It defies common sense.... as our "Economy Shrinks in Third Quarter," (WaPo) John McCain is still campaigning on a tax platform of tax cuts for the wealthy.
The theory is that giving tax breaks to the top 5% of taxpayers (corporations) will create jobs and benefits that "trickle down" to strengthen the "fundamentals of our economy."
We all know how that turned out... not just once, but time and again.
Ronald Reagan ran the country into deep debt with his "credit card" economy; Bush 41 dug the hole deeper (Clinton got it back on track); and Bush 43's dismal failure of trickle-down, tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy Reaganomics has resulted in bringing the country's economy to its knees.
The news today... the "U.S. economy shrank from July through September, confirming an economic slowdown that was already showing itself through steady job losses and declining consumer sales.
"Gross Domestic Product fell 0.3 percent on an annualized basis for the third quarter of the year, as consumers and businesses both curbed spending."
But it could have been much worse.... if government hadn't "increased their spending by 1.15 percent to GDP."
Yet in the face of this colossal failure, McCain is still pushing voo-doo Reaganomics, calling Barack Obama's tax plan to give tax breaks to the middle class socialism and worse.
McCain the magician wants you to keep your eyes on the pretty lady while presenting his slight-of-hand amazing shrinking economy.
Voters have seen this trick before. Vote. It really matters!
Showing posts with label Reaganomics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reaganomics. Show all posts
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Greenspan... My Bad
During his run for the presidency in 2000, John McCain was drilled by a reporter about what he would do as president if something happened to then Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
McCain, a self-described don't-know-much-about-the-economy, grinned and said.... "Well, I'd put sunglasses on him and prop him up like that guy in Weekend at Bernies."
Well "Bernie," who retired in 2006, was back on the Hill this Thursday where he told a Congressional committee that the economic crisis had shaken his very understanding of how markets work, and agreed that certain financial derivatives should be regulated... this from the anointed financial Maestro who heretofore vigorously resisted the "r" word.... "Greenspan Says He Was Wrong on Regulation." the Washington Post headline blares.
Greenspan's admission stuck at the very core of "trickle-down" Reaganomics as he lamented.... "I made a mistake, in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms."
Bernie thought unfettered, unregulated investment bankers and Wall Street would stifle their greed. Would let the obscene profits in their sticky palms trickle down to the middle class. Excuse me.... hah, hoo, hoo, hah, hah, hah.....!
Greed is the fairy-dust of Reaganomics. Greenspan's apparent successes in managing the economy from 1987 to 2006 were in fact illusory.... they came at the cost of building the biggest credit bubble in world history.... and the bubble has now burst.
Bernie actually saw it coming. Greenspan warned in his 2007 memoir that Washington was now "harboring a dysfunctional government.... Governance has become dangerously dysfunctional."
Now we're living with the shambles the Decider has wrought with his dysfunctional government.... a dysfunctional, deregulated, deficit-mushrooming disaster.
A stubborn McCain is now no longer interested in putting sunglasses on Bernie and propping him up since Thursday the genuinely perplexed Greenspan was hard-pressed to explain how formerly fundamental truths about how markets work could have proved so wrong.
McCain doesn't want to hear it. He's taking back the sunglasses and deserting Bernie.... he wants to ignore the demise of Bernie-Reaganomics and party on with Bush's economic agenda of tax-break-for-corporations and trickle-down lots-a-luck for the middle class.
November 4. Vote. It matters!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Joe the Plumber... Bummer
It's such typical McCain-campaign rush to gimmickry without vetting the facts.
When the media checked out the peg on which John McCain hung Wednesday's debate.... Joe the Plumber.... well, he didn't. Check out, that is.
Turns out Joe is Sam.... Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher of Springfield Township, Ohio. He is a registered Republican. Joe isn't licensed or registered as a plumber anywhere in Ohio, so.... he isn't a plumber.
Joe doesn't own a plumbing business, and it doesn't seem like he might any time soon since his divorce papers show he earned $40,000 in 2006 according to an article in today's Toledo Blade.
So, how did the myth that is Joe the Plumber come about?
Joe was playing football in his front yard with his son, Joey, on Sunday afternoon when Barack Obama made an unscheduled stop to go door to door greeting voters and asking for their support.
In his conversation with Joe, Obama tried explained his plan for tax breaks to 95 percent of Americans while raising taxes on incomes above $250,000.
Obama said his plan would improve the economy for people trying to get a start in small business, and "spread the wealth".... meaning to give a break to the middle class for a change, not those at the top of the heap like the GOP's trickle-down Reaganomics benefited.
The "spread the wealth" phrase was quickly picked up by conservative bloggers, commentators and then the McCain campaign... and, McCain seized on Joe the Plumber as his debate catch-phrase, gleefully accusing Obama in their debate of wanting to "redistribute" Joe's wealth.
