A Blog Version Of The Inside Of My Head. The place where politics, film, the media, music, pop culture, and random topics collide in an orgy of neo-philisophical randomness that would make your mother scream.
In which Steve King joins the ranks of Republicans such as Rick Perry in not only accepting Stimulus funds but touting their acceptance of such.
Today we celebrate a major milestone in the effort to complete a four-lane U.S. Highway 20 from Sioux City all the way to Dubuque and on to Chicago,” said King. “For decades, western Iowans have been pushing for this vital transportation link to be four-laned. With today’s groundbreaking in Sac County, we’re significantly closer to that goal."
“I supported this project before I was elected to the Iowa Senate and made it my number one transportation priority as a Member of Congress. In working with our state’s senators and House delegation, the Four-Lane Highway 20 Association, and local communities, I have networked the effort to secure millions in federal funds to help bring this project to western Iowa. I will continue to do all I can to keep it moving until the day we cut the ribbon on the final mile of four-lane Highway 20.”
“There is still much work to be done, but today is a day to celebrate the incredible amounts of hard work and tireless effort that have brought the beginnings of a new, four-lane, Highway 20 to the Fifth Congressional District.
While King happily touts his role in the procurement of funds for U.S. 20’s expansion, he neglects to mention that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (commonly referred to as the stimulus package) — a bill that he heavily criticized and voted against — actually provides a majority of the funds for the project. Although King also secured federal funds for this project through the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, the congressman again overlooks his unequivocal opposition to the bill, which he previously described as a part of the “ongoing fiscal train wreck in Washington.”
The unblushing hypocrisy of Tea Bagging Republicans like King just makes me wonder how any of them or any of their aides actually allow them to make such statements. I mean, do they not realize they they are taking credit for that which they have been so staunchly against? One might argue that they have somehow "forced" the Obama administration to utilize funds for projects that were necessary prior to his elevation to the Presidency, but that would mean that the Bush administration largely ignored the desires of the country they represented.
So what if the Stimulus were as large as it should have been? What if there is a second Stimulus like is being floated at this point of the year? Would we have seen more Republican acceptance of funds? Are we going to see more acceptance of funds by Republicans that they loudly opposed? I'm going to give a loud a prominent "yes" to this right from the jump. After all, Republicans are more than willing to take credit for the work that they didn't do.
Conservatives and Fox"News" continue their war on teachers and students
This notion that the Federal government shouldn't step in to help teachers keep their jobs, for schools to remain open, or for even students to have the education tools necessary is simply preposterous. But it's odd that conservatives continually shout that government should be part of a "voucher" program for students to enter into private institutions of learning. It's a fairly hypocritical stance that they take.
And why are they framing this as a "bail-out"? Primarily it's because most teachers unions favor Democrats in election. If the shoe were on the other foot, I'm almost certain that the prattle-boxes on Bulls And Bears would be singing the virtues of unused stimulus dollars being used to bolster public education.
What conservatives aren't realizing is that they are essentially attacking the children of this country in order to push an ideological narrative that is designed to make public schools fail from the start. From places like Colorado Springs to the entire state of New Jersey, thanks to conservative ideals, the educational system in those - and other - locations are going to falter and in many ways be destroyed.
I'm thinking that maybe Beck should actually start drinking again.
Beck is a great poster boy for the Tea Baggers, even if he's only participated in in the initial Tax Day Shoutfest last year, as he is completely off the rails insane.
His "eliminationist" rhetoric and that of the Tea Baggers ( expertly analyzed by DavidNeiwert ) is going to end up getting someone hurt. And it's come close already.
You hear people on the far-right talking about how the Left is "unhinged" ( a favorite meme of the Purse Lipped One, Michelle Malkin ) and yet they are going to bat for people like Glenn Beck like he's the voice of reason. They are ignoring the rank hypocrisy, hate-speech, and revisionist history ( even recent history ) and packaging it like this is the ideology that will save the country, maybe even the whole planet.
