13 thoughts on “Medvedev For President”

  3. At some point, perhaps, the defenders of liberty and economic opportunity are going to realize that when the other side says they don’t think things like a “taxing the rich” or “regulating” business or any of their other nostrums are bad for the economy — they’re lying. They understand it perfectly well — they just don’t care, or rather, they think the damage is worth it, to advance their agenda.

    Keep that in mind, eh? When Team Obama or Speaker Pelosi or Senator Durbin says they don’t think their proposed policies will hurt the economy — they don’t think Obamacare will impoverish the middle class — it’s not that they don’t understand, it’s that they’re lying. That’s why they can never be convinced of their “error.” It’s not because they are dim, or need truly overwhelmingly obvious evidence — It’s because they already know and they’re lying. The firmest proof is that when things get really desperate, and their own skins are finally on the line, they discover their inner Adam Smith. They know very well what works.

    I can only repeat that comment I made last year: if the President and Congress knew they would be sentenced to hang in Feburary 2011 if the unemployment rate were still above 8%, they would be cutting taxes and gutting entitlements like crazy, stripping away regulation to its clearly functional and necessary core, and you wouldn’t hear a damned word about remaking healthcare or “green jobs” or “energy independence” or healing the planet.

  4. Carl,
    I’ll chip in 100′ of rope I’ve got laying around. Anyone got a couple spare horses?

  5. Carl, I’d finesse your point by saying that it’s not so much that they don’t care that they’re wrong, or that what they’re doing will wreck the economy, etc., it’s that they’re in denial, thinking that they’ll get always find some way to get away with it.

  6. I don’t agree, T.L. I think they know very well what will happen. It’s true they proffer nostrums for the rubes, but they don’t buy the hokum themselves. They really don’t care, because like Lucifer, they think it better to rule in (economic) hell than serve in heaven. All a statist cares about is that he is on top of the social power heap. It doesn’t matter how miserably low that heap is, how barely above the ground, so long as he occupies the highest point.

  7. It shouldn’t take rope.

    If (1) the pay of elected officials was entirely in ‘futures’, and (2) there was a mandatory 10% cut in pay and benefits as well as elimination of bonuses in any year that had even a projected deficit, I think you’d see changes.

    The “non-partisans” would be a whole lot more willing to scream “Hey, that’s complete BS!” if their salary is on the line.

  8. Carl is absolutely right, they are not in denial, they know they are lying. It’s like the antigun person with armed bodyguards. With few exceptions, and these are mostly lawyers we’re talking about, it’s not even possible to be that delusional.

    They are not only lying, they don’t care if you know as long as they can keep repeating the big lie and make it work for them.

  9. While lying is an acceptable explaination, don’t underestimate the power of raw stupidity. Many of these stupid economic policies are based on economics theories taught at Ivy League universities by professors who have only the loosest understanding of the real world. Obama’s cabinet is filled with people who have little or no experience at working a real job in the real world.

  11. What I’m thinking of by “denial” is being held accountable for the consequences. That they believe they can get away with whatever they want to do, because the bill will never come due under their watch, or if it does, they or someone else will find a way to push it further down the road.

    They’re not in denial about what they’re doing, or about it being wrong, but about their chances of getting away with it indefinitely. They know there’ll be consequences “tomorrow”, but they get used to tomorrow never coming.

  12. Capital gains tax being much lower than income tax inevitably leads to those with large incomes (who therefore have the money to pay expensive accountants and lawyers) shifting what is actually income into capital gains, thus losing income for the country’s treasury and putting a disproportionate part of the burden onto middle-earners. The Russian plan is just about the most elitist I have seen in recent memory; it seems obvious to me that it is designed to benefit the plutocrats who currently run Russia.

    The plan might work as it is allegedly (but probably not actually) designed to do, if the zero rate of CGT was dependent on the assets having been held for a fairly long time – perhaps five years. Thus promoting real investment without the negative effect on the tax take.

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