Tuesday, April 07, 2009
The "American way"
When it comes to the levying of taxes, this is the "American way" according to the president of the Cook County (Chicago, IL) board president.
You have to admit, Barack Obama's fusion of feel-good apologetic liberalism and the hard-nosed principles of Chicago politics has been very effective. So far.
6 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue Apr 07, 09:32:00 AM:
"You have to admit, Barack Obama's fusion of feel-good apologetic liberalism and the hard-nosed principles of Chicago politics has been very effective. So far."
Not sure here what you're referring to in this sentence. "Effective" in what sense?
Rahm Emmanuel, fondly called "Toes" at the TOTUS blog, said before inauguration that the aim of the administration was first and foremost to get reelected. The President's own aim was seemingly to dramatically increase the everyday reliance on government as a source of goods and services for far more Americans than simply the poorest, in support of the same goal I guess. Is that what you mean by effective?
By 
TigerHawk, at
Tue Apr 07, 09:41:00 AM:
So far, Barack Obama is getting what he wants and remaining very popular for it. That is what I mean by "effective." That does not mean that I do not deplore what he is doing, but the great American middle seems to like it. So far. But only so far, insofar as we have not done the hard part yet.
By , at
Tue Apr 07, 10:18:00 AM:
By which you presumably refer to the hard part of paying for it. We'll see how the great American middle likes the inevitable, big tax increases on everyone.
By , at
Tue Apr 07, 11:17:00 AM:
From Link:
"Money for nothing and chicks for free"
"We have met the enemy and he is us."
Obama is acting like the first black to be elected mayor of a big city. I'd include John Lindsay of 1960s New York in this category -- it's not about skin color.
A "new face and a fresh vision ... power to the people" feels good for awhile, as you borrow like mad against your credit line ... but its a path to perdition. I saw this movie before in New York in the 1960s-1970s. The late 1980s sequel wasn't any better.
Matt Miller, former Clintonian, has a piece over on the Daily Beast today ... "Obama faces a mounting budget crisis—and will have to come clean about needing to raise our taxes." No shit ... but at least some more folks of the left in the media are waking up.
The competing budget projections being used by Obama and the CBO have the same flaw as any spreadsheet model ... they're only as good as the assumptions. Spreadsheets can still be a useful tool to work through scenarios, identify which variables matter more, etc.
I suspect that the "USA Inc" business model is highly dependent on the 3% growth we now take for granted. Without it, the budget blows up even faster. But raise taxes to cover the budget ... and you kill growth. We can't cover the structural deficits we're creating with taxes on millionaires. The numbers don't add up. $100,000 will be the new rich, maybe even lower. It'll lead us to economic decline, perhaps permanently. How can folks like Olbermann and Maddow be so oblivious to this.
The scary thing about Obama's plans is that they're designed to deliver a recovery in 2010 that may carry into 2012 ... and then totally blow up in the out years.
Welcome to Argentina ....
By MartyH, at
Tue Apr 07, 03:36:00 PM:
I love the attitude...
"We tax the other guy and hand the proceeds over to you."
By Dan Kauffman, at
Wed Apr 08, 07:06:00 AM:
I don't know if I would call it "American" but for sure it's Cook County Chicago
