I would have gone with “because he’s a Marxist and this is what they do,” but then that’s speaking broadly. Jim Pethokoukis is more interested in the nuts and bolts:
All the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts.
Gone.
It would have been the Mother of All Tax Hikes, a $3 trillion tax increase during shaky economic times. It would have broken a campaign promise not to raise taxes on middle-income Americans.
President Obama was shockingly close to embracing such a plan back in 2009. And if he’s reelected in 2012, Obama may well reconsider the idea and let all the Bush tax cuts expire as they are scheduled to do in 2013.
[…]
Now we have even more evidence as to why Obama created a debt commission—and then rejected its recommendations. It didn’t tax or spend enough.
See, the Bowles-Simpson commission recommended a) cutting individual tax rates to as low as 23 percent, b) eliminating many if not all tax breaks, and c) capping federal spending and revenue at 21 percent of GDP. At that level, taxes as a share of the economy would be about 3 percentage points above the historical average, a massive tax hike.
But even that would not be enough taxpayer dough for many liberal economists, such as those that work in the Obama White House. They believe federal spending will need to be much, much higher in the future due to a combination of factors: an aging population, rising healthcare costs, the need for more public “investment,” and greater debt service costs when interest rates eventually rise. (Indeed, three liberal think tanks recently constructed long-term budget plans, and their average projection for federal spending by 2035 was 25 percent of GDP—with a bullet.)
Generating the tax revenue that Obama would need to finance all his spending would require sharply higher taxes on the wealthy—and everybody else. And according to Scheiber, Obama might well like to start the taxathon with a $3 trillion tax hike on all Americans. Of course, that still wouldn’t be enough, which is why the next step might be a value-added tax.
Obama has been boasting that he has “five more years” in office. To do what, exactly? Now we know.
Well, we’ve kinda always known, haven’t we?
Obama and the progressives won’t stop until we’re as feckless, lazy, and moribund a nation as the democratic socialist enclaves of Old Europe — with the same kind of permanent ruling elite and the same kind of expansive and controlling bureaucratic apparatuses to keep the masses managed and dependent and unarmed and impotent.
For Obama and his ilk, this is how things should be: there are those who are fit to rule and those who need to be ruled, and the great experiment in self governance and individual autonomy has proven to be a minor inconvenience on the otherwise long historical march toward separating out the kings and the courts from the commoners, the good and noble and virtuous from the shitty rabble they deign to pretend to champion. The historical dialectic, properly envisioned, promised the socialist / communist paradise and the beautiful conformity of radical egalitarianism — and the modern-day Marxists haven’t given up that vision; they’ve simply added to the mix an acknowledgment that some technocratic class needs to be available to run the society, and that means it is the step before paradise that is the proper place to drop anchor — where the government class and big business join together as a ruling coalition, where government-bred crony capitalism helps poison free markets and kill off the majority of competition (and so the private sector), where society becomes clearly demarcated between those who run things and those who are managed. For their own good.
Because the “masses” are but human livestock, clinging to their guns and their religion and their ridiculous notions of self-worth — which is why the goal has to be to take away all of those things, along with silly ideas about rugged individualism and self-sufficiency that have permeated this flawed country in need of fundamental transformation.
Only then will “social justice” prevail.
This is their vision. They won’t ever describe it this way — they are too self-evidently good and compassionate, you see — but it is what it is. And frankly, we’re not doing enough to stop it.
We’re on the road to serfdom. In lightweight electric cars, munching on arugula sandwiches.
And no, I didn’t expect this post to take such a heavy turn when I started it. But then, I’m unpredictable — even to myself.
Outlaw.
We must pay for the government we don’t want after all, it’s only fair.
You’re being unhelpful again. You had better watch that, lest Something Be Done about it.
What is this “might” bullshit.
When Barak O’Romney gets in, taxes are going up.
My taxes, anyway. And since I’m middle class, I think it’s fair to say middle class taxes are going up.
