Consequence-Free Tax Hikes

David Brooks and Jackie Calmes of the Times offer exampes of the unspoken pundit assumption thattax hikes do not have consequences. as they describe the fiscal cliff negotiations. David Brooks spiked my blood pressure first:

The Truly Grand Bargain

...

So Republicans have to realize that they are going to cave on tax rates. The only question is what they get in return. What they should demand is this: That the year 2013 will be spent putting together a pro-growth tax and entitlement reform package that will put this country on a sound financial footing through 2040.

Republicans should go to the White House and say they are willing to see top tax rates go up to 36 percent or 37 percent and they are willing to forgo a debt-ceiling fight for this year.

This is a big political concession, but it’s not much of an economic one. President Obama needs rate increases to show the liberals he has won a “victory,” but the fact is that raising revenue by raising rates is not that much worse for the economy than raising revenue by closing loopholes, which Republicans have already conceded.

Caving on rates is a matter of opinion (and I think he is right) but he does include the message that tax hikes, especially poorly designed ones, can harm the economy.

However, he ends up in conventional liberal la-lal-land when he talks about a Grand Bargain compromise with this message:

Republicans could say to the country: Hey, we don’t like raising tax rates. But we understand that when a nation is running a $16 trillion debt that is exploding year by year, everybody has to be willing to make compromises and sacrifices. We understand that the big thing holding the country back is that the political system doesn’t function. We want to tackle big things right now.

Raising taxes on "the rich" is not a mater of forcing them to sacrifice. A doctor nearing retirement may decide to "sacrifice" by seeing fewer patients and sparing himself the aggravation of ObamaCare; an entrepeneur may decide to "sacrifice" by relocating in some other country. If the net impact of raising taxes on "the rich" is to harm the growth of the economy then this is a cutting one's nose to spite one's face type of scarifice.

Well. At least Mr. Brooks displayed some familiarity with the issue. Jackie Calmes has a piece cheerleading for even higher taxes with this galling headline:

Democratic Group to Offer Tax Plan With Huge Payoff

Democratic luminaries with ties to the Obama and Clinton administrations, including two former Treasury secretaries and two former White House chiefs of staff, on Tuesday will enter the tax debate with an overhaul plan that would raise an additional $1.8 trillion in the first decade.

That is $200 billion more than President Obama has proposed and $1 trillion more than Republicans in Congress support....

Geez, and if they tried for $3 trillion in new revenue the payoff would be even huger, since raising taxes has no downside in CalmesWorld.

One more challenge to the old BP:

“This is from the team that brought you the last good economy,” said John D. Podesta, a former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton, in reference to the Clinton-era pedigrees of many of the plan’s sponsors. 

Wait, Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole are involved with this proposal too? I don't think so, yet their insistence on balanced budgets and tax cuts was surely part of the reason Clinton hid behind saving Social Security first rather than fulfilling liberal fantasies with new spending.

Comments

[centralcal]

Democratic luminaries...

Would that qualify as an oxymoron, or not?

[Buford Gooch]

It's always "Tax increases now, and we will begin serious attempts to control spending later."

[fdcol63]

Sure ... let's give the addict some more meth today.

Rehab can start tomorrow .... or whenever.

[Thomas Collins]

Deranged is the kindest word I can call anyone who thinks Dems would seriously take up entitlement reform in 2013 for a 2012 tax bill that increases taxes. If entitlement reform doesn't happen now, it won't happen until the earlier of (i) the inauguration of a GOP POTUS in 2017, with a GOP House and GOP Senate, or (ii) a sobering event such as loss of reserve currency status or inability to sell Treasuries to anyone but Sugar Daddy Ben.

[NK]

I'll start losing weight tomorrow....

