrooms studying books,” he said. “It’s very important that people do that, don’t get me wrong. But I always felt drawn to the margins.”

Final Feature Story Post-Mortem

This last feature story was an interesting one. It was about the culture of alcohol that some experts in the community have been noticing and warning about. For this story I got to talk to a lot of interesting people and even went to a Town Hall meeting at a high school in Arlington. I enjoyed writing the piece because I got to evoke the tone of the Town Hall meeting, which was a rather sober one. So, it was sad, but at least I got to use some description and imagery.

The challenge in this piece was tying the Town Hall meeting to the actual premise of the story, which was the culture of alcohol. I wanted a gripping intro that would lead readers into the story. I thought the subject matter was interesting, I just needed a good intro. That is why I thought an alternative lead that displayed the headings of the PowerPoint that the officer gave would be a good one. The headlines were rather cold, stark and to the point, and below them were the photographs of mangled cars. At the town hall meeting the PowerPoint really touched me, so I wanted to convey that sentiment. At the same time, the story itself was not about DWI's, so I didn't want it had to be sure underline that fact with the nut graph.