Susan Roesgen just called and said you can’t object to these prerequisite conditions making tax hikes inevitable because the President hasn’t proposed raising taxes on you as of yet. For now, enjoy your free Ortho Tri-Cyclen and like it, knaves.
I would never have guessed that a cog straight out of the Chicago machine would have such a neo-feudalist outlook on governance. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!
Obama has been boasting that he has “five more years” in office. To do what, exactly?
To implement his Five Year Plan, of course.
Yeah, but think of all the consequence free casual sex in the back seat!
What’s a little liberty compared to the freedom to fuck?
Take your soma like a good little boy.
It was someone around here that said (or quoted, Google is being belligerent and I can’t find it);
“An American can be a citizen, a warden of the State, or a slave.”
Georgetown Law students now need “$3,000” annual for birth control.
Good Lord. Really?
As you are an obvious prostitute madam, I would submit to you, that you stop whoring for your (worthless) law degree tuition, and simply take up the stripper pole, which will make you slightly less of a skank, and easily allow you to pay for your own rubbers.
-Sincerely, The Tax Payer.
Ms. Fluke is a lesbian, Lamont. I’m unclear about why she is buying birth control (if she is) unless she has a medical condition.
Seems relevant here:
Good review in an interesting Review.
That just means she’s whoring herself figuratively instead of literally.
Meanwhile, the Park Service asks us to “please do not feed the animals” because the animals may grow dependent and not learn to take care of themselves.
I thought she had to pass the bar first to do it literally.
I thought maybe she was acting as a “connection” for her round-heeled pals and making bank.
So, damn, dental dams?
Okay, then she’s allowing the Democrats to use her like a whore, figuratively.
The dirty partisan slut.
Apropos of little, and not quite on topic, am I the only one who is ready to take a vacation from many of our bloggy allies on the right? At least this site keeps its eye on the ball. Over at Ace they are having a fit over -gasp- that unhelpful Rush Limbaugh making fun of Fluke and her “testimony”-cum-propaganda appearance in Congress.
Apparently they have concluded that Rush is the problem, not our widespread acceptance of the Left’s definitions and terms. If only he would just shut up… then automagically there would have been no PR coup for Obama.
I don’t know how people can believe this stuff.
George: HA! I believe I predicted that.
Pay up, suckers!
Remember: all my talk about the importance of language is “fundamentally unserious.” And yet, it ain’t me who is constantly letting the left put it in my ass.
Indeed you predicted it. I used to comment very heavily over at Ace, but the madness there has become indistinguishable from jackals fighting over spoiled carrion. Meanwhile, the veldt is in flames only yards away.
Re: the HHS mandate, I liked what Insty had to say
Heh.
Leigh,
I am now completely in the weeds.
So her and her “partner” need birth control in fear of… the “sperm donation clinic”?!
Those places don’t chase and hold women down at random and forcibly inseminate them, do they?
If so, I haven’t read about it.
This news is incredible. I’m putting condoms on everything from here on out.
Hang on while I try and catch my dog.
I’m putting condoms on everything from here on out.
It keeps the keyboard clean, but your fingers get sweaty.
Uh oh, my insensitive remark just cost us another thousand independent voters.
Seriously: I mean, are we not allowed to note that this chick is a plant, and that what she is ostensibly asking for is for us to pay for her sexual dalliances? Like we’re johns, albeit ones who don’t even get a jizz out of the deal. Are we not allowed to note that Limbaugh didn’t denigrate women, but rather pointed to the fact that this woman was demanding we pay for her choices — when there was no problem obtaining contraception prior to this whole manufactured bit of nonsense? That the left is LYING both about what Limbaugh said, and about this being a “woman’s health” issue?
Christ. It’s like the useful idiots on our side never fucking learn.
Heh. Lamont, the plot thickens: she is a 30 year old who purposely sought to attend Georgetown U because she’s an activist!
