The Obama plan: massive tax hikes
posted at 9:03 am on February 27, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Jake Tapper took a look at the fine print in Deadbeatonomics yesterday, and discovered a lot of tax hikes among the Hope and Change. His plan for revitalizing the economy relies on sucking about a trillion dollars out of it over a ten-year period, starting in 2011:
1) On people making more than $250,000.
- $338 billion – Bush tax cuts expire
- $179 billlion – eliminate itemized deduction
- $118 billion – capital gains tax hike
Total: $636 billion/10 years
2) Businesses:
- $17 billion – Reinstate Superfund taxes
- $24 billion – tax carried-interest as income
- $5 billion – codify “economic substance doctrine”
- $61 billion – repeal LIFO
- $210 billion – international enforcement, reform deferral, other tax reform
- $4 billion – information reporting for rental payments
- $5.3 billion – excise tax on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas
- $3.4 billion – repeal expensing of tangible drilling costs
- $62 million – repeal deduction for tertiary injectants
- $49 million – repeal passive loss exception for working interests in oil and natural gas properties
- $13 billion – repeal manufacturing tax deduction for oil and natural gas companies
- $1 billion – increase to 7 years geological and geophysical amortization period for independent producers
- $882 million – eliminate advanced earned income tax credit
Total: $353 billion/10 years
Most of this is vaporware. This is a triumph of static tax analysis, which assumes that increased taxes have no effect on the amount of money available for taxation. For instance, the hike from 15% to 20% on capital-gains taxes assumes that people will invest and cash out in the same manner they do at 15%. They won’t. The fact of increasing the tax will discourage investors and encourage them to shift money out before the hike. Not only will the extra revenue vanish, but investment levels will drop, leading to job losses and less opportunity for American businesses.
And what “itemized deduction” will get eliminated? All of them? Some of them?
The business tax hikes are even worse. Obama will increase taxes on existing American oil production starting in 2011. Do we have massive amounts of alternative energy capacity ready to replace the energy production and usage that this will discourage? A growing economy has to have a reliable energy supply. Energy producers get hit on several fronts in this plan, and those costs will either result in lower energy production or increased cost to the consumers.
Again, the expected revenues will far exceed the reality, once the depressive economic effects of these taxes kick in. The spending, unfortunately, will be all too real, which will mean huge, ballooning deficits. It’s the inevitable result of Deadbeatonomics.
Blowback
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Get a Life ,,, I have to go now, but hopefully you can answer by the time I get back on Sunday 3pm PST. I work two jobs now just to pay the bills. Thanks for your timely answers.
garydt on February 27, 2009 at 11:37 PM
Obama is pathological in his idealogy. It appears he will not be swayed by any facts on the ground.
A sociopath lacks the normal connection to action and consequences. He cannot change his core belief system and that is what is so dangerous about him. He will continue without any regard or responsibility for what his actions create.
katy on February 27, 2009 at 11:41 PM
LOL
katy on February 27, 2009 at 11:42 PM
Dear Leader Obama’s songbun system:
The population of Dear Leader Barack Obama’s coming Democratic People’s Republic of America can be roughly divided into three tiers, and ones place in these tiers is called songbun. An individuals songbun is based on ones position at the time of Obama’s ascendancy from questionable circumstances of birth to presidential occupation: party members, largely comprised of the capos of Reid, Pelosi and Kennedy and their sub-capos, are the elite; people who helped to bankrupt the nation while lining their own pockets are at the next level in the hierarchy and often have high positions in congress or are appointed to cabinet positions and other high offices; the final group is comprised of an as yet to be determined number of distinct classes, each with lower songbun then the next. Conservative talk show hosts and bloggers and people who still believe in Ayn Rand’s philosophy of individual rights or in the soon to be outdated U.S. Constitution have the lowest songbun, and consequentially occupy a role analogous to India’s untouchables.
MB4 on February 27, 2009 at 11:46 PM
I’ll provide a sketchy answer. The solution is hope, change, printing money and building up a $5 trillion deficit. Problem solved.
ddrintn on February 27, 2009 at 11:50 PM
This has been going on since the sixties and when many people warned of this, they were portrayed as extremist.
Johan Klaus on February 27, 2009 at 11:52 PM
Yes, we were.
coldwarrior on February 27, 2009 at 11:55 PM
Barack Obama is a Fabian socialist. I should know; I was raised by one. My Grandfather worked as a union machinist for Ingersoll Rand during the day. In the evenings he tended bar and read books. After his funeral, I went back home and started working my way through his library, starting with T.W. Arnold’s The Folklore of Capitalism. This was my introduction to the Fabian socialists.
