As reported in the NY Times, “Medicare will remain financially solvent for 12 additional years, until 2029, because of the cost-cutting measures in President Obama’s recently enacted health care legislation, the program’s trustees projected on Thursday.”
In 2002, the year after the Congress passed the Bush Tax Cuts, William G. Gale, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, concluded “We estimate that the tax cut will not raise long-term growth, but it will raise burdens on future generations.” Today he debunks five common myths about what extending the Bush tax cuts would accomplish:
Why does Gale maintain these are myths? Read More
Former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman, one of the founders of “Trickle-down economics” writes an insightful editorial in the NY Times. If you ever thought the Republican economic approach of tax-cut, tax-cut, and more tax-cuts was just self-serving smoke and mirrors, David Stockman seems to confirm it. Below are a few key quotes, but this editorial “Four Deformations of the Apocalypse” is a must read.
“If there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing.”
“But the new catechism, as practiced by Republican policymakers for decades now, has amounted to little more than money printing and deficit finance — vulgar Keynesianism robed in the ideological vestments of the prosperous classes.”
“Through the 1984 election, the old guard earnestly tried to control the deficit, rolling back about 40 percent of the original Reagan tax cuts. But when, in the following years, the Federal Reserve chairman, Paul Volcker, finally crushed inflation, enabling a solid economic rebound, the new tax-cutters not only claimed victory for their supply-side strategy but hooked Republicans for good on the delusion that the economy will outgrow the deficit if plied with enough tax cuts.”
I have to hand it to the Republicans, with slight of hand and misdirection they have all but convinced America the deficit was caused by the Democrats and President Obama. But this is not the first time they misdirected the attention of the American people:
“Democrats were quick to point out that President Bush’s budget creates a 1 trillion dollar deficit. The White House quickly responded with ‘Hey, look over there, it’s Saddam Hussein.’”
– Craig Kilborn, April 2003
The Republicans have always had an uncanny ability to fool the American people and here we go again. Well they are at is again. In July,22 NY Times, Paul Krugman’s insight into the Republican’s new campaign to rewrite history and cleanse Bush policies of having anything to do with the current ec0nomic mess will have consquences if the American people fall for it again. Don’t miss this important read!!
“Republicans aren’t trying to rescue George W. Bush’s reputation for sentimental reasons; they’re trying to clear the way for a return to Bush policies. And this carries a message for anyone hoping that the next time Republicans are in power, they’ll behave differently. If you believe that they’ve learned something — say, about fiscal prudence or the importance of effective regulation — you’re kidding yourself. You might as well face it: they’re addicted to Bush.”
The United States economy didn’t fail over night. It took years of wrong decisions, neglect, cutting banking regulations and so on to get us here. The “Bush” years specifically. You remember when the Republicans controlled both the White House and Congress.
But now, as midterm elections near, Republicans think it’s time for President Obama to take ownership of it and stop looking back at what caused it. Now I’m not exactly clear what they want him to take ownership of? The loss of millions of jobs that occurred at the end of the Bush administration? The collapse of the financial system that occurred primarily because of the rampant deregulation and internal Bush policies that had government financial regulators cozy up with Wall Street? The “tax-cut-and-spend” policy of the Bush years that turned a trillion dollar surplus into a half a trillion dollar deficit? Or Republican stonewalling and filibuster threats to bold recovery efforts unless they were scaled down? And let’s not forget the conservative’s genuine wishes for “Hope for Failure” to Obama’s recovery policies.
After two year in office Obama can take ownership, but remember where he started…at the bottom. The economy is slowly improving . But the rich are losing the tax cuts that is the foundation of our current deficit and not getting richer fast enough for Republicans. So the new Republican slight-of-hand strategy is to be make the American people believe our current situation is all Obama’s fault.
Everyday millions of gallons of oil pour into the Gulf of Mexico, poisoning it’s wildlife and destroying the economy. Thousands of people are without work and permanently lost their livelihood. The effects are just beginning to ripple to the overall economy. [Read more →]
The Louisiana judge who struck down the Obama administration’s six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has reported extensive investments in the oil and gas industry, according to financial disclosure reports. Read More
For decades environmentalists and those “bleeding heart liberals” warned of environmental disaster should we from fossil fuels, oil spills in particular. Opponents insisted leaks such as the one we face in the Gulf were virtually impossible. Besides they were carefully “self-regulating” and taking all precautions and safe guards. Even now supporters of our fossil-fuel based society argue that this is just one off shore oil rig while there are hundreds operating safely. But it only takes one to see an ecosystem destroyed, not to mention the economy of a large portion of the country. And unfortunately we are just seeing the beginning of this disaster. The ramifications this may not be know for years. [Read more →]
Everyone feels the anger and outrage at BP for this disaster. Many are even getting angry at the government for not stepping in and doing, well no one is sure what!. But as I watch the footage of the leak and listen to all the attempts to plug the well, what I feel is a real sense of helplessness. Not for just myself, but for the overall situation. What I’m not hearing are things that BP is not doing. There are no experts coming on the talk shows discussing what BP should do to stop the leak. No one seems to have a better idea. And that makes me feel helpless. The idea that they are doing everything that could be done and nothing is working. Most everyone is looking to the relief wells to stop this disaster. But what if the relief well don’t work. No one is guaranteeing they will.