Evidently, she was on GMA this morning and the cat’s out of the bag.
Here’s a little something I put together you fellas might like.
http://www.mrctv.org/videos/early-rnc-campaign-ad
Fuck the independent voters. They’d better start worrying that the base is going to revolt.
I mean, seriously. Mitt Romney? Is this where the “conservative” new media has taken us?
Jeff, they’re slapping each other around on Volohk about whether or not it’s okay to refer to Ms. Fluke as a slut or if that is “slut shaming” (what?).
BBL. Kid related non-emergency calls.
Just to be fair, Ace said Rush’s joke wasn’t funny, but notes the double-standard of the left saying nasty things and getting a pass, and that Rush should not apologize since there is nothing to apologize for.
I cannot say anything about what the commenters are saying, since I rarely wade in anymore.
Maybe I was not writing about the topic at hand. Oh well.
Jeff:
Great description in your post of civilization’s default mode — all power coalescing into one gigantic, back-scratching monolith. I’ve spent a great deal of time rattling around the more Hobbesian neighborhoods of this planet, and I’ve come away astounded that anything like this society has ever existed and how utterly different it is from anything that came before it.
But as someone upthread hinted, man is essentially a feudal creature. From the schoolyard to the boardroom to the the power pyramids of Hollywood, Washington and Wall Street — or the academy, for that matter. All variations of medieval court.
Steyn put it best:
“Let’s set a Presidential mandate that requires all muslim mosques in the United States to sell applewood smoked bacon. And when the left wiggles & squeals, we’ll simply ask, ‘Why do you hate bacon? What’s wrong with bacon? WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO OUTLAW BACON?!”
Also, when the “nannies” outlaw bacon…I predict that’s when the first shots will be fired.
Just saying.
I find it absurd that places like Ace’s are even bothering to discuss Rush’s comments. How about discussing FLUKE’S “testimony” instead? It’s the Left that started this ridiculous fight over condoms and pills, and now many on our side are apologizing for mocking it.
The nice thing about surrender is you never have to fight.
Ms. Fluke is a lesbian
and how would that preclude her from mercenary heterosexual intercourse?
Leigh,
I’ve never actually seen GMA that I can recall. Didn’t miss anything I’m guessing.
Unless Stephanopoulos slipped one past the $3,000 dollar a year birth control goally and knocked her up on the air.
Nah…I’m thinking I would’ve heard about that.
mercenary heterosexual intercourse?
Dost thou mock the oldest profession? H8R.
Is Fluke’s testimony even the issue?
The left did a great job in framing this controversy. It’s already accepted MSM wisdom that the government can force insurance companies to pay for contraception, and now they’re covering peripheral issues like whether there can be exemptions in some cases for people the president and his cronies don’t like (under the assumption that exemptions are always available to the Party Faithful). Once that is conceded, it’s over.
It always needs to be taken back to the original problem: overreaching government. When faced with this problem, the correct response is always, “Why should I pay for someone else’s sex?”;
Though, I suppose her testimony is an issue because it’s a pack of lies.
Never mind. Too dumb to comment today I guess.
…”mercenary heterosexual intercourse”
Is it wrong that I’m slightly aroused by those words?
Has it occured to anyone that in a way, the Left is saying “You think you can repeal Obamneycare and deny socialized medicine to the nation? We won’t even let you deny us ribbed rainbow Magnums by the twelve-pack. Just imagine what we will do to you when you try to deny us free actual medicine.”
More and more they only want to fight conservatives. It’s strange. And sad.
Except we’ve proven that doesn’t have to be the case.
I’m not going back. Not voluntarily.
Just imagine what we will do to you when you try to deny us free actual medicine.”
I would love hearing some leftist screeching at doctors and nurses they have no choice but to work under the conditions that the leftist will set …
I recall that George Washington’s will set free his slaves – but only upon Martha’s death –
Martha saw the wisdom in letting them go immediately.