Arnold taught me to question everyone–my president, my priest and my parents. Well, almost everyone. I wasn’t supposed to question the Fabian intellectuals themselves. That’s the Fabian MO, relentless cultural and journalistic attacks on everything that is, and then a hard pitch for the hope of what might be.
That’s Obama’s world.
He’s telling the truth when he says that he doesn’t agree with Bill Ayers’ violent bombing tactics, but it’s a tactical disagreement. Why use dynamite when mass media and community organizing work so much better?
- Jerry Bowyer
Barack Obama, Fabian Socialist
Who needs Molotov when we’ve got Alinski?
MB4 on February 27, 2009 at 11:57 PM
That is certainly one possible explanation for the reckless and outrageous actions being taken right now.
There is also another explanation and that is that Obama and his puppetmasters know exactly what the consequences of these actions will be, and that they want those consequences. i.e., they know they will bankrupt the US, and that they will destroy the economic system of the US. At this time, my opinion is that this is exactly the outcome toward which they are working. These are all 60′s radicals whose mantra was “bring it all down man”. They are now in charge and are deliberately throwing sand in the gears and wrenches into the cogs of the greatest economic system ever seen. Part of the reason for this is that they then think they can remake the economic system into their socialist ideal — even if it isn’t ideal, they will be in charge, so they are willing to take that risk.
AZfederalist on February 27, 2009 at 11:58 PM
Think about what kind of mind would take on the world’s greatest economic system and completely destroy it knowing there are billions (considering our system keeps the world ecomony going) of lives at stake? It’s remarkable. This man is so dangerous and his pathology is beyond the reaches of any other ego-maniacal leader in history simply because of the scope of his ambition.
katy on February 28, 2009 at 12:08 AM
How to work against this new tide?
Mention Fabian Socialism to just about anyone in America and they will respond with something about a late 1950′s rock and roll star, such is the state of education in our Nation.
You are quite correct as to Obama’s underlying political philosophy. And then there is Alinski.
I have a sister and brother-in-law, professionals, well-educated, who live in suburban DC. Most of their neighbors are quite like them…well off, very well off, and they are almost all Obama supporters. Found this out a couple weeks ago when I was in DC. But, here is the rub…they “believe in” Obama…say he is smart, well-educated, articulate, impassioned, charismatic, and wants nothing but the best for America…and then I ask them about his political beliefs…and the responses are angry, how dare I say such things or question Obama? I must be a paleo-Reaganite racist to the core. This from my own sister.
When so many Americans by design, or guilt, or ignorance, rallied to the Obama camp so early, and with such marked passion, I am reminded of the ascendancy of another Fabian Socialist in the 1930′s…swept into prominence by adoring crowds, who believed fully that the ends justified the means…saw eugenics as good for society…and many who could have raised a forceful opposition thought he was just a passing fancy, made fun of his looks, never took the threat seriously…until they, themselves became victims of the regime.
coldwarrior on February 28, 2009 at 12:12 AM
How could they do this when trickle down was working so well…???
lexhamfox on February 28, 2009 at 12:13 AM
Yeah… Obama’s another Hitler!!! lol
Ein Volk, Ein Fuhrer, Ein Obama!!!
lexhamfox on February 28, 2009 at 12:15 AM
Socialism/communism has not worked, because the right people have not tried it( until now ). Cumbaya. What property rights?
Johan Klaus on February 28, 2009 at 12:20 AM
Sie vergessen nicht wahrheitsgemäß
Johan Klaus on February 28, 2009 at 12:22 AM
Thanks for the link
katy on February 28, 2009 at 12:22 AM
l
That is your call not mine.
But the structure is the same…a bit of history makes that clear. George Bernard Shaw, a Fabian through and through, was clear on this. H.G. Wells, too. Many many intellectuals of the 1930′s felt the same way, as reading the magazines and books of the time demonstrate clearly.
While not advocating the total state ownership of the means of production…that’d be Communist…having the state control the various aspects of production and labor is socialism, national socialism, and from the several hundred pages of the stimulus bill, and Obama’s own words since the campaign, this is his goal. All done, of course, in the best interests of the American people, people who do not seem to possess the ability to manage themselves and businesses not sufficiently altruistic enough to benefit the masses.
coldwarrior on February 28, 2009 at 12:22 AM
Dobbs, Franks, Waters, Clinton, Carter and do not forget acorn.