But what if it's all an act? What if this is just what Beck is paid to do? It's a possibility, as he took up some very different viewpoints when he was at Headline News. The problem is that people see him as a reliable source, a man they can trust. And that is what makes Beck dangerous - his schtick is canonized as holy writ.
Here's the new OFA video that shows how the Economic Stimulus worked.
And while multiple, independent and reliable, sources have lauded the Economic Stimulus as a success, Republicans that voted against it still have their hands out for their cut.
Interestingly, some conservatives are pointing to this video as proof that the Economic Stimulus was a failure.
If the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were an unqualified success, would the Democrats be running ads like this?
The ad doesn’t even attempt to defend the stimulus act on its merits, or show any evidence that the $787 billion spent actually created any new jobs. Instead, it spends almost two minutes attacking Republicans on their “hypocrisy.”
Even in the face of their own defeat, conservatives will claim they hold some sort of high-minded superiority and will continue to ignore their arguments being ripped limb from limb. Kind of reminds me of this:
this will not sit well with the people that look to Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh for economic advise.
Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative.
Conservatives have a great deal invested in seeing the Obama administration fail - as I've stated before. But with a report such as this from multiple, reputable, sources confirming the Economic Stimulus Bill's success, it puts more than just a dent into the conservative narrative.
This is to be expected, as Republicans from Bobby Jindal to Tim Pawlenty are taking credit for the success of the stimulus in their states and asking for more money at every turn. The longview of this success is more than likely going to show an even greater return on this investment, as more than half of the stimulus money hasn't even been spent yet.
I'm not entirely sure if Cavuto is being honest in his questioning of these two Republicans regarding Economic Stimulus requests or if he's trying to play "coach" and tell them "No, you're supposed to be saying no. Don't you realize how stupid you're making us look?"
One can't but wonder exactly what type of relationship these members of Congress have with their constituents. After all, if the residents of the states they were elected to serve are asking for stimulus funding and Congressional Republicans are taking it with the full knowledge they voted against the stimulus bill, what does this say about the state of modern conservative ideology?
And as should have been expected after Bayh's announcement - let the Obama bashing begin.
This does fit in nicely with a recent NYT/CBS poll that shows ( among other things ) that only 6% of respondents believe the Stimulus created jobs.
And while reports as early as March of last year were showing jobs that were to be created, this hasn't stopped the cable news narrative from taking hold of almost all of the country - as the poll clearly shows.
Results of this type of poll show one thing - that people's perceptions of a given thing can be skewed based on their intake of information. Even though the results show only 6% think the stimulus has already created jobs, 42% think the stimulus will create jobs. Coupled together, this shows that a plurality of the American public have faith in the Economic Stimulus Package despite the current storyline being disseminated throughout the media.
But back to Bayh....
The more he speaks about what he will or won't do, the more one gets the sense that he is going to be the first to toss the metaphorical hat into the ring for the Presidency. The only question is whether or not he'll run as a Republican or as a Democrat. After all, his actions of late have certainly caused one to question the validity of the "D" after his name.
It is rather typical of conservatives to complain about a given situation and do little to nothing to either improve it or offer alternatives. The Economic Stimulus was a classic example. From Texas governor Rick Perry to Sarah Palin and now Bobby Jindal, conservative Republicans lambasted the stimulus at every turn and then, as if they had no issue with it, were ready with their hands out when the money started coming in.
But Bobby Jindal has a slightly different, but equally pathetic, way to make an Obama idea that is working look like his own.
Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) has been touring his home state of Louisiana for what he calls a “Louisiana Working” tour to promote “jobs, jobs and jobs. That must be our No. 1 priority.” On the tour, Jindal is giving stump speeches decrying “Washington, D.C. and other officials” for seeking to “spend more money” during an economic downturn.
Indeed, on Monday, Jindal declared the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to be a failure, calling it a “stimulus that has not stimulated.” In local Louisiana newspapers, Jindal touted his administration’s intent to “not run things here in Louisiana the way they do in Washington.”
