The Obama Presidency

How did no one comment on Obama actually getting something right this week? Granted, Pelosi may yet fuck it up, but the man was actually right once!

Stopped clocks, etc.

Right how? In agreeing to the tax cuts extension which weren't paid for in any way? All this does is increase the amount of the debt by the tax cuts + interest paid on them over the years. Yoshi, you'll be paying for your, and your parent's tax cuts for years to come.

As to the fox news thing. Really, does anyone in their right mind think that fox news doesn't tilt the news to their sponsors/owners agenda? We've move away from the news as a requirement for a broadcast license (40-70s) and news as a profitable venture (70s-2000) and we're now firmly in the American era as news as a part the overall lobbying effort.

I consider Palin's reality show the official start to her 2012 Presidential campaign.

Well it essentially is. She's not selling herself on her policies or her abilities as a leader or record or popularity in her home state or her past work or her family as an example of the values she wants to bring to the national state or the legislation she's helped pass or her personal achievements.

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Originally Posted by MarsKitten

Right how? In agreeing to the tax cuts extension which weren't paid for in any way? All this does is increase the amount of the debt by the tax cuts + interest paid on them over the years. Yoshi, you'll be paying for your, and your parent's tax cuts for years to come.

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Do remember that the public won't have to pay for tax cuts because we effectively lend money to ourselves. We could end up paying for them in infation but whatevs. If inflation becomes a problem we can deal with that later... if it becomes a problem. One might have reasons to be upset at tax cuts for the rich but worrying about the deficit or future tax burden is not really one of them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MarsKitten

Right how? In agreeing to the tax cuts extension which weren't paid for in any way? All this does is increase the amount of the debt by the tax cuts + interest paid on them over the years. Yoshi, you'll be paying for your, and your parent's tax cuts for years to come.

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You don't pay for tax cuts. You pay for bullshit programs that aren't funded after the tax cuts and should be whacked anyway. But if you really want to destroy the relatively small economic progress that has been made in spite of government intrusion, end the tax cuts. Then there won't be any income to tax for a lot more people.

Of course you pay for them. Spending depletes revenue, tax cuts deplete revenue. The idea that tax cuts are "free" or the more ridiculous one that that tax cuts actually create revenue is one of the more retarded theories of conservatism.

Spending doesn't deplete revenue. It increases cost. Tax cuts are absolutely free. It's the unfunded programs that fuck things up if you don't cut them when you cut taxes. Go whack all types of welfare for everyone between 18-65 who is not confirmed to be too handicapped to work, and you're likely whole. If some of those lazy assholes still don't work and starve, that'll help reduce costs on infrastructure and the like, since less people will have to use it. Win-win.

edit: The problem is that we need to get the same Baby Boomer idiots who caused the personal credit crisis out of office so that someone who knows how to balance their personal and public budgets can fix their shit.

I agree with you that baby boomers are fucking assholes.

But the Bush Tax Cuts probably cost the country hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars in hypothetical revenue over the past 10 years, when we needed it most. That isn't 'free' to me.

If spending were low, we could get away with having such low taxes. But if we're not cutting spending, we can't cut taxes. Doing one without the other and expecting a different result is silly.