Do you know why there will never be Republican Jeopardy? It isn’t because the may not have the IQ to provide questions to the answers. The problem is every answer is “tax cut” and they never know which question that answer applies to.
Moderator: the answer is tax cuts. Moderator: Yes, Grover Norquist. GroverNorquist: what to do when the economy has slow growth? Moderator: that is not the answer we are looking for this time. Moderator: Yes, Newt Gingrich. NewtGingrich: what is the best way to share sacrifice during a war? Moderator: also not the answer we were looking for. Moderator: Yes, Samuel…I mean Joe the Plumber JoethePlubmer: what I need to have the tax lien removed from my house? Moderator: No, that is not the answer we are looking for, but if you
happen to win you might be able to pay off that lien. Moderator: Yes, Sarah Palin. SarahPalin: what will make me able to see Russia from my house? Moderator: not the answer. How the heck would you be able to see Russia from your house because of a tax cut?
What does Sarah Palin consider the $1305 check she will receive from the Alaska Permanent Fund for just living in the state? Welfare? Socialism? Or her right as a resident of Alaska?
Journalism, in the form of newspapers are in state of crisis in the US. Part of the problem with journalism in general, including at the supposedly liberal hour long Newshour on PBS, is that they aren’t calling people on their lies.
As I pointed out on this post, the Republicans are lying about the increase in the national debt. Well tonight, I heard the same lies repeated by Rep. John Boehner of Ohio who said this,
And so you’ve got higher spending. You’ve got higher taxes. And then you get to the real whammy, and that’s the national debt.
President Obama’s budget will double the national debt in the next five years. It will triple the national debt in the next 10 years, given their projections.
This is unacceptable. I think it will imprison our kids and grandkids. It will slow our economy. It will slow job growth in America. It’s just not, in my opinion, not the way to proceed.
Remember that the debt is about $11.1 trillion, and if by “their projections” he means the updated CBO projections (pdf) which is $9.3 trillion.
The cumulative deficit from 2010 to 2019 under the President’s proposals would total $9.3 trillion, compared with a cumulative deficit of $4.4 trillion projected under the current-law assumptions embodied in CBO’s baseline.
Well the math again shows, that $11.1 trillion plus $9.3 trillion equals $20.4 trillion. Dividing $20.4 trillion by $11.1 trillion is 184.5% or an increase of 84.5% not exactly doubling, in fact short of doubling.
So I showed I could do math, it would be nice if these journalist had prepped themselves with the likely talking points, after all Senator Judd Gregg’s radio address was 6 days ago using the same lies. He should have expected it coming, and he should have called him on it. But it instead we got this question next,
KWAME HOLMAN: The speaker, Speaker Pelosi, says your budget being offered by the Republicans in the House gives too many tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and does not do those kinds of investments in renewable energy, in education, in health care.
REP. JOHN BOEHNER: I think we have a responsible budget. It does curb spending. It does curb taxes to allow more investment in our economy.
We’re in the middle of a serious recession. The best way to help solve that recession is to allow American families and small businesses to keep more of what they earn. And, most importantly, we have much smaller deficits as we go forward.
And so I believe that we have a responsible approach to our budget, far more responsible than the budget plan that they’re bringing up.
The point is, we usually know what these members of Congress are going to say, and often it just isn’t true. So research what you might hear them say in the interview, you know anticipate because it isn’t hard, and then fact check that, and call them on lies when they lie.
On March 27, 2009, Senator Gregg (R-NH) gave the Republican weekly radio address.
This very serious man (fiscal conservative as equal serious), this US Senator, this former nominee for US Secretary of Commerce in the Obama administraion, well he just doesn’t get numbers very well. This stuff isn’t too hard, we aren’t talking about calculus or multi-variable algebra, this is basic arthimetic.
Taking a couple of snippets out of his radio address, transcript via Christian Science Montior.
Lets start with this scariness from Gregg:
“In the next five years, President Obama’s budget will double the national debt; in the next ten years it will triple the national debt.
That is like saying if you have a $10,000 balance on your credit card, it will be $20,000 in 2014 and $30,000 in 2019.
To demonstrate in real numbers, after all we may not know what the current national debt is, we get this information from Gregg about the run up of the debt in the next 10 years.
“His budget assumes the deficit will average $1 trillion dollars every year for the next 10 years and will add well over $9 trillion dollars in new debts to our children’s backs.
Well, we know $9 trillion is a lot of money. Heck it is more than the amount that increased during the Bush years ~ $5 trillion. But to put in proper context, we need to know what the current debt is. After all, if Obama’s budget triples the amount in 10 years and costs $9 trillion over 10 years, then clearly our national debt is $4.5 trillion, right, that is how the math works out. $4.5 trillion times 3 = $4.5 trillion plus $9 trillion. I skipped the algebra part and just gave you the answer, but it looks like this:
3x=x+$9 trillion (subtract x from each side)
2x=$9 trillion (divide both sides by two)
x=$4.5 trillion
But, when I go to the US Treasury Department’s to the penny debt clock, it shows $11,043,588,980,678.90 or a tad more than $11 trillion. Now clearly, you can see where I am going, Senator Judd “can’t do simple math” Gregg is saying that $9 trillion over the next 10 years will triple the debt, when clearly it won’t even double the debt.
