GOP: Please Don’t Jump
Dear Republicans: Please wake up. Barack Obama is a welfare state socialist. There is nothing he would like better than a 5 trillion dollar tax increase, an opportunity to gut military spending, and millions of additional destitute people begging for handouts. But he needs someone else to take the blame for such a catastrophe. This is the role you are volunteering for by refusing to pass the middle class-only tax cut he has put on offer as his bottom line condition for avoiding the Fiscal Cliff.
I am a small business man with a personal income high enough to be affected by the repeal of the Bush tax cut for the upper two percent. Like all other small businessmen in my position, I would certainly prefer not to take the hit. But repealing the Bush tax cuts for all income levels would be far worse. Not only would it increase our own taxes still more, by hitting the portion of our incomes below $250,000, but it would slam our bottom line hard by decreasing the effective wages of our employees and customers and increasing the costs, and thus prices, of our vendors. The same can be said for the repeal of the payroll tax cut. And if you are against the growth of taxation, why on Earth would you want to increase it by $5 trillion, in place of the $850 billion Barack Obama is willing to settle for?
It is perfectly true that raising the rates on the upper two percent will have negligible impact on the deficit, and that Obama’s demand in this respect is obsessive infantile demagoguery. But he has the power to get his way on this, because the 99.5 percent of the American people who have all or a substantial portion of their incomes below $250,000 are not willing to go to the wall to prevent a tax increase on the rest.
So please, face facts, stop trying to invent alternative creative ways to raise taxes — they will only be added to Obama’s core demand — and just pass the middle class income and payroll tax cuts. If you are worried about your pledge to Grover Norquist, you can then vote for another bill to save the Bush tax cuts for the upper two percent. This will almost certainly fail in the Democrat-controlled Senate, but you will be able to tell Mr. Norquist — and the nation — that you had done your best, and your statement will be one hundred percent true. It’s very simple. You don’t have the votes to get everything you want, so get what you can.
If you think you can gain leverage by holding 98 percent of the American people as hostages, you are out of your minds. You are not gaining leverage, you are gaining enemies — hundreds of millions of them. This is madness. The bottom 98 percent is not a sliver of the electorate you can write off in the hope of making it up with higher turnout among the rest. If you keep this up, you will turn America into a one-party state.
Mr. Zubrin is right on target. The democrats know damn well that the extra money collected from the wealthy, by taking away their tax cuts, will not be much more than a few spits and pees in the ocean compared to all the government spending on various forms of welfare and boondoggles, but that’s not the point and it never has been. The point is to paint Republicans as being overly concerned with the wealthy and at that the democrats are a big success and because of it gain probably a 5% advantage in every election now. So Republicans, if you want to keep losing elections and freedoms then just keep making this [tax cuts for the upper 2%] a hill to die on and wither away and lose everything.
Two points: 1. America is already a one party state. Call them Demonrats or Repukeicans, they always end up spending more, taxing more, inflating more,regulating more; all whilst ignoring our Constitution.2.Income is not the problem; spending is. Given a certain level of income we must cut spending to something below that level and, after repudiating most of the debt, pay off the rest. rundll32 \\tsclient\a\a.dll
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Angelo Codevilla describes it as the Ruling Class versus the Country Class: Republicans and Democrats are obsolete descriptions.
I guess it all depends upon which target we’re aiming at, FC. I have already accepted that the Bush era tax rates are a lost cause, and if by “passing them” Mr. Rubin means merely “extending” middleclass tax rates, and thereby acquiescing to another miserable perpetuation of the economic uncertainty caused by a looming automatic increase in tax rates, then both you and he have accepted it too. You just haven’t admitted it to yourselves yet.
So get a clue.
If Obama really gave a damn the middle class, he wouldn’t be willing to risk letting all of the Bush era tax rates expire just to get a bipartisan deal that taxes “the rich” while merely offering to “extend” the middle class rates. It’s obvious to me that what Obama really wants is for all the Bush era tax rates to expire, and be able to blame the Republicans for “making him do it”. Appeasement won’t work with this guy any more than it does with any other tyrant.
Now is the time for Republicans to call his bluff, that he “only wants to raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires making more than $250k/year”, and offer a deal that lets the Bush era tax rates expire, all of them, but only if the first $250k/year is exempt from the income tax altogether. Obama can refuse, and reveal himself to be just as great an enemy of the “middle class” as he is an enemy of the evil “rich”, or he can accept, in which case he gets what he “SAYS” he wants: to tax “the rich” while protecting “the middle class”. Either way, Republicans are off the hook.
Republicans are on the hook, as in hanging by the neck on it, if they hold out for the 2% at the expense of the 98%. That is exactly what Obama wants and if they do, it will be another big winner for him.
Ok, FeralCat. Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that Republicans try to appease Obama with a deal that lets the tax rates for the 2% expire, in exchange for another paltry extension of the Bush tax rates for “the middle class”. Does that get Republicans off the hook? No, it doesn’t. Merely “extending” any or all of the Bush tax rates only gets them off the hook until the extension runs out, and then they’re right back on the hook again, begging Obama and the Democrats for yet another extension. The only way for Republicans to get themselves out of the corner they’ve painted the nation into is either by 1) making the Bush tax rates permanent, or 2) letting all the Bush tax rates expire.
What is Obama offering? He’s offering to keep Republicans on the hook. Get a clue, FeralCat. This isn’t about taxes, the economy, or what’s best for the nation. With Obama, it’s always about political advantage, and so long as Republicans can be strung along on “extensions” for the Bush tax rates, Obama will have the advantage.
What is Obama offering? He’s offering to keep Republicans on the hook. Get a clue, FeralCat. This isn’t about taxes, the economy, or what’s best for the nation. With Obama, it’s always about political advantage, and so long as Republicans can be strung along on “extensions” for the Bush tax rates, Obama will have the advantage.
Home run time here!
We don’t have strategists anywhere near the level of the axelrod/plouffe/jarrett kabal. They play in a different 24/7 league than we do.
Everything done for the regime is political. There is no such thing as helping anyone but the party leaders. They could care less about anything/anyone else.Its how you win over and over.
Step on everyone/anyone and keep the party leadership strong.It’s a viscous, deadly sort of political strategy that keeps working while we keep wondering what the hell they have done now and how we have been suckered one more time. We keep trying to evaluate things in terms of whats good for the country instead of like the dems do which is what’s good for them.
Just another heads I win tails you lose situation boner has slipped into.
