I know, shocking, isn’t it?
Let’s say America axed mortgage-interest deductions, child tax credits and the ability of employees to pay their portion of their health-insurance tab with pretax dollars. All these are mentioned in a Wall Street Journal story on Monday. Analysis by Americans for Tax Reform finds the net effect would be a $2.4 trillion tax hike over the next five years. (Mortgage interest deduction: $638 billion; child tax credit: $60 billion; exclusion for employer-provided health insurance: $1.66 trillion, including higher FICA taxes.)
Such a fiscal drain would surely put America back into recession, unless marginal tax rates were also lowered to compensate. Cutting the total amount of tax expenditures by half might allow the top income tax rate to be cut from 35 percent to 25 percent. That is what you want in an ideal, pro-growth tax system: low rates applied to a broad base.
The politics are treacherous. That’s why major reform hasn’t happened in a generation. Back in 1986, Congress agreed to eliminate scores of tax loopholes for individuals. But lawmakers wisely sweetened the bitter medicine at the last minute by lowering the top marginal tax rate by nearly half, making those breaks less valuable. Many businesses were also willing to accept fewer tax breaks and pay higher total taxes in exchange for a simpler code and a lower rate, although this didn’t make it into the final bill.
Obama’s panelists should draw on this experience. They could advocate trimming some of the $90 billion in annual business tax breaks and subsidies while also paring the tax rate on profits, currently the second highest among advanced economies. And if they want to trim tax breaks for individuals, sharply lower marginal rates should accompany.
Austerity alone won’t solve America’s debt problem. We also need to boost growth. Some on the Obama panel seem to have forgotten this.
I don’t think they’ve “forgotten this” so much as they don’t really care: the panel itself was carefully stocked with the kinds of “bi-partisan” lawmakers and “experts” who would couch a revenue-raising exercise as “tax reform” — a rhetorical ploy Obama will use as cover to further cripple the economy and create the conditions for the kind of economic crisis he and his mentors (and his advocates in the media) have long believed would usher in a democratic socialist state (under the guise of a populist uprising).
Obama continues the rhetoric of class warfare, just as sure as he continues to run the Alinsky playbook, freezing and identifying targets, labeling them enemies, and working to triangulate around the growing beat-back by the Tea Partiers by way of appealing to particular identity groups whose narratives place them among the “oppressed” or “victim” class.
Many in the GOP establishment reason that a midterm defeat for progressive Dems will serve to chasten Obama, forcing him to rein in many of his “transformational” plans for a US he feels needs fundamental changing.
But then, many of these same people in the GOP establishment spent much time in post-election analysis back in 2008 assuring us that Obama was a “moderate,” and that the American people wanted a center-left country — a revelation that threatened to turn the GOP, should its conservative members insist on fidelity to constitutional principles and an end to endless government and bureaucratic expansion, into a “regional” party.
Calling Obama a socialist, or insisting that he was more leftist than “centrist” “pragmatist,” was silly and unhelpful, we were chided — even as Obama remained a remarkably stealthy personage, with entire portions of his life (like his time in NY at Columbia) simply left unexamined.
So forgive me if I don’t believe, with the GOP establishment, that Obama will do any significant “growing”, regardless of the outcome of these mid-term elections.
This commission was always, to Obama, a way to provide himself cover for the next stages of his strategy to change the country into the kind of state he believes we need: and nothing in his background suggests that free-enterprise, individual rights and autonomy, or self-sufficiency has anything to do with what Obama envisions for us.
Good man my balls.
From the WSJ link:
My hope is that Paul Ryan will be even more opportunistic than Obama. But, it’s that, a hope.
Regardless, we have the right person in place to blow up any united front of bullshit bipartisan consensus on the need to raise taxes rather than cutting spending. Like the rest of the GOP, he’ll have to prove himself or lose our support.
Well, the worse the better right? I mean, as long as they’ve got that neo-fascism things worked out. After all we wouldn’t want the road to socialism taking a national turn, would we?
