Updates

All,

I apologize, but new posts will be sparse this week, as I am working on performance evaluations and taking a trip with the parents to Hoboken to get Japanese groceries!

I’ll try to update this weekend (If I decide not to go to Baltimore Comicon) : )

-Chris

Boehner’s Lies

Joan Walsh at Salon.com has an on point piece about the regressive’s dissembling about extending tax cuts for the rich.
Spray-bronzed wonder (and House Minority Leader) John Boehner is stating — without an ounce of evidence — that allowing the cuts to expire will deepen the deficit.
Actually, the exact opposite is true:
This is the magical thinking that is the legacy of the Reagan years and the application (or mis-application, depending on your point of view) of Arthur Laffer’s famous curve.
In truth, eight years of higher taxation for the rich created an enormous surplus and added 22 million jobs to boot.

During George W. Bush’s reign? 3 million.

What People “Know” — Is Wrong

Dave Johnson over at Campaign For America’s Future has a right on the money post today.

There are a number of “common wisdom” memes circulating in the population, such as “Corporations (plutocracy) are always more effective and efficient than government (democracy). Government messes up everything that it touches.”

He explains where these lies are coming from and how they are perpetuated.

Liberal media, indeed.

Who Funds The Lies?

I’m always amused at the regressive’s white hot hatred of George Soros. Conveniently, they seem to know nothing about Richard Mellon Scaife, Rupert Murdock, Roger Ailes, and now these guys:

The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.

Jane Mayer (one of my favorite writers) at the New Yorker has a lengthy look at the “accomplishments” of the brothers Koch, who are largely responsible for the funding of the “grassroots” Tea Party phenomenon.

Of note:

A Republican campaign consultant who has done research on behalf of Charles and David Koch said of the Tea Party, “The Koch brothers gave the money that founded it. It’s like they put the seeds in the ground. Then the rainstorm comes, and the frogs come out of the mud—and they’re our candidates!”

UPDATE: And these guys.

Meet the Wyly’s

UPDATE 2: Rachel Maddow is having Jane Mayer on tonight to discuss the Koch brothers.

Who’s perpetuating “class warfare”?

Paul Krugman again nails the “starve the beast” agenda of the Regressive Cheap Labor Conservatives.

On the soon to expire tax cuts for the wealthy, he notes:

Why the cutoff date? In part, it was used to disguise the fiscal irresponsibility of the tax cuts: lopping off that last year reduced the headline cost of the cuts, because such costs are normally calculated over a 10-year period. It also allowed the Bush administration to pass the tax cuts using reconciliation — yes, the same procedure that Republicans denounced when it was used to enact health reform — while sidestepping rules designed to prevent the use of that procedure to increase long-run budget deficits.

Remember, the Obama proposal (which is expensive in and of itself) will continue the tax cuts for people making $200,000 and less.
When you hear alarmist rhetoric from Regressives, read Krugman, or go to the Tax Policy Center and check out the facts.

Gibbs reveals contempt for base

There’s been tons written about White House spokesman Robert Gibb’s intemperate comments lashing out at the “professional left”.
I post this only to comment on the hilarity of the idea that this Administration (or the Clinton Administration) is in any way “liberal”.
For most of my life, Democrats have tended toward moderate conservatism.
After abandoning labor, minorities, women and other large portions of their base, they keep wondering why the “professional left” is critical.
I guess this was just cloud talk from when Obama was trying to court everyone:

In that spirit, let me end by saying I don’t pretend to have all the answers to the challenges we face, and I look forward to periodic conversations with all of you in the months and years to come. I trust that you will continue to let me and other Democrats know when you believe we are screwing up. And I, in turn, will always try and show you the respect and candor one owes his friends and allies.

Read Jason Linkin’s Huffington Post article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/10/yelling-at-the-profession_n_677272.html

For the record, this member of the professional left WOULD like to have a single payer healthcare system, but simply wants the Pentagon’s burdgeoning budget to be trimmed of the enormous waste and fraud, and the procurement proceedures to be tightened.