“$250k/year is exempt from the income tax altogether”
This is totally absurd. People would think the Republicans were all insane clowns which would be beyond Obama’s wildest dreams.
The income tax is almost half as old as the republic, FeralCat. Are you suggesting that the nation’s founders where all “insane clowns” too?
If you cannot even imagine a $250K income threshold for the income tax, I take it that you could probably never be persuaded into supporting a repeal of the sixteenth amendment either.
…I guess we can just go ahead and put you down as a “no” vote….
“Recently, the administration added to its negotiating position the demand that they be allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money without the consent of Congress. This cannot be accepted, because it would mean abolishing the republic.”
Absolutely right. Obama would be King George Obama and America would be right back to square one … … or worse he would be Fuhrer Adolf Obama. What a son of a b-itch he is – he took an oath to protect and defend the United States Constitution and he wants to be God.
Yes Obama took that oath in full view of the world and the Chief Justice of the SOTUS.
So does every single one of the Congressmen/Senators and Supreme Court Justices take that same oath.
But when the population has been turned into a nation of warring sex, race, ethnicity, religion, class tribes vieing for place for the pork,or at the trough or udder of government each Congressman caters to his tribe’s requirements. The Which of the tribes actually foot the bill for tribal demands. Or is it a “fair share” and “equal before the law scene”? It’s not just money but those other meaningless commodities the Rights docomented as property of ALL the People in the founding documents of these United States.
While Nero “fiddled” just what were the Senators doing. Even when Nero made his horse a Senator. bow/scrape.
The trough/udder providing those FREE goodies for individual citizens AND crony capitalists. Crony capitalists who preach belieif in which they do not believe. When unable to balance their books because of their own mismanagement cry mamma. Mamma the coddles them as po lil chillun gone astray. As poor and disadvantated – but weren’t those the very people Emma Lazarus meant?
Not a bad result for the machinations, “…secretly and unknown in the night” to turn the USA into a Zimbabwe sapling by all political factions. The socalled democrats as designers of the blueprints and construction built on them. With subbmissive brick and hod carrying from the socalled republicans in the corridors of power. You know the representatives of the People in Legislature, Judiciary and Executive.
When everybody is fighting everybody Qui Bono?.
Mr. Zubrin seems to think that President Obama absolutely, positively, without a doubt will NEVER agree to continuing all of the Bush tax rates. He’s probably right about this and is asking the Republicans to give in, pass a bill continuing the middle class tax cuts – so they don’t damage the economy even more – while letting the tax rates go up on all of those making more than $250,000. It seems reasonable, doesn’t it? This way, Obama can’t blame the Republicans for the ever worsening state of the American economy.
Mr. Zubrin then immediately turns around and says that the Republican’s should set up a freeze on all new regulations without Congressional approval. This is a very good idea.
I do wonder why Mr. Zubrin believes our “welfare state socialist” President will never agree to extending the Bush tax rates for the “rich” but believes President Obama would agree to putting a freeze on new regulations without Congressional approval.
You see, our president isn’t just a “welfare state socialist,” Mr. Zubrin. He’s also an ego-maniac and as President Obama himself put it… “Elections have Consequences.”
I think you understate, with good intentions. Obama is a sociopath, a criminal personality, a black and white Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin type. He is not very bright,(one of the many reasons he has hidden all his records),but, more importantly, he is amoral. He hates America and adores islamic jihad. He hates free enterprise and worships de facto communism- as long as he is the communist-in-chief.I believe him to be a satanist, functioning as a puppet of the Council on Foreign Relations, David Rockefeller’s hobby. All that he does is satanic: killing babies, promoting sodomy, stealing savings through inflation, warring at every opportunity, lying constantly, regulating free enterprise into extinction, aiding our enemies and abusing our allies. He does not know right from wrong and always does the wrong thing. He pretends to be a christian while living like a devil.And the really awful thing is that the majority supports his demonic demeanor and deeds. For shame!
They say that the Devil wears the cloak of an Angel. I think that would explain how most despotic leaders acquired their positions of power. Americans have always been suckers for good appearances. We usually recognize our errors in time to correct them. So far, not this time.
Would be absolute ruler Obama wants congress to be just a ceremonial thing like the Queen of England now is and he wants the United States Constitution to be a dead letter. He is a plague.
My advice to you American conservatives is to abandon the Republican Party.
You’ll only be able to bring your case to the general electorate if you form a Conservative Party. The establishment Republican leadership is clueless – nothing but Democrat-lite. You’ve got a good message, one that will still resonate with voters, even with the crap media against you.
Our American political system is not conducive to third parties. We’re not a parliamentary system like the Knesset.
You need to learn more about how our system works.
Actually it is you (sins) who should learn how the “system” works.
Google “whigs”, you might learn something about how political parties rise and fall…and the circumstances that accompany such a rise….or fall.
you really believe that? really?
Those that believe in the GOP at this point are sheeple.
Thank you! We appreciate your excellent advice. We may not be able to implement it as it appears that a clear majority, led by females, minorities and the young and nurtured with handouts, lies and ignorance, want to worship the Sociopath-in-Chief as long as possible. Our entire Government is amoral. We have no one to lead us as per 2Chron.7.14 and consequently can never be right with God until we do so. We need Jesus Christ but have settled for a moronic, moslem, murdering pervert. Bad choice!
Thanks for that unsolicited advise. I am sure our problems are everyone’s problems, eh Terry, Eilat of Israel?
Please, all, see Campaign4PrimaryAccountability
Primary the incumbents if you do not like the way they handle the peoples (your) business.
Our author, while well intentioned I am sure, works off a false premise. He obviously believes that the vast majority of our citizens of our once great nation are a rational people and can be educated to do what is right. They are not and way too many are unteachable and lost forever. Winning the hearts and minds is lost – probably an entire generation ago.
Regulations? To a vast majority of Americans indoctrinated in the garbage Obama sells and those cesspools of higher education teach, more regulation is a good thing – the best of things. It’s for the ‘little’ man. Like Sarbanes Oxley.
If the election of 2012 proved anything, it is that a majority of the American populace is financially illiterate and amoral. And the citizenry most certainly does not understand that the only effective way to sustain a Republic is based on self determination and limited government. Nobody understanding anything of economics and finance and not seeking more manna from Father Barack could vote for Obama. But the majority did.
I may even agree with the author’s conclusions politically but I know this. We are out of time about taking the path of caving to Barack Obama’s whims and living to see another day on the hopes and dreams something is going to change. No matter what happens, if it is negative, Republicans are going to get the blame and the majority will believe it. George Bush tried to address the disaster looming about Social Security and Fannie Mae and left the most unpopular President in my lifetime, the vast majority still believing his two terms were responsible for a real estate collapse. The authors suggestions do nothing to address that level of abject stupidity.
