Why did the Supercommittee fail last month? There are two plausible hypotheses:
- Republicans were unwilling to raise taxes, even on the very wealthy, because of their firm ideology as embodied by their holy pledge to Grover Norquist.
- Republicans are sabotaging all attempts to get the economy back on track, as a strategy to defeat Obama in 2012.
Until now, it has not been very easy to falsify one or the other. But today we got a definitive answer:
The Republican-led House today rejected a Senate-passed bill that extends a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits for two months.
The vote was 229-193. The tax cut and unemployment benefits expire on Dec. 31.
[…]If the benefits expire at the end of the year, 160 million Americans will see a tax increase while about 2.2 million long-term unemployed will see their benefits disappear. Medicare payments to physicians also will drop, raising concerns that doctors will limit their care to seniors.
The House Republicans just raised all of our taxes. That’s a tell!
So, it isn’t about standing firm on ideology, after all. It isn’t about some sacred pledge to Grover. The Republicans are happy to raise taxes if they think it will sabotage Obama’s chances at re-election. In the process, they have been tangibly harming the American economy.
The Republicans have just demonstrated that they are economic terrorists. By putting the welfare of their party ahead of the welfare of America, Republicans have become traitors.
In a play on the holiday season, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., held up a stocking and a piece of coal on the House floor. “Remember the lump of coal in November of 2012, folks. (Republicans) gave it to you.”
That’s about the mildest response I’ve ever heard for treason. That McDermott…he’s so moderate!
Is there any independent voter left who doesn’t see through Republican grandstanding, hyperbole, and bullshit?
We’ll find out when United Wisconsin turns in their recall petitions.
Every decade or so I get upset with the Democrates and am tempted to vote for a “moderate” Republican. Then I see them pull stunts like these, and I realize their are no moderate Republicans – only liars and bigger liars.
Consider a portion of the evidence:
Since the late 1970’s, the Republican Party has been courting the Evangelical vote by promising to bring back prayer in schools, overturn Roe vs. Wade, restrict gay rights, etc. But in every instance where they gained power, they immediatly reverted to their primary goal: cutting taxes on the wealthy. They did this during the Reagan Administration and the George W. Bush administration. Afterwards, they then moaned that they couldn’t really do anything about the other issues, and Evangelicals just needed to keep voting for them so they could put conservative judges in office. But even the Conservative judges they appoint, and with majorities on the U.S. Supreme Court, the only thing they did was advance corporate rights over individual rights, and support the increasing power of Republicans in controlling government (2000 election, upholding the Patriot Act, limitations of 1st Amendment Rights of protesters, etc.). One White House Staffer in 2006 reported how the Rove White House would meet with influential Evangelical pasters, grin and shake their hands and tell them how dedicated they all were to the common goal, and then as soon as they left would laugh at what “idiots” the pastors were for believing their empty promises.
In economics, Ronald Reagan ran for office in large part by complaining about the budget deficit and the federal debt. But as his budget director, David Stockman, soon discovered the Reagan White House was never about balancing the budget, it was instead about enlarging military spending with huge increases to defense contractors and police forces. If Carter’s budget plans had been continued, the federal budget would have been balanced by 1980, and the federal debt paid off within a few years thereafter, Instead, it took another twenty years to reach that goal, in 2000. Under George W. Bush, you saw the same thing happen – tax cuts exploding the deficit, with no concern about who was going to pay for the debt, until a Democrate is in office, where the whole cycle is repeating: Republicans claiming that the national debt is the # 1 priority, even in a time of prolonged rescession.
Republican Dictionary:
“Tax Reform” – tax cuts for the most wealthy, everyone else pays more – one way or another.
“Competative Wages” – Actual workers get paid next to nothing, in ever-diminishing amounts. CEO’s get double or triple-digit increases in pay, perks, and bonuses every year.
“Job Creators” – Wealthy investors who take jobs from the U.S. and create jobs in China.
“Losers” – Everyone who isn’t enourmously wealthy”.
“Slackers” – The poor and middle-class who want to work but can’t find a job, as compared with ultra wealthy who never have to work but get paid enormous sums for little actual work.
Anybody else got some contributions to the list?
@2 All true, but remember what P.T. Barnum said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time.” There will always be a GOP, because there will always be a few people gullible enough to vote for them.
Democrats would be awful if we didn’t have Republicans. But we do have Republicans, and they force us to vote for Democrats.
Hey, even the supreme court in this country votes Republican. It’s like living in a country where all the positions of judicial importance have been ceded to angry morons with excessive body hair.
Yes, Scalito ‘n’ friends, I mean you.