I would have to say, that Senator Judd would do well to skip the math portion of “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader” because I can’t see him doing well.
This weekend on the McLaughlin Group, Mort Zuckerman who is a billionaire, advocated extending unemployment insurance, food stamps, federal aid to states, and infrastructure spending.
These are all things I highlighted 10 months in post about Moody’s analysis, check out the graphic at the bottom of this post.
Remember he is a billionaire, he is a publisher, he wants Americans to be able to buy his products, and I interpret his comments to mean that he wants to focus on supporting American workers more than Wall Street and executives.
He also talked about the risk is not too much stimulus, but not enough, which echoes what Paul Krugman and others have said on this subject.
This morning Chris Wallace in the talking table round of Fox News Sunday compared the airline industry and the auto industry and the extent of the relationship between the customer and the corporation.
In talking about the ariline industry, he talked about how you buy a ticket and they get you there and you are relationship is done (well unless it goes under in the middle of roundtrip).
In talking about the auto industry, he says you buy a GM vehicle and 6 months from now you wonder if a you can get your car serviced at a dealer.
I want to share a little secret with Chris Wallace, you can get your vehicle serviced at some place other than the dealer. So that concern about the longer relationship with the automaker, well think outside the dealership!
This cartoon dovetails very nicely, and timely (same day), with the point of this blog. I don’t make any money doing this, and I don’t plan on it. Granted if someone wanted to pay me, I would take it more seriously and blog more frequently. I just appreciate that you are reading my thoughts.
While, I don’t get paid, David Brooks, columnist at the NY Times and weekly contributor on PBS’s Newshour does get paid. Sometimes for saying the exact same thing, which must be sweet!
Here Brooks is talking in his Friday night “deabte” with Mark Shields.
DAVID BROOKS: And they’re free from the corporate cultures, and they’re doing OK, which is not to say that losing Detroit as it exists will not be a cataclysm.
But my basic philosophy — and I think it’s the philosophy that’s been the tradition of American politics of both left and right — is that we have this creative destructive system. Companies rise, companies fall.
We protect workers. We give them a safety net. We give them unemployment insurance, in theory, and I hope we give them health care security in the near future. But we don’t mess up with that creative destructive process.
We don’t get the government in the way of that process, preserving failing companies, because if you do that, you will get — every CEO in America will be saying, “Hey, you helped out those guys. Circuit City, I matter. I’m a newspaper. I matter. Help me out, too.”
And we’ve already got — this has been a boom time for lobbyists already in Washington now, and they’re all lining up to get all this money.
Over time, American government built a bigger safety net so workers could survive the vicissitudes of this creative destruction — with unemployment insurance and soon, one hopes, health care security. But the government has generally not interfered in the dynamic process itself, which is the source of the country’s prosperity.
But this, apparently, is about to change. Democrats from Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi want to grant immortality to General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. They have decided to follow an earlier $25 billion loan with a $50 billion bailout, which would inevitably be followed by more billions later, because if these companies are not permitted to go bankrupt now, they never will be.
This is a different sort of endeavor than the $750 billion bailout of Wall Street. That money was used to save the financial system itself. It was used to save the capital markets on which the process of creative destruction depends.
Granting immortality to Detroit’s Big Three does not enhance creative destruction. It retards it. It crosses a line, a bright line. It is not about saving a system; there will still be cars made and sold in America. It is about saving politically powerful corporations. A Detroit bailout would set a precedent for every single politically connected corporation in America. There already is a long line of lobbyists bidding for federal money. If Detroit gets money, then everyone would have a case. After all, are the employees of Circuit City or the newspaper industry inferior to the employees of Chrysler?
I acknowledge that it is pressing issue inside the Beltway and as such he felt the need to write about it, and that Jim Lehrer asked about it. And heck, if I think I come up with a clever frame, I will beat it like a dead horse. But he is getting paid to say the same thing that he wrote, I for one would ask for a discount when he is double dipping.
I really think we are going to hold Brooks to his enthusiasm for health security for workers. I am sure he might wiggle out based on ideological differences over how it is structured. Don’t worry, I am sure his column on the topic will be repeated on the Newshour.
He is talking about CEO of various corporations who could go to Ireland which has a lower tax rate, and why don’t they go there. That is a fair question, why don’t they if it would lower their taxes? Everyone he listed is still in the US with its supposedly too high corporate tax rate.
This past week, all he can talk about is “spreading the wealth” and labeling Obama with socialism like it is something horribly wrong.
Well, ironically in 2000 John McCain gave a pretty give response to a young woman who asked him a question in Hardball townhall Q & A about a progressive tax system, including the other taxes – payroll and sales – not just income tax.
Personally, I think her follow up question equating it to slavery then backtracking to socialism due to the boos was way off target and glad they booed her!
Both candidates need to keep their eyes on the prize, Medicare and Medicaid, because Social Security has a lot of time. CBO pushed the date it the Trust Fund will be empty from 2046 to 2049.