Johan Klaus on February 28, 2009 at 12:24 AM
“I am from the government and I am here to help”.
Johan Klaus on February 28, 2009 at 12:26 AM
Dodd, not Dobbs. [Minor error. No points subtracted.} :-)
coldwarrior on February 28, 2009 at 12:26 AM
Careful there. It has to get pretty darn awful in the palace before the ruins are anything close to a reasonable alternative.
Dark-Star on February 28, 2009 at 12:27 AM
1) No political church, no nobility, no royalty or other fraud, can face ridicule in a fair field, and live.
- Mark Twain
2) Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
- George Patton
MB4 on February 28, 2009 at 12:27 AM
I see this too. This is the last great attempt and that is why he is convinced that in order to finally make this work, where others have failed, is to pour every dime and every tactice into the mix.
This will lead to complete devastation.
Why is it that there are those who are so hell bent on creating utopia when the fact is it not within the human condition to ever achieve it? It’s a sickness.
katy on February 28, 2009 at 12:28 AM
Hide the women and the booze!
MB4 on February 28, 2009 at 12:28 AM
Long long ago, in my married days, my then-wife used to rail almost daily that “the government” needed to do this or that, usually over breakfast. I’d look up and calmly say, “They are all like me, we are the government. And you want me to fix everything?” I could then eat the rest of my breakfast in relative, if at times stony, silence.
coldwarrior on February 28, 2009 at 12:29 AM
Besides being a troll, you are an ass. You obviously have no idea how the economy works. Who is going to create jobs, a person on welfare to whom the government gives money taken from a productive member of society, or someone at the higher end of the economic ladder who creates jobs by starting a business and hiring people? Penalizing the people at the top of the ladder to the extent that they cannot afford to create the jobs that will hire the people on the lower end of the economic scale creates a downward spiral for society.
Case in point, I would most likely hire somebody to take care of my yard for me; however, because of the impact of high taxes upon my disposable income, I can’t afford to do so. That does two things: 1) means I can’t pay someone to do a job that I would rather not do and 2) means somebody is not getting paid to do honest work because the person who might do so is paying the government that money.
AZfederalist on February 28, 2009 at 12:29 AM
I wasn’t born to walk on water
I wasn’t born to sack and slaughter
But on my soul, I wasn’t born
To stoop and knuckle under
A man can learn to steal some thunder
A man can learn to work some wonder
And when the gauntlet’s down,
It’s time to rise and climb the sky
And soon the moon will smolder
And the winds will drive
Yes, a man grows older but his soul remains alive
All those tremulous stars still glitter
And I will survive!
Let my heart grow colder and as bitter as a falcon in the dive
There was a dream, a dying ember
There was a dream, I don’t remember
But I will resurrect that dream
Though rivers stream and hills grow steeper
For here in hell where life gets cheaper
Oh, here in hell the blood runs deeper
And when the final duel is near
I’ll lift my spear and fly
Piercing into the sky and higher
And the strong will thrive
Yes, the weak will cower while the fittest will survive
If we wait for the darkest hour
Till we spring alive
Then with claws of fire, we will devour like a falcon in the dive
PercyB on February 28, 2009 at 12:31 AM
Life can be a bitch. You marry a few and then you die.
Tuco on February 28, 2009 at 12:34 AM
Do you believe in “trickle down” in the form of government largesse?
ddrintn on February 28, 2009 at 12:35 AM
A quote from the Weekly Standard – Fred Barnes article…
something to help you all sleep well…
katy on February 28, 2009 at 12:37 AM
^ That is, that we are to trust the government to “trickle down” the benefits of the revenue they take in, but we are never to trust the business community to do the same…since the business community is unspeakably greedy, while the government is the very model of beneficence?
ddrintn on February 28, 2009 at 12:38 AM
katy on February 28, 2009 at 12:37 AM
Oh my. As my grandmother used to say, “It just keeps getting worser and worser”.