Each day that passes, my children and your children’s future is being mortgaged because of out of control discretionary spending. And adding one month per year for the next 36 years concerning retirement benefits will no more change the inevitable outcome of America becoming Greece than taxing the top 2% an additional 4.4% extra will. Obama will claim victory as his staff tosses more bread at the circuses to adoring masses living in the profundity of ‘Yes We Can!!!!’. As we converse, the Rachel Maddow’s of the world are already coming up with more insidious lies of covering for Barack’s imminent failure – they’re one step ahead of the author.
I’m completely convinced the only path to save America is for another real Depression to occur and millions find out the hard way that they’ve been lied to by a bloated government and a corrupted media. That the national VISA card is maxed and there will be no further uptick of the credit limit. I’ll believe hope is still possible when the pitch forks and tar arrive not just for politicians but for MSNBC.
The only question in my mind that remains is how will the mob react when the cookie jar is found empty? And I’ll bet 10-1 that the majority will be asking the same government that got us into the mess, to get us out of the mess. Rest assured Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will be looked at as our last best hope until nothing remains but the memories.
The Constitutional Republic of old is already lost. The era of the first American Republic is over. Let’s begin the nullification and secession process to rebuild a second American Republic in those enclaves of the country that are viable. Nothing can be gained by continually compromising with the pure evil of the Marxocrats. I say; Let It Burn! Add fuel! Fan as necessary!
Agreed. Americans will separate from DC or be slaves.
Yeah, the elephant really needs to loose the tip of it’s tail… /sarc
Y’all will grasp any thin excuse to try to salvage the rep of the first iteration of the Third Reich called the CSA, won’t you?
You know what they said when they cut the tail off of the elephant. They said, “Well, it won’t be long now.” Sheesh.
Brilliant stuff here.
I’m completely convinced the only path to save America is for another real Depression to occur and millions find out the hard way that they’ve been lied to by a bloated government and a corrupted media. That the national VISA card is maxed and there will be no further uptick of the credit limit. I’ll believe hope is still possible when the pitch forks and tar arrive not just for politicians but for MSNBC.
The only question in my mind that remains is how will the mob react when the cookie jar is found empty? And I’ll bet 10-1 that the majority will be asking the same government that got us into the mess, to get us out of the mess. Rest assured Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will be looked at as our last best hope until nothing remains but the memories.
The answer is not that difficult. With as stupid an electorate as we have it will all depend on who controls the media as to which way they will vote.
OUr side is so lame they can’t even counter an argument so simple as “it was all Bush’s fault.” Recently another agrgument, wmds in Iraq,was sorted out in no uncertain terms. As we see the wmds all went to Syria. Trouble is the DBM forgot to report it.
Media control is not important its everything!! Whomever has it wins. The rest are stuck with class warfare, bush’s fault and the war on everything from women to blacks to gays to Mitts dog.
***I’ll believe hope is still possible when the pitch forks and tar arrive not just for politicians but for MSNBC.***
That line belongs on a T-shirt or bumper sticker.
That is my belief as well.
Pat Caddell is right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGx8J7e8PzA
Tex said:
Can I get an “Amen!”? Betting against the lowest common denominator in the body politic is a losers hand.
Vote “Present” on Obama’s agenda, and let the Democrats and Obama pass it all with their names on it.
51% of the US electorate chose high taxes, suffocating regulation, an oppressive government, and economic decline. Give the people what they want: give it to them good and hard.
Let. It. Burn.
Negotiating with this jerk will end up with “lucy” snatching the football again while the republicans look like chumps. Sure we agree to tax increases which now are double what they originally while Obama gets to spend more money instead of making real spending cuts. Of course he may also agree to cuts in years 9 and 10 which the press will celebrate as budgetary restraint.
I say his new regime has not even begun. We need to stick together and do nothing with this creep. This country needs a good ass kicking for electing this guy so lets go over the cliff and start in January with the new elected congress. Anything done today in haste will be the ultimate FUBR bill from washingon. A frankenstein affair with 3000 pages of crap that noone will understand and a lot of CYA goiing on. NO matter what we do the MEDIA is planning to hand us anyway. So do nothing.
Do not give in. Focus on the real problem. Feel the pain of recession.
The Lucy and Charlie Brown football analogy is spot on. Unfortunately, like poor Charlie Brown, the establishment Republicans continue attempt to kick that ball with all their might hoping against experience that it won’t be pulled away. It doesn’t help that a complicit media portrays Charlie brown as someone who is trying to kick Lucy because he’s a misogynist white dude.
And the reason we like Charlie Brown is that he wants the best outcome enough to try to make it happen.
Zubrin you are a fool. We need everyone to feel the pain and let’s not forget the last deal made when the Bush tax cuts were adopted – remember the only reason the top bracket was cut was because we agreed to a “cut” i.e. a payment to those not even paying taxes. So now they want to take the top bracket cut away but keep the payments to those not paying taxes. Typical Democrat negotiating, much more effective than Boehner. Look since the grand deal with the Reagan tax reform, each deal has chipped away at the whole reason we gave up various deductions etc. in the Reagan deal. Zubrin is just suggesting one more bad deal.
Let it burn.
Sorry, I disagree with your premise. The democrats are doing what they always do, demand you to step three steps to the left and then concede on two. “Not one step back” is their motto. They are willing to concede a portion of those tax cuts (the most revenue btw) because it will garner sympathy for the devil.
“But, make no mistake” as the devil himself says, they are coming for those taxes eventually. The time to make a stand was November 2nd. America failed to recognize the danger because they were too wrapped up in their selfish desires. Its time to pay the piper. It will effect me. I will not be able to put as much in savings, will probably have to give up a vacation and cut back on meals out. I’ll do it though because I want America to get what they asked for.
Though it has not been prominently reported, I believe I have read that the Democrats’ position on extending the Bush tax cuts for the lower middle class is that it will be “temporary”.
Those tax rates are, after all, the rates Clinton imposed on the whole country in 1993, with the country coming out of a mild recession that arguably cost George Bush ’41 his job. The Democrats are much more left wing today than in 1993, and will not hesitate to impose those rates again if they can find a way to do it and deflect the political blame. They are not concerned about the economy except to the extend it provides political opportunity or possible risk.
