Posted on 11/29/2012 2:45:59 AM PST by Kaslin
One bright spot of Barack Obama's re-election was knowing that unemployment rates were about to soar for the precise groups that voted for him -- young people, unskilled workers and single women with degrees in gender studies. But now the Democrats are sullying my silver lining by forcing Republicans to block an utterly pointless tax-raising scheme in order to blame the coming economic Armageddon on them.
Democrats are proposing to reinstate the Bush tax cuts for everyone ... except "the rich." (Why do only tax cuts come with an expiration date? Why not tax increases? Why not Obamacare? How about New York City's "temporary" rent control measures intended for veterans returning from World War II?)
Raising taxes only on the top 2 percent of income earners will do nothing to reduce the deficit. There's not enough money there -- even assuming, contrary to all known history, that the top 2 percent won't find ways to reduce their taxable income or that the imaginary increased government revenue would be applied to deficit reduction, anyway.
Apart from Obamacare, it's difficult to think of a more effective method of destroying jobs than raising taxes on "the rich." This isn't a wealth tax on useless gigolos like John Kerry -- it's an income tax on people who are currently engaged in some profitable enterprise. Their business profits, which could have been used to hire more employees, will instead be used to pay the government.
But Republicans are over a barrel. Unless Republicans and Democrats reach an agreement, the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year. By pushing to extend the tax cuts for everyone except "the rich," Democrats get to look like champions of middle class tax cuts and Republicans can be portrayed as caring only about the rich.
And when the economy tanks, the Non-Fox Media will blame Republicans.
The economy will tank because, as you will recall, Obama is still president. Government rules, regulations, restrictions, forms and inspections are about to drown the productive sector. Obamacare is descending on job creators like a fly swatter on a gnat. Obama has already managed to produce the only "recovery" that is worse than the preceding recession since the Great Depression. And he says, "You ain't seen nothing yet."
The coming economic collapse is written in the stars, but if Republicans "obstruct" the Democrats by blocking tax hikes on top income earners, they're going to take 100 percent of the blame for the Obama economy.
You think not? The Non-Fox Media managed to persuade a majority of voters that the last four years of jobless misery was George W. Bush's fault, having nothing whatsoever to do with Obama.
The media have also managed to brand Republicans as the party of the rich, even as eight of the 10 richest counties voted for Obama. And that doesn't include pockets of vast wealth in cities -- Nob Hill in San Francisco, the North Shore of Chicago, the Upper East Side of Manhattan and the Back Bay of Boston -- whose residents invariably vote like welfare recipients. Seven of the 10 richest senators are Democrats. The very richest is the useless gigolo.
Republicans have a PR problem, not an economic theory problem. That doesn't mean they should cave on everything, but seeming to fight for "tax cuts for the rich" is a little close to the bone, no matter how tremendously counterproductive such taxes are.
Yes, conservatives can try harder to get the truth out, but as UCLA political science professor Tim Groseclose has shown, media bias already costs Republicans about 8 to 10 points in elections. Try arguing a year from now that Republicans' refusal to agree to tax hikes on the top 2 percent of income earners -- resulting in an expiration of all the Bush tax cuts -- had nothing to do with the inevitable economic disaster.
Republicans have got to make Obama own the economy.
They should spend from now until the end of the congressional calendar reading aloud from Thomas Sowell, Richard Epstein, John Lott and Milton Friedman and explaining why Obama's high tax, massive regulation agenda spells doom for the nation.
Then some Republicans can say: We think this is a bad idea, but Obama won the election and the media are poised to blame us for whatever happens next, so let's give his plan a whirl and see how the country likes it.
Republicans need to get absolute, 100 percent intellectual clarity on who bears responsibility for the next big recession. It is more important to win back the Senate in two years than it is to save the Democrats from their own idiotic tax plan. Unless Republicans give them an out, Democrats won't be able to hide from what they've done.