AZfederalist on February 28, 2009 at 12:41 AM
And Barnes’ rejoinder:
ddrintn on February 28, 2009 at 12:42 AM
Thanks a lot, katy. :-)
Not only is our President incompetent he also has an ego, a very very large ego…
Think I’ll head upstairs to the attic and see if I can find my old blankie…nearly 60 years old. Gonna need it. Sleep well? Indeed.
coldwarrior on February 28, 2009 at 12:42 AM
Wrong-headed analysis. The Democrats did exactly the same thing in 2008 that they did in 2004. They attacked Bush mercilessly. The difference between 2004 and 2008: Bush was running for re-election in 2004, and defended himself and his policies. In 2008, the media and the left — but I repeat myself — had 4 more years to bash Bush and drive down his popular support. But this time, even though they ran against Bush just like in 2004, Bush was not running, and there was no one defending his record.
Frankly, if Bush had been running for re-election in 2008, and not term-limited, he would still have beaten Obama. It would have been much tighter than 2004, because Obama was actually an appealing candidate, but his free ride of attacking Bush with no response would have been over, and Obama would have looked very juvenile and naive by comparison.
Obviously, the above is a moot point now. But if McCain had been smart, he would have stood up for every one of Bush’s policies that he agreed with rather than trying to appease the Bush critics.
He had the perfect opportunity to speak up and say what was good about Bush’s policies and which ones he thought were wrong. But all he really did was to say, “I’m not Bush.” Okay, but who are you, then?
John McCain failed in the most critical thing: drawing a clear distinction between himself and his opponent, and giving people a reason to vote for him.
ThereGoesTheNeighborhood on February 28, 2009 at 12:47 AM
He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.
- Confucius
MB4 on February 28, 2009 at 12:48 AM
The problem is, you (and they) don’t understand why they lost in 1994.
I agree with that.
ddrintn on February 28, 2009 at 12:51 AM
I could say “too many Shiner Black Lagers”, when really it was just ignorance.
Johan Klaus on February 28, 2009 at 12:53 AM
Not going to fault a man who enjoys a good Shiner…God, I miss my San Angelo days…
coldwarrior on February 28, 2009 at 12:55 AM
My father always told me if you do not say anything, people might think that you are stupid. Open your mouth (or in my case, use the keyboard) and you will prove it.
Johan Klaus on February 28, 2009 at 12:57 AM
But, I don’t think that you miss the sand.
Johan Klaus on February 28, 2009 at 12:58 AM
I wouldn’t place you in that category, not even close. Have one for me…
Got to hit the sack…find my old blankie first…so I can get a good night’s sleep, no thanks to katy. :-)
coldwarrior on February 28, 2009 at 12:59 AM
The sand? Not a problem. The snakes…was a problem.
coldwarrior on February 28, 2009 at 1:01 AM
Because Obama is starting to frighten you and we are your only hope?
javamartini on February 28, 2009 at 1:02 AM
I try not to let liberals get away with repeating their myths as if they were established facts, but sometimes one gets through.
You don’t get to claim your own set of facts. Just because you want to believe that Kerry was viciously smeared by a bunch of liars does not make it so.
No, it is not a fact that O’Neill lied about Kerry. No, the “Swift Boat Veterans” have not been debunked or proven false. Repetition of such smears is as much a lie as it has always been. The “Swift Boat Veterans” had the better evidence on their side, besides the fact that Kerry was already known to be a lying weasel (see: trip to Cambodia).
Besides, he’s a politician: that he’s a liar is to be presumed!
ThereGoesTheNeighborhood on February 28, 2009 at 1:05 AM
I love the blankie thing. Getting a cute mental picture… LOL! night y’all.
katy on February 28, 2009 at 1:09 AM
Wait a minute guys… A Fabian Socialist?
I was pretty certain he is a Gramscian Marxist.
Can (the)One be both?
LegendHasIt on February 28, 2009 at 1:53 AM
He’s a delusional narcissist.
Isn’t that bad enough?
AZCoyote on February 28, 2009 at 2:15 AM
The only people for whom capitalism doesn’t work are deadbeats, drunks and liberals. Or am I being a little too redundant?
Squiggy on February 28, 2009 at 6:30 AM
Unfortunately if the policies of the 1 month old presidency leads to more and more of what we are seeing now, I do not see those elected and appointed to have the wherewithal to take the RIGHT decisions. He will be held by the LEFT to make (or he himself will continue to make because “he is very good at it”) same dire pork laden choices and the LEFT MEDIA will continue to tout that to be best thing that happened since sliced bread.
I can not even say, “Let’s wait and see.”