Republican Dictionary:
What can you come up with for:
Worker, Christian, Illegals, Marriage, Liberal
Alas, I’m not in a mood where I would come up with funny, ironic meanings.
I think you breezed by the key point here.
In August the Republicans, (and predominantly the House Republicans) kicked the can down the road rejecting the President’s $10 in cuts to $1 in taxes offer to reduce the deficit in conjunction with a deficit ceiling increase in favor of a committee to negotiate something better. We know what did not happen.
Now, with a way to pass a continuance of the payroll tax cut the House Republicans, once again, want to not do what is beneficial for the nation and send it to a follow-on committee.
From a local standpoint Washingtonians did not elect a large batch of the problem Republican congress critters.
There is an exception. And I’d suggest you focus your energy and your money on her.
Yeah, but old people are really expensive and they don’t do anything except sit around and talk about their inflammation and cost us money. Limiting the care old people get saves us money and since they’ll die sooner do to limited care my SSI is more secure.
Just joking of course.
re 9 — In addition, seniors are prone to vote for Republicans no matter what — so the Republicans’ efforts to limit peoples’ voting rights may explode in their faces.
@10
Ooo… Another reason to bring on the soylent green.
And tax cuts for businesses. Which of course get passed along to wealthy owners and shareholders. Increased profits doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in investment as a % of GDP. We’ve had record levels of profit lately and investment as a % of GDP has gone down.
“We’ve had record levels of profit lately and investment as a % of GDP has gone down.”
CNBC reported today that stock funds (which include mutual funds and ETFs investing in stocks) received net inflows of $4 billion this year while bond funds received net inflows of $86 billion. That tells you where investors are putting their money.
Meanwhile, corporations are making record profits, and they’re not reinvesting that money in their businesses. They’re boosting dividends, buying back shares, and paying down debt, because they don’t know what else to do with all their cash.
This should tell you there is NOT a shortage of capital. In fact, the economy is awash in surplus capital. Savers and investors are sitting on trillions of dollars of savings that aren’t earning anything because there’s no place to put money to work. The problem in the economy is not lack of capital but lack of demand for products and services.
It follows that cutting taxes on the rich or corporation to encourage investment gets you nothing in terms of hiring or economic growth. On the other hand, cutting taxes for workers and consumers, and/or boosting benefits for social security retirees, who will spend the extra cash will boost economy activity and spur hiring to meet increased demand.
This one really is a no-brainer, so why are Republicans getting it so wrong? It’s greed getting in the way of reason, pure and simple.
Someone needs to let Mittens know this.
@11
Grind Up Granny 2012.
@14 Romney the Job Creator, Part 1
“More than two decades ago, Mitt Romney’s business venture came to town with a bounty of highly anticipated manufacturing jobs. The new plant, just past the gas station off Interstate 85, needed skilled workers to churn out thousands of photo albums.
“Four years later …the company controlled by Romney’s Bain Capital LLC — closed the factory and laid off about 150 workers. Some jobs were sent north, where months later many of those were also eliminated. Other operations went overseas. But Bain walked away with millions in profits.
“A review by The Associated Press of financial and regulatory documents in the case of Holson Burnes contrasts with statements Romney has made during his presidential campaign about his success creating jobs in the private sector. It shows how Bain, then headed by Romney, wrung profits out of the company by slashing costs and trimming its work force.”
http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.c.....isappeared
Roger Rabbit Commentary: If Romney’s the GOP nominee, one can only hope the Jellyfish Democrats have enough brains to tear him apart on his company-stripping profiteering record. Every single Democratic ad should start with the line, “How many workers did Mitt Romney lay off today?”
Another thing we need to do with Romney is to equate him for what he is – a slick salesman who will say anything to seperate you from your cash.
That’s all the investment bankers at Baine Capital really were – they talked investors into contributing to the fund, they talked businesses into selling to them, they talked local governments into subsidizing the purchases, and in many cases talked the employees into further subsidizing the purchases with givebacks in exchange for – well, nothing. Then they outsourced the businesses or closed them outright, selling off the pieces, leaving the local municipalities and employees holding the bag.
I’m reminded of the main character, a con artist, in “The Music Man” – there’s even a physical resemblence between the actor in the Hollywood musical version and Mitt Romney.
Gee, even the Republican rank and file see that – that’s why they are so reluctant to fall in line behind him. But when all other options are gone, they will probably hold their nose and support him. We just have to make sure when the financial interests which control the Republican party make him their candidate, that everyone else (nominal Republicans, Independents, mixed-ticket Democrats) see that as well.
