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Swindle of the year
Washington Post ^ | December 10,1012 | Charles Krauthammer

Posted on 12/10/2010 8:06:45 AM PST by Hojczyk

Barack Obama won the great tax-cut showdown of 2010 - and House Democrats don't have a clue that he did. In the deal struck this week, the president negotiated the biggest stimulus in American history, larger than his $814 billion 2009 stimulus package. It will pump a trillion borrowed Chinese dollars into the U.S. economy over the next two years - which just happen to be the two years of the run-up to the next presidential election. This is a defeat?

At great cost that will have to be paid after this newest free lunch, the package will add as much as 1 percent to GDP and lower the unemployment rate by about 1.5 percentage points. That could easily be the difference between victory and defeat in 2012.

Obama is no fool. While getting Republicans to boost his own reelection chances, he gets them to make a mockery of their newfound, second-chance, post-Bush, Tea-Party, this-time-we're-serious persona of debt-averse fiscal responsibility.

If Obama had asked for a second stimulus directly, he would have been laughed out of town. Stimulus I was so reviled that the Democrats banished the word from their lexicon throughout the 2010 campaign. And yet, despite a very weak post-election hand, Obama got the Republicans to offer to increase spending and cut taxes by $990 billion over two years. Two-thirds of that is above and beyond extension of the Bush tax cuts but includes such urgent national necessities as windmill subsidies.

No mean achievement. After all, these are the same Republicans who spent 2010 running on limited government and reducing debt. And this budget busting occurs less than a week after the president's deficit commission had supposedly signaled a new national consensus of austerity and frugality.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bushtaxcut; krauthammer; obama; obamataxcut; stimulus; taxcut; unemployment
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1 posted on 12/10/2010 8:06:46 AM PST by Hojczyk
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To: Hojczyk

Obama needs to be arrested, tried for treason and brought to justice for the harm he has done to America.


2 posted on 12/10/2010 8:07:56 AM PST by thethirddegree
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To: thethirddegree

When gas 6 dollars and the dollar is worth nothing maybe the revolution will come..The GOP better get straight in January or there done..


3 posted on 12/10/2010 8:11:41 AM PST by Hojczyk
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To: Hojczyk

Legalized theft of the national treasure. Tea Party patriots need to gear up to further drain the swamp in DC in 2 years. Many GOP incumbents need to go as well.


4 posted on 12/10/2010 8:15:33 AM PST by Hotlanta Mike (TeaNami)
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To: Hojczyk

Charles:
Why must you keep harping that we have to borrow this money? Quit spending it and you do not have to borrow it. Simple.


5 posted on 12/10/2010 8:23:14 AM PST by ProudFossil
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To: thethirddegree
I don't get Krauthammer’s reasoning in this article. Of course I am against the unemployment benefits extension and the other liberal b.s. in this deal, but Krauthammer seems to suggest that he is in favor of increasing the tax rates back to the pre-Bush levels. Krauthammer is even using the liberal terminology of extending the Bush tax “cuts” instead of correctly stating that we need to extend the Bush tax “rates” instead of increasing taxes in the face of 9.8% unemployment. And where on earth does he get the idea that extending the Bush tax “rates” amounts to a “stimulus”? Dr. Krauthammer must have taken a liberal pill this morning.
6 posted on 12/10/2010 8:24:44 AM PST by texasmountainman (I like it better when Obama is on vacation.)
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To: ProudFossil

I am not Charles, but,Can’t do that. We have to keep the sheep pacified and condition them to depend on The Great White Father in Washington to take care of them.
Instead of them taking care of themselves.


7 posted on 12/10/2010 8:26:41 AM PST by sport
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To: Hojczyk
Go to fox and read the transcript of kraut with the All Stars from last night and the night before. He praised this bill... and for the second night in a row he said obama was back... that he shown real leadership and that this is a win win for him. He also said that tax cuts were a cost to the budget and that we could not afford them. The other conservative... the guy with the beard... told charles that he was absolutely without a doubt wrong. chuckie is a liberal and he still has a tingle for obama... he loves the guy.

LLS

8 posted on 12/10/2010 8:29:05 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (WOLVERINES!)
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To: Hotlanta Mike
The gop needs to be destroyed if they fail this time... there will be no compromise... another party will be an absolute necessity.

LLS

9 posted on 12/10/2010 8:30:43 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (WOLVERINES!)
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To: ProudFossil

chuckie is a big gubmint liberal... cutting spending is not in him... only higher taxes and more gubmint.