As he travels to each community, Jindal has been gaining many positive headlines by sponsoring press events where he gives out jumbo-sized checks to towns and parishes. Below is a picture compilation of checks Jindal has presented to Louisiana communities such as Lafayette, Terrebonne Parish, St. Landry Parish, and Vernon Parish.
The only problem is that millions and millions of dollars that accompany the gimmicky "giant check" ( complete with Bobby Jindals name on it ) are from the Stimulus that Jindal claims is an abject failure.
...Jindal presented Lafayette with yet another jumbo-sized check that contained at least $2,125,584 in Recovery Act funds. Though the money came from spending policies authorized by the Recovery Act, Jindal did not appear to credit the Recovery Act at all.
We love to see something at work. When we do, we are more apt to accept it as fact. Michelle Malkin has a problem with facts.
Seems that "The Purse-Lipped One" doesn't like any sort of sign that shows that construction/roadway projects are being funded by the Economic Stimulus. You know Michelle, it's called "transparency".
But she didn't stop there:
Dave Thul e-mailed me that he snapped another one of these tax-subsidized re-election billboards in his neck of the woods in Minnesota. He blogged the pic under the perfect title: “Trying to make the crap sandwich taste better.”
She goes on to cite Thul's pseudo-clever twist of logic:
This isn’t just bad advertising, it’s also partly false. There are two projects taking place on this 4 mile stretch of I-35. The first project is renovations on 10 bridges that is being funded by the normal transportation bill. The second project is resurfacing and a median guardrail that is using stimuless funds.
The cost of the bridge repair is about 3 million dollars, while the cost of the two projects together will be just over 8 million dollars. So VP Biden, the overseer of the allocation of the stimuless money, is spending 5 million dollars on a road construction project but taking credit for the whole 8 million dollar project.
And there's the hook Malkin was looking for. No doubt that she was tossing and turning in her sleep, praying to Limbaugh and her agent that she could find some flimsy limb she could grasp onto.
Thul's thesis is built around two roadsigns and a link to Recovery.gov. He states that since there is no line-item in the balance sheet that identifies that particular road, then his must be a lie. Too bad Mr. Thul can't seem to comprehend that line-item #1 is titled "State Fiscal Stabalization". You see, if this project was already on Minnesota's books and they went over-budget because of it, then it stands to reason that the road project funds work on this project that so bothers Mr. Thul.
Two roadsigns. TWO!!! Damn you Barack Obama and your desire to fix things!
And let's say that the Minnesota Transportation Board had some of that money reallocated to projects that were being put off due to lack of funds? Perhaps Thul would like a replay of the I-35W bridge collapse? Nah, he's probably not that much of a douche-taco.
Not that we would expect Malkin or Thul to accept the very real fact that Stimulus money is being used to repair and renew infrastructure in America, but doesn't this speak volumes for what she and all like her believe?
The saying "seeing is believing" does apply in this instance. Unless you are Malkin and your job is about keeping people ignorant and blind.
Over the past two days, I have noticed several Right-wing blogs that have cited a story from CNSNews about "taxpayer money" being used to "train Chinese hookers" not to drink too much.
In a time of deep recession, the American taxpayer might assume that our government has taken care to spend its money responsibly. (All right, stop laughing, you know I’m setting a stage here.) Even when we hear about monumentally stupid outlays like the snowmaking machine in Duluth in the Porkulus wish list, we assume that the monumentally stupid spending will remain in the US. Not so, as CNS points out about a curious grant awarded to Wayne State University...
Warner Todd Huston @ RedState even frames this as Obama's idea:
Chinese hookers have a drinking problem. Obama has the answer: U.S. Tax money. So it appears that the President of “change” seems to be The One that drunken Chinese prostitutes “have been waiting for.”
And, right on cue, Fox"News" picks up the meme and runs with it:
There are several problems with this ham-fisted attempt to connect two completely divergent dots.
First, the grant was applied for well before Obama was elected and it was awarded to Wayne State University this past November. Obama didn't take the oath of office to become President until January 20th. The last time I check, George W. Bush was still in office on that day.