Even Democrats might back away from that deal.
If things are bad enough there can be a complete turnaround; where BJ Clinton came into office with Dems controlling the White House and Congress, after eight years of him (and we still hear how popular and loved he was) the voters put Republicans in control of everything.
Just vote for 0bama’s way - with the understanding and clear communication that it will not help but will hurt. Blame the aye vote on the election. Then when it crashes it WILL be 0bama’s.
Like the article says - make ‘em own it.
Good point, I have been saying all along that the Democrats own this economy and the wars too, they can’t keep blaming Bush, not anymore, I just get frustrated with our leadership, they seem to capitulate to the Democrats. We must fight! It is a war we can win, the Democrats have declared war on God, American values, and morality too, we can’t lose this war, we must not give up!
BUMP
The premise of the article is almost laughable. It presupposes American voters have the capacity to grasp the complexities of economics.
The dems can only “own” this economy insofar as the public will hang it around their necks. With a corrupt media and a thoroughly dumbed-down electorate, getting to the “Dems-own-the-economy” point is nearly impossible. As of Nov. 6, voters were still...astonishingly...blaming Bush for the current economic malaise.
I agree. Give him what he wants, sit back and watch him implode.
it didn't work for his first 4 years...and he said plane as day,“If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.”
Dopey Romney didn't use this (at least I never heard an ad that used this quote).
I am sure you meant plain, not plane as in airplane or a tool that is used to make wood surfaces smooth.
I couldn`t agree more... it`s a very bitter pill to swallow, but the majority of voters said loudly, “we want socialism.”
And I don`t two sh*ts about any post election poll that says otherwise. That point Ben Franklin feared .. the act of voting for benefits over country... has been passed.
That`s not to say a smaller, truncated grouping of “red” states couldn`t carry freedom`s torch in the future... but America`s fate as a 50-state entity is sealed. Wish it weren`t so.
But, but, but Obama said ‘we tried our economy........and it worked’. And NOBODY disputed this on the national stage. Our country is indeed going into the crapper and the Republicans will be blamed. No matter what ever happens, Democrats take credit and Republicans take blame.
I believe we’ve reached a Demographic shift significant enough that it doesn’t really matter what happens, a large enough chunk of the population will continue to vote Democrat no matter what they do and no matter how bad things get. I repeatedly saw articles and people writing on this very forum how this was 1980 all over again. I said “It’s not 1980 anymore”. Some rebuked me calling me a “gloom and doomer”, etc. I was right.
If Pubs vote with the Rats to further destroy this economy, Rats can rightly say that Pubs voted for collapse, too.
Instead, Pubs in Congress should vote present, saying they cannot back fiscal insanity, but this is what Americans voted for, so they will get it, courtesy of the Rats.
One problem is conservatives allow themselves to get beaten down with charges of racism whenever they challenge Obama. The race pimping should`ve been met with a loud rebuke and a challenge to prove it. Conservatives always fall silent.
Normally, I agree with Ann on issues. With this column, I'd love a hit on what she's smoking. It has to be some pretty impressive stuff.
What has happened to make ANYONE think ANY Democrat will be blamed for ANYTHING no matter what the Republicans do or don't do?
The Democrats have been held harmless by the very people their policies have ruined and have been ruining for most of my life. Then we enact policies to make that ruination accepable to the ruined parties. Right now they are debating the expansion of those policies.
When the Democrats can strengthen their position despite their obvious plan to destroy every industry and institution that makes this country function and every characteristic that made this country great, I don't know what they can do to take possession of the disasters they have caused.
Maybe Ann has thrown her hands in the air and said, "Its over." She's certainly smart enough to realize they won't be blamed no matter what the Republicans do.
-— I was right. -—
You were right.
Ditto here, re the 1980 comparison. I caught the same “downer” accusations.
The populace was far better educated, more in tune with reality and far more patriotic in 1980 than it is now.
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