OneConservative on February 28, 2009 at 6:31 AM
Has anyone seen transcripts of any economics classes or even history courses? He has no idea what he is doing. I’m adding to my gold inventory with some silver. There is no way our economy thrives in this regime. He may have won but we sure lost.
Fuquay Steve on February 28, 2009 at 8:23 AM
Oh, well this changes everything! Obama! Obama! O crap!
jimmy2shoes on February 28, 2009 at 8:28 AM
Kindly tell that to several of my classmates who’ve been forced to join the military due to the ‘free market’ shipping all the high-tech jobs overseas. Or are choosing not to have children because they can barely pay rent.
Dark-Star on February 28, 2009 at 8:30 AM
Sorry, but that’s just too much of a softball not to hit right out of the park, Dark Star. It’s hardly the “free market” that drives jobs overseas. Try the oppressive corporate tax rates our businesses have to deal with and the unrelenting onslaught of government regulation. Just wait until the One’s cap n’ trade gets up and running and watch what jobs are left here flee our shores! We haven’t had free markets in this country since before Woodrow Wilson. FDR took Wilson’s cue and made things ten times worse. Oh, the New, New Deal will really fix things. Buckle up pardners…
Moses99 on February 28, 2009 at 8:52 AM
Dark-Star on February 28, 2009 at 8:30 AM
You’ve mentioned classmates, therefore I will give you the benefit of the doubt for being young. I’m 55 years old, and have owned my own businesses for 27 years now. I can only tell you what I have witnessed during my working years.
Regulation is necessary in every successful business, and in every successful community. A lack of regulation leads to self will run riot, chaos. Over regulation leads to the choking effect, strangling business and society. We have gone from one side of the road, crossed the middle, and drifted completely off the road into the wilderness (over regulation), which has forced businesses to relocate off our shores in order to survive and compete in a world market place.
Lawyers (which make up 99% of our government) create laws designed to feed their own world; take workman compensation insurance for example. The government forced this insurance upon all employers, then gave all of the power to the employee in order to create an environment that would lead to millions of huge paydays for lawyers across our nation. Insurance companies took huge losses, which are in turn passed down to the business owners, which are in turn passed down to the consumer. This is why Bush pushed hard for tort reform only to get slammed by all Democrats & enough Republicans to prevent this badly needed reform. Lawyers run our government and have been busy writing law to feed their own industry for decades now.
Example: A lady in San Diego buys a cup of coffee at a local McDonalds; proceeds to spill the coffee in her lap, thus causing some self inflicted pain. The lady sues McDonalds for having the nerve to serve her hot coffee. The lady gets a Judge (a former lawyer) to award her a huge ridiculous settlement, thus setting the standard for future suits. Lawyers and Judges working together to feed their own industry…
Our businesses are moving off shore in order to get away from over regulation and huge risks that come with hiring a single employee. This is a fact we have to deal with.
I have a wall in my shop 15′ long and 10′ high that is filled up by the crap I must list for my employee’s in order to follow current regulations. My employees have complete entitlement over me, and I sit and worry each and every day that one of them will come after me for some phony (invented) bogus claim, and put me out of business. I’m not unique, this is where our government has taken us. I used to employ 55 people. I now employee just a few.
Keemo on February 28, 2009 at 9:06 AM
For the idiot up above who proudly claimed 2010 an another winning year for Liberals…
February 28, 2009
ANOTHER OBAMA TAX PROBLEM: Gawker: Obama’s Chief Vetter Has His Own Tax Problem. “White House general counsel Gregory Craig has seized control of Obama’s vetting process after a series of nominees with unpaid taxes. But his wife’s business may also have avoided taxes. Who vets the vetter?”
You know, for such enthusiasts of taxes and regulations, these folks don’t seem big on complying with taxes and regulation. (instapundit)
I ask you this. Why aren’t you busy spending time hammering your own politicians about their corruption? Why come here and spew your hatred on these threads when there is so much work you could be doing managing your own?
Just wondering…
Keemo on February 28, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Evidently.
Kent18 on February 28, 2009 at 9:23 AM
For the other idiot above who proudly claimed a couple of hundred “tea partiers” are an embarrassment…
TEA PARTY IN GREENEVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA: “Mike Miller brought his young daughter downtown Friday night to the “Greenville Tea Party” rally at the RiverPlace complex, as the Upstate Young Republicans and others protested the government spending in President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan. They weren’t alone. A crowd estimated at 800 to 2,000 people took part in a loud hourlong rally, one of an estimated 60 around the country.”
http://www.examiner.com/x-3704-Columbia-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m2d28-From-across-America-Tea-Party-roundupsuccess
Despite terrible weather in many cases, citizens braved the wind, cold, and rain to exercise their Constitutional right to protest the current direction of the country under Barack Obama and the Democrats.
