I have some thoughts on the Sullymania in the media over at PJM.
Category Archives: Media Criticism
Get That Man An Irony Meter
It seems a little rich to me for someone like Paul Krugman to accuse other economists of arguing in bad faith.
The War Against The Working People
…by the self-proclaimed party of the working people:
The two to three trillion dollars in spending last year and this? It’s a huge grab at the wealth of working people. It has to be paid for, and there are only two ways to do it since government can’t actually create wealth. They have to raise taxes, which steals wealth from working people, or they have to print money, which steals wealth from working people.
No matter how it’s done, the so called stimulus package is the hugest money grab and wealth redistribution since the formation of the Soviet Socialist Union.
And yes, they know exactly what they are doing. It’s all about gaining, and maintaining and reinforcing, political power. We shall see if the Republic survives.
On Not Being A Dove
A long but fascinating essay from the late John Updike. I found this passage quite interesting:
The protest, from my perspective, was in large part a snobbish dismissal of [the president] by the Eastern establishment; Cambridge professors and Manhattan lawyers and their guitar-strumming children thought they could run the country and the world better than this lugubrious bohunk from Texas. These privileged members of a privileged nation believed that their pleasant position could be maintained without anything visibly ugly happening in the world. They were full of aesthetic disdain for their own defenders, the business-suited hirelings drearily pondering geopolitics and its bloody necessities down in Washington. The protesters were spitting on the cops who were trying to keep their property—the USA and its many amenities—intact. A common report in this riotous era was of slum-dwellers throwing rocks and bottles at the firemen come to put out fires; the peace marchers, the upper-middle-class housewives pushing baby carriages along in candlelit processions, seemed to me to be behaving identically, without the excuse of being slum-dwellers.
Emphasis mine.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. They weren’t anti-war — they were just on the other side.
Civil Disobedience
I like this idea. Unfortunately, I rarely use cash.
[Afternoon update]
Glenn Reynolds has thoughts on the culture of impunity. I don’t think it’s new, though. It just seems to coincide with Democrats in power.
Cui Bono?
I wonder how many of the procrastinators who haven’t done anything to prepare for the changeover from analog to digital television are Democrats? Is the government concerned that their sheeple won’t continue to get their ABC/NBC/CBS pro-big-government propaganda if they don’t delay the switch, and fund the boxes?
Change!
The Obama administration is going to continue rendition:
The European Parliament condemned renditions as “an illegal instrument used by the United States.” Prisoners swept up in the program have sued the CIA as well as a Boeing Co. subsidiary accused of working with the agency on dozens of rendition flights.
But the Obama administration appears to have determined that the rendition program was one component of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard.
See, it’s only evil when Chimpy McHitler does it.
[Tuesday morning update]
The case for the hypocrisy of the leftists’ defense of Obama is made:
Here’s a summary: the liberal defense is strained, dishonest, surprisingly nuanced, and contrary to true progressive politics because it elevates “party” over principle.
You don’t say.
As a commenter there notes, these people don’t give a goddamn about human rights (as evidenced by their blind eyes toward people like Fidel Castro). It’s all about partisan politics.
[Bumped]
The Case For No Stimulus
Don’t just do something — stand there:
The grand Keynesian myth is that you can spend money and thereby increase demand. And it’s a myth because Congress does not have a vault of money to distribute in the economy. Every dollar Congress injects into the economy must first be taxed or borrowed out of the economy. You’re not creating new demand, you’re just transferring it from one group of people to another. If Washington borrows the money from domestic lenders, then investment spending falls, dollar for dollar. If they borrow the money from foreigners, say from China, then net exports drop dollar for dollar, because the balance of payments must adjust. Therefore, again, there is no net increase in aggregate demand. It just means that one group of people has $800 billion less to spend, and the government has $800 billion more to spend.
And for those who say this a prescription for failed Hooverian laissez-faire policies, a) Hoover didn’t keep his hands off the economy — he undertook damaging measures in response to the Wall Street panic (e.g., raising taxes, and implementing protectionist measures) that turned it into a depression that FDR then prolonged and b) a true laissez-faire approach would be to undo the damage that overregulation in the economy has caused.
