Category Archives: Political polemics

KRUGMAN’S KIND OF KOMMON SENSE

Posted on August 16, 2011 | 1 comment
Paul Krugman, Laureate of the Sveriges Riksban...

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Justice Samuel Alito is a Princeton graduate and very proud of it. Nevertheless, if memory serves me right, he said he heard more common sense when talking to one man in the street than he heard from all the Princeton elites. Personally, I suspect the judge must have been thinking of Joe the Plumber and Paul Krugman at the time.

In a recent column in the New York Times, Krugman writes that we are seeing “what happens when influential people exploit a crisis rather than try to solve it.” Shades of Rahm Emmanuel and his “We must not let this crisis go to waste”? Not at all. That would be common sense. In Krugman’s Princetonian mind, unemployment is the crisis, more debt is the solution and opposing debt is exploitation. If you find that confusing, it’s because you have common sense.

Standard & Poor warned that if something wasn’t done to curb the federal debt it could lead to a reduction of the credit rating. When an agreement was reached that prompted an immediate increase in debt with no more than promises to reduce spending the stock market took a plunge. Every householder knows that a credit rating is based on a combination payment history and outstanding debt. But as Krugman sees it, when the markets tanked, they “were signaling, as clearly as anyone could ask, that unemployment rather than deficits is our biggest problem.” In other words, to improve your credit rating you must increase your debt.

The elite economist closes with “The usual suspects will, of course, denounce such ideas as irresponsible.” No, Paul, such ideas are not irresponsible, they’re just plain stupid. Have you no common sense?

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Posted in Opinion, Political philosophy, Political polemics

WARREN BUFFET IS AT IT AGAIN

Posted on August 15, 2011 | 1 comment

C’mon Warren, tell the whole story. The only reason your net tax rate is so low is because most of your income is from stock dividends. Your salary puts you in the top tax bracket which is 28% and that is what you are paying on your wages. Tell it like it is.

TWO CORPORATE JET MAGNATES

The money that’s paid to you in dividends is taxed at 35% before you even get it. Then you are taxed another 15% on the same money. The government is getting half of the profit the business makes. Isn’t that enough? It’s in the same ballpark as many other countries although they collect it differently. Some tax all 50% at the corporate level and take none from the investor. Others take all 50% from the investor and nothing from the corporation on money they pay out in dividends. In the latter case your bottom line taxes would be nearly 50%. In either case the money collected by the government is the same.

Quit your squawking and do more of what your buddy Bill Gates does. Give more of your embarrassment of riches directly to good causes like hospitals, schools and centers for medical research. By-pass the middle man. Your money will go farther. None of it will be siphoned off for political corruption and you can choose what you want to support. If Obama loses the next election your tax money will be managed by Republicans. Is that really what you want?

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THE FRUITS OF LIBERALISM – LONDON BRIDGES FALLING DOWN

Posted on August 13, 2011 | Leave a comment

Burning busses, overturned cars, smashed windows and spoiled upper class youths joining in with grown up feral children gone wild. Jolly Old England may still be old but the Brits have lost their jollies. Socrates would have you answer the question, why? The UK Daily Mail responds:

Years of liberal dogma have spawned a generation of amoral, uneducated, welfare dependent, brutalised youngsters.

And that’s just the headline. If I were still a headline editor, I would have changed brutalized to brutalizing. The paper went on to suggest:

Nobody has ever dared suggest to them that they need feel any allegiance to anything, least of all Britain or their community. They do not watch royal weddings or notice Test matches or take pride in being Londoners or Scousers or Brummies. Not only do they know nothing of Britain’s past, they care nothing for its present.

A wee bit of translation is in order for American readers. Brummies are people from the city of Brumfield or its environs. The definition of a Scouser is less obvious. A Scouser is someone from Liverpool; from either side of the river Mersey qualifies. These are middle class areas known for the fierce pride of their citizens.

People who are proud of their accomplishments do not seek to destroy the source of their pride. Youths who are proud of their nation and neighborhood are not given to trashing them. Liberal dogma in Britain has created a welfare state and a world without these prides.

How many of the rioters vote is an open question. But there can be little question about which party they would support.

