The president’s tax plan defies economics. Again, how does that distinguish it from any of his other plans?
[Update a few minutes later]
After Obama, I don’t think there will be any more John Kerry or Al Gore sermons about the superior Europe model either. A disarmed, undemocratic, insolvent, shrinking, and increasingly polarized continent is now a model of what the United States should not be. There simply have been too many California as Greece stories for any politicians to advise us with the old admonition: “But In Europe, they….”
Obama thought that he would replicate the EU paradigm. He would bring in properly certified technocrats from academia or government like Chu, Geithner, Goolsbee, Holder, Orszag, Romer, and Summers to oversee massive new regulations and taxes that would dictate from on high how the ignorant masses must be protected from everything from cheap gas to old-style light bulbs. In less than three years, they all proved far more ignorant about what makes America work than the local car dealer, welder, or farmer. After Obama, Americans will not be fooled for a generation or so into thinking that a Harvard PhD or Berkeley professor “really” knows that borrowing is prosperity, that gas should cost as much as it does in Europe, and that the more we pay millions to regulate, the more the vastly fewer who produce make us all prosperous. (And given Obama’s mysterious silence about the undergraduate record at Occidental and Columbia that won him a scholarship to Harvard Law, we won’t take seriously any more the usual liberal critique of supposedly weak-minded conservative candidates who, based on their leaked undergraduate transcripts, could not get As decades ago in college.)
I hope that the current disastrous presidency turns out to be a blessing in disguise, by finally exposing all the mythology of the left, and inoculating us against such insanity for at least a generation.
[Update a few minutes later]
Tax the rich, just not my rich:
Menendez, Lautenberg and Kirsten Gillibrand support eliminating some or all of the Bush tax cuts. Schumer said the $250,000 limit is unacceptable since it will hit the metropolitan area disproportionately because of the high cost of living here.
“$250,000 makes you really rich in Mississippi but it doesn’t make you rich at all in New York and there ought to be some kind of scale based on the cost of living on how much you pay,” Schumer said.
So, Senator, if we should adjust taxation for areas with higher cost of living, why should there be a single federal minimum wage for the whole country?
[Update a few minutes later]
The president’s plan is all tax hikes and no cuts. What a shocker.
[Update a few more minutes later]
Barack Obama, home alone:
Ron Suskind quotes former administration official Larry Summers complaining: “We’re home alone. There’s no adult in charge. Clinton would never have made these mistakes.”
Put aside the misbegotten nostalgia for Bill Clinton, whose new status as an elder statesman wipes from memory his bouts of reckless immaturity. The Summers comment (subsequently denied, of course) stands as the best summation of the current occupant of the White House, who constantly congratulates himself on his high-minded leadership without exercising any.
Wasn’t this the guy who mused that he’d make a pretty good chief of staff? I’m trying to figure out what he’s good at, other than being a con man.
Its so sad that the Tea Party has derailed the Republican Party nationally. It would be nice if the options for 2012 were better then between someone without a clue and the kook fringe.
Perhaps the national Republicans will rally and take their party back like the ones in Nevada did.
Who are they taking their party back from exactly? The Boogieman?
Rand, the insanity runs so deep within so many people I doubt the people who should learn their lesson ever will. Case in point – the post above me.
I only see one kook around here …
“After Obama and Bush , Americans will not be fooled for a generation or so into thinking that a Harvard PhD or Berkeley professor “really” knows that borrowing is prosperity,”
Fixed.
My biggest concern is that the the national republican party will somehow manage to derail the tea party.
derailed the Republican Party
Titus, ya missed your high speed trains, cue.
Thomas, the article makes a simple point. Those demagoguing, by saying a small percent change will not change behavior are wrong, stupid and I would add evil because at some point they are killing people.
There is a problem and the elite Republicans that look down on the masses yearning to be free are a huge part of that problem. Derail, baby, derail. <– now I'm a racist terrorist, right?
It seems that Obama thinks that making cuts means there is more money to spend. The same goes for tax increases.
At best, spending cuts and tax increases combined with an economic recovery mean we can maintain our current levels of spending not spend more money. At worst, they mean that we are still deficit spending.