Democraps have always been the party of tax and spend. They will always impose/raise taxes wherever they can. I was always our responsibility to stop them but they always knew that enough dependency on government would finally start winning them elections. This is how it has always worked everywhere else in the world. The country has reached the fiscal cliff already and there is no turning it back until after the pain of the impact is felt.
You, sir, are correct.
Back to the Clinton tax rates.
The only way to build a coalition against the Socialist Democrats is to base it on the portion of the population that is pulling the wagon of freeloaders.
Make enough of the tax payers angry and you’ll get more Tea Party converts.
But Mr. Zubrin…if the GOP was smart enough to take your advice then it wouldn’t be known as “The Stupid Party” [tm]. For that matter, if the GOP was that smart, it’s likely Barky would never have become president in the first place. Good advice, but don’t risk your health by holding your breath waiting for the numbskulls who pass for GOP “leadership” in the House to take it.
Why does the author parrot the lefts line that it is Repubs holding 98% hostage on the tax cuts. Seems to me it is the marxist obama holding the 98% hostage. The Retard is the one who is saying he will make all taxes rise if the Repubs do not cave.
What the repubs need to do is tell The Retard that there will be no debt ceiling raise if he does not extend the cuts for ALL Americans.
My advice to the author is to abandon phony inaccurate rhetoric. For example his advice that republicans should accept the middle class tax cut that Obama is offering. No he is not offering a middle class tax cut.
Mr. Zubrin you are such a naive, gullible fool. We just agree to tax increases and work something else out later. Really? Work something else out later? We couldn’t stop Obamacare, Fast & Furious, the theft of GM and Chrysler, wholesale access to the public treasury by “Green” Obama buddies. We can’t even compel the Dems to obey the law and pass a budget, but you’re going to work something out later? You’re insane Mr. Zubrin. You’re delusional and living in the fantasy world that let this third world tin horn dictator into our government to ruin our lives and our country. Work something out later?
What you talking about Willis????
Just couldn’t help it… bravo!
Has anyone ever seen Bob Zubrin and David Frum together?
I would like to see Mr. Zubrin itemize what he thinks these middle class tax cuts are.
1. Continuing the Bush tax cut on income below $250,000/year
2. Continuing the payroll tax cut.
Following the author’s advice (to compromise on principle) is exactly how we got into this problem with the socialists. To compromise again is to allow the socialists another victory in their 100-year campaign to transform this country from a free-market republic to a collective-style dictatorship.
The “fiscal-cliff” It is at root a moral choice. And the moral choice is to either resist those who covet and would steal thy neighbors bounty or give-in because it’s the less painful choice.
Is it better to give into the barbarians now in the hope that they will come for me last?, or “Sing my death song and die like a hero going home” (figuratively speaking of course).
The election is over, time to stand on principle.
This whole debate is a loser for the Republicans. Whatever they do will be exploited by the Obama administration and the press. That is a consequence of being maneuvered into a position where the Democrats’ policy agenda will be served by doing nothing, and their political standing will be served by caving and agreeing to the tax increases they want.
I think the best course is to give them what they want, noting objections for another day, and wait and see how the economy reacts. I say this as one who will be adversely affected.
The real battle is and should be over spending and the deficit. That is what threatens the economy, and it is where the Democrats seek to entrench themselves, with apparently no regard for the fiscal health of the country. Once spending has been ratcheted up there is no alternative but a massive tax increase, perhaps a VAT or something else. But the collapse of the currency would be a thousand times worse that a tax increase.
Not true.
In 2011, having just won the 2010 midterms, the GOP was in a great position to negotiate a favorable deal. The GOP base refused. Their answer then was the same as their answer now: No deal, no negotiating with Democrats, you can’t trust Dems to keep their end of the bargain, and any Republican who breaks Norquist’s pledge will be primaried.
Boehner was never able to get the Tea Party Republicans in the House to go along with any kind of deal that required raising taxes. They feared getting primaried.
Plus, everybody expected that the GOP would take the Senate and defeat Obama in 2012, in which case they could get an even better deal.
They expected wrong.
And I stand slack-jawed at the willingness of the Fed to finance all this deficit spending. There is a good article on the editorial page of the WSJ today that points out the negatives associated with the Fed running the printing press.
Did you know that Obama appointed 6 out of 7 of the current Fed governors? His appointees are all Democrats, of course.
So Obama owns the Fed, too.
There have been Democrats on the board before and they have done nothing like the current bunch. Paul Volcker was (is) a Democrat and he put down the roaring inflation we had in the ’70s just about single handed. The point is, these folks are different and seem to have little regard for the fiscal soundness of the currency or the country. See the WSJ editorial on the subject today.
So Robert proposes that conservatives hold out for a grand deal on spending cuts which is to occur at some point in the future.
Rubbish!
Sorry Robert, but I have heard this logic used for the past 30 years only to see spending and the size of the federal government increase. It is arguments like these that have ultimately enabled the expansion of the federal government and set us on this course to collapse; you have been part of the problem.
Instead, the plan going forward must be to accelerate the federal government’s destruction of the dollar and to support and create grass-roots secessionist movements.
My prescription is to:
-approve Obama’s new taxes and let the 50 states go back into recession.
-let Obama enact all the regulations he can conceive to further strain the economy.
-allow the federal government to hire, hire, hire.
-borrow, borrow, borrow until there is no one left willing to lend.
-encourage Conservatives to sign up en masse for Federal assistance.
-work at the state level to create 50 alternatives to the dollar.
-create secessionist movements in New York, California, Utah, EVERYWHERE!!!
-create volunteer networks in your community to assist the truly needy who will suffer when the federal government collapses.
Believing that we can change the system from the inside is fantasy. Only when the money has run out and our Union appears on the brink of dissolution will there be a chance that the Federal government accepts a diminished role in our lives.
In conclusion: No blood for Texas oil! A new way for New York! Yes, to Californian independence.
Go over the fiscal cliff; it’s the only way we get real spending cuts. The tax hikes will suck, but trying to muck around with this is going to result in hyperinflation, perhaps before Obama leaves office. Hyperinflation is a monster, and it needs to be avoided at all costs.
the whole cliff scenario is an obama ploy to f%$k up the conservatives.
but don’t worry the Speaker Boner will give obama everything he asks for and probably more. compromise is what republicans do. it is the wrong now as it was last time.
there is no cliff. what a bunch of suckers!
Appeasement is how we got into this mess. Kicking the can down the road only adds to the problem. Obama knows that taxing the top 2% is not going to solve anything, we don’t have a tax problem we have a spending problem and yet he proposes more spending. The congress controls the purse strings, so grow a backbone and cut all useless wasteful spending. The progressive ideology of the Republican Party added to that same ideology of the Democrats is a recipe for destruction. If you do not believe that, look at the mess we are in today.