It seems Joe doesn't worry too much about sharing the tax load anyway, there is a lien of $1,183 on his modest home for nonpayment of personal property taxes.
While Joe didn't say who he was going to vote for in November, he did say he liked McCain's other unvetted campaign gimmick, Sarah Palin.
Note to McCain: Someone in your campaign needs to learn how to Google-check basic facts before launch.
Note to Joe: You're exactly the type of middle-class American that Obama's tax policies would benefit. Think about it.
Note to voters: November 4!
When the media checked out the peg on which John McCain hung Wednesday's debate.... Joe the Plumber.... well, he didn't. Check out, that is.
Turns out Joe is Sam.... Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher of Springfield Township, Ohio. He is a registered Republican. Joe isn't licensed or registered as a plumber anywhere in Ohio, so.... he isn't a plumber.
Joe doesn't own a plumbing business, and it doesn't seem like he might any time soon since his divorce papers show he earned $40,000 in 2006 according to an article in today's Toledo Blade.
So, how did the myth that is Joe the Plumber come about?
Joe was playing football in his front yard with his son, Joey, on Sunday afternoon when Barack Obama made an unscheduled stop to go door to door greeting voters and asking for their support.
In his conversation with Joe, Obama tried explained his plan for tax breaks to 95 percent of Americans while raising taxes on incomes above $250,000.
Obama said his plan would improve the economy for people trying to get a start in small business, and "spread the wealth".... meaning to give a break to the middle class for a change, not those at the top of the heap like the GOP's trickle-down Reaganomics benefited.
The "spread the wealth" phrase was quickly picked up by conservative bloggers, commentators and then the McCain campaign... and, McCain seized on Joe the Plumber as his debate catch-phrase, gleefully accusing Obama in their debate of wanting to "redistribute" Joe's wealth.
It seems Joe doesn't worry too much about sharing the tax load anyway, there is a lien of $1,183 on his modest home for nonpayment of personal property taxes.
While Joe didn't say who he was going to vote for in November, he did say he liked McCain's other unvetted campaign gimmick, Sarah Palin.
Note to McCain: Someone in your campaign needs to learn how to Google-check basic facts before launch.
Note to Joe: You're exactly the type of middle-class American that Obama's tax policies would benefit. Think about it.
Note to voters: November 4!
Friday, October 03, 2008
McBush's Fundamentals Weren't Strong
Listening to the debate going on in the House right now on the $700+ bailout bill, the refrain (excuse) repeated over and over is.... it would be a better bill if only we had more time.
It's true, time has run out on dithering. Credit, the grease that keeps the economy moving, has dried up.
But, no one is acknowledging the elephant in the room.... there would have been more time to keep our economy off of the shoals if The Decider and John McCain hadn't kept assuring the country that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."
Even though the country was drowning in debt, the middle-class was losing jobs, wages were declining, and housing bankruptcies reached historic proportions.
Just hours before Treasury Secretary Paulson crashed the corporate profiteering party with his emergency proposal, McSame was still mindlessly parroting the administration's talking point.... the "fundamentals of our economy are strong."
The reason this is a lousy bill is because the country has lousy, manipulating leadership who wouldn't acknowledge that their "trickle down" Reaganomics didn't work for anyone but bloated, and now bailed-out, corporations and what trickles down is pain to the middle class.
Never again.
November 4.
It's true, time has run out on dithering. Credit, the grease that keeps the economy moving, has dried up.
But, no one is acknowledging the elephant in the room.... there would have been more time to keep our economy off of the shoals if The Decider and John McCain hadn't kept assuring the country that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."
Even though the country was drowning in debt, the middle-class was losing jobs, wages were declining, and housing bankruptcies reached historic proportions.
Just hours before Treasury Secretary Paulson crashed the corporate profiteering party with his emergency proposal, McSame was still mindlessly parroting the administration's talking point.... the "fundamentals of our economy are strong."
The reason this is a lousy bill is because the country has lousy, manipulating leadership who wouldn't acknowledge that their "trickle down" Reaganomics didn't work for anyone but bloated, and now bailed-out, corporations and what trickles down is pain to the middle class.
Never again.
November 4.
Monday, January 21, 2008
The Truth vs. Reaganomics
It's a political strategy.... ".... people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it."
This is a part of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services description of Adolf Hitler's psychological profile. His methods were very effective, his repetitive-propaganda machine always in high gear.... people will believe that which is continually advocated if it isn't vigorously challenged.
There can be little doubt that the American public is being propagandized on all sides about Reaganomics and the joys of cutting taxes as a way to grow the economy.
Just listen to the GOP presidential candidates jostling to claim the Reagan mantle.... even Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama recently praised Reagan's presidency.
