And no, I’m not talking about racist code words like, say, “basketball” or “shuffle” or “street tacos”. I’m talking about the left’s own code words. To wit:
As the European economy grapples with yet another bailout of a bankrupt sovereign state, a storyline is emerging that seeks to frame this latest instance of government interventionism along deliberately disingenuous lines. According to this misleading narrative, Ireland’s abysmal fiscal condition did not come as a result of chronic state overspending, but is instead due to the island nation’s comparatively-low corporate income tax rate.
Sound like a familiar song? On both sides of the ocean there appear to be plenty of Keynesian apologists who believe that economic downturns are always caused by greedy capitalists — never by greedy politicians and government bureaucrats.
Now several European nations — led by France and Germany — are insisting that Ireland raise its 12.5 percent corporate tax rate as a prerequisite for receiving a Eurozone loan that would pump tens of billions of Euros into its banking system. Such a tax increase aims to bring Ireland in line with corporate tax rates in France (33 percent) Germany (30 percent), Spain (30 percent) and Great Britain (28 percent) — but it would also stifle productivity and job growth at a time when Irish citizens need their economy to be firing on all cylinders.
To the left, “revenue” is “money taken from the people out of the economy to pay down interest on the debt accrued from the government’s own overspending.” And the need for ever more “revenue” is an excuse to vilify those capitalist enterprises that actually generate revenue — and then to punish them for having done so by insisting that they surrender more of that revenue to the government.
[…]
Obviously, the solution that makes the most sense in all of this is for sovereign governments to confine themselves to a very narrow list of core functions on behalf of their own citizens — and then to perform these functions with maximum efficiency and transparency. Clearly such a rational view of government was long ago abandoned by Europe’s welfare statists, just as it has been cast to the curb in recent years by socialist-leaning politicians in the United States.
Yet while America’s own Keynesian interventionists — led by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke — continue to blame other nations’ debt crises for the ongoing sluggishness of the global economy, very few are willing to “call a Shamrock a Shamrock” as it relates to the Irish debt crisis.
One analyst willing to do so is Daniel J. Mitchell, a tax expert at The Cato Institute. In seeking the real culprit behind the Irish implosion — and for that matter the broader European debt crisis — Mitchell examined nearly three decades worth of Irish government expenditures and tax receipts. In doing so he found that from 1983-2006 both expenditures and receipts in Ireland were on similar upward trajectories — a regrettable result of the Irish government’s insistence on spending every new dime that came into its coffers. Beginning in 2007, however, these lines began moving in opposite directions.
“When the financial crisis hit a couple of years ago, tax revenues suddenly plummeted,” explains Mitchell. “Unfortunately, politicians continued to spend like drunken sailors. It’s only in the last year that they finally stepped on the brakes and began to rein in the burden of government spending. But that may be a case of too little, too late.”
[…]
Frankly, no European taxpayers — Irish or otherwise — should be forced to pick up the tab for this disaster. Similarly no European taxpayers should have been forced to bail out Greece earlier this year. Governments on both sides of the Atlantic must learn the hard way that they are to restrict themselves to core functions — a process that starts with telling the truth about how they landed in their current predicaments.
Of course, the workaround to this is simple for the statist: redefine what comes to count as a “core function,” and that expanse once again will justify the need for the government to collect more “revenue”.
For the greater good, you see.
Q.E.D.
that reminders me how Indiana Team R whore Dick Lugar voted to spend monies brokedick America doesn’t have for to expand SCHIP
Frankly, no European taxpayers — Irish or otherwise — should be forced to pick up the tab for this disaster.
Like hell they shouldn’t. The excess government spending wasn’t done against the express will of the people but rather in response to their demands for more benefits, more benefits, and still more benefits.
Because the more your government takes care of you, the more enlightened your society, not like those troglodyte Yanks who don’t even have single-payer health care.