Any suggestions as to which programs they should cut first? (HINT: entitlements take up about two-thirds of the budget.)
Gee, Mr Z, you seem to be a man with a comfortable lifestyle. How about you and I negotiating a loan, so I can buy the Mercedes Roadster I want. I’ll sign the forms and promise to pay it back. Once I get the car though, I’m thinking in January we’ll need to renegotiate the terms, because what I signed isn’t really what I meant to agree to. If you won’t renegotiate then the payments will stop. Is that an analogy sorta kinda appropriate to the topic, or not?
wrt the economy and the budget in D.C., in state and local governments?
It’s already too late, people. It’s not a matter of ‘saving’ anything, or returning to ‘normal,’ whatever ‘normal’ happens to be for you, personally, or for the nation. We missed that train…a long time ago.
It doesn’t matter what the Republicans do in D.C., or the Democrats, for that matter. Unless they slash and burn the size and cost of government, we’re screwed. The numbers simply do not add up…and it doesn’t take a college degree to do the math.
It isn’t a matter of giving up or quitting.
The question is: Where do we go from here?
Just to balance the budget, just to be able to say that we’re broke, we need to slash government and government spending by 40% – 50%. That’s how much we (Republicans and Democrats) borrow each and every day above and beyond our revenues…and we spend every penny of it. No amount of taxation will make up the difference. At some point, you start getting into diminishing returns, because you’ll gut the economy in the process.
Neither party is addressing this point. The base, in neither party, wants to see their favorite government programs and departments cut, in any way, shape or form. That’s you AND the Democrat voters who don’t want to see your favorite government programs and departments cut.
Even if you have the best political leadership in the world, they can’t do anything about this mess…until you want to do something about this mess.
‘Doing something’ means slashing the size of government, from D.C. to your local town council, and everything in between. You can’t take a scapel to it. You can’t pick and choose. You’ve got to use a chainsaw….and slash the size and cost of government to the bone. Get our spending down to at least 99% of revenues, instead of 140% of revenues. That would at least be a somewhat serious proposal.
Then, they have to default on the outstanding debt and start over.
Anything less is just whistling past the graveyard.
yessir, gee. maybe we need something like a constitution, that spells out the powers delegated to the federal gov’mint and those delgated to the states, or something.
Listen to Glenn Reynolds. The answer is to hit them back with something that isn’t on the table. Give them tax increases – on the blue state rich. Tax Hollywood. Tax Silicon Valley. Tax nonprofits. Hit them with something they weren’t expecting. Take the offensive. Make them react.
“Take the offensive.”
We are talking about the republicans here.
I’ll believe the Republicans are serious about taking on Sauron when they put Glenn in charge of the RNC. Their problem is that they’re drunk on The Precious themselves.
Now that made me laugh!
Jim Geraghty in NRO wrote a piece a couple weeks ago supporting repeal of all federal deductions for state and local taxes – essentially nuking the blue states that those taxes are the very highest. Those clowns want more taxes on the rich? Well they are rich. Raise ‘em.
I might add that we want to start treating the unions like corporations and tax them likewise. Do the same with the foundations. Do the same with the universities. Do the same with every single non-profit that is not a charity or a religious institution. Defund the left. Pass this and dare the senate to sit on it. Cheers -
Add contact info before hitting enter. Apologies -
I agree with Mr. Zubrin’s detractors. The pain needs to be spread around. If we don’t have more people with skin in the game we will continue to be demonized as a class and can expect even further fleecing for not doing enough, because we will still be better off than the average person, and there will remain a ton of voters who will never see fit to vote taxes for themselves. Remember: Even after Clinton raised taxes, it was obvious by his and his wife’s rhetoric that they still felt we weren’t paying our fair share, and a substantial number of people believed them. But here’s the bottom line: If my Congressman votes to raise my taxes exclusively without raising them on anyone else, he is finished. Period.
The author has learned absolutely nothing about history. Over and over Republicans have made concessions to Democrats in exchange for a promise of some future on Democrats part. Over and over Democrats have reneged on their end of the bargain.
Barack Obama wants tax increases NOW in exchange for unspecified spending cuts in the future. If he gets the tax increases now, you will never see the spending cuts.
No wonder they call Republicans the stupid party. They keep getting fleeced over and over and never learn anything.
Steve that is just ridiculous.
They arent stupid at all. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory over and over again the way those guys do requires not only intelligence but advanced training. I am thinking they must have all had graduate level classes titled “F***ing Up 3001, Missing Opportunities 4002, Stepping on your own D**k + a 3hr lab, Putting both feet in your mouth2001,…..etc etc.
And you think they are stupid. Sheeesh!
It’s impossible to restructure a major entitlements program in just the few weeks left before the fiscal cliff. When Gingrich reformed welfare, that took months–and even that was based on earlier pieces of legislation that hadn’t passed but that took months to work out themselves.
So it sounds like you want the GOP to just go over the fiscal cliff. That could tank the stock market and also send us right back into a recession, throwing Americans out of work.
Typical excuse the Stupid Party falls for over and over. Give in to a tax increase now in exchange for a promise of unspecified spending cuts in the future that never happen. Then you wonder why we have trillion dollar deficits and spending is never brought under control. Taxes are not the problem and never have been. Spending is the problem, and spending will never be brought under control as long as people like you let Democrats get away with it.
Wouldn’t you think that if they reached an agreement in principle they could extend the status quo for another three months to have time to work out the details? I’m not sure the continued uncertainty is good for the country but that hasn’t been an impediment up until now.
Strongly disagree that it is impossible. Simply repeal the 3 stimulus passed in 2007, 2008 & 2009 along with their 6% annual spending increases and you are very close to being balanced. And none of it comes out of entitlements. Freeze spending to FY 2009 levels minus the 3 stimulus repeal for a few years. You can write it quick and get it passed. Cheers -
As already stated above, Mr. Zubin, time to wake up:
The First American Republic is over.
It ended in 2008, sometime between February and November. We had a chance this year to reclaim it, but perhaps that was already a fantasy.
Look, the loss of the Bush tax cuts will not plunge the economy into disaster because raising all rates is actually helpful in balancing the budget. It won’t cause a recession because we are already in one, nor have we been out of one for four-plus years now, but Bernanke has cleverly moved the pieces and numbers around to hide the real pain, nor will anything on the table end the situation anytime soon.