As a recovering fat guy I can say with certainty, that the only way to lose weight is to stop eating the sheet cake NOW. Not next year, Not tomorrow-- NOW. The calorie count must drop and the Carb calories have to go close to zero. That's it.. no way around it. To stop the Fed Gov't addiction to debt... stop the new debt. NO NEW DEBT, period. Go Cold Turkey -- $16T is enough debt to rollover.. forever.

PS: Military Blackhawk flyover the East River by UN just now.

[Enlightened]

Their math doesn't matter. In fact, math isn't even part of the plan. The new, entitled middle class voted in the Lord and Saviour. Whatever he says will be done, with an assist from Judas Boehner.

I can't even believe they have spent this much time grandstanding - why don't they just kiss for the cameras and be done with it. There's more important things to do than this fiscal cliff nonsense.

I wonder how many welfare and disability recipients are sweatin' about the "fiscal cliff". Just the way Bambi wants it - stupid is as stupid does.

[Rob Crawford]

There's more important things to do than this fiscal cliff nonsense.

Really?

So let's just give the JEF what he wants -- dictatorial power to spend as much as he wants, screw the value of the dollar, screw the future.

[Spending cuts first!--jimmyk]

What's the rush on tax increases? Entitlement reform first, then we "promise" to take up tax increases. Otherwise we'll never get serious entitlement reform. Make tax increases the hostage.

[NK]

TC@1212: you are correct sir. The only things that should be done right now (Bam said Nooooooo to a good faith offer)are: 1. House passes an extension of current income tax rates for all, and 2. Debt Ceiling-- NO INCREASE, unless Obamaniacs make it worth our while before March. If BarryI says NON, fine let everyone's payroll deductions start again and let everyone's tax rates go up 1/1/13. Then tell the public taxes have gone up more than BarryI said he wanted, so problem fixed, NO NEED for new debt!! Then BarryI demands unlimited new debt in January --ABOLISH the debt ceiling-- he'll say. despite all of the tax increases, he still wants to add $1T/YEAR in debt. Everyone... including the muddle-- will understand the game at that point.

[Enlightened]

Really?

So let's just give the JEF what he wants -- dictatorial power to spend as much as he wants, screw the value of the dollar, screw the future

RC- I was being sarcastic....however I am serious about Boehner being a Judas...

[Melinda Romanoff]

In lighter news, Mursi forced to flee Presidential Palace due to closeness of rioters.

I guess the power grab is not being well received. Interesting.

[Janet]

All part of the Arab Spring...Arabs spring out & try to kill you.

[Captain Hate]

What's the rush on tax increases? Entitlement reform first, then we "promise" to take up tax increases. Otherwise we'll never get serious entitlement reform. Make tax increases the hostage.

Exactly; we're still waiting for those promised spending cuts when Poppy Bush reneged on his "read my lips" pledge. The donks are still howling with laughter over that one.

[Melinda Romanoff]

CH-

Actually, Tip O'Neill played Lucy to Reagan's Charlie Brown in the original showing of that play.

[rse]

My goodness this has been a morning of widely variant comments. I had to quit sneezing long enough to write.

http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/changing-the-filtering-perception-the-way-we-see-the-world-is-key/ is about going after the prevailing socio-technical worldview that came out of the Enlightenment by changing values and beliefs. I think we have seen in the last several elections that when perceptions are contrary to reality it is still the false perception that filters reality and governs behavior, especially voting and economic behavior.

I used Facing History as the example of how because it turned out to be an example of the how to change values and beliefs. I guess that is why the WH occupants are so enamored of it. I have ordered the textbooks used but it appears FH takes horrific events like the Holocaust and Eugenics to build false beliefs to change future behavior.

But once again we are prescribing a solution that was part of the problem.

And it hurts to read someone proudly proclaim "they taught me how to use my mind" when what she goes on to describe shows they did not such thing.

Ah, Kate Middleton. Don't you know the China manufacturers are pleased at any excuse for a Limited Edition mug?