The only reason Ireland started doing so well, and had all that money to spend, was their low corporate tax rate. Businesses flocked to set up shop there. Instead of lowering tax rates to meet current government demand (or saving for the inevitable downturn), they spent the extra money and are now broke. It’s the same story everywhere. When you spend other people’s money on other people, you take the least care of it. If politicians treated all money as if it were their own, this carp would not happen.
Hang on a second there cranky-d, I thought that for all intents and purposes politicians do treat all money as if it were their own — i.e., to dispose of as they see fit.
What’s funny is France was a huge supporter of the South during the struggle with “our great stain”. Seems the French felt “the great stain” was the way to go for cheap cotton. Oh well, that’s history. Nothing for Obama to concern himself with. Better to craft a story of how Muslims invented the cheese-straightener and brought prosperity to the cheese-producing regions.
By treating money as if it were their own, I mean treating it as if it came out of their own pocket. They currently treat it as if it fell out of the sky.
Sorry for the twist cranky-d, I didn’t intend to abuse you though I knew what you meant, but couldn’t resist to hammer a reinforcement on the politician’s facile hypocrisy.
The only reason Ireland started doing so well, and had all that money to spend, was their low corporate tax rate. Businesses flocked to set up shop there.
Well, cranky-d, that and all the EU money from the zillions of regional development grant awards. No wonder German Joe Public (Herr Josef Bürger?) is feeling tapped out. Ireland’s Celtic Tiger image was always a mirage, of course fueled by a real estate bubble financed by ridiculously low interest rates from Europe.
actually, Associated Press propaganda whore Julie Pace, a “symbolic gesture” simply serves to show that president bumblefuck still has his head up his dirty socialist ass. Poor pathetic brokedick America can’t afford to sustain its workforce of pampered unionized leeches at current levels.
Too bad so sad.
Thanks for the correction, SW. The narrative I got was that it was the tax rates alone. I did not realize that other countries were pumping money in. Was that a bribe so Ireland would join the EU?
That was the bribe that attracted everyone else to the EU, cranky. Peace in our time, funded by the big losers last time around. All aboard the gravy train! What, you thought we wanted Slovenia for the cheap ski holidays? What the hell do we get from Bulgaria? Slovakia? Romania? Cyprus? OK, Cyprus has some cracking holiday spots, cheap brandy sours and some nice monasteries, so I’ll give you that one.
Between this and this, I have to wonder if the Left actually has no interest in actual “economic recovery”.
Never let a serious crisis go to waste…
Cranky,
They sincerely believe that all money (aka wealth, the fruit of your labors) belongs to the collective (aka the government). They believe they are oh-so-charitable in letting you keep some of it.
Have a look at this table, cranky, and you will see that I was far too harsh on old Cyprus, which obviously is cash rich from olive oil futures and package holidays from sunburned Brits. If you sort on Net benefit per capita and then look at the inverse, you’ll see that the moochers begin at Spain and it’s just as well there are 17 teats on the old cow.
The left is interested in an economic recovery that jives with their ideas regarding social and economic justice.
There is the key to all of the fiscal troubles in this about the city of Hamtramck.
As with the mess that is, was, and continues in healthcare coverage, when the person who actually pays the bills is not the one who either provides or receives the product paid for then the natural incentive is to drive the cost of that product even higher till the paying party is bankrupted. Third party payer is the problem behind most all the turmoil.
Geoff, I found out a few weeks ago that a family I know pays $5 a month for their health insurance. Works for GM.
Considering the bankruptcy/bailout at GM they should thank you for paying their costs.
Who lives in a city whose name is 9 letters long, only 2 of which are vowels? How do you even pronounce that?
I once worked for a woman whose surname was 6 letters long with only one vowel, so I recognize that some things are, at least temporarily, not a matter of choice.
Wow, SW, Luxembourg is really benefitting quite nicely on a per capita basis, while the Netherlands are getting royally screwed. I also see that the big boys both pay in money and get money back (with a nice percentage shaved off the top and funneled to someone’s pet projects I’m sure), while anyone who has half a brain would realize that the trick is to never pay that money you get back in the first place.
Then again, we do that here in the U.S. too. It’s all about the power, baybee.
It wasn’t Schmidt, was it?