A comment from Althouse:
If you keep goats, and one escapes the pen, you’ll come home to find your roses chewed up and goat shit all over the porch.
What do you get when an academic escapes the pen?
President Obama.
It would be nice if the options for 2012 were better then between someone without a clue and the kook fringe.
So the “progressives” ARE going to primary Obama.
“now I’m a racist terrorist, right?”
It’s easy to get sucked into the lies of John Birch, the evil oil barons, and the Koch controlled MSM. Remember, Dear Leader works hard at taking your money and spreading the wealth. So, you should work even harder to show your gratitude at all that he’s done for you. Maybe your faith in Dear Leader will be restored with a few months of “reeducation”. Do your part for The People and report yourself to high-speed train station for work reassignment. Oh, and don’t forget your shovel, Comrade.
Is that Obama money from his stash?
Did the founders presume too much about intelligence?
Give every child and anyone in the world the right to vote in America. That’ll fix the problems.
Is there anything we can do or did Plato predict our demise centuries ago?
“I hope that the current disastrous presidency turns out to be a blessing in disguise, by finally exposing all the mythology of the left, and inoculating us against such insanity for at least a generation.”
Had the same thoughts at my own blog a few weeks ago, if you don’t mind the link spam: https://chilesfiles.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=214&action=edit
If we can just get through the next year or so, I believe we’ll come out better for it. This reckoning had to happen, and it’s all the better that it happened on their watch. They’ve been doing so much to sabotage the economy for decades (see “Reckless Endangerment”), they deserve to have President who so visibly stepped on the gas.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t drive us all the way over the cliff before Nov. 2012.
Crap.
Rand, I just posted the (hopefully) secure link address to my blog. No worries if you make it go away. That’s what I get for posting in a hurry…
Josh,
[[[Koch controlled MSM]]
I would hardly call Fox News MSM.
Pat,
[[[They’ve been doing so much to sabotage the economy for decades (see “Reckless Endangerment”), they deserve to have President who so visibly stepped on the gas. ]]]
Yes, President Bush did indeed finish the job the supply-side economists started, creating the biggest recession since the Depression and pushing us to the edge of the cliff. Its no accident that the National Debt, which had been decreasing as a percentage of GDP until 1980 shot up again.
Its a pity that Hillary Clinton wasn’t elected. Unlike President Obama she would have stood up to the supply-side economists instead of trying to appease them. After 30 years of lost ground its way past time to turn things around.
“I would hardly call Fox News MSM.”
They aren’t Koch controlled either.
“If we can just get through the next year or so, I believe we’ll come out better for it”
They are remaking Blade Runner, Red Dawn, Conan, Total Recall and who knows what else. The 80’s are coming back. We even have Jimmy Carter in the WH.
Thomas, I’d really like to know what planet you’re reporting on. It obviously bears no resemblance to this one.
Because debt accumulated under Democrat presidents = good.
Debt accumulated under Republican presidents = bad.
It’s really easy if you look at it that way. I guess that’s how one could read my comment as a defense of Bush. Then again, anyone who thinks Obama has been “appeasing the supply-siders” needs to put down the crack pipe.
Like I said, read “Reckless Endangerment”. You’ll find a few Republican fingerprints, but the mess we’re in is almost completely the result of Democrat-championed programs, influence peddling, and regulatory interference.
But don’t take my word for it. Read the book. If you don’t like it, your beef is with Gretchen Morgenson, not me. And she seems to have done her homework.
Pat,
No its simple. Increase of National Debt relative to GDP = bad. Decreasing National Debt relative GDP = good. The compare the record of Democrat and Republican presidents since 1950.
The compare the record of Democrat and Republican
presidentsCongresses since 1950.FIFY. Well, 1980. Before then, Democrats were a bit more concerned about fiscal policy than a socialist agenda.
I’m surprised Thomas didn’t produce a chart to support that
lietalking point.All flavors of congress are guilty which is why there is a tea party. That’s why we should elect Thomas tea party president. Without him it wouldn’t exist.