Yet his poll numbers remain high. I don’t get the disconnect. I hate him but I’ve never been polled.
...the borrowing binge has made the country very nervous...that’s why gold and ammo sales jumped...that’s why the prepper movement attracts new followers daily...people have a gut sense that this insane level of government spending money we don’t have; will lead to the end of the country as we know it.
This may be wishful thinking. Americans have been conditioned to think that the “rich” are supposed to subsidize them. We ask for more and more benefits and when they cost more than the taxes we get from the “rich”, politicians are too gutless to man up and either cut spending or raise taxes on the middle class. This deficit spending is just pushing off the inevitable hard choices. Todays politicians, including the Republicans who are talking a good game but doing nothing, are going to be remembered as failures.
The worse it becomes for us, the more he likes it.
He is intentionally devaluing our currency, so when we bottom out, he can step in and reconstruct (deconstruct) America to his own (Bill Ayers’; Reverend Wright’s, Bin Laden’s; _______________ fill in the blank) plan!!!
Can you say: WEIMAR REPUBLIC??
No, it really doesn't. If you think things are bad now, wait until the Bush tax cuts lapse in 2011. No, the gov't could right this ship fairly easily by significant and permanent tax cuts in personal, corporate, and capital gains taxes. Permanent cuts means that, due to higher take-home pay, consumers could qualify and afford more durable goods (e.g., housing, cars, college education, etc), the increased demand from which would increase the demand for labor and reduce the unemployment rate. Oh...BTW Washington, lower unemployment also means greater demand and a jokable $600 rebate may make political sense, but it has no significant impact on aggregate demand in a way that would affect unemployment rates
Corporations do not make money using tax rebates...they make money by selling output to consumers. The more they sell, the more inputs (e.g., labor) they need, hence the need for a sustained, meaningful, cut in personal tax rates. Tax rebates have no affect at all unless the corporation is profitable. However, permanently cut the tax rate and long run investment becomes more profitable.
Cut capital gains rates and long term investment funds become more available. The Pelosi-Reid idea of taxing IRA and 401K's is just plain stupid.
Won't tax cuts increase the deficit? No. Washington wants you to think so, but look at the effect of the Kennedy and Reagan tax cuts. Also look at the research by Arthur Laffer (The Laffer Curve) and the similar experiences in England and India. Cutting taxes actually stimulates the economy.
So why doesn't Washington cut taxes? Because they get more political power by giving your money away than by letting you spend it.
Wow!....from his hometown paper in Democrat Machine Central? And Mike Royko is long dead??
Excellent article and chart!
“ran as a centrist”.
Did this loser even hear what he said to Joe the Plumber?????
Anyone with half a brain and paying attention for about 30 seconds could see this guy was a Marxist from the get-go.
I just hope enough people wake up to repudiate him and his ilk thoroughly in 2010 and 2012. He needs to be shamed and reviled and die penniless in some cardboard box. Don’t other countries force their disgraced leaders to flee to exile somewhere? I’m sure Kenya would love to have him back!!!
What’s up with the upward blue dotted line for 2010-2011?
I hate that this Keynesian idea is now conventional wisdom. No, deficit spending does not need to be part of government's response to a recession. This concept is really not that complicated, though economists try to make it so. Government spending comes from one of three places:
1 Taxes. We can all agree raising taxes and leaving people with less money in their pockets to spend is not a good idea in a recession.
2. Print it. Hey, government runs the printing presses a little overtime, and voila, more money. Except for inflation, which is also not a good idea in a recession.
3. Borrow it. Also known as "deficit spending". Well, we don't have it now, but we can pay it back later when times are good and we're not in a recession. Ignoring the fact that we don't pay it back, it still doesn't work that way. There is a finite amount of surplus funds available to be lent. When government borrows money to spend, there is less capital available for private business to borrow. Either private businesses and individuals don't borrow the money to expand or make purchases or they do so at a higher price.
No extra spending is created. Keynesians argue that GDP consists of all spending, private and public, so if government spending increases, then GDP goes up. However, government has increased its spending at the cost of private spending, either by taking it directly from the public in taxes, by decreased purchasing power via inflation, or by increasing the cost and decreasing the availabiltiy of capital by borrowing. In other words, there is no such thing as a free lunch, even if you borrow the money for it.
I don’t believe it. The only concern for the urban masses of Rat detritus is free pie and more and more of it.
They control the cities, they control America.