[Jim Ryan]

We're doing 85mph and heading towards a re-enforced concrete wall. The fiscal cliff is a jersey barrier which we might sideswipe, causing injury to ourselves, before we proceed on toward the final catastrophe. Mo and Larry are at the wheel.

[NK]

Tip O'Neill-- yes those were the days -- flip side of today. In those days, Tip O'Neill used his monopoly of power in the House to conspire against Reagan and the Dem Senate 'moderates' who wanted to make a deal with Reagan. yes in those days there were actually Dems in the senate who believed in solvency and avoiding national bankruptcy (Like Bill Bradley)--- that was a problem for ole Tip. I remember once Tip was holding forth on his bar stool at the Dubliner pub across the street from Union Station. Some Dem staffer synchophant referred to the House Repubs as 'the enemy' Tip admonished him saying 'our Repub colleagues in the House are the opposition.. the Senate Dems are the enemy." People laughed, because really Tip was commenting on the futility of the permanent House Repub minority, but like anything else there was a lot of truth in the joke. The sellout 'moderates' in the Senate are the enemy of the ideological House majority-- both ways. The Repub senators will sellout the House-- again.

[Rufus T, Firefly]

No tax hikes without spending reductions--and real reductions; not merely baseline reductions in the rate of spending increase.

No amnesty/comprehensive immigration reform without immediate and real improvement in border security. Shut that biotch tighter than a gnat's sphincter.

Let it burn!

[Peter]

OT, sort of, but at the LUN is an article from four years ago written by a very bright teenager. I had the privilege of observing this very same person compete in a mock trial competition this past weekend. I look at these as very small glimmers of hope for the future of this country.

[Danube of Thought]

everybody has to be willing to make compromises and sacrifices

OK, so tell me what sacrifices the 47% who pay no federal income taxes are willing to make.

[Jim Ryan]

MO: Lookout you numbskull! We're going to sideswipe that jersey barrier!

LARRY: But Mo, what about the re-enforced concrete we're headin' for at 85 mph?!

MO: What about it?

LARRY: We're gonna hit it, Mo! We're gonna hit it!

MO: Sez you. What are you sayin' we should do about it?

LARRY: Well, I could crawl out onto the hood and stick some playing cards into the front wheels. That might slow us down a little.

MO: Oh, yeah?

LARRY: Yeah. My calculations sez it'll slow us down from 85 mph to 83.

MO: Yeah?

LARRY: Yeah.

MO: Here's your 83 [POKES LARRY IN EYES]

LARRY: OW!! I'M SORRY, MO!

MO: Now shaddup and gimme that wheel!

LARRY: No!

MO: Why, you...[PULLS LARRY'S HAIR]

LARRY: OW!

[Danube of Thought]

OT but too good to pass up:

The auction for a private one-hour online “strategy session” with women’s rights activist Sandra Fluke ended two days early because the auctioneer, a charitable website BiddingForGood, deemed some responses to the auction as unacceptably “harassing.” “We had a wonderful opportunity to make Sandra Fluke available for a consulting session with the highest bidder in this auction, but unfortunately, due to a disturbingly high number of harassing responses to this item, we have decided to close the auction two days early,” BiddingForGood said in a special note on the webpage for the auction.

Let your imagination run wild.

[NK]

DoT@1:10-- fair point. They'll start paying payroll taxes again and lose EITC $$ and 'Disability' welfare payments. Crack down on Food Stamp abuse -- No more CigButts or Beer. Real sacrifices on their part and necessary.

[James D.]

I guess I'm not a sophisticated thinker, because my opinion is that David Brooks can shove his "grand bargain" (and anything else he likes) right up his worthless ass.

Does he not understand that "checks and balances" - in other words, the inability of the government to move swiftly and "get things done" was deliberately built into our system by the Foudners? And with good reason?

Silly me, I answered my own question, didn't I?

But Brooks will get patted on the head and stroked under the chin for being a "good" conservative who can safetly be admitted to Sally Quinn's house occasionally, so I guess the column serves its purpose.