Secondly, the bloggers that are peddling this latest nugget of hackery don't seem to have the ability to read and/or comprehend what they are posting. It clearly states in the article that the grant was issued in November. Ed Morrissey took it a step further and tied it to the stimulus package that didn't pass until mid-February.
If you would like to check out the stimulus line-by-line, you'll notice that money for Chinese hookers isn't in there.
This is a standard means of "reporting" by the Right. Sit on a story that is silly to being with until you can fold it into the current socio-economic climate. That doesn't make it correct or even honest, but do you really expect the conservative Right to be correct and honest?
Apparently, this "resolution" that the RNC is attempting to pass is not so much about "rebranding" the Democratic party in America as it is about trying to make Micheal Steele say something that he has already refused to.
RESOLVED, that we the members of the Republican National Committee call on the Democratic Party to be truthful and honest with the American people by acknowledging that they have evolved from a party of tax and spend to a party of tax and nationalize and, therefore, should agree to rename themselves the Democrat Socialist Party.
Is there any other proof that is needed to show America that the RNC, as well as the Republican party, have completely lost the plot?
If this laughable resolution passes, they are definately paying more attention to Rush Limbaugh and the Fox"Nation" than they are the country they are tasked with representing.
This is exactly like asking permission from your mommy and daddy if you can call a kid a name at school just because he got the lead in the Christmas play and you didn't.
Moreover, this appears to be just as much about exploiting the inherent weakness of Micheal Steele. Sure, he's caved to Limbaugh in the past, but is he going to call the Democratic party "socialists" if this resolution passes? Only time will tell on that one.
The RNC's line of thinking ( or rather, not thinking at all ) is in direct line with statements recently made by Rush Limbaugh and Pete Sessions:
This resolution, if passed, will be nothing more than a distraction. The Republican party has consistantly played the role of the obstructionist and refuses to provide any substantive role in governemnt since losing power.
They can't even get the stimulus facts right:
Officials in some states say they are grateful for and satisfied with the money. Maine has had to lay off 250 people, but because of the stimulus it will be able to avoid more layoffs, even after discovering a new $570 million shortfall. "Without any recovery funds . . . we would be in a very, very different situation," said Maine finance commissioner Ryan Low.
Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) said the state would have had to cut 7,000 jobs without the stimulus but ended up eliminating 1,500 mostly open slots. Maryland avoided layoffs with furloughs and by using an unusually large share of its stimulus funds in next year's budget.
In some states, layoffs are occurring partly because legislators are not taking every step to avoid them. Republican lawmakers in Missouri want to use less than a third of the state's $2.1 billion in flexible stimulus funds to close budget shortfalls. They want to proceed with cutbacks and return $1 billion of the money to residents in the form of tax cuts. Using the money to plug budget gaps, they argue, will leave a deficit once the stimulus money is gone in 2011.
It's not failing, it's not enough.
Masking the failures within their own party seems to be the primary objective of the RNC.
The Republican party, from hereon referred to as the Distractionist Party, has kept it's sights on countries that they perceive are plotting against us that they have forgotten about the people they were elected to represent.
However, there is the demographic within the electorate that agree that branding the Democratic party as "socialists" will actually benefit them in the end and perhaps bring them gains in the 2010 election cycle.
They're the "tea-baggers". The approximately 250,000 people that took to the streets with signs and banners and tea bags ( that they probably bought ) and shouted and cheered for the Fox"News" cameras. 250,000 people. That's about 0.19% of those that went out and voted in November. If the RNC is picking that tiny portion of the American population as those that should have supplication showered upon, then they can pass all the resolutions they want. It's not going to change how exponentially irrelevant they continue to become.
It appears that Allahpundit and his fellow droogies at Hot Air can't seem to handle the fact that Barack Obama sees the tea-baggery and Fox"News" for what they collectively are. But, and here's what really chaps their collective taints, he's willing to talk things through with them to find common ground.