You’ve read Kurtz’s “Radical in Chief”, no doubt?
His plan is and has always been to “punish his enemies”. Anyone who is afraid to say it, is afraid of being called a racist, and therefore is and has always been a big pussy.
Frontier/Outlaw party does not allow big pussies, btw. That’s my understanding, at least.
Btw, here are the commission members:
It’s never too early to start pressuring people.
Personally, I find it a hopeful sign that guys like Pethokoukis and you recognize this upcoming battle. That didn’t used to happen just ten to fifteen years ago. These fait accomplis are a bit harder to pull off with the proper attention being paid.
Hey Jeff! You get Kurtz’s book today :)
Also, could somebody dig up Saul Alinsky and give him a double tap.
Ya know. Just to be sure.
Another log on the Cloward-Piven fire.
Disregard for a moment the notion of mortgage interest tax-break being a subsidy for home ownership, and in a derivative sense one for the home building industry, and the child tax credit as an incentive to families, and the sense by many that such subsidies are fundamentally bad. Then consider what effect these changes would have on people in the lower and middle income brackets; many of whom are financially stretched to the limit-not just because of the current economic downturn, but because of the structure of their lives in general.
It reveals a fundamental lie on the part of the “party of the little man”, who have for some time claimed to be striving to help those “who played by the rules”, and especially on the part of the Obamists who are constantly parrotting his cliche about “making work pay”.
These changes to tax code could not reasonably be made without sending the economy into a, perhaps irrecoverable, tailspin. Of course, I’m sure that O!&Co. would make sure that the crisis didn’t go to waste.
The only way some of the discussed measures could be undertaken would be to couple such radical changes with a flat tax, a la Paul Ryan’s suggested in his Roadmap. To do otherwise, especially at a time when Bernanke seems intent on destroying the valie of the dollar, would be inviting economic catastrophe of the sort that facilitated Hitler taking power in 1930’s Germany; the only saving grace being that Americans don’t share the prediliction for a authoritarian, hierarchal, society that the Germans did at that time. Think about it.
Y’all know I’m not one to lightly trip the Godwin fantastic, so you also know that, at least for a moment, I’m not being hyperbolic…
Let’s hope that the newly elected GOP leadership stands athwart any such shemes and hollers both STOP! and BULLSHIT!.
Oh, and NO EFFIN’ VAT TAXES EITHER WITHOUT A COMPLETE END TO INCOME TAXES.
Poorly phrased. “Publicize” or “increase recognition of” works better.
You don’t double-tap a corpse! That’s desacration. You stake it to ground (being sure to drive the stake through the heart), cut off the head, and stuff the mouth with garlic.
One point I left out; let’s all hope that the lame duck crew doesn’t ram this through, while Obama palavers on about their “courage”.
Because what he’s really congratulating them for is their willingness to “punish their enemy”; that’s us…
Say what you will about ‘ol Dubya, the man owned every damn decision that came out of the West Wing. Claimed it was his call. Didn’t cry about it. Good or bad. And he listened sometimes (Harriet Miers and immigration, anybody?).
This one?
Fuck me. And Eric Holder called us cowards.
This President “present” pussy? (“pussy” seems to be a theme on this thread and I don’t wanna not dance with the girl that brung me, so…)
Czar or Blue Ribbon Commission for this coward. So Obama can blubber, piss, cry and moan, and give excuses about what the “expert” others advised him do.
It’s not his fault.
Let the man eat his waffle you assholes.
And then he’ll tell you the Slurpee story.
Then you’ll get it.
You’re all spoiled, ungrateful, impatient brats that just can’t think clearly and don’t know what’s good for you or your own children, and you certainly don’t deserve a voice in your own community.
Austerity alone won’t solve America’s debt problem. We also need to boost growth.
What if — bear with me, now — but what if spending cuts allowed lower tax rates, and these lower tax rates stimulated economic growth? Wouldn’t that be somethin’?