In St. Louis, over 1500 attended the Tea Party at the famous arch.
In Chicago, between 800 and 1000 braved the bad weather to gather to protest the massive spending of taxpayers’ money by the federal government.
Atlanta was the site of another well-attended Tea Party.
Many smaller towns and cities participated in the semi-simultaneous events around the country, such as Shelby, Alabama, Asheville, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina.
Stay tuned.
Keemo on February 28, 2009 at 9:24 AM
So Obama changed the draft law?
Johan Klaus on February 28, 2009 at 9:30 AM
Why was G.W. Bush so hated by members from both sides of the political spectrum? Could this be the reason:
He holds the Bachelor of Arts from Yale and the Master of Business Administration from Harvard.
G.W. Bush is not a LAWYER….. G.W. Bush used up much of his early momentum fighting for tort reform.
Tort reform refers to proposed changes in the civil justice system that would reduce tort litigation or damages. Tort is a system for compensating wrongs and harm done by one party to another’s person, property or other protected interests (e.g. reputation, under libel and slander laws). Tort reform advocates focus on personal injury in particular. Accident compensation procedures, compensation, and reform proposals vary greatly among jurisdictions, with a general upwards trend in compensation.[1]
In the United States tort reform is a contentious political issue. US tort reform advocates propose, among other things, procedural limits on the ability to file claims, and capping the awards of damages. According to Forbes reporter Daniel Fisher “A catchall phrase for legislative measures designed to make it harder for individuals to sue businesses, tort reform has long been a pet project of Republicans. Not coincidentally, it reduces the earning power of plaintiff lawyers, some of the biggest contributors to the Democratic Party.”[2] Tort reform advocates strongly disagree with Fisher, saying (for example) “many tort reforms make it easier for individuals with legitimate claims to sue businesses. Tort reforms are simply measures to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the civil justice system; they’re opposed by trial lawyers because they derive billions of dollars of wealth from inaccuracies and inefficiencies in the civil justice system, and supported by businesses and consumers that are the victims of such inaccuracies and inefficiencies.”[3]
Keemo on February 28, 2009 at 9:34 AM
It’s senseless to try to figure out Obama. He isn’t really running the country anyway. He’s just the pretty face in front. It’s Rahm Emanuel and John Podesta that we need to worry about. They are a combination of liberal utopians and Chicago thugs. They have both written books – and not about themselves like Obama – that pretty clearly lay out their utopian vision of America. Podesta ran a whole think tank of people writing papers about all this stuff for the last 4 years, and Emanuel has hired almost everyone from that center to work in the White House.
rockmom on February 28, 2009 at 9:35 AM
Emanuel has trained him very well. He actually thinks he is president, and thinks he is good at it! LoL.
rockmom on February 28, 2009 at 9:38 AM
rockmom on February 28, 2009 at 9:38 AM
Talk about arrogant! Talk about an ego the size of Russia! Talk about the term “unpresidential”!
F-ing rookie doesn’t have a clue how embarrassing he is.
Keemo on February 28, 2009 at 9:43 AM
That is an excellent analysis and a point I have not seen enough of. McCain’s greatest weakness as a candidate was his pride… and against Obama, of all people! He was made to pay for his treachery against the GOP, his hurt feelings after losing the 2000 election primary to Bush. McCain went back to the Senate and opposed Bush out of sheer obstinacy, then could not credibly defend his President, his party or his own policies when he ran again in 2008.
chunderroad on February 28, 2009 at 9:47 AM
A really good read:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/02/022944.php
Tid bit:
It’s no secret that there is no intellectual integrity on the Left, but it’s still hard not to be a bit shocked by liberals’ reaction to the budget proposal that Barack Obama unleashed yesterday. Let’s take the example of the New York Times, probably the most prominent voice of the Far Left in the U.S. Throughout the George W. Bush administration, the Times’ editorial board waxed eloquent about the terrible consequences to be expected from the Bush deficits. Let’s cite just a few examples.
April 16, 2003:
It is incredible to see a wartime president demanding a tax cut that would, in an instant, require a record $984 billion increase in the national debt, to $7.384 trillion, with annual deficits of $400 billion and more under a Republican Party that once bragged of budgetary rectitude.