Seems that Allah and the ensuing commentors don't seem to know how to act now that their man isn't in the White House. And like a spoiled little girl who has to watch while their arch rival gets to play the lead in the school play, they are determined to ruin everything, no matter how big a fool they look like in the end.
what a douche.
Ampersand on April 29, 2009 at 1:14 PM
He is fundamentally anti-American.
WisCon on April 29, 2009 at 1:18 PM
What a thin-skinned douche. It’s on. 4th of July. DC. Then, Election Day 2010 and 2012, Barry.
Babino on April 29, 2009 at 1:28 PM
What a moronic CHILD.
Mommypundit on April 29, 2009 at 1:35 PM
His disdain for normal Americans is surpassed only by his master Soros.
ZJPolitical on April 29, 2009 at 1:15 PM
And there's pages more nonsense.
They actually think that more tea-bagging is going to somehow elevate them and their plans ( of which they have none ) will finally come to fruition. Well, Fox"News" will come to their aid again, but that last attempt didn't seem to work out so well for them. It only served to highlight their willful ignorance even more.
This kind of brings a whole new definition to the term "pork spending".
...former White House political czar Karl Rove and key congressional Republicans -- led by Maine Senator Susan Collins -- aggressively attacked the notion that there was a connection between pandemic preparation and economic recovery.
Now, as the World Health Organization says a deadly swine flu outbreak that apparently began in Mexico but has spread to the United States has the potential to develop into a pandemic, Obey's attempt to secure the money seems eerily prescient.
The Republicans, en masse apparently, have little regard for science and basic preparedness. This is yet another example of reactionary posturing gone completely wrong.
Kossack wmtraillawyer serves up some soft boiled egg that is about to be running down the faces of the wingnut masses in a diary that shows that the stimulus package passed by Barack Obama is starting to work
Little noticed this afternoon was President Obama's second trip of his term to the Department of Transportation where he gave remarks on the progress of the stimulus projects so far. The highlight was the announcement that they have already approved 2,000 (!) stimulus projects in just 41 days.
But the kicker was this little nugget of joy:
Today, because these projects are getting approved more quickly than we thought, thanks to in large part the outstanding work of the TIGER team and folks here at the Department of Transportation, and because these projects are costing less than we thought, we can utter a sentence rarely heard in recent years: This government effort is coming in ahead of schedule and under budget.
....And that's why I'm pleased to hear that in state after state across America, competition for these projects is so fierce, and contractors are doing such a good job cutting costs, that projects are consistently coming in under budget. The final bid for one road project in Connecticut was $8.4 million less than the state budgeted for. Another one in Louisiana was $4.7 million less. (Diarist's note: Take THAT, Gov. Jindal!) A project at BWI Airport will be completed for $8 million less than expected. Bids for projects in North Carolina have been 19 percent under budget. Colorado is reporting bids up to 30 percent less than they expected. And the officials in California have seen bids that are close to half as much as they had projected.
Hearing that these projects are coming in "under-budget" is something that should disuade some skeptics from saying that the stimulus package is going to come back to haunt us. Why? Well, from my perspective, one would think that the unused money just might be returned.
Think about it, millions add up. And just within the transportation sector alone, they add up FAST.
As commentor Julie Gulden @ Kos pointed out
just in time for the tea parties
Indeed, Julie - indeed.
But don't get excited just yet.
The "tea-bag-festivities" are also taking aim at the TARP program initially put forward by the Right's second-favorite President, George W. The only problem, is that they are focusing their rage in that particular catagory upon the man that has to deal with the reprocussions of that program.
Goldman Sachs, in another sign that banks may be turning around, beat Wall Street's earnings expectations as it reported a profit of $1.66 billion for the first three months of this year. The bank also said it planned to raise $5 billion in stock to help it pay back government bailout funds.
Is that starting to work out now that we have new eyes on the horizon? Only time will tell.
Michelle Malkin, and many other bloggers, have extensively covered the "tea-parties".
