America the Stable! Has a nice ring to it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Standard & Poor's Ratings Services upgraded its outlook Monday for the U.S. government's long-term debt. S&P cited the government's strengthened finances, a recovering U.S. economy and some easing of Washington's political gridlock.

The credit rating service raised its outlook to "Stable" from "Negative," which means it's less likely to downgrade U.S. debt in the near future.

In other news, Jim Cramer has upgraded the Bluth Company from "Sell" to "Don't Buy."

In a recent study of 21 rich countries, America was the only one that does not guarantee its citizens any paid holiday. Not Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior's birthday. Not even Memorial Day. From the Center for Economic and Policy Research:

• CEPR

Sometimes when you achieve small government, you end up getting bossed around by somebody else. In this case, as with most, it's (surprise!) big business. Sure, we've got a growing economy and lower unemployment than much of Europe, but that's partly because an increasing number of us are stuck in low-wage jobs with scant benefits. The American Dream is now affordable health insurance and paid vacation. At least due to White Flight 2, the rich are fleeing the suburbs they once strove for, so you can probably get that two-car garage on the cheap.

Ads are on my phone, in my email, in my social network accounts, on billboards, in the papers and blogs I read—and that is fine. I can live with that. I chose to live in a capitalist society. But the sky is where I draw the line. Leave that space alone and let me enjoy the marvelous clouds in peace.

AppleInsider makes a very good point about Tim Cook's appearance before a Senate panel to defend Apple from charges of tax evasion yesterday:

Though some such as U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) portrayed Apple's tax strategy as "unique," at least in scope, the tax shelter practice known by attorneys as the "Double Irish" is also utilized by tech companies Google and Yahoo.

Google has moved foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands, allowing to avoid about $2 billion in income taxes a year, according to Bloomberg. But unlike Apple, which manages its Irish subsidiary in the U.S., Google goes one step further and manages its Irish branch through Bermuda — a British territory that has no corporate income tax.

Yahoo, too, is said to deposit its profits in an Irish subsidiary. Like Apple, Yahoo says its Irish arm is not a tax resident to avoid corporate income taxes. But Yahoo also employs a strategy similar to Google and claims its tax residency offshore, in the Cayman Islands.

Apple is not unique in this. They just have gotten more attention because everyone knows they're sitting on an unthinkably huge pile of money. But does any of this matter? After the chummy way John McCain ended the Apple tax investigation yesterday...

...I'd be shocked to learn that anything is going to change.

Did Apple go through all sorts of outrageous tax avoidance contortions in order to dramatically reduce its tax liability? Absolutely. But in doing so, did Apple break any actual laws? Probably not.

Congress can get as huffy as it wants in accusing Apple of being a tax cheat, but Apple's only playing by the rules that Congress has laid down. The real scandal here is our ridiculous corporate tax code that allows this sort of shit to happen. All the time.

Yeah, Apple jumps through hoops to avoid paying taxes. But at over $6 billion in 2012, Apple claims to be the largest corporate income tax payer in the US. Meanwhile, dozens of giant US corporations (including Boeing and Paccar) consistently pay a negative federal income tax.

So yeah, Apple deserves to be excoriated for its accounting tricks. But it is Congress that is the enabler of all this corporate tax avoidance, and Congress that ultimately deserves the blame.

Nelson D. Schwartz at the New York Times explains:

Even as Apple became the nation’s most profitable technology company, it avoided billions in taxes in the United States and around the world through a web of subsidiaries so complex it spanned continents and surprised experts, a Congressional investigation has found...In 2011, for example, one subsidiary paid Ireland just one-twentieth of 1 percent in taxes on $22 billion on pretax earnings from various operations; another did not file a corporate tax return anywhere and has paid almost nothing on $30 billion in profits since 2009.

“Apple wasn’t satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven,” said Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat. “Apple sought the holy grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars while claiming to be tax resident nowhere.”

This is really shitty of Apple, of course. Apple CEO Tim Cook is scheduled to address a Senate hearing tomorrow. But the question remains: Is Congress going to do anything about this?

Last week I took the state projections of the additional revenue that would be raised should states be allowed to collect sales tax on remote sales under the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA), and estimated that it would bring an additional $63 million a year into various King County coffers by 2017. It was a rough extrapolation based on the limited data I had, but figured it was "certainly in the ballpark."

