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The Biggest Welfare Queens of Them All

Republicans love to talk about how Democrats take money from good, hardworking Americans and give it to lazy deadbeats. That story is the meme right-wingers use when they cut welfare, it's how they frame their war against Obamacare, and it's how they justify doing awful heartless things like slashing funding for school lunch programs.

But it's becoming increasingly clear that Republicans don't actually believe their own talking points. And you don't need to look any farther than the ongoing joke that is our corporate tax code to see why that's true.

As Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders pointed out in a recent Senate hearing, many of the richest, most profitable corporations in America don't actually pay anything in taxes, and in some cases, actually get money back from the IRS. Pretty amazing, right? GE rakes in $34 billion every year, pays nothing in taxes, and ends up getting a rebate from the government.

But GE is just one example of a much bigger problem. And that's the shifting of the tax burden from rich corporations and billionaires who both consume government services like our courts and banking system, and can afford to pay for it, on to the backs of working Americans and those who can't afford it.

Back in the 1950s, corporate tax revenues made up as much as one third of all federal tax revenues. But decades of loopholes and carve-outs have taken their toll, and now corporate tax revenues make up just 13.5 percent of total revenue.

This has a very real cost. The National Priorities Project estimates that thanks to corporate tax breaks, the government lost out on $176 billion - I repeat, $176 billion - in potential revenue in 2013. So where is the government getting its money now that deadbeat corporations are shirking their fiscal duty?

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Should we replace Obamacare with single payer? (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

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Daily Take: The biggest welfare queens of them all

Monday's Daily Stack

Hour One: Conservatives are suffering from Obama Derangement Syndrome

Article: "Obama hails Dalai Lama as 'good friend' during US prayer breakfast" by Dan Roberts.

Article: "Obama National Prayer Breakfast 2015 Text Transcript and Full Video; 'The Starting Point of Faith Is Some Doubt'" by Napp Nazworth.

Quote: "So we are even at fault in not avenging all this innocent blood of our Lord and of the Christians which they shed for three hundred years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the blood of the children they have shed since then (which still shines forth from their eyes and their skin). We are at fault in not slaying them." Martin Luther".

Article: "Conservative Media Bash Obama For Mentioning Crusades At Prayer Breakfast " by Alexandrea Boguhn & Rachel Calvert.

Article: "Obama At National Prayer Breakfast: 'People Committed Terrible Deeds In The Name of Christ'" by Charlie Spiering.

Bible: "Joshua".

Article: "AFP 1, Tennessee 0" by Steve Benen.

Book: Death in the Pines: An Oakley Tyler Novel by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Jeremiah Wright controversy" by Wikipedia.

Bible: "Joshua 8: Ai Destroyed".

Article: "Books of Samuel" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Authorship of the Pauline epistles" by Wikipedia.

Bible: "Mark 9:1". "And he said to them, "Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.""

Article: "Jesus Seminar" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Gospel Of Thomas".

Book: "The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus" by Robert W. Funk.

Hour Two: Why we need Medicare for all...NOW
- Dr. David Hogberg PhD, National Center for Public Policy Research

Site: B.C. Surgical Wait Times.

Article: "Insured, but Not Covered" by Elisabeth Rosenthal.

Article: "More than 3million people on hospital waiting lists... and the government says it will keep missing targets for months" by Matt Chorley.

Article: "Tommy Douglas" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Effect of Wait Times on Mortality in Canada" by Bacchus Barua, Nadeem Esmail, Taylor Jackson.

Article: "New study finds 45,000 deaths annually linked to lack of health coverage" by David Cecere, September 17, 2009 .

Article: "Way to Go, Americans: We're Almost as Ignorant as Italians" by Tom Randall.

Article: "Anonymous "Hacktivists" Strike a Blow Against ISIS" by wyldwolf.

Article: "Liberal Sen. Sanders to skip Netanyahu speech to Congress" by Andrew Taylor.

Site: Persuasion Partners Inc..

Bible: "Genesis 4:15". "But the LORD said to him, "Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over." And he said to them, "Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.""

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Victoria Jones

Article: "The British accent is the world's most attractive, according to poll" by Ian Johnston.

Article: "Obama Leaves Lethal Aid For Ukraine On The Table" by Mary Jarvis.

Article: "Ukraine conflict: US 'may supply arms to Ukraine'" by BBC.

Article: "Ukraine conflict: four-nation peace talks in Minsk aim to end crisis" by Julian Borger.

Article: "Lawmakers to Obama: Arm Ukraine now" by Kristina Wong.

Article: "SCOTUS Clears Way For Same-Sex Marriage In Alabama" by William McDonald.

Article: "Same-sex marriage begins in parts of Alabama, thwarted in others" by Sherrel Wheeler Stewart.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Will Skip Netanyahu Address" by Midori Nishida.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 2/9" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: Ferguson residents suing over debtors prisons

Article: "Glenn Beck sees measles outbreak as a 'hoax'" by Steve Benen.

Article: "Ferguson One of 2 Missouri Suburbs Sued Over Gantlet of Traffic Fines and Jail" by Monica Davey.

Article: "Kansas' Budget Problems Touching Cherished Highway System" by John Hanna.

Article: "The Future Of Voter Suppression Is Before The Supreme Court" by Ian Millhiser.

Law: "McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission", 2014.

Article: "Non-Muslims Carried Out More than 90% of All Terrorist Attacks in America" by Washington's Blog.

Article: "The Danger of American Fascism" by Henry A. Wallace.

Economic and Labor News

Article: "Obama To Propose Tax On Foreign Profits In 2016 Budget" by Jim Kuhnhenn and Andrew Taylor.

Article: "Obama unveils $4 trillion budget that hikes spending on infrastructure, research, the military" by AFP.

Article: "5 Charts That Explain Why Obama Wants To End Automatic Spending Cuts" by Bryce Covert.

Article: "The Vatican Will Offer Free Shaves And Haircuts To Rome's 3,276 Homeless People" by Bryce Covert.

Article: "The FCC chair's Internet pivot" by Brooks Boliek, Alex Byers and Bill Duryea.

Article: "FCC Poised to Protect Local Internet Alternatives Over Service Giants" by Nadia Prupis.

Article: "Shell and union to talk on day four of U.S. refineries strike" by Erwin Seba.

Article: "Croatia just canceled the debts of its poorest citizens" by Rick Noack.

Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

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Great Minds P1 - David O. Stewart - How Madison & Jefferson Transformed Politics?

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Great Minds P2 - David O. Stewart - How Hamilton & Madison Wrote the Federalist Papers

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Rumble: Why a GOP Senator Became a Democrat Today

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Thom rumbles on the DHS funding fight over Pres. Obama's immigration mandate, Justice Ginsburg's call to overturn Citizen's United, Republican State Senator Tim Johnson's party flip and Republicans "alternative" to Obamacare.

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