Many in the GOP establishment reason that a midterm defeat for progressive Dems will serve to chasten Obama, forcing him to rein in many of his “transformational” plans for a US he feels needs fundamental changing.
If he does, he greatly increases his chances for winning in ’12. And if he wins in ’12, he greatly increases the chances his coattails will return congress to him. And if that happens, it greatly increases the ability and opportunities he’ll have to foist more radical change.
Having Obama spend the next 2 years stonewalling on insisting policies that will likely destroy the Republic is possibly the best thing for it.
Just purchased a 40cal Springfield XDm. The nina is good enough for crack heads, the new one will do fine for leftists and looters.
Funny thing was on the case it was stencilled in bold white “Not for sale in California”. Ha ha funny for me, perhaps not so for feets when the zombies are clawing at his front door.
Obviously the magazine holds more than ten rounds. Californians will not put up with that, you know.
16, crank-d :)
what bipartisan commissions are good for is for bumblefuck and his media to bludgeon Team R with them
My accountant was telling me of bill HR 4646 yesterday; which proposes a fee on bank transactions including a 1% levy on all payroll direct deposits.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-4646
Obama is a “good man” if you are Bill Ayers.
Did anyone else call Obama a good man?
Austerity alone won’t solve America’s debt problem. We also need to boost growth. Some on the Obama panel seem to have forgotten this.
Some on the reuters blogosphere seem to have forgotten that some on the Obama admin don’t really give a siht about that.
My accountant was telling me of bill HR 4646 yesterday; which proposes a fee on bank transactions including a 1% levy on all payroll direct deposits.
You do know you’re allowed to shoot people in the direct process of robbery against your person, right?
Short of that, maybe move yourself and your money somewhere’s that both are appreciated.
They love taking taxes where you don’t see what’s happening.
they told use this morning that our part of the health cares will go up 15-20% next year
*us* I mean… and I thought to myself Barack Obama is an asshole.
We also have some new high-deductible option with super-limited benefits… for the kids, they said… but after they explained it you could tell everyone was thinking “oh. for the stupid kids.”
The cost of health insurance went up because insurance companies are evil. Obama told me that.
‘Cause all those electronic fund transfers are putting the dead trees out of work, and that’s inflating the unemployment numbers.
Or something. I don’t know. I stopped trying to make sense of this shit years ago.
I wonder if it’s possible to overestimate how helpful Obamacare will be to Team R in 2012 as more and more people find out first-hand what a crock of shit it is.
Peoples are going to go all Omar Little on they asses: who needs gettin’ is got to be got.
I should give that show another shot… it just seemed to have less entertainment value than other shows… plus it had lots of poverty and crime – even the cops lived in poverty, or at least that one cop did in episode one – I think he’d lost his shirt in a divorce. I felt bad for him but not really.
Mr. SEK really likes that show.
Omar the outlaw is the one redeeming character, unless you want to count the corruption of Maryland politics as a character I guess.
Just purchased a 40cal Springfield XDm. The nina is good enough for crack heads, the new one will do fine for leftists and looters.
Funny thing was on the case it was stencilled in bold white “Not for sale in California”. Ha ha funny for me, perhaps not so for feets when the zombies are clawing at his front door.
Sawed off shotguns work best for zombies.
Universal truth in every video game containing zombies I have ever played.
Yeah, happyfeet, the HR lady was at our state meeting last Friday. Open health care enrollment time and the “don’t message your co-workers shoulders” and whatnot (total spoil sport). She explained: “If you like your current health/dental plan, the premium is going up 19%”(Blue Cross/Blue Shield).
But, hey.
At least I can keep it.
All hail the miracles in the age of Obama.
We’re “welcome” for his privilege and bounty.
Screw SEK, hf. He likes it for different reasons. Cheering for the wrong people. Idiot prolly watched House of Saddam on HBO and wound up wanting to give that murdering fucker a big hug at the end.