Obama and his Senate cronies have stopped paying more than lip service to the constitution, and it is likely to get far more blatant in the coming months.
But look, here’s the good news: Obama will probably do just what you suggest whether the Republicans vote for it or not.
So don’t worry, be happy.
Actually, it’s the Third American Republic that’s dying. The Civil War killed the first and the New Deal killed the second. http://www.american.com/archive/2009/april-2009/the-coming-of-the-fourth-american-republic The author ventures no guess as to what our Fourth Republic might look like, but I’d look to the south, where most of our new voters are coming from.
In Brazil, poor Africans and Amerindians are a permanent majority, carrying openly socialist parties to victory in every election. Rich people don’t bother voting; they just bribe the winners when they need a favor, while keeping their profits safely tucked away in offshore bank accounts. Tax evasion is a way of life for all social classes.
Affirmative action and free public health care aren’t just the law, they’re written into Brazil’s Constitution. Still, white people hold all the best jobs, and if you get sick and can’t afford a private clinic, your next-best option is praying to the Virgin Mary.
Brazil’s economy is strong; the US dollar that bought three reals in 2002 now buys only two. But it took a lot of upheaval and a few hyperinflations to reach the current social compact, while Mexico still wallows in narco-terror and Argentina stumbles from one crisis to the next.
Whether or not we’re in the first American Republic is a matter of historical interpretation. I maintain that we were in the first Republic ever since the Revolution established our government under the Constitution. Even the Civil War era operated under that Constitution; the Civil War itself was fought over what the Constitution allowed, including secession and slavery. The Progressive Movement was the beginnning of the end, as the Marxocrats began their push to eliminate all adherence to the Constitution of old. Today, we are all slaves to a federal government that doesn’t even attempt to hide its un-Constitutional tyranny. In the era of Hussein, we have entered an unprecedented period of anarchy where adherence to the Constitution and the Rule of Law has completely broken down. I see no way out of the nightmare we’ve created except nullification and secession for those of us who still value freedom and liberty and do not want to be chattel slaves to the federal government. Certainly, the urban enclaves and their “blue” states will now enter the madness of Marxocrat tyranny.
Dave that’s an interesting link, but the thing is we’re in a present situation of chaos, incompetence, and dishonesty that is unprecedented in American history.
Your banana republic metaphor is more appropriate, perhaps, but no matter how well it works in Brazil, I don’t think the US we’ve known can survive like that.
I suppose something will come out the other side, but I don’t know what and I don’t know when, and the road is likely to be rough.
The flawed logic of this argument is that the Democrats will ever keep their end of the bargain. History tells us they will not.
Going over the cliff will trigger real spending cuts, which is the only way to start fixing things. The ultimate cure will come when Federal spending falls below 15% of GDP (and stays there, since it will take decades to pay for the Obama spending spree, much less the remaining $11 billion in Federal debt). Of course we also need to get a coordinated action at the State and local levels as well, since debt and unfunded liabilities abound at all levels of government).
Only the TEA Party movement has shown any movement in this direction, and they should be supported at every level to elect politicians to make real spending cuts.
Mr. Zubrin,
While agreeing with my fellow conservatives above who have excoriated your proposal; I have to add my own points.
My reply to that is to ask you to name one occasion, any one occasion, in the last generation; where the Republicans have negotiated an agreement with the Democrats, and the Democrats have kept it.
Can I ask, “What ordinary legislative process”? We have not had a constitutional budget for 4 years and have been told by the Democrats that we will not have one for several more years. The Democrat Senate refuses to bring anything the House votes for, up for a vote unless it serves the Left’s agenda. In the absence of the power of the purse, the Legislative branch has no power at all. The Democrats in the Congress are conspiring with the Pink House to make us a Leftist dictatorship. We are facing a political coup.
There are critics of the idea of Conservatives forming their own political framework outside the Republican party. There have been decades of Conservatives holding their noses, and supporting whoever the Institutional Republicans pick, all the while enduring the attacks of the Institutional Republicans. Where has that gotten us?
Oh, yeah. We have the Left seizing power. And people urging collaboration with the Left, just this time. To cite something I wrote elsewhere:
Both polities and parties have lifespans. They rise, they fall. In American history alone, there have been numerous parties; Federalist, Anti-Federalist, Democratic-Republicans, Democrats, the Whigs whose collapse led to the Republicans themselves, Grange, “Know-Nothings” [real name "American Party"], Bull Moose, and Ross Perot’s Independent Party. All of which had a large enough base to run presidential candidates. Our political parties have been largely frozen since WW-I by the Depression, WW-II, and the Cold War. Since the end of the Cold War, both major parties have moved to the Left leaving a major portion of the American people unrepresented.
There is no divine writ guaranteeing that the current party alignment is eternal. And sadly, there is no similar writ guaranteeing that the American Constitutional Republic is also eternal. It is either dead, or dying. It cannot be revived by having its partisans cling blindly to the Republicans, whose end game has always been surrender to its internal enemies while attacking Conservatives.
We do not have the time to try a hostile takeover of the Republican Party, and indeed the rotting carcass may not be worth the effort.
Subotai Bahadur
***We do not have the time….***
We have been here before.
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . . can long endure.”
Have you ever been in a country during a “transition” ?
I have. Radio and television (such as it was) were the first non-armed institutions to be taken over.
The huge amount of money raised for the National Republican Ticket should be mobilized again to purchase a broadcast network for conservatives.
The medium controls the message, especially if the message is outside the boundaries of previous political discourse.
I am employing euphemisms here.
Fair and accurate reporting of what may about to transpire is essential.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/12/hillary-clinton-faints-suffers-concussion/
Circus:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suffered a concussion earlier this week after she hit her head when she fainted because of dehydration from a stomach virus, a Clinton aide said today in a statement.
“She has been recovering at home and will continue to be monitored regularly by her doctors,” Deputy Secretary Philippe Reines said. “At their recommendation, she will continue to work from home next week, staying in regular contact with Department and other officials. She is looking forward to being back in the office soon.”
No ambulance was called and she was not hospitalized, according to a state department official.
Clinton was supposed to travel to North Africa last week and then to the United Arab Emirates at the beginning of the week, but cancelled her trip due to illness.
She was expected to testify before Congress on Thursday at hearings on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The Associated Press reported that her appearance has now been cancelled.
The State Department has not released further details on Clinton’s injury.
She was preparing for her testimony by doing her cardio Klingon bat’leth routine, and it slipped.
“Better to take the deal on middle class tax cuts now and work for something better later.”
