Posted on 01/02/2013 8:46:43 AM PST by SeekAndFind
To listen to all the moaning out of the House of Representatives yesterday, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Republicans are losing the fiscal battle in Washington.
Actually, they're winning.
To see this, you just need to step back and look at the tax deal and the country's fiscal trends from a broader perspective.
Yesterday, the American government voted to extend almost all of the Bush Tax Cuts permanently.
Not temporarily, as a stimulus measure.
Permanently.
Ever since the Bush Tax Cuts were first enacted in 2001--temporarily, as a stimulus measure--one goal of the Republican party has been to "make the Bush Tax Cuts permanent."
For most of the last decade, this goal has seemed like an extremist view: Making the Bush Tax Cuts permanent would drastically reduce the federal government's revenue. It would also increase inequality and balloon the national debt and deficit--so how could we possibly justify doing that?
And yet now, suddenly, almost all of the Bush Tax Cuts are permanent.
The Republicans also got a good deal for the investor and owner class, making the Bush dividend tax cut permanent. This saves a lot of money in tax bills for America's wealthier investors.
And the Republicans also socked it to the working class, something that often seems to be an unstated goal of the party. How?
By not extending the payroll tax cut.
This payroll tax cut put up to an extra $2,000 a year in the pockets of everyone who works. The payroll tax hits everyone who earns wages, including the richest Americans, but it's a highly "regressive" tax: It takes a much bigger percentage of the income of those who earn less than $110,000 a year than it does from the richest Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Yeah, I reject the whole way this guy looks at the federal government’s role and purpose, but if it’s true that the tax rates for incomes below $450,000 are now permanent, that actually represent at least some of the “stability” that a lot of small business owners are looking for. They have been scared to death to create or expand operations out of fear of getting slammed with new and higher tax rates.
Henry “Buy Internet Stocks” Blodget
KABLAM
First, none of the 8 Virginia republicans voted for it.!!!
Second, of your 5 “cowards”, 4 of them are gone, 2 retired and 2 were voted out of office. I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t even back after Christmas, they probably already packed up and went home.
Third, “Primary-ed” isn’t really a word. The “word”, so to speak, would be “Primaried”, except that isn’t a word either (well, it actually IS a word, but it is an adjective associated with birds, not a verb.)
We have taken recently to saying someone should be “primaried”, but that is because we are lazy, and don’t want to say “challenged in the primary”. Which means in a couple of years, “primaried” will end up being a word, because that is how new words are formed.
I think it was a typo. Should be:
DON’T BE FOOLED: The Republicans Are Whining
[Right now, the Fed is buying $85 billion per month of our deficit spending which is darn near 100% of the deficit. PS - When is the last time China purchased any of our debt?]
Right you are. Why borrow money when you can print it?
Where? On a parallel universe?
“the payroll tax cut”
Which was being taken from social security that Obama didn’t want you to know. And it wasn’t actually a tax cut since you still paid it at the end of the year, another little tidbit Obama didn’t want you to understand.
“the payroll tax cut”
Which was being taken from social security that Obama didn’t want you to know. And it wasn’t actually a tax cut since you still paid it at the end of the year, another little tidbit Obama didn’t want you to understand.
Also note:
In 2002, then New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, published Merrill Lynch e-mails in which Blodget gave assessments about stocks which conflicted with what was publicly published. In 2003, he was charged with civil securities fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He agreed to a permanent ban from the securities industry and paid a $2 million fine plus a $2 million disgorgement.
Yes, there are no Virginians on the list, which means all 8 of the virginia republican representatives voted NO.
Meaning, nobody in MY STATE supported this bill. Yeah. Hence the exclamation points.
As to the rest, I was just pointing out that 4 of the 5 people you called "cowards" were likely not even in town, because they are gone, having not been re-elected.
I suspect if it was up to you, the democrats would have a super-majority in the house and senate, and a lock on the presidency.
I went to school with Henry; it was a good school, and he should know better...
I seriously want a hit of whatever this guy put into his bong. I think it’s the only way I’ll be able to survive the next few years. Seems to work well for him.
You want Newt Gingrich as Speaker? The guy who just this morning said: ““Everybody’s now talking about, ‘Oh, here comes the debt ceiling.’ I think that’s, frankly, a dead loser.”
My “up to you” comment was that if specific things turned out your way, the resulting consequences flowing logically from that would lead to a minority for the GOP house. I can’t know if you would welcome that outcome, as some did in 2006 and 2008, as a “necessary step” to the long-term goal.
To illustrate — if we snapped our fingers and Newt Gingrich was the speaker, and there was a game show such as you request, by 2014 the democrats would control the house.
In the interim, Newt would, as a pro-government-solution activist, look for the places where he could achieve victory to stroke his considerable ego and build up his prestige. And that means acting on all of his recent proclamations, such as dropping the fight on gay marriage, moving forward with global warming initiatives, supporting “republicans” like DeeDee Scozafozza simply because they have an “R” by their name, and grandstanding for the cameras instead of winning the conservative battles.
He’d probably find a way to kick up some ethical dustballs while he was at it, although I’m willing to believe he has matured and grown wiser in his years, and even that his wandering eye has finally come home.
Gingrich is a wonderful blend of conservative strength, liberal pandering, and hair-brained schemes, with the common thread that Gingrich believes that government exists to solve our problems.
So, he shut down government, and pushed to reform welfare. But he supports ethanol subsidies, and established the modern pork-barrel politics.
He balanced the budget, and sat on a couch with Nancy Pelosi. He debated John Kerry, but said Kerry’s book was good and that something needed to be done to stop global warming.
Then he proposed a “better solution”: “a program including cash prizes, targeted tax cuts and other economic incentives will lure business entrepreneurs to develop technology to tackle the climate problem. He said that type of program would be faster than a bureaucratic government program because it will avoid the rush of special interests to avoid regulation and costly litigation.”
A great plan, if you think that there is a real problem, that government exists to solve problems, and that the only problem with liberals is that they pick the WRONG government solutions.
He wanted to extend all the Bush tax cuts, but thinks we shouldn’t use the debt ceiling to fight for spending cuts.
He opposed Obamacare, but advocated for the individual mandate. He proposed a federal rule requiring kids to take gym class. From one of his many “idea” books: “Physical education in schools is done under a federally mandated guideline. Although it states that schools are to provide physical education classes three to four times per week, the only state holding to this guideline is the state of Illinois. Demand it.”
Because that is what conservative believe in, the federal government mandating the curriculum of local schools. But it’s not that Gingrich isn’t conservative, it’s that he is a solution guy, and believes government is an integral part of the solution.
So he sees fat kids, and says “How can I make the federal government fix fat kids, but in a ‘conservative’ way”. When in fact, the federal government has no business forcing kids to take gym class.
Anyway, even if Gingrich did everything you would want, the very act of putting him in power, and of winning primary battles against every republican house and senate member that you find “moderate”, would be to lose enough seats to put Pelosi in power.
Unless you can also click your magical heels and give us a new set of conservatives who actually understand conservative principles, AND know how to articulate them. We have way too few people for whom conservatism is their life, rather than their political choice.
Newt’s the only one with the guts AND the brains to do something to fix this ARAB-KENYAN MESS!
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