Morning Joke™ (The Madness Continues...)

This morning on Morning Joke™, Mika and her merry band of morons were poo-pooing the Obama recovery bill which Joe Scarborough categorized as "unprecedented, a total all-out socialist bill as I've ever seen in my life," and that it rewards those who don't make enough income to pay income tax, but still pay payroll taxes and sales tax for "doing absolutely nothing." The video on BobCesca.com via Media Matters is ridiculously fearmongerish.

How is it that with such an intelligent person for a father, Mika Brzezinski so easily falls into the propaganda vomit vat that is Joe Scarborough's mouth?

One of the commenters on Cesca's thread, "GIthe Joe" now "GItheScholar," is an Iraq veteran and was livid about this particular issue. He ranted on his comment (and a good rant it was) but asked for help revising his comments in order to send to Morning Joke™. Seeing as I had nothing on my plate this afternoon, I thought I'd oblige. Here is the letter sent by GI the Scholar, with contributions from Carl of Broadway and information (and a paragraph or two) provided by Bob of the Cesca.

Dear Morning Joe Crew,

I am an American soldier. I have honorably served my country while being deployed to Iraq for two tours of duty. I, and the countless others like me, am eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit because 100% of my income while in a combat zone was non taxable income. The same is true for every soldier, Marine, and airperson that makes less than $88,000 of base pay in a combat zone.

I was extremely grateful to receive this tax credit. It felt like the government was helping me, honoring me for my service to this nation. But we are not the only "do nothing" workers that can benefit from the EITC.

According to the Brookings Institution, "Together, the EITC and ACTC [Additional Child Tax Credit] provided more than $51 billion to low-income workers in tax year 2005, acting as critical wage supplements for working poor families throughout the country. Proposals to expand and streamline these credits to help more working families across all types of communities—urban, suburban, and rural—deserve consideration from policymakers, practitioners, and researchers."

For two years during the presidential campaigns and primaries, all we heard from mainstream media and cable news were phrases like, "Why can't Obama close the deal with rural Americans?" and "Obama isn't 'one of us'." And now President Obama and the Democrats want to give the working poor a tax break and other forms of relief as outlined in the recovery bill, the very people the cable news pundits claimed with which he was "so out of touch."

In tax year 2005, the greatest number of EITC filers lived in the suburbs of large metropolitan areas. In the South and West, rural taxpayers were most likely to receive the EITC. These are the people most likely to need help, and most likely to spend the money to stimulate the economy. Here's another example: For every dollar invested in Food Stamps, the stimulus return is $1.73, but for every dollar in corporate tax cuts, you get a negative return of $0.30 on the dollar.

But we hear from the informed pundits like Mr. Scarborough and Mr. Buchanan that they would rather spend this money on tax breaks to corporations. Buchanan, point blank, asked John Podesta on the February 2nd edition of Morning Joe why "they can't give the $80 billion to corporate tax cuts."

Mr. Scarborough, you shamelessly categorized tax credits the working poor of this country, those who work the fast food registers or pump gas to try and survive week to week, as receiving money from the government for "doing absolutely nothing." But I suppose in your world, these are the plebians who have no name; they live only to serve you. In your world, while sitting behind your desk making a seven figure income may be "work" to you, dodging improvised explosive devices and small arms fire is far from "do nothing" work for me.

Perhaps thinking before opening your mouth would make for a better show.