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DEMOCRAT’S REMORSE

Posted on August 11, 2011 | Leave a comment

Garden variety Democrats are beginning to say in public what they have privately felt for quite some time. Barack Obama is failing as president. The thought that Hillary would have been a better choice is widespread. I wonder.

Hillary certainly outshines Obama on foreign policy matters but the plummeting of Obama’s star is tied to issues here at home. His bumbling abroad was of concern to conservatives but mostly taken in stride by Democrats. The two candidate’s agendas at home were much the same – government run health care, Cap & Trade, Card Check, more industry regulation and enhanced “entitlements”.

Nancy Pelosi would still have been running the house and Harry Reid would still be running the Senate. Instead of a president experienced in the application of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, we would have a president who wrote her doctoral thesis on the author and the teachings outlined in his book. There is a difference, but does it matter? The 60’s radicals would still be in control of all three of the branches of government that run the show.

And then there is the big question; would Hillary have been elected? Obama won handily and always held the lead, but a month or so before election day, the pollsters reported the race was getting close. It’s a safe assumption to say there was greater passion to elect the first black man to the presidency than the first woman. And Hillary didn’t have the slogan Hope and Change. The power of that theme cannot be underestimated. Intentionally vague, it was a blank check for fulfillment of your hopes and dreams whatever they may be.

Blaming the leader and not the system is as routine an act for the Left as breakfast in the morning. Eventually a point is reached where blaming the opposition is just not credible. The only reason Communism didn’t work in Russia was that Lenin and Stalin were corrupt and ineffective. Socialism works. It just has to be done right. That’s the unshakable belief.

Barack Obama did not initiate the decline of America that is taking place. But he is presiding over the culmination. Sometimes a disease has to get really serious before we will submit to the cure. In that sense, Obama may have done the country a service.

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THERE IS A GOOD REASON WHY THE DEBT CEILING FIGHT WAS SO FIERCE

Posted on August 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

It was a bitter fight.  Thank God for the fight!  For without it the Democrats would have ratcheted the national debt even higher.

The reason the nation’s credit rating was reduced is because the federal government overspends and is deeply, very deeply,  in debt.  In defiance of all reason, the Democrats fought hard to increase spending and increase the level of debt.  Rick Santelli got it right when he said if it had not been for the Tea Party the nation’s credit rating would be BBB.  Thank God for the Tea Party!

Santelli may have been engaging in a bit of hyperbole, but then he may not.  What rating would you give to a family with an 80,000 annual income that is 501,000 dollars in debt?  Would you trust them more if they promised to cut a little spending, perhaps to 124,000  sometime in the near future,  but only if you agree to increase their line of credit immediately so they can spend more now?

The numbers in the table below are real. They were not pulled out of a hat.   See this prior post for an explanation of the family equivalent table.  Click on the table to enlarge it.


As long as Democrats control the Senate and the presidency the choice will be bitter word fights in Washington or deadly riots elsewhere as the money for “entitlements” runs out.  Thank God for the word fights.

P.S.
We are back.  The vacation was great.  Look for new posts.

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THE DEBT AND DESTINY OF THE UNITED STATES

Posted on July 28, 2011 | 2 comments

Why the Debt Ceiling Fight Is So Fierce

Really now, how serious is this national debt problem?.  Figures fly at us like a fleet of locusts.  The onslaught of numbers comes from all directions, talk radio, think tanks, politicians and from agencies of the government itself.  The size alone makes it impossible to relate.

We have been told how many freight cars it would take to hold a trillion one dollar bills and how many times a trillion dollars worth of sawbucks would go around the world laid end to end.  But that doesn’t tell us anything useful; it just shows the numbers are big.  We knew that.  Then we read about percentages of GDP.  What does that mean?  How can we relate?  How can we make sense of it?  We do it by relating expenses and debt to income, not to freight cars or GDP.  Our table relates the financial state of the nation to basic family finances.

The government numbers in the table are fixed.  Except for Unfunded Liabilities which is an estimate; the figures are reported facts.  The family side is a “what-if” table.  It answers the question — if a family had an income of 80,000 dollars with spending and debt in the same ratio to family income as the government ratios, where would the family be?