How about a reality check. Paul Krugman tries in his opinion piece, "Debunking the Reagan Myth." (NY Times)
Krugman points out that the GOP's rewriting of history never ends.... "That's why conservatives are still writing books denouncing F.D.R. and the New Deal; they understand that the way Americans perceive bygone eras, even eras from the seeming distant past, affects politics today."
Reaganomics failed.... just as the Reagan "trickle down" economics of the current Bush administration have failed, unless you are a CEO or belong to the country club set. With Reagan's credit-card economy in the early 1980s there was an initial boom, but then the bills came due.
"By the late 1980s, middle-class incomes were barely higher than they had been a decade before - and the poverty rate had actually risen," Krugman points out. And the national debt had ballooned. This Reaganomics recession was the reason Bill Clinton captured the White House, and why he was reelected.
Understanding the fallacy of Reaganomics, Clinton declared in 1991 that.... "The Reagan-Bush years have exalted private gain over public obligation, special interests over the common good, wealth and fame over work and family. The 1980s ushered in a Gilded Age of greed and selfishness, of irresponsibility and excess, and of neglect."
Clinton turned the floundering economy around. Even the Bush administration's own Council of Economic Advisers dates the beginning of the economic boom to 1995, during Clinton's first term.
Yet, Republicans anxious to take credit for this resurgence will tell you ad nauseam that it was Reagan's 1981 tax cut that fueled these positive economic developments 14 years later.
They have repeated this economic lie so often that they seem to believe it themselves, even as we are again experiencing the economic nightmare of Reaganomics from the Bush White House and Congress.... cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations and forget about balancing the budget.
Credit-card Reaganomics, thy name is RECESSION!
Obama shouldn't be opining that Reagan's ideas were dynamic, he should be pointing out the GOP's "big lie" that Reagan's ideas led to prosperity when in fact they failed!
Hopefully Obama isn't so bent on defeating Hillary Clinton at any cost that he allows, even seems to buy into, the Reagan myth rather than give Bill Clinton his due.
The overwhelming majority of Americans think the country is on the wrong track.... if Obama misses that train he won't get out of the station.... "It's the economy, stupid."
This is a part of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services description of Adolf Hitler's psychological profile. His methods were very effective, his repetitive-propaganda machine always in high gear.... people will believe that which is continually advocated if it isn't vigorously challenged.
There can be little doubt that the American public is being propagandized on all sides about Reaganomics and the joys of cutting taxes as a way to grow the economy.
Just listen to the GOP presidential candidates jostling to claim the Reagan mantle.... even Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama recently praised Reagan's presidency.
How about a reality check. Paul Krugman tries in his opinion piece, "Debunking the Reagan Myth." (NY Times)
Krugman points out that the GOP's rewriting of history never ends.... "That's why conservatives are still writing books denouncing F.D.R. and the New Deal; they understand that the way Americans perceive bygone eras, even eras from the seeming distant past, affects politics today."
Reaganomics failed.... just as the Reagan "trickle down" economics of the current Bush administration have failed, unless you are a CEO or belong to the country club set. With Reagan's credit-card economy in the early 1980s there was an initial boom, but then the bills came due.
"By the late 1980s, middle-class incomes were barely higher than they had been a decade before - and the poverty rate had actually risen," Krugman points out. And the national debt had ballooned. This Reaganomics recession was the reason Bill Clinton captured the White House, and why he was reelected.
Understanding the fallacy of Reaganomics, Clinton declared in 1991 that.... "The Reagan-Bush years have exalted private gain over public obligation, special interests over the common good, wealth and fame over work and family. The 1980s ushered in a Gilded Age of greed and selfishness, of irresponsibility and excess, and of neglect."
Clinton turned the floundering economy around. Even the Bush administration's own Council of Economic Advisers dates the beginning of the economic boom to 1995, during Clinton's first term.
Yet, Republicans anxious to take credit for this resurgence will tell you ad nauseam that it was Reagan's 1981 tax cut that fueled these positive economic developments 14 years later.
They have repeated this economic lie so often that they seem to believe it themselves, even as we are again experiencing the economic nightmare of Reaganomics from the Bush White House and Congress.... cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations and forget about balancing the budget.
Credit-card Reaganomics, thy name is RECESSION!
Obama shouldn't be opining that Reagan's ideas were dynamic, he should be pointing out the GOP's "big lie" that Reagan's ideas led to prosperity when in fact they failed!
Hopefully Obama isn't so bent on defeating Hillary Clinton at any cost that he allows, even seems to buy into, the Reagan myth rather than give Bill Clinton his due.
The overwhelming majority of Americans think the country is on the wrong track.... if Obama misses that train he won't get out of the station.... "It's the economy, stupid."
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