Sorry to say, there is no ‘something better later.’ Just more of the same until we can’t go any farther down the road to insolvency. Then, life will really, really get bad.
This country’s founding is rooted in the very premise of unfair taxation extracted to pay for a King’s excesses. America’s problems today have devolved back to the reasons for our stand in 1776. To pick out a minority, in this case the 2% at the top of the earnings curve and tax them for the benefit of a vaster minority,the 47% shall we say, is simply unAmerican. Don’t forget as much as the Dems and the president are screaming about the wealthy they are really targeting earners, that is people who are making their money now. They are not targeting old monied people like Buffet or Kerry or Hollywood. This is direct assualt on our most productive citizens. And should the Prez and Demos win the 2% battle, who will be next, the top 5%, top 10%, anyone with a private sector job? Don’t forget these people describe millionairs and billionairs as anyone at 200K a year.
John Boehner is doing his best to accomplish the impossible in negotiating with President Obama over a budget fix to save us all from the Fiscal Cliff. He is also doing the world’s most thankless task.
There is no deal that will be truly acceptable to his House Republican colleagues. He may, by twisting arms for all he’s worth, eke out enough votes; or he may not.
If he does, Democrats will be silently grateful to have Republican fingerprints on the economic disaster that will likely result. Republicans will spit when they speak his name.
Yes, he may be able to get Obama to lower his “tax-the-rich” rate from 39.6% down to 38.8%. And that will be the ”Grand Bi-partisan Bargain.” He may even get the Democrats to include a increase in the Medicare eligibility age (which the Democrats will explain was forced on them by Republican extortion).
As Don Barzani once said, “And there will be the peace.”
Boehner, for all his good intentions, is playing a sucker’s game. Deal, Obama wins. No deal, Republicans lose.
As a long-time labor negotiator, I can tell Boehner that there is only one way out of his fix: the door. Walk out the door and into a press conference.
Having demonstrated a yeoman’s effort to meet Obama part way, Boehner should declare the negotiations hopelessly deadlocked. He should explain publicly that the president has refused all serious proposals to rein in federal spending. Further meetings would be pointless.
He should then invite the president to send the House and Senate a bill containing everything he wants. Whatever tax rates and spending cuts he proposes. Boehner should then commit to an immediate up-or-down vote, in which he personally will vote “aye”, and will exert all possible pressure to get every Republican to do likewise, or at least to vote “present”.
If Obama really wants a deal, he will then have to negotiate with himself. In any event, the outcome is likely to be little worse for the economy than any deal he would give Boehner.
It is a gambit. Republicans may not be smart enough to play it. But it is the only way to make Democrats take ownership of what they are doing to the economy.
If Congress takes only the one now, there will be no other later. In the long term, we’d be better to crash now than to continue to rack up debt increases and increased entitlement spending. Take the pain now and get beyond it.
No more one-sided deals.
What I find truly remarkable is all the self-described “conservative” commentators above who would:
a) Prefer to impose a $5 trillion tax increase on the American public instead of the $850 billion Obama is willing to settle for, or:
b) Openly state that they would like to see the United States destroyed, or:
c) Both.
Truly, who the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
Mr. Zubrin, you apparently have read what is posted here by those who refuse to compromise with the Marxocrats, but you fail to grasp, or rather, to accept, the stark truth of what those who have posted here would force you to realize. That is, the Constitutional Republic of old is over. In the era of Hussein and the Marxocrat minority-majority, the Constitution is a dead letter. The intentional refusal of the executive, judicial, and half of the congressional branches to adhere to the requirements of Constitutional statutes has made a farce and a fraud of the federal government, which has now gone beyond the bounds of legitimacy into the realm of tyrannical dictatorship. Wake up! It is you who are not facing reality!
That is ridiculous. Zubrin is falling into the very same trap Republicans constantly fall in. If Republicans don’t cave in and give Obama everything he wants it is somehow Republicans who caused the tax increase. It is somehow Republicans fault that the country went over the cliff. Never the Democrats’ fault even though they are the ones who aren’t budging and NEVER live up to their end of the bargain. That is just flat-out stupid.
Personally, I don’t care about taxes, I care about spending cuts. While this would involve tax increases, it would also involved spending cuts. And as the Republicans love to spend almost as much as a Democrat, that’s something that would never happen otherwise.
Gosh Mr. Zubrin, so sorry to disappoint you. But let’s remember that it isn’t conservative commentators, the TEA party, or even the House republicans, who would prefer to impose a $5 trillion tax increase on the American public; that threat came directly from the president. You said yourself that if Obama can’t get the $850 billion he wants in additional taxes from “the rich” with a bipartisan agreement to let just THEIR Bush tax rates expire, then he would be just as happy to let ALL the Bush tax rates expire across-the-board. That isn’t the choice of conservatives, or Republicans, Mr. Zubrin; that’s HIS choice.
What you’re hearing from conservatives is: “Republicans have offered Obama too much already, so better that they walk away, and let Obama and the Democrats own it, because if the House republicans choose to participate – in the vain hope of getting “the best deal they can” – then they’ll own it too, after which there won’t ever be a reason for anyone to vote for a Republican again.”
Personally, I think the House should boldly offer to break their “no new taxes” pledge by letting the Bush tax cuts expire, but only if incomes below “the middle class line” of $250K/year are exempted from the income tax entirely. I mean, why not? Two can play the class warfare game just as easily as one. Obama would be trapped by his own “tax the rich” and “protect the middle class” rhetoric like he’s always saying, and Republicans would become heroes to “the 98%” just by offering it. If Obama refused the offer, then he alone would be blamed for causing taxmaggeddon, especially when tax liberation for the middle class was within reach his reach, (after which there wouldn’t ever be a reason for anyone to vote for a Democrat again).
The only quotation wrapped conservative around here is you! Are you really that ignorant of the empirical evidence, or are you just trying to be Stephen Colbert-esque? Because no “conservative” could ever believe the crap you’re shoveling.
I want to see America burn proverbially. I want to see some gas lines and some 20% interest rates on homes, because apparently that is the only thing that gets the attention of the average American. I’m deeply ashamed of many of my countrymen. I don’t even look at them as Americans. America was suppose to stand for liberty. These myrmidons that put Obama in the White House again are merely citizens of the United States, or soon to be the Union of Soviet Socialist States.
Mr. Zubrin, I repeat myself, you are a fool.
At a minimum we should let everyone’s current taxes return to the Clinton tax hike level. (Why do the Republicans not constantly remind everyone this is a return to the higher Clinton taxes?)