He’s stupid that way.
Anyway…
The Wire is definitely worth another look (and why do they only have the 1st season on On Demand and at Blockbuster!?).
“don’t message your co-workers shoulders” and whatnot (total spoil sport)
Hmm.
Kinky.
Were you sending messages to their shoulders, or sending messages with their shoulders?
Were you sending messages to their shoulders, or sending messages with their shoulders?
Both me and my Firefox grammar checker thingie would ask you not to make fun of us.
After all, the wrong word was spelled right, and Firefox is a prude and didn’t know what I was going for.
Plus, I’ve scolded it.
Anyway, it’s not so much I ask for me, it’s just that it’ll get more upset and it will only get worse from here.
It also has a problem with “desert” vs. “dessert”.
Does it all the time.
So please let those go too Entropy. Thanks.
Why is it when the Statists in Washington (of both Parties) decide, “Oh, fuck! We gotta do something about the deficit!”, the first thing they can think of is to screw the middle class? They did the same thing in 1986.
Fuck.
Why is it when the Statists in Washington (of both Parties) decide, “Oh, fuck! We gotta do something about the deficit!”, the first thing they can think of is to screw the middle class?
I’m not sure, but it’s probably related to the reason why the first thing they think of when told to reduce spending is “take away tax breaks.” That’s not a spending reduction, guys. That’s a tax hike by a different name. Spending reductions mean that fewer people draw paychecks or benefit checks from the government.
My heart bleeds for the oppressed rich people who’s taxes may go up a couple of percentage points.
you need a cupcake
Topic:
Comment:
Conclusion:
Trainwreck of stupid.
41. Comment by AJB on 10/26 @ 4:14 pm #
My heart bleeds for the oppressed rich people who’s taxes may go up a couple of percentage points.
Hey, you know whose hearts bleed to the point that they do things for purely altruistic purposes?
Rich people.
When your local hospital wants to expand a wing, it’s not like they’re hitting you up.
Lemme guess. You’ve spent the past six years filing one-page EZs at the old pre-03 rates, claiming no credits, deductions, or exemptions?
Naahh, I didn’t think so.
Damn, AJB, going through life jealous, envious and dogshit ugly just ain’t no way to live.
Work hard on building yourself some character, you can possibly overcome the first two.
FTFY.
It’s said that a typical man thinks about sex every (distracted pause) six seconds. The typical statist thinks about screwing the middle class every 2.7 seconds.
Maybe AJB can tell us how the child exemption and mortgage interest exemptions are “for the rich”, and how the poor and middle class will just laugh those losses off?
AJB thinks he successfully conceals his hatred of the middle class. Like the entirety of AJB’s thinking, it is wrong.
AJB also thinks he’s fooled us into thinking he styles himself one of the elites. No, it is all too apparent that AJB knows he is a perpetual loser and that he trolls and copypastas in order to demonstrate to his overlords that he is fully prepared to knuckle under to their every whim.
Pathetic.
What is the AJB of whom you speak?
#41, Patrick.
He drops some idiocy and then leaves in a decent number of threads.
AJB knows that cutting federal spending would allow the private sector to flourish once more, and it terrifies him. The idea of millions of people working productively to improve their lives and the living standards of society as a whole fills him with dread. These millions of people would be untaxed, unregulated, uncontrolled! Can you imagine? Millions and millions of Americans making their way through life on their own terms, without AJB and his ilk bossing them around, telling them what to do and where to live and how to get around and how much their allowance will be and what medicine they’re allowed to take and what school their kids can attend and how much salt they can put on their food and…
Chaos! Anarchy!
No, far better to keep people poor and stupid, without hope for the future or motivation to improve their station. The only job anyone truly needs is to go stand in line for their allowance from Uncle Sugar, and to go stand in another line to vote for Uncle Sugar. If everyone would just content themselves with that, things would be perfect!