Malkin, in her latest piece, makes this statement:
no national wire coverage of these thousands of protesters across the country, but AP covers measly anti-war protest turnout in Washington…
That's a bit like asking someone who you've publicly ridiculed numerous times to pay attention to you and give you some type of priority coverage.
Oh, wait. That's EXACTLY what that is.
Malkin's new bit of "please-feel-sorry-for-us" nonsense aside, one has to ask the question - do any of these people that are attending and praising the "sucess" of their tea-parties know anything about economics?
First, you have to look at where these people are getting their information.
Rush Limbaugh, the aforementioned Michelle Malkin, andb blogs such as FreeRepublic, RedState, and HotAir.
So, what is the one thing that none of these people are giving their audience - an alternative, economic, plan.
Rush does offer somewhat of a plan, though it is filled with information that is either false or has been proven to not work:
I say, cut the U.S. corporate tax rate -- at 35%, among the highest of all industrialized nations -- in half.
Limbaugh's getting his "facts" on the corporate tax rate wrong.
In its August 2008 report, the GAO estimated that "[t]he average U.S. effective tax rate on the domestic income of large corporations with positive domestic income in 2004 was an estimated 25.2 percent." Further, in its Paying Taxes 2009 publication, based on its 2009 Doing Business report, the World Bank-International Finance Corporation estimated that the United States has a lower effective rate of current corporate tax than several developed economies, including Germany and Italy. Moreover, in June 2007, the Treasury Department concluded: "If special provisions were eliminated, the top corporate tax rate could be lowered to 27 percent or more than 40 percent expensing could be provided to all businesses for new the cost of tangible investments, and the tax system would produce the same level of revenue."
In Paying Taxes 2009: The Global Picture, the World Bank noted that "reducing the statutory rate of corporate income tax has been the most popular government tax reform in the period. However in most of the economies, the case study company does not pay corporate income tax at the statutory rate on its profit before tax, since the tax rules require adjustments to be made to this in order to calculate taxable profits."
DeocracyNow's Amy Goodman interviews Pulizter Prize winning investigative Journalist David Cy Johnston about the stimulus and specifically references further tax-breaks for corporations
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON:....spending—tax cuts have not worked. The Bush tax cuts, all of them were financed with borrowed money. And where did we end up at the end of the Bush administration? If you add up all of the bailouts that the Bush administration did in the fall, the investments, the spending and the guarantees, it’s over $8 trillion. How much money is that? It is more than all of the income taxes paid by all Americans for the entire eight years of the Bush administration.
The fact is that if you don’t fix and maintain roads, you can’t move goods around efficiently, the economy suffers. If you don’t spend money on higher education, on research and development, the economy suffers. This notion that government money is, as a student once said to me, taken out in the ocean and just dumped has to go away. We need to recognize that government, which is the biggest single part of our economy, is absolutely vital, if we’re going have a robust economy. That doesn’t mean there isn’t waste and stupidity. And corporate America has plenty of waste and stupidity, too.
Rush then goes on to state:
Suspend the capital gains tax for a year to incentivize new investment, after which it would be reimposed at 10%.
But who pays Capital Gains taxes?
Fewer than one in seven individual taxpayers report taxable capital gains in any year. In 2006 just 13.4 million out of 138.3 million taxpayers reported taxable net gains (net long-term gains in excess of net short-term capital losses and capital gains distributions, which are taxed at favorable capital gains rates) on Schedule D, and another 4.6 million reported capital gains distributions from mutual funds on their Forms 1040. Many taxpayers with gains had modest incomes ? more than half (52 percent) of those with taxable net gains or capital gains distributions had incomes below $75,000. But high-income taxpayers accounted for the overwhelming share of capital gains (Table 1). The 3 percent of tax returns with adjusted gross income exceeding $200,000 reported 31 percent of AGI and 83 percent of capital gains. The 0.3 percent of returns with AGI exceeding $1 million reported 15 percent of AGI and 61 percent of capital gains. Capital gains represented less than 4 percent of AGI for gains recipients with income less than $200,000, but about 40 percent of AGI for those with income exceeding $1 million.