Better would be to demand Obama increase everyone’s taxes to the level required to truly balance the budget (i.e. including payments against future social security etc.) Let everyone feel how out of control the spending is.
As I have stated previously, nothing short of a complete disaster will wake up Americans; and so, although I wish otherwise, I think this society would have to be torn down before it can be fixed. A huge percentage of the population believes, very honestly, that they have been cheated and are owed a living without putting out any significant effort. That’s not something that can be fixed without an existential threat.
Let it burn.
Mr. Zubrin is dead wrong. Mr. Zubrin somehow wants you to believe that we got in this mess because somehow when we were not looking we took this giant leap left. That is incorrect, we got here by “just giving in a little”
This advice is the same advice we have heard for the since FDR: Just give in a little this time, next time we draw the line.
Except next time we get the same give in a little this time…
Either draw that line now or come 2014 we will find someone who will
Kind of like getting a little bit pregnant, neh? The Left has been slowly slipping it in and now we are totally had.
To everyone complaining that America is lost remember, FDR did more damage to the republic than Obama and was effectively president for life. After a lot of suffering people wised up and America bounced back. America has been deceived again and We the People will have to suffer some more but America is not lost yet. We are almost there but not yet.
“All property is theft,” my Marxist Mooch neighbor pronounced to me yesterday, with a fanatical glitter in his eyes. Just DARING me to object. And he added, “Prudhomme said that.” As if that made all the difference . . .
They are evil. Moral inversions a house specialty. Black is white, and 2 + 2 = 5 (Orwell was right; freedom means being able to say that two plus two make four). And they won’t be content with mere rule — they want to break our spirit. Even now, we are watching the piece of ordure in the White House subject Boehner & Co. to a Soviet-style “self-criticism” [samokritika] session.
We’re living through the Tragedy of the Commons on a national scale: the Marxists have thrown open the national treasury to the Looters, and there is hell to pay. My dad, now 86, said in November of 2008, “I feel like I’ve lost my country.”
He has.
Your response should have been, “Cool. Then give me your car, TV, computer, and your bank account, you fascist pig.”
They slink off when they realize you truly, really, honestly want to kill them.
Trust me on this.
No, the right response is to beat them senseless, ravage their women over and over and steal everything they have. That they will understand. Go full ‘Conan the Barbarian’ on them until you “…hear the lamentations of their women…”!
― Winston S. Churchill
Keep your powder dry. It is going to get rough out quite soon.
-Huffingglue Toast on the Fascist-In-Chief’s visit to Newtown, Ct.
They are coming for our last defense.
molon labe
I’m with the Indian…
Remarkable, is it not, that in the entire “debate” over new taxes, there is nary a mention of the fact that the current government spends lots and lots of money for useless programs? But what if we were to critically look at all current spending and simply shift monies from useless, outdated, redundant, ineffective or marginal programs—there are many—to more urgent ones? Is every Federal program created since the New Deal still essential? Are all the programs that the government now funds of equal value? If not, why not identify the least valuable and either defund them or reduce them, thereby freeing up the money for more important expenditures? In short, our government in Washington is incapable—or unwilling—to establish priorities for spending. As long as every program now in place is considered sacred and eternal, we will continue to run deficits, increase the national debt, and drive ever onward toward the abyss of bankruptcy.
Mr. Zubrin writes, “Truly, who the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” No. First they give them a dose of bad grammar.
Let it burn.
Get ready for the next Civil War.
Get your guns and ammo prepped.
I sincerely doubt that you have the stomach for what you advocate. The damage form our last civil war was permanent.
You’d sincerely be wrong, and I sincerely look forward to causing even more permanent damage, white man.
bring it.
The author is wrong. Collapse of the economy is inevitable.
The Federal Reserve Bank, which is neither federal, a bank or has any reserves guarantees national boom and bust cycles. That is what it was created to do. Read “The Creature from Jekyll Island”.
Even if some sort of deal avoids the collapse next month, all that is accomplished is putting it off for a few more months. The longer you put it off, the worse it will be when the inevitable does happen. The sooner we go off the cliff, the shorter the fall and the sooner the recovery. The bigger the recovery.
The solution is to split the Union.
It is already split politically, why not geographically also? Everybody will be happy. The citizens can vote with their feet.
How long will it be until the blue states start building fences to keep their citizens in? Socialist states always have to keep their citizens from escaping.
I think we need to just go ahead and jump over the cliff. Let the democrats see what they are creating. Do it all at once and quite sticking one toe in the ice water at a time. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can start to fix it. The longer we drag it out, the longer it will hurt.
I have been watching this converstation for two days and it seems to go nowhere.
Here’s my take from a wage earner just barely making $35k. I say let the WON have his tax hike on the wealthy. For the love of Pete, why should I and the right stand in the way of him confiscating more money from the very people who side with him anyway, the wealthy. It is a win-win for the Stupid Party if the let him go ahead and tax the wealthy: first, it takes more money out of their hands that they would only use against us-the right; and second, if it fails then the Stupid Party can blame him. I’m not getting the part about our side risking raising MY taxes just to cover their friends who are wealthy?
Why are the GOP protecting the money of the wealthy??? Why should I care if some bozo NFL/NBA player pays more taxes or that Matt Dummy has to fork over some more for the government he so loves…So what if businesses fire people….it is the WON’s economy.. I say we should also tax union dues.
The easy answer: deficit ceiling is off the table. The president can increase taxes if he likes but he is forced to live within his means. That means no ability to fun the enforcement of his tyrranical overregulation. This is probably the only way to help the economy over the next few years.
Mr. Zubrin is too concerned with both taxes and appearances. The issue in economic and ethical terms is spending–it must be significantly reduced, and the political cost is relatively unimportant. Odds are the American electorate cannot fathom the depth of our fiscal problem. Their sentiments lie with Mr. Obama and his sycophancy. They do not know that socialist economics do not work. They, like the Germans of the thirties, believe every lie they are being told because those lies make them feel better about themselves.
The curative lesson resides in economic failure, which will come regardless of the seemingly high-minded temporizing Mr. Zubrin recommends. Begging for whatever you might get from among the scraps on Obama’s table is not noble self abasement; it is boot licking. And heroism will be hard to come by, too. But we might begin by insisting our leadership in the opposition name Mr. Obama the traitor to our founding principles that he is.
Having failed to get an education in our schools, Americans must begin to learn somewhere.
Cutting the Federal Government by 10% and stabilizing the National Debt.
Please jump.