LLS


10 posted on 12/10/2010 8:32:10 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (WOLVERINES!)
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To: Hojczyk
Krauthammer is very, very bright. However, he is one of the "conservative" pundits with whom I no longer have any patience. Noonan is another.

Sorry. Not an actual Conservative. Just plays one on TV.

11 posted on 12/10/2010 8:38:00 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: Hojczyk

Krauthammer has been acting like a real jerk.

There is a huge difference between throwing porkulus funds into the gutter for your friends to fight over, and letting hard-working taxpayers keep their own money.

In reality, the first did not succeed in stimulating anything. In fact, it resulted in more job losses. The second won’t stimulate anything either—because we already HAVE the Bush tax cuts. But if we don’t keep them, then it will be like dropping a large rock on the remains of our economy. It will cost MORE millions of job losses.

Krauthammer does not understand that there is a difference between balancing the budget by raising taxes and by cutting spending. Raising taxes makes things worse. Cutting spending makes things better. Spending cuts are the only rational way to balance the budget in this disastrous economic collapse. It will hurt, but not permanently.


12 posted on 12/10/2010 8:42:54 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius.)
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To: Cicero
Krauthammer does not understand that there is a difference between balancing the budget by raising taxes and by cutting spending. Raising taxes makes things worse. Cutting spending makes things better. Spending cuts are the only rational way to balance the budget in this disastrous economic collapse.

When did they ever cut spending except for the military?

13 posted on 12/10/2010 9:27:22 AM PST by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: Hojczyk
It will pump a trillion borrowed Chinese dollars into the U.S. economy over the next two years

No Charles, excessive and wasteful spending by Congress of money we don't have will result in unnecessary borrowings from China.

14 posted on 12/10/2010 9:40:40 AM PST by DTogo (High time to bring back the Sons of Liberty !!)
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To: neverdem

That’s why we need new guys in congress. The old ones are hopeless.

The Dems did the big damage: Woodrow Wilson, FDR, LBJ, WJC, Obama. And then the Republicans came in and never, never, reversed that damage.

This time needs to be different, if we are to save our country.

Either the Republicans are transformed and renewed, or they are replaced by a new second party. And we have about two years to decide which it will be.

Putting that left-wing light bulb destroyer in charge of energy is a pretty good sign that the party still has not been changed as it needs to be. Intolerable. Unexcusable.


15 posted on 12/10/2010 9:41:14 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius.)
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To: ProudFossil

But we haven’t quit spending it. This is a continuation of the Bush years, more tax cuts and more spending. There are two choices that can prevent the financial ruin of this country. 1) Spend a lot less and tax a bit less. 2) Spend a bit more and tax a lot more.

This is only going to hasten the day America defaults on it’s debt.


16 posted on 12/10/2010 10:26:38 AM PST by MontaniSemperLiberi (Moutaineers are Always Free)
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To: LibLieSlayer

No one has cut any spending. This agreement causes us to INCREASE spending.


17 posted on 12/10/2010 10:28:25 AM PST by MontaniSemperLiberi (Moutaineers are Always Free)
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To: neverdem

And this agreement does not cut spending. It increases it. This is a continuation of the Bush years.


18 posted on 12/10/2010 10:29:48 AM PST by MontaniSemperLiberi (Moutaineers are Always Free)
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To: Hojczyk
Obama's public exasperation with this infantile leftism is both perfectly understandable and politically adept. It is his way back to at least the appearance of centrist moderation. The only way he will get a second look from the independents who elected him in 2008 - and abandoned the Democrats in 2010 - is by changing the prevailing (and correct) perception that he is a man of the left.

While I am still mulling the bulk of Krauthammer's analysis, I have to say the above was my first reaction to Obambi's reaction.

The problem, though, is that while Krauthammer may be absolutely correct on the facts, as Tony Blair says, "mood always trumps politics."

It's not clear yet how analyses such as Charles' play, or don't, with or against the prevailing mood, which is the foundation for the mood of the country during the presidential election cycle.

19 posted on 12/10/2010 10:45:02 AM PST by fightinJAG (Americans: the only people in the world protesting AGAINST government "benefits.")
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To: texasmountainman

I also found his reasoning not very clear.


20 posted on 12/10/2010 10:46:14 AM PST by fightinJAG (Americans: the only people in the world protesting AGAINST government "benefits.")
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