President Obama and some very unlikely allies in Washington, DC have given the American people a Christmas present of sorts. As a result of a bipartisan agreement between the President and Republican leaders in Congress, middle class taxes will not only not go up — all working Americans will see a nice boost in their take-home pay — by as much as $2,000 per taxpayer on the first $106,800 in earned income. The long term unemployed will see their unemployment benefits continue for up to 13 months, and millions of taxpayers will continue to claim the child tax credit. The college-tuition aid program has also been extended, as have the earned-income tax credit for low-income Americans, and tax breaks for small businesses.
Barack and Bill
Barack Obama brought out Bill Clinton to address the press in the White House briefing room yesterday, and then gave the former president the stage. It no doubt caused a lot of us to flash back 15 years to when it was President Clinton reeling from a mid-term election defeat in Congress. Former President Clinton used the opportunity yesterday to make a strong case in support of the compromise on taxes that President Obama has made with the Republicans. Clinton laid out the specifics with the kind of clarity that seems to have eluded the Obama White House throughout the first two years of the Obama presidency.
The Failed Bush Tax Cuts
Failed Bush economic policy, and the failed Bush tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003, added $4.36 trillion to the national debt during his 8 years in office. And what was the impact of the Bush tax cuts on the American economy? Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew an anemic 2.09% annually, only 3 million net jobs were created, and income disparity between the richest Americans and all the rest of us grew to all-time high levels.
Prospects for Good Governance
The talking heads in the media are all assuming that the next few months in Washington will be filled with confrontation perhaps leading to a government shutdown. And with good reason. There are certainly the makings of stalemate and gridlock on the political scene these days.
The Big Lie About Jobs and Taxes
The question of whether to extend the Bush tax cuts seems hopelessly mired in misinformation. The bickering in Washington on the economy seems almost exclusively focused on the top marginal tax rates — the rate paid by the wealthiest taxpayers on the income that falls into their highest tax bracket. The little mentioned fact is that everyone, including millionaires and billionaires, pays income taxes at the same marginal tax rates.
Posted in American Politics, Economic Policy
Tagged American Politics, Bush-era tax cuts, deficit spending, deficits, economic insecurity, Economic Policy, economic stimulus, financial crisis, limited government, marginal tax rates, market collapse, market crash, national debt, tea party, tea party beliefs, tea party events, tea party republicans, the bush tax cuts
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Right Wing Political Mythology
To listen to Conservatives, you might think that the Obama Administration is a threat to the very survival of our nation. According to conservative right-wing propagandists, under President Obama the federal deficit has skyrocketed, taxes have been raised, the banks were given free money in the form of a bail out, the stimulus was a failure, health care will bankrupt American business and ruin the American economy, Social Security is a “ponzi scheme,” and businesses will only employ workers again if we cut the taxes of the wealthy. Really?
Every one of these so-called facts is a lie!. A big lie! Lies that Tea Party and mainstream Republicans alike have been repeating over and over through the media, including through hundreds of million of dollars worth of political ads during the recently completed mid-term elections. The theory is that if you tell a big enough lie often enough then people will begin to believe it.
The truth of course is very different.
Posted in American Politics, Economic Policy
Tagged American Politics, ARRA, deficit spending, deficits, Economic Policy, economic stimulus, health care reform, health insurance reform, limited government, political instability, recovery act, tea party, tea party beliefs, tea party republicans, The Affordable Health Care Act
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Keith Olbermann’s Suspension by MSNBC
Lots of people seem to equate all network and cable news and opinion outlets as purveyors of spin. MSNBC and Fox News are often viewed as equally biased on the far ends of the political spectrum and people I speak with seem to believe “they are all the same”. I disagree, Rachel Maddow had it right this week in asserting that the fact of the MSNBC suspension of Olbermann for three small, perfectly legal, political contributions to Democratic candidates illustrates an important difference.
The Selling of the American Government
On November 2, 2010, Americans go to the polls to vote for a new Congress. The Senate is likely safe for the Democrats – the House of Representatives is another story. RealClearPolitics.com as of October 30th projects the Republicans winning 224 seats using their average of polls methodology. With 218 House seats needed for a majority and 40 races still a “toss up” this suggests that the Republican majority could be substantially larger.
The Republican Pledge to Repeal and Replace Obama Care
The Tea Party movement emerged during the summer of 2009 as opposition to the Obama administration’s health care reform became the primary focus of angry town hall meetings and protests around the country. As a Federal employee, I felt strongly that what the country needed were the kind of health insurance options that federal employees, including members of Congress, have for their families. We got only half that loaf. Assuming the Republicans don’t succeed in tearing down The Affordable Health Care Act, health care “exchanges” are supposed to be rolled out in 2014 that will largely provide options for individuals and small business like those of the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) program.
Posted in American Politics, Economic Policy
Tagged American Politics, economic insecurity, health care reform, health insurance, Health insurance exchanges, health insurance reform, HealthCare.Gov, limited government, tea party, tea party beliefs, tea party events, tea party republicans, The Affordable Health Care Act
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The Republican Pledge: A Plan to Wreck Government
If you look carefully at The Republican Pledge, what you see is the culmination of a decades long effort by anti-government conservatives to undermine American self-government. The ideological posture of these folks has been since the 1960s that government is inherently bad, that it is by definition the problem and not the solution when engaged in anything other than defending the nation from foreign aggression.
Posted in American Politics, Economic Policy
Tagged American Politics, deficits, economic insecurity, Economic Policy, economic stimulus, energy policy, environmental disasters, financial crisis, limited government, market collapse, market crash, oil spill, petroleum economy, political instability, tea party, tea party beliefs, tea party republicans
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