The last thing we can afford is for the Republicans to appoint another Supreme Court justice or two.
RR @13 (emphasis added):
In this time of vanishingly low interest rates, why would any corporation pay off debt? Better they should borrow more and invest it in infrastructure, modernization, and jobs. When it comes time to start paying back the loans, they won’t have to pay much more than the original cost. And they’ll be sitting pretty with all that low-cost debt when the inevitable return to normal interest rates finally comes about.
But of course that would require making things instead of profiting enormously by skimming off bits and pieces of the “instruments” they’re constantly shuffling back and forth. Where’s the value to Wall Street in actually producing stuff?
# 18: I had a discussion a few years back with a management guy at “a large local manufacturer”.
He was very proud of how they figured out how to NOT make parts. “The value is in the name”, he would say, and he gladly explained how management planned to out-source the entire production process, except for the bare minimum of final assembly required before they could slap on a name-plate. “Only three days in the factory!” he proclaimed with joy.
They had already scrapped the tooling and laid off the workers who knew how to make the parts. They relied upon outside contractors to make the parts, and then ship them into the warehouse for re-sell to the customer – after a substantial mark-up, of course.
But he explained how that wasn’t good enough. The company shouldn’t “get it’s hands dirty” handling parts, warranty issues, shipping, etc. That should be between the outside contractors and the customer. The manufacturer itself should just get a commission from the outside contractor for each part sold to the customer.
I tried to explain to him that was a losing end-game. The out-sourced companies would gain power over the manufacturer to the point where they could dictate the terms of the commissions. Oversees contractors could doctor books and withhold commissions. They could reverse-engineer the parts, instead of buying the rights to the drawings, and avoid paying any commissions at all. Other competing manufacturers could eventually buy the parts from the same outside contractors and create a “clone”, the same way computer makers made clones of the IBM PC back in the late 1980’s and 1990’s.
But this manager looked at me like I was speaking a strange language. Apparantly I hadn’t drank the cool-aid, and he shifted his discussion to other people in the room.
That pretty much explains the Wall Street mind-set when it comes to producing stuff. They don’t want to get their hands dirty. They just want to get the cash, milking the cow until it is empty, and then turning it into hamburger.
I fucking hate all republicans. I don’t just sort of dislike some. This bullshit seals the deal for me. I’ll never ever vote for one ever again at any level. I had voted for Sam Reed when he was still running, and the Thurston Co. auditor wasn’t so bad as a repub, but not even at the local level. SUCK IT REPUBLICANS. Go to hell and take Grover Norquist and all of your supporters with you.
LMFAO…some people take politics a wee bit too seriously….
hatred is so…so…progressive….LOL
Norquist wants to return us to 1900, which means we get to bring back Emma Goldman, Joe Hill, Big Bill Hayward, Ida Wells, and a bunch of dynamite throwing anarchists. I say we take him up on the offer.
@22
Im down with that, as long as we get Teddy Roosevelt as president again.
@23
Most of us lefties like Teddy too, so you’re on.
A modern day teddy r. is just what this country needs…
pussified she-men need not apply.
25 – Absolutely:
“melefactors of great wealth” – what a great progressive TR was!
I would have posted the link to the above but the spam filter kept rejecting the commment.
Google it. It’s a U.S. History site.
I’m not sure where any one gets the idea the liberals are pacifists or that progressives are hand-holding love hippies.
Besides, I’m also a Tlingit and we love a good fight.
Also Teddy Roosevelt: National Park lands. I can’t imagine any modern day republican agreeing that there should be vast swaths of land that go largely untouched as a momument to the American landscape.
@18 Actually, some companies are borrowing money to buy back their own stock, but that’s not commonplace.
@19 The Wall Street mindset is to turn everything into a financial transaction and to skim the cream off the top of every financial transaction in the country so they, in effect, get paid huge incomes for doing essentially nothing. It bears a striking resemblance to mobster “protection” rackets.
@21 Now Mad Max claims progressives are politics’ haters. ROFLMAO!
@25 “pussified she-men need not apply”
Well that rules out all the GOPers except for the only one who has an actual pussy and she’s nuts.
@28 I love a dirty fight because then I get to kick ’em where it hurts.
We rabbits aren’t very serious about fighting. For example, if two bucks are having it out over fucking rights concerning a particular cute fluffy female bunny, usually all they’ll do is kick their teeth out, gouge out each other’s eyes, eviscerate their rivals with their razor-sharp claws, bite a few holes in their hides, and emasculate them so they’ll never fuck anything again. Deaths are relatively rare, although accidents occasionally happen.