Wisdom and leftism are mutually exclusive.
This is from Business Insider, and it’s a pretty damn good argument . One I’d like to hear one of these GOP bozos repeat on the stump.
This is all just so remarkably depressing. Whining about not being paid $3000 for rubbers for a thespian activist is being lauded. We are so fucked.
“Just to be fair, Ace said Rush’s joke wasn’t funny, but notes the double-standard of the left saying nasty things and getting a pass, and that Rush should not apologize since there is nothing to apologize for.”
Cranky, I thought what Ace wrote wasn’t bad either, though he shows a profound ignorance about Rush when he wrote:
Talking about a guy that has a freaking bit called “the media tweak of the day”.
Rush is the one pressing liberal assumptions, the MSM didn’t make Rush, so they can’t break him. e doesn’t have to concede shit.
Anyway, if you scroll down, you come to a much dumber post by Drew.
You’re right, Jeff. It doesn’t have to be the case. I’m not going back either.
My grandmother didn’t arrive penniless at Ellis Island carrying a cardboard suitcase thinking her grandchildren would willingly revert to the sort of stifling society she fled.
This is from Business Insider, and it’s a pretty damn good argument
Quite good indeed. And, like, totally unhelpful, being on the subject of icky moral issues, and Republicans must be severely devoted to fiscal matters. Like protecting the safety net and federal minimum wage.
Here’s that sneaky H.
Carney said they spoke “for several minutes. It was a good conversation. Like a lot of people said the personal attacks directed her way are inappropriate. The fact that political discourse has become debased in many ways is bad enough. It’s worse when directed at a private citizen simply expressing her views on a matter of public policy.”
The Koch brothers could not be reached for comment. And Carney’s fucking head must be made of Kevlar as it did not assploded when he said that.
Yeah, Drew’s post sent me away from that burgeoning mire of bloggy stupidity. You see, Fluke would never have earned any traction whatsoever had Rush said nothing about her. Because Rush is The Puppetmaster. But also just a stupid entertainer.
Hey, maybe he’s just a guy on the radio and some of you could grow a pair.
What a sorry, sorry post.
There’s two things going on here:
The first is that the Dems continue to try to keep the bitches obedient (thank you George Carlin!) by ginning up hysteria (literally even!) by, as Glenn Reynolds keeps noting, proclaiming Republicans want to take your ladyparts!.
The second thing that’s going on is Democrats are trying to buy votes with the (false) promise of consequence free, no-fault recreational sex.
This, it seems to me, is a logical outcome of the reigning sex-ed regime. We’ve gone from we know you kids with your raging hormones can’t help yourselves, so here’s how to have sex responsibly to the present we can’t trust you stupid monkeys to avail yourselves of widely available contraceptives, so we’re going to make sure they’re even more widely available than they already are. How long until we reach the point where birth control becomes mandatory?
So the question then is, who is it who’s really trying to control what goes on in the bedroom here?
Just who’s goodwill do they think they’re going to earn, these numbskulls tripping over each other in their hast to criticize others on the right?
Ernst, I think they seek to save the rest of us from being tarnished by association.
They’re heroic that way…
Yes.
Well, if she’s doing it willingly for the Democrats, and isn’t getting paid, then technically she’s just a slut. Figuratively speaking.
— Oh, wait–
Burning through 30 condoms a day it’s obvious Ms. Fluke is doing her part to keep up the morale of the fleet. Why do y’all hate sailors?
Independents are like those girls who like the attention and going to concerts but don’t have the heart to tell you that they are still hung up on their dangerous broke meth-head idiot ex-boyfriend. It’s a scam.
Independents are democrats who won’t admit it and people who just don’t care or know what you are talking about. They like memes and bumper stickers and sound bytes. They think politics is nerdy.
Chasing them until you have lost sight of your own platform is numb skulled. It is a get rich quick scheme. It is a sucker play.
Well
I don’t know where that “Well” came from. I am scared.