Wink.
McGraw?
– Reality is a harsh mistress…..
I was far too harsh on old Cyprus
There were two Cypriots in my freshman dorm. They never showered but they’d go into the bathroom each morning and spend an equivalent amount of time applying body powder. Lesson: When even your best and brightest smell like farm animals, your economy ain’t gonna work.
*frown*
Ham – tram – ick.
I had a friend with the last name of Czajka. Not long, but I always thought that would be on of those you’d hate to attempt to pronounce.
they froze colas big deal
Detroit’s filled with weird names. Gratiot is one of the major roads leading from the city out to … well, it’s goes 30 miles or so out?
Gra – shit.
– It’s just the beginning newrouter.
– India, Japan, and S.Korea all told Bummbulfuck to piss off. They don’t intend to get sucked into the Progressive clusterfuck.
– The financial groups aren’t going to budge, which keeps the economy on a downward trajectory.
– One short uptick in retail holiday sales, heavily discounted at that, is not going to save the Left from this financial disaster they’ve wrought.
I consider this to be Obama’s move that is like the one Clinton did during the “government shutdown” clash with the then new Republican Congress.
Clinton made a deal with the government employee’s unions that after the “shutdown” was over everyone would receive all their pay that was lost during the layoffs. The union’s job was to publicly whine and cry about the hardships for the children at Christmas to pressure the Republicans to relent.
Expect to see numerous stories now about all the hardships this “freeze” will bring when there will be none and everyone will simply get added grade-step increases to compensate for any possible loss.
– All that may be true geoffb, but it will ring hollow for all the families out there struggling to just get by that never saw a $178,000 yearly income.
– You know, sooner or later “let them eat cake” can get you hung.
Sigh. It’s like these squirrels don’t know where the pay for government employees comes from, when it comes from non-government employees. It takes at least 3 private sector employees to pay for one Federal government employee at current tax rates, yet they want to continue paying them when they should be shedding them.
Just when I think I cannot be more underwhelmed, I am.
I wasn’t even accounting for the high pay some are receiving, I just meant at equal pay/benefit rates.
John Gage, president of the 600,000-member American Federation of Government Employees, called the decision “a slap at working people.”
Is this the same guy who was explaining that of course government workers make way more than the median, because they’re all professionals, doncha know?
What is it, guys? Are you a bunch of working stiffs who deserve special treatment because you’re all just salt-of-the-earth workers, or are you deserving of your bloated compensation because of all your technical expertise?
Kill the unions, Obama. They’re not your friends.
[…] spend more money, allowing the government to tax them more and recoup more “revenue” [CODE WORD ALERT] in order to cut the […]
– You can’t use Clintonesque circumstances to decide what will work for Bunbblefuck. Clinton’s economy was no where near what Baracky has on his hands. The old dodges aren’t going to serve him well if that’s his intent.
– People will look at their shattered lives and react even more strongly than just the Tea party if things stay the same as hey are, and I see not a single sign saying otherwise.
I never said it will work, only that he always seems to use the same playbook just faster and harder with added farce for seasoning.
John Gage needs to decide whether he’s representing a union of federal government employees or “working people”. The two groups don’t have much in the way of overlap.
To the left, “revenue” is “money taken from the people out of the economy to pay down interest on the debt accrued from the government’s own overspending.” And the need for ever more “revenue” is an excuse to vilify those capitalist enterprises that actually generate revenue — and then to punish them for having done so by insisting that they surrender more of that revenue to the government.
I wrote to JWebb a little while ago, trying to explain the 2/3 government vs 1/3 private economy here in Canuckistan:
It’s not “2/3 non-taxed vs 1/3 taxed” … everyone pays taxes. The problem is that all of government jobs and benefits are on … like a mobius strip, constantly feeding itself, and constantly demanding more and more benefits and jobs. The rest of us, in private land, have to work harder and harder to feed the monster.
True story.
No, they’re not. They’re his owners. And the likelihood of Dunham turning on them is roughly the same as that of a field hand turning on the overseer.