Obama’s budget contemplates a $1.75 trillion deficit in its first year, and does not even aspire to a deficit as small as $400 billion at any time in the future.
Read the whole thing…
Keemo on February 28, 2009 at 9:57 AM
I suppose if being good means getting partisan bills through his near super-majority congress and having the MSM praise every single thing he does or says as the most amazing thing done by a president since the founders, he IS pretty good at it.
Not bad for someone who had to “step down into the presidency of the United States”
neuquenguy on February 28, 2009 at 10:05 AM
More piping hot “Obamanomics”… fresh off the morning griddle!
A sense of disconnect between the projections by the White House and the grim realities of everyday American life was enhanced on Friday, as the Commerce Department gave a harsher assessment for the last three months of 2008.
Read the whole thing.
Kent18 on February 28, 2009 at 10:41 AM
“Obamanomics”: Catch the FEE-vah!!!
Kent18 on February 28, 2009 at 10:46 AM
It was working very well thank you.
Everyone’s lot was improving and the country as a whole was getting stronger.
Unfortunately, those who’s mantra is based on greed, decided that since some people were benefiting more than others, this system, that was making everyone rich, had to be destroyed.
MarkTheGreat on February 28, 2009 at 11:20 AM
As an employee in the high tech industry, I can assure that very few of the high tech jobs are going overseas.
If your friends can’t pay the rent, it’s not govt, business, or my fault.
MarkTheGreat on February 28, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Actually, it probably is the govt’s fault, through tax policies and regulations. It isn’t the govts fault because they permit free trade.
MarkTheGreat on February 28, 2009 at 11:31 AM
It makes me sick to my stomach that my and my fellow hard working Americans’ hard earned money will go to support causes that some of us don’t believe in or support (e.g., Acorn, abortion clinics, entitlement programs, etc.) I want to be able to spend my extra money on causes that I believe in. Does Obama think he’s some kind of god that knows better than us how to spend our money?? I’m now wondering why I went to law school and spent the first 10 years of my legal career working 70 hours a week. In the end, we’re all being punished for working hard and trying to do the right thing.
Callie C. on February 28, 2009 at 11:33 AM
Keemo on February 28, 2009 at 9:06 AM
Mark’s thrid law:
The primary purpose of the legal system is to employ lawyers. Everything else is nothing more than a byproduct.
MarkTheGreat on February 28, 2009 at 11:33 AM
HE TOLD YOU SO IF YOU WERE NOT LISTENING….It’s because you didn’t want to know or you thought you were voting for American Idol.
http://cinie.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/what-you-thought-he-was-kidding/
Dr Evil on February 28, 2009 at 11:35 AM
keemo,
WHile I have no trouble believing that Pelosi actually believes those things, not even she is stupid enough to say them in front of an open mike.
MarkTheGreat on February 28, 2009 at 11:37 AM
Sorry about the atrocious grammar. I had a rough night, and not the expected Friday night tomfoolery.
chunderroad on February 28, 2009 at 12:24 PM
“The economy really doesn’t have any momentum going into the first quarter,” Wachovia economist John Silvia said. “To the extent the economy may have been weaker, then the impact of the stimulus would be more muted.”
Which was the argument Krugman and others were making for a much larger stimulus package.
Thanks gop.
getalife on February 28, 2009 at 12:36 PM
If you and Krugman had a prayer of being right, then a $100 Trillion dollar stimulus package would make us all instand millionaires, and none of us would ever have to work another day in our lives.
Oh the humanity of it all. The Republicans prevented this from happening. How can I ever forgive them.
MarkTheGreat on February 28, 2009 at 1:09 PM
Yup, 3 or 4 more trillions of power grabbing pork would have done the trick.
neuquenguy on February 28, 2009 at 1:12 PM
Yup, now we need a second stimulus package.
Thanks gop.
getalife on February 28, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Let’s wait until the urgency increases a bit so we can ram it through quickly again before anybody has time to read it. So far this strategy is working pretty well.
Bay the way, better to have many 1 trillion bills than one 50 trillion bill, that way we can hide a lot more power grabbing crap in them.
neuquenguy on February 28, 2009 at 1:42 PM
neuquenguy on February 28, 2009 at 1:42 PM
That’s the spirit.
getalife on February 28, 2009 at 1:47 PM
All of you -guy are probably the same HA commenter, with different noms de internet.
