Medicare, Social Security... remember the Third Rail?

New Polling Says Overwhelming Majority Wants Social Security Left Alone | TPMDC

That's why they call it the third rail of American politics. The numbers in the polling are telling. They answer the question, "Just how much money does it take for a 20% minority to buy enough political power to impose their will on the 80% majority. I'll wager (irony intended) that they haven't spent as much as it's going to take. That's a staggering thought considering the flood of cash that went into the last election. The word on the street is that we ain't seen nothin' yet. The monied elite obviously think they can buy an America of their choosing.

I'm always impressed by the chutzpah, the boldness, the absolute egotistical greed of the conservative rich. In their world, they get what they want, period. 80% majority be damned, if there's money to be made they'll make it happen. Trouble is, the mighty have always fallen and when they do, they take a large chunk of us with them.

So to repeat. We the people: "Hands off Medicare, Hands off Social Security." The Political Elites: "We must reform Medicare and Social Security." Follow this debate closely. Take note of the choices being made here. The Elites will choose most anything they want over the will of the people. Advertising on race cars anyone? How about a nice new upgrade to the dockyard for their yachts? How about a nice new lakefront golf course? (That would be after the property was condemned the folks that live there thrown out.) All this is just some of the chump change that is going forward in the new Wingnut World. Stay tuned.

More work to do.

The New "Know Nothings"

OOPS! Historic 'Spending Cut' Bill Increased Spending By $3 Billion | TPMDC

Historically, the "know-nothings" or the American Party originated in 1849 and carried some weight in the political circles until the new Republican Party of Lincoln became a major political party. Know-nothings were famous for answering every question about their anti-catholic, anti-immigration beliefs with one answer, "I know nothing."

The current crop of Republicans are deserving of the nickname "know-nothings" because of their erratic, bumbling efforts at governance. Their bragging and posturing about the deficit, spending, and entitlements are largely supported by a belief in the infallibility of their economic policy. "Trickle down" is one article of faith, along with free markets, no new taxes, carte blanch for military spending, and defunding the social safety net. When all of these economic priorities are mixed in with a generous dollop of culture war, the resulting stew is a toxic mess. This article in TPM is just one instance of reality imposed on ideology. Ouch, indeed.

The GOP was elected to fix the economy. We got a hundred ways to make abortions harder to obtain. The GOP tried to cut spending. They ADDED billions to the spending for the rest of the year. The GOP went to the mat for the Bush Tax Cuts indicating very strongly that these cuts should be made permanent. This was their highest priority. As unfunded "tax expenditures" it forced the government to borrow money to meet its obligations. The GOP now refuses to allow the Treasury to borrow the money needed to pay for their OWN PRIORITIES! The are huffing and fussing about entitlements and mandates and throwing around ultimatums, generally making asses of themselves and causing a lot of worry among folks in the money world about these children playing with dynamite.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the new "Know Nothing" Party. They know nothing about how the world works. They know nothing about what is best for ALL Americans. They know nothing about governance. They have lots of answers and policy statements but they know nothing of their real affect on real citizens.

More work to do....

Hating Taxes, Ezra Klein Explains.

Why does the GOP hate taxes so much? - Ezra Klein - The Washington Post

I love this guy. He asks questions and searches out relevant answers. How many of us regular citizens have ever found experts who would ask or answer these? We're much more likely to read whatever claptrap is published by our particular side of the political spectrum and rant about the talking points derived therefrom. So friends...

Ezra writes:

I spent much of yesterday asking right-leaning economists to walk me through two quotes that seemed to summarize the Republican Party’s argument against taxes. The first came from Boehner on the “Today” show. “The fact is you can’t tax the people we expect to invest in the economy and create jobs,” he said. The second came from Louis Woodhill, a member of the anti-tax Club for Growth’s leadership council. “To stimulate GDP growth, a tax cut has to cut the marginal tax rates upon which the decision-makers in the economy base their decisions to work and, above all, to invest.”

There you have it... the Randian philosophy that the "producers" must be in the lead because they and only they can drive the economy. Their choices must be incentivized hence lower taxes and no tax raises ... ever. Unstated though, is the value of cutting "tax expenditures." Klien again:

But let’s say we cut the deduction for your health-care insurance, or your mortgage interest. That raises your taxes, and you may not like it. But it doesn’t give you a reason to work less. Quite the opposite, in fact. But Hubbard didn’t feel Boehner was giving sufficient weight to this distinction. “When I heard the speaker,” he said, “I didn’t just hear him rule out marginal increases. I heard him rule out cutting tax expenditures, too.” To Hubbard, that didn’t make much sense. Cutting tax expenditures wasn’t like raising tax rates. It wouldn’t be apocalyptic for the economy. It wouldn’t keep the decision-makers from investing. It might even keep them from over-investing in things we want less of, like expensive health-care insurance policies and homes.

Not exactly raising taxes, but it does have the same effect. This is the irrational part of the GOP argument. The no new taxes ever argument is expanding to include all forms of income streams available to the government.

It's particularly insane because of the laboratory experiment in economics conducted by the United States in the early '90's.

Leonard Burman isn’t a Republican economist, but he is a tax expert. He was actually deputy undersecretary for tax analysis in Bill Clinton’s Treasury Department. And when I reached him for comment, he found the whole conversation baffling. “You can build these models where people are very sensitive to changes in taxes,” he said, “ but in practice, there’s scant evidence of it actually working out that way. And lucky for us. If we really needed to get the tax code just right in order for the economy to grow, we’d have been in a depression for the last 40 years.”

The bottom line, he says, is that these theories were tested, and recently. “In the 1990s, we raised taxes, particularly on the rich. And a lot of these people were saying our tax increases were going to kill the economy. But remember what actually happened? We got rid of our deficits and the economy grew really robustly for 10 years. And what if it happened again? We might get rid of our deficits and the economy would grow really robustly for another 10 years. Maybe it’s good for the economy to actually get the deficit under control.”

Thanks Ezra. I needed that.

More work to do.

GOP chokes on own Medicare Kool-Aid - War Room - Salon.com

GOP chokes on own Medicare Kool-Aid - War Room - Salon.com

Exhibit 1A... Republicans suck at governance. Turns out, socialism isn't quite as unpopular as they'd have us think. Seems it's pretty popular and works very well... for regular folks. That, of course, is maddening to the Plutocrat Party. It's just too hard to get rich when you keep giving away money to the middle class, the poor, the veterans, teachers and public employees of all kinds. It's just not fair to redistribute wealth downwards instead of upwards... Them's that got, shall get, them's that not shall lose..... right?  Isn't it easier to make money on poorhouses and prisons?

More work to do....