The answer is nearly unimaginable.  Such a family would have a half million dollars in outstanding debt, over 600,000 dollars in additional future commitments, no savings and still spending nearly 60% more than they earn.  Is it any wonder the rating agencies are prepping us for a downgrade?  Is it any wonder why there is a stalemate in Congress when some members, with the backing of the president, actually want to increase federal spending and debt while others insist on cutting both before it’s too late?

If your income is half the 80,000, cut the rest of the numbers on the family side in half.  If your income is double, double them.  If you have a blog please feel free to take the table and use it as you wish.  The more distribution it gets, the better.

Click the table to enlarge it.

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A CALL TO OPEN GOVERNMENT

Posted on July 27, 2011 | 1 comment
Jeff Sessions

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In this debt debate, do you really know who has offered what?  Did Obama agree on some things, and then raise the bar when they were accepted as some Republicans have said?  Or did he not?  Name three key points and the numbers involved on which the two sides disagree.  Okay, then name one, with the numbers, of course.

I have warned from the beginning that if we skirted legislative process in favor of closed-door White House meetings, we would find ourselves in the 11th hour with gimmick-filled legislation being rushed through to a panic-driven vote. … We should try the one thing that has been refused from the beginning: open hearings, regular order, and real legislative process.     Sen. Jeff Sessions (R AL).

But then, let’s follow the law–that is, the Congressional Budget Act, which the Democrats have wantonly ignored. Let’s have committee hearings and craft legislation in the light of day; let’s debate the resulting bills on the floors of the House and Senate; let’s propose and debate amendments; let’s allow the American people and third-party experts to see and to evaluate the tax and spending proposals that our representatives want to enact.  That’s the way the federal government is supposed to conduct its fiscal business.  Let’s get back to it.      John Hinderaker (Power Line blog)

Obfuscation is a tactic.  It hides the truth.  The majority of the public wants to see spending reduced.  The truth is Obama wants to see federal spending increased.  The truth hurts his cause.  But closed doors cannot block discernment.  The President is digging himself into a hole on this one.

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BOEHNER REDUCES OBAMA TO ROLE OF UNNEEDED MIDDLEMAN

Posted on July 24, 2011 | 2 comments

House leader Boehner apparently has found it impossible to deal with Obama because the President first agrees before he doesn’t. In a Saturday conference call the Speaker told colleagues he told the President,

“As I read the Constitution, the Congress writes the laws and you get to decide what you want to sign.”

Wow! Now we know why Obama was so angry in his Saturday night prime time address. Go, Boehner, Go! Hang tough. I didn’t know you had it in you.

As I see it, this has put the ball squarely in the Democrat’s court. The House passed the only debt limit bill ever presented in either chamber and passed it with an overwhelming majority vote. It is up to the Senate to agree to it as it stands or offer modifications that might be agree upon. Obama has been taken out of the loop.

If Boehner’s strategy works, the President’s only choice will be to sign the bill or veto it. Either way he loses. It’s a high risk strategy that could misfire if negotiations fail in the Senate. Voters in both parties are unhappy with their elected officials. All the Republicans need to get it through is a couple of Democrats with wobbly seats facing re-election. Harry Reid would be in no position to fail to bring it to a vote.

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OBAMA’S DEBT SPEECH and THE POWER OF THE BULLY PULPIT

Posted on July 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

Only a President can demand and get an hour or so of prime time on television to tell his side of the story without rebuttal. Only this president picks reporters from a pre-pared list. Not one reporter asked a grilling question. Need I explain why?

This morning and ABC News reporter did an excellent job covering Obama’s speech. Her article was an accurate and objective account of what the President said. But the Presidents words were in Washington Speak; here are some translations.

Finally disclosing the details of the plan, the president said the White House offered more than $1 trillion in cuts to discretionary spending, $650 billion in cuts to  entitlement  redistribution programs and, in return,  asked Republicans for $1.2 trillion in additional  revenues  taxes by  eliminating loopholes  changing the tax code and  engaging in tax reforms  increasing taxes.

While the president admitted Democrats wanted  more revenue  higher taxes than they had initially  offered  wanted, he said that spending cuts were at least as significant as those put forward in the bipartisan proposals.