You and yours have no clue, gnats and plankton that you are, and aim for all free people to be, that you’d be the most exploited of them all in your ‘dream system’. I lived it and believe me that you don’t want to exist there.
Entelechy on February 28, 2009 at 2:08 PM
Note to all “-guy” out there: Use sarcasm at your own peril!
neuquenguy on February 28, 2009 at 2:24 PM
How Krugman has any credibilty at all is beyond me. I can understand though how he won a Nobel prize. Didn’t he used to bemoan all those deficits under Bush? And now they’re just what the doctor ordered? All depends on whether a president has an R or a D after his name.
ddrintn on February 28, 2009 at 2:59 PM
Kind of like curing arsenic poisoning by drinking Liquid Plumr.
jimmy2shoes on February 28, 2009 at 3:16 PM
Hey getalife-
You idiots passed $600 billion in stimulus last year too. They dont work.
You guys have run Congress since January 2007. So for over 2 years youve been in charge of budgets, taxes, laws, regulations, oversight, banking committees, finance committees, banking committees, commerce committees and spending. All Bush could do was veto or play along.
You were left a $160 billion deficit and a growing economy.
If you had any aspirations in life beyond babbling fingerpointing dullard you would of course know that.
Chuck Schick on February 28, 2009 at 3:34 PM
Obama’s real fight is with every productive citizen in this country. We’re getting sick and tired of him finding ways to give our money to his friends and the parasitic class. If there’s money to give away then give it back to the people you got it from. It is not our responsibility or desire to pay people’s mortgages, credit card balances, car payments or any other irresponsible debt. Taxes are levied mainly to provide for the common defense and not for a general welfare fund.
Enough!
rplat on February 28, 2009 at 4:01 PM
Briefing Jonathan Kay’s headlined article, one should note that per tax dollar to GDP %, Obama has outlawed domestic production of existing industry and energy. Hence, reflect a larger % variable tax dollars collected and spent increase to halted rate of production than may have been calculated.
maverick muse on February 28, 2009 at 4:45 PM
The “popularity” of Obama will evaporate as soon as the tax man cometh.
REGARDLESS of age and income, NO ONE LIKES HIGHER TAXES, and everyone’s taxes will rise to meet the Obama demands to spend.
It may be true that that segment of the population without heirs, the professionally single working class who avoid parenthood like a plague, love Obama along with the welfare loafers who refuse to work because they’ve got da man by da balls already, and a prolific drug trade on the side.
When all plays out, they will find themselves at the butt of loud majority‘s opinion. The “popularity” they deem themselves will be the opposite of their dream, having broken stability, opening Pandora’s Box.
DEMOGRAPHICS
maverick muse on February 28, 2009 at 4:56 PM
Did the stimulus work when FDR tried it?
Johan Klaus on February 28, 2009 at 6:53 PM
The GOP sucks, but when it comes to useless stimulus that was all socialist/dems.
True_King on February 28, 2009 at 7:37 PM
sethstorm on February 28, 2009 at 7:39 PM
PARTIAL LIST OF DOCUMENTS THAT BARACK OBAMA REFUSES TO RELEASE -. OBAMA’S SECRECY AND “CLOSED RECORDS” POLICY
Indonesian Passport – Not released
Application for U.S. Citizenship (as former citizen of Indonesia) – Not released
Immigration Records – Not released
Original Vault Copy Birth Certificate – Not released
Certificate of Live Birth – Counterfeit Version on Obama Web Site
Obama / Dunham Marriage License – Not released
Soetoro / Dunham Marriage License – Not released
Soetoro Adoption Records – Not Released
Fransiskus Assisi School Application – Not released
Punahou School Records – Not released
Selective Service Registration – Counterfeit version generated
Occidental College records – Not released
Columbia College Records – Not released
Columbia Thesis – Not released
Harvard College Records – Not released
Baptism Certificate – None
Medical Records – Not released
Illinois State Senate Records – Not released
Law Practice Client List – Not released
University of Chicago Scholarly Articles – None ,,,,,,,,,,,
searcher484 on February 28, 2009 at 8:08 PM
The dems in control of congress and spending for the last two years.
Johan Klaus on February 28, 2009 at 10:04 PM
No filibuster-proof majority.
sethstorm on February 28, 2009 at 10:21 PM
I hope The Dali Bama FAILS!!!!!
RealDemocrat on February 28, 2009 at 10:21 PM
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