It certainly was. At Representative Reuven Carlyle's request the state Department of Revenue just released county-by-county estimates, and it turns out King County would see a $60.7 million bump in revenue in 2017. That means my estimates for Seattle ($6.9 million) and Metro ($19 million) are likely in the ballpark too.

But King would only collect about 38 percent of the annual $158.5 million in additional local sales tax that would be raised statewide. For example, lacking our economic base, many Eastern Washington counties have been particularly starved for cash. So no doubt the $26.8 million a year in additional revenue that Internet sales tax collection would raise would provide welcome relief to the twelve counties comprising Washington's 5th Congressional District.

So why won't US Representative Cathy McMorris Rogers do what's right for her district?

The bill has already passed the US Senate by a 69-27 margin, but faces a big hurdle in the Republican-controlled House where many GOPers insist that is a (gasp) tax increase. It isn't. This is a tax that consumers already owe their home states, but don't pay. The MFA only makes it possible for states to force Internet retailers to collect it.

As one of the highest ranking members of the Republican caucus, and arguably the most powerful member of our state delegation, McMorris Rogers has an opportunity to put the interests of her district and her state above her party's inflexible Norquistian ideology, and lead the way toward passing the MFA. As the most sales tax dependent state in the nation, no state would benefit more from the MFA's passage than Washington. To the tune of $491.1 million a year in combined state and local revenue.

McMorris Rogers quickly climbed the House GOP leadership ranks by adhering closely to the party line. Isn't it time for her to use her position to show some actual leadership on behalf of her constituents?

I've already written about the boon to state tax revenues should the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) pass the US House, enabling Washington State to collect an additional $567 million in taxes on the purchase of out-of-state goods in the 2015-17 biennium. But the so-called "Internet Sales Tax" would also prove a boon to local governments that have been slowly starved by a sales tax base that has been steadily shrinking as a portion of the overall economy.

According to the latest Washington State Department of Revenue projections, local governments would collect an additional $27.3 million in 2014, rising to $158.5 million in 2017 once businesses reach 90 percent compliance.

So what does this mean here in Seattle and King County? Well, King County accounts for about 40 percent of total taxable sales statewide, and Seattle accounts for about 39 percent of King County sales. So extrapolating from DOR's numbers, the following local revenues can be roughly approximated:

It's a rough extrapolation based on projected revenues. And not all of King County levies the full 3 cent per dollar local sales tax, so that muddies my calculations a touch. But it's certainly in the ballpark. And the biggest takeaway is that the MFA would raise a substantial amount of money to build and operate local transit—an additional $38 million a year for Metro and Sound Transit combined by 2017. You know, give or take.

That's not enough to solve all our problems; Metro alone faces a $75 million shortfall in 2014. But it makes a big dent. And to be clear: This is not a new tax! The MFA merely enables state and local governments to collect a tax consumers already owe, but overwhelmingly don't pay. And now that they've worked out the kinks so that it's no longer a burden on small retailers, it's hard to see the moral or economic argument against it.

...if the government would actually fucking hire some people?

With 2.2 million more government workers now, assuming the same labor force size, the unemployment rate wouldn't be 7.7 percent. It would be 6.3 percent.

The government is the most important job creator in the United States, and it's been slacking off.

I don't know if I can suggest that you go read this whole Thomas Friedman editorial for the New York Times, but this paragraph feels like a nicely encapsulated description of the world in which we live, especially the bit that I bolded:

If you are self-motivated, wow, this world is tailored for you. The boundaries are all gone. But if you’re not self-motivated, this world will be a challenge because the walls, ceilings and floors that protected people are also disappearing. That is what I mean when I say “it is a 401(k) world.” Government will do less for you. Companies will do less for you. Unions can do less for you. There will be fewer limits, but also fewer guarantees. Your specific contribution will define your specific benefits much more. Just showing up will not cut it.

The problem is, not every "self-motivated" person can succeed. That's just basic math. And all of us will have at one point during our lives a time in which we can't be "self-motivated," be it through illness or catastrophe or just plain bad luck. That's what May Day should be about, not smashing windows or fake "real life superheroes" who think they deserve public attention because of their dumb wardrobe choices. May Day should be about treating the most vulnerable with dignity and respect, because we're not just a bunch of animals.