Students of Orwell’s “1984” and Random Thots “Propagandic” will instantly recognize that the word taxes has been thrown down the Memory Hole. People no longer pay taxes, the government earns revenue.

The president declared that Boehner walked away from the deal

Yes, that’s what the President said from his bully pulpit. Boehner said it was the President who walked out. But that didn’t get much coverage.

“If you don’t have revenues, the entire thing ends up being tilted on the backs of the poor [who pay no taxes] and middle-class families.  And the majority of Americans don’t agree on that approach,” he added.

Actually, it is the GOP position that is the most favored according to this Rasmussen poll of likely voters.

They are going to have to explain to me how it is that we are going to avoid default,” Obama said. “And they can come up with any plans  that they want  except for the ones they want and bring them up here and we will work on them.

 Of course Obama threw in a few lines about corporate jets, a threat to seniors Social Security, how the rich have more money than they need and all that usual stuff. With this show to watch, who needs Barnum & Bailey?

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IT IS TIME FOR AMERICAN INDUSTRY TO FIGHT BACK

Posted on July 21, 2011 | Leave a comment
Steve Wynn, developer, taken inside the Wynn R...

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Corporate enterprises are favorite whipping boys for the Left.  Look how the anointed one is leading the liberal crowd in the chant — corporate jets! — corporate jets!  big fat cats in corporate jets!  Can anyone tell me why corporate jets are bad for the country?  The stockholders pay for corporate jets; not taxpayers.  Taxpayers benefit from corporate jets.  How?  Millions, yes, millions, not thousands or tens of thousands, but millions of workers are employed fully or partially in the production, operation, servicing, design and component manufacturing of corporate jets.

Obama doesn’t use a corporate jet.  He uses Air Force One which is the size of two corporate jets.  And there’s a second plane just for his wife when she and the kids go somewhere on their own.  There are no stockholders to pay for the bill.  It’s the taxpayers who pay for Obama’s jets.  And that’s precisely as it should be.  There is no reason why the President of the United States should have to risk being groped every time he wants to take a trip.  And there is no justification for denying the same benefit to industry leaders in the private sector.  While there is no justification, there is a reason.  Demagoguery wins votes.  And if it’s not demagoguery, then why is the cry always corporate jets, never celebrity jets.

One of the most popular jets in corporate use today is the Gulfstream line.  The Gulfstream Company has manufacturing and refurbishing plants in Georgia, Indiana, Texas, Minnesota and Massachusetts, and that’s not the full list to be sure.  Gulfstream and Boeing are significant players in what’s left of hard goods manufacturing in this country yet the President is fighting both of them.  Why don’t corporate leaders speak out?

One business man has.  During his quarterly business conference call, Las Vegas magnate Steve Wynn, a Democrat, laid into Barack Obama for obstructing job recovery.  Here’s what he had to say on his quarterly business conference.

And I’m saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime.  And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right.  A President that seems, that keeps using that word redistribution.  Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration.  And it makes you slow down and not invest your money.

We need to hear from more business leaders like Wynn.  There is no question but that his sentiments are widely shared among business executives but far too many of these captains of industry are afraid to go on record with a public statement.  At one time, the major challenges in starting a new business or expanding an existing one were matters like finding capital, hiring the right employees and developing ways to deal successfully with the competition.  Now the primary challenge is the multitude of obstacles presented by a plethora of government commissions and regulatory agencies.  Crossing any one of them is at your peril.  One of the most skillful pilots ever, Bob Hoover, had his flying privileges taken a way by a bureaucrat to whom he denied a ride. 

Wynn, obviously frustrated in the extreme, later returned to his concern about the business policies of President Barack Obama and his administration.

The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don’t invest, their holding too much money.  We haven’t heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists.  Everybody’s afraid of the government and there’s no need soft peddling it, it’s the truth.  It is the truth.  And that’s true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid.

The Las Vegas entrepreneur’s support for Harry Reid is understandable.  Nevada is Reid’s state and Las Vegas is Reid’s city.  What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas… as long as Harry Reid wants it to.  Wynn’s companies owned five casino’s in the town at last count.  He wants them to stay in Vegas.  Nevertheless, we need more men like Wynn.  Where are they?

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