Many more Americans accrue capital gains on corporate shares they hold within tax-deferred employersponsored retirement saving plans or individual retirement accounts. But capital gains from stock sales within those accounts are not subject to capital gains tax. Accruals within those accounts are tax free until distributed and then are taxed as ordinary income.
Newt Gingrich had the same idea for Capital Gains. Turns out Rush is just as wrong about the idea as Newt was:
Here are a few examples of why Newt and Rush's plans for Capital Gains won't work.
Capital Gains Cuts Mostly Benefit The Wealthy:
If you care about who benefits from tax cuts, and don’t think it should mainly be the rich, and in particular if right now you’re not so crazy about cutting taxes on the people on Wall Street who are responsible for getting the country into the huge financial mess it’s in, this probably isn’t your favorite tax change. The benefits of capital gains tax cuts overwhelmingly go to those who own capital assets outside of retirement and other tax-protected accounts. By definition it is the rich who own most capital assets.
The Incentive Will Be To Sell:
A 0% capital gains rate would in fact be a disaster for the market. One virtue of having a tax on capital gains is that it dampens volatility and promotes longer-term investing. That is, if you pay tax on profitable trades, you’re less likely to make moves based on short term movements on the market. Given the uncertain times we face, it’s far more likely that a zero rate on capital gains would prompt a massive exodus from the market than a massive entry into it. In fact, if you think about it, the immediate motivation of a 0% capital gains tax rate is to sell - not buy.
There Will Be No Incentive To Save:
We worry all the time about insufficient savings in this country for retirement and education. One of the ways in which we encourage saving is to create no-tax retirement and education accounts. If all accounts are no-tax, money will likely not be put into these forms, which it’s much harder to pull out of.
That's the meat of Limbaugh's plan - a plan that won't work.
The remainder of those touting the tea-parties have nothing real to offer to the discussion. It's all "red-meat" prattling that amounts to nothing more than delusional speculation.
Malkin has all sorts of paranoid theories about the stimulus.
She went on Cavuto's "business" program on Fox"News" to discuss her theory that Robert Reich was advocating that stimulus money be kept away from experienced workers and "white-male" construction workers.
In a time like this, when tempers are riding high and many Americans are close to panic about their jobs and finances, you have a special responsibility to consider the accuracy of what you say and the consequences of inflammatory and erroneous statements. In the last few days, manifestly distorting my words and pulling them out of context, you have accused me of wanting to exclude white males from jobs generated by the stimulus package. Anyone who takes a moment to examine what I actually said and wrote knows this to be an absurd misrepresentation of my position (see this). My goal is and has always been to create as many opportunities for as wide a group as possible, and not exclude anyone from access. There is and has never been any ambiguity about this. The hate mail I have received since your broadcast suggests that the mischievous consequences of your demagoguery are potentially dangerous, in addition to being destructive of rational and constructive political discourse. I urge you to take responsibility for your words. Words and ideas have real world consequences, and you have demonstrated a cavalier disregard for both.
People like Malkin, Limbaugh, conservative bloggers ( et al ) refuse to listen to anyone with any type of economic background.
Perhaps it's because it's too difficult for them to understand?
I'm guessing yes on that one.
It's far easier to digest and then vomit up neatly packaged "sound-bites". Couple that with buzz-words like "socialism" and "communism" and even "totalitarianism" and you'll have a crowd of people ready and willing to follow you. And they will follow you out of fear, even if it is a fear that is grounded in lies.
It's a fairly safe bet that some of them may have some knowledge of economics, but are they attending these rallies out of anything more than a reflexive fear that Obama and the government are "out to get them"?
Nothing but catch-phrases.
Then there are the governors of states that are lambasting the stimulus. Then they turn around and say they will only accept certain portions. Sarah Palin is part of this gang.
The biggest single chunk of stimulus money that Palin is turning down is $160 million for education. There’s also $17 million in Department of Labor funds (vocational rehabilitation services, unemployment services, etc.), about $9 million for Health and Social Services and about $7 million for Public Safety.