And here’s a good idea, too:
What about the idea of a moratorium on IRS audits for middle-class taxpayers (using any of Obama’s campaign-trail definitions, from $250K/yr on down) for at least a year? Obviously the IRS is short on auditors, so why not deploy them where they are most needed?”
I’d start with high government officials, since they seem to be poster children for tax evasion, based on Obama’s picks so far. And particularly since those same government officials are so vocal about the need to be (and “patriotism” of) paying your income tax. Maybe if these people had to actually pay the taxes for which they so vociferously shill, they might be a little more sympathetic to calls for rate reduction and simplification.
But probably not. They’re shameless.
[Update a few minutes later]
Victor Davis Hanson rightfully wonders about the implications for the “voluntary” and honor-based nature of the current tax code:
Millions of Americans don’t have either Daschle’s or Geithner’s resources, yet they pay dearly to go to accountants, honestly turn over all their records, and then pay the full amount of taxation in accordance with their understanding of the law, and the advice they receive from professional accountants.
Yet men both much richer and much more informed about the U.S. tax code not only don’t do that, but feel no compunction to rectify mistakes unless they cause embarrassment enough to thwart their careers. Two subtexts as well: there must be many more Daschles and Geithners floating around Washington who don’t show up on the radar unless they want a top political appointment; and, two, the old liberal creed that taxes are good and patriotic and are avoided by greedy, selfish conservative elites seems shattered by these examples.
Any more of these stories and we will be on very dangerous ground, since the message is a terrible one to the American people: You pay your full amount, but our elites not only do not, but won’t unless they get caught.
This is all about as good an argument for a flat tax as one can imagine.
Or getting rid of income tax entirely. Starting with corporate.
[Update a few minutes later]
“The rumors are… drumroll please… true! You are now driving the next United States Secretary of Heath and Human Services!”
“Congratulations, Mr. Daschle. That sure sounds like quite an accomplishment.”
“Yes sirree bob. Quite an irony, isn’t it, Ernest?”
“How’s that, sir?”
“I mean, well, me, having an African-American as a boss. Well, not that it’s like I’m really your boss or anything. Us being good friends and all.”
“I guess not, sir.”
“But there’s this craziest thing, though.”
“What’s that?”
“Some stupid little tax complication.”
“It’s always something, I guess.”
“You said it, Ernest. Seems that there’s this rule that says that I have to claim these fun little drives of ours as income. Isn’t that crazy?”
“Yes sir, I guess so. That’s why I let H&R Block do mine.”
“I mean, we’re just out here havin’ a good time, Edward and Tom, two buddies out seeing the sights of Washington. So I asked my accountant, how in the world can that be taxable income?”
“No idea, Mr. Daschle.”
“Exactly. Now the accountant says I might be stuck with a $100,000 bill for it.”
“whewww! That’s a lot of money, sir.”
“So, I told that accountant that Ernest can’t help it if Mr. Hindery gives him a lot of free time to goof around with his old friend Tom.”
“If you say so, sir.”
“So, Ernest, I don’t want you to worry about getting into trouble. If you get called by the IRS men to testify, just tell them the truth. About how you really work for Mr. Hindrey, and how these all little joy rides of ours are just us playing hookey.”
“Hookey, sir?”
“Exactly! I’ve already talked to Mr. Hindery about it, and he is ready to forgive you. One other thing, Edward…”
“Ernest.”
“Damn! Sorry again. Out of curiosity, does A-1 Limousine keep records? About mileage and all that?”
“Yes sir. Very complete.”
“Passengers, and time and such?”
“Yes sir, it’s all in the computer. It’s how we get paid.”
“Shit.”
I’m sure it was all perfectly innocent. A mistake any tax/big-government hypocrite lobbyist could make.
[One more update]
It’s hard to see these numbers holding up if this continues. Frankly, I’d rather the sheep were less compliant with this extortion plan, so I actually hope to see the hypocrisy continue. I think that we need a little, or a big, tax revolt, and the behavior of the grandees of the Beltway seems almost calculated to bring one on.
Stimulus Watch
One of the great things about the web is that it allows sites like this. We can at least keep a closer eye on the scoundrels than we used to be able to.
Obama Dozed…
…people froze. Someone should ask the president why he hates white people.
Note that I don’t actually think that it’s the president’s responsibility to go and give hugs to people in a natural disaster. I’m just (continually) sickened by the media double standard.