These three, to me, are examples of Republicans that are showing a complete lack of interest in the people within their own states. Why are they only rejecting those speicific portions of the stimulus. Why aren't the "tea-baggers" asking that question?
People are actually dumping teabags into rivers and think that this act is somehow going to help the economy. Actions do often speak truth to power, but what "truth" are they expressing? Are they buying these tea bags? When people started protesting France, they were actually buying the wine they were pouring into storm drains.
Of course, I don't have all the answers either.
Truth of the matter is, I'm willing to admit that I don't know enough about economics. But I'm willing to learn the truth behind something before simply reacting.
It amazes me how so many people who aren't going to have their taxes raised - whether they are self-employed or not - are so willing to be part of the stimulus in the first place.
Perhaps it's a part of their nature. Maybe they have such a strong desire to be a part of something that they give up the ability to think for themselves. Maybe for them, being part of "the crowd" is more important than being informed.
The biggest single chunk of money that Palin is turning down is about $170 million for education, including money that would go for programs to help economically disadvantaged and special needs students. Anchorage School Superintendent Carol Comeau said she is "shocked and very disappointed" that Palin would reject the schools money. She said it could be used for job preservation, teacher training, and helping kids who need it.
And it gets better. She seems to not care that she is denying fund to go toward education and even seems to hint that it really isn't that important to her at all.
....It is a matter of discussing with our lawmakers if the expansion there is something we're willing to pick up the tab for when the federal dollars dry up, when they no longer flow into Alaska.
I'll just sit here and wait for Malkin, Morrissey, Hewitt, the clowns at RedState, and all their pals to respond.
For years, Rush Limbaugh - and all like him - have operated under the notion that if you are "against" the President's policy, or are actively wishing that they fail, that you are "anti-American". No one wanted Iraq to be an abject failure even though Limbaugh portrayed it that way. Many expressed their outrage that the American military, and our precious resources, were being put into the position of "nation-builders" - even though Bush declared that we were "not nation-builders" - and were roundly called out as being "anti-American", that we rooted for America to lose.
Now that Barack Obama has put legislation into place - directed at the country that Bush seemed to neglect at times - Limbaugh and his slobberingly ignorant throngs seem to think that it is more than OK to criticize not just the policy, but the intent of the President. But are they "anti-American"? According to them they aren't.
So, the question was put to Limbaugh: what if Obama's plan works?
That's the question that Greg Sargent put forward:
[P]utting aside the question of what the policies are destined to do, is it true that if they succeed in their stated goal of righting the economy — however far-fetched that may be to you and others — then would that be good for the country?
So, what did Limbaugh have to offer as a response?
I reject your premise. … I will not put aside the question of what the policies are destined to do because that IS THE POINT.
So, the premise that an American President of alternative party completely lacks the ability to turn this country's economy around. What about Clinton?
That aside, Rush is so caught up in his own belching nonsense - perhaps knowing full well that the American economy was robust and prosperous after Clinton took office - that his pride has gotten in the way of rational thought.
Wait, that's kind of predicated on Limbaugh being able to have "rational" thoughts toward his own country.
So, what was it Republicans used to call "anti-American" sentiment?
Dwayne Horner @ Townhall.com had this to say in a short post today:
GOP Chairman Michael Steele was on Hannity tonight and pointed out a great point, "Barack Obama has spent $36 BILLION dollars a day since taking office."
Just think what $36 Billion adds up to:
- 1.5 billion dollars an hour - 25 million dollars a minute - 416 thousand dollars a second
Or to put it this way, he has had nearly six million seconds in office .... so under the spending of Barack Obama, we could have purchased a $100,000 house for more than 12 MILLION people in America since January 20th. That's more than New York City and Los Angeles COMBINED.
Change we can believe in.
The same way of thinking was applied to the occupation of Iraq. All that money going to "nation building" - some of it being "lost" - and hardly any money being spent here, at home.
Obama is spending money at home, where it is needed.
Nevermind that the stimulus just passed recently and no money has been sent-out yet.