The rest of us may go broke while we watch our freedoms and the very vasis of our society chipped away a little more every day, but Brooks will still be able to drive his Lexus over to the Whole Foods to buy some organic fair-trade bakery treats to bring to Sally's house, so I guess it's all OK.

[NK]

Morsillini forced to leave Presidential Palace? Is there a chance that Egypt doesn't become Iran2?

[Melinda Romanoff]

NK-

Slim.

[hit and run]

DoT:
OK, so tell me what sacrifices the 47% who pay no federal income taxes are willing to make.

Their freedom.

[pagar]

"“This is from the team that brought you the last good economy,” "

I could be wrong but I believe this is the team that took the Social Security money out of the lock box and wasted it while conning people in to believing that IOU's were just like money.

What is the difference in what Madoff was doing and what the Democrats are doing?

[Janet]

Very, very good, Peter.
I feel better when I go to church...my church is really growing. Thousands of young people. Babies & kids everywhere. Parking is a problem at my church. What a great problem for a church!

Lots of immigrants too. If some of the MFMers came & even just looked at the congregation, they would see their stereotype of racist, evil, hating Bible believers was a lie.
Reliance on God instead of govt..
Saving families.
Breaking addictions.
Learning healthy life skills.
Coming alongside families to raise moral kids.
Loving special needs kids & providing services to help those families.

People are starved for the truth ...err...Truth. Who would want to live in liberal Godless ruin, squalor, & crime if they knew they had a choice?

[NJ Jan]

This is also OT, but I find Claudia Rossett's writing knowledgeable and entertaining. She has written a piece on why this year's Duranty Award goes to Anna Wintour & Co for their "Rose" article on Mrs Assad. It is good reading. She really really able to capture the media/fashion/celebrity mendacity.

http://pjmedia.com/blog/walter-duranty-prize/4/

[henry]

Their freedom.

Hit, I think you mean your and my freedom. "They" are happy as serfs already.

[Enlightened]

Well, alot of the 47% can keep having free sex since The Vagina Vote guaranteed their free birth control and abortions. No scarifice there.

Most will be getting free Bambicare for the numerous tots that keep cropping up even though they get free contraceptives/ abortions. They have their Bambi phones, they will be driving the Government Motor cars, they walked away scott free from their bogus home loans. Pretty soon their medical weed is gonna be free too.

There seems to be no reason for them to "sacrifice" all that "free"dom. All's well in EntitlementLand.

[Janet]

I remember some of the stories after Katrina of families that had moved to other parts of the country. It was like they never knew good schools existed, or that there were clean, lovely, affordable places to live outside of NO with jobs. Katrina was a blessing for some families....forcing them out of their welfare mentality generation after generation.

[Porchlight]

I remember those stories, too, Janet.

[pagar]

For those who don't believe Social Security fund is a problem that affects the financial part of our government.

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-12-03/social-security-2012-results

[Captain Hate]

What is Sandra Fluke purportedly consulting on? How to be a useless pest?

[pagar]

Sen DeMint is right on this,IMO

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/gop-sen-jim-demint-boehner-fiscal-cliff-proposal-144436727--election.html

[Sue]

I just saw a comment at one of the sites talking about Jovan Belcher that said "if only we would have banned guns Nicole Simpson would still be alive".

[Try hang gliding]

I want to double how much I make year. Instead of working with a 2% profit margin, I'm going to raise my prices so that I'll make 4%. That should work, right?

[Gus]

I'd gladly pay you TUESDAY for a HAMBURGER today.

Fuck Obama and the ugly wife he rode in on.

[Jim Ryan]

The CBO will score that as correct, Try Hang Gliding, as long as you tell them to hold human behavior constant over changes in cost. So, yes, you are correct!

[NJ Jan]

Public Sector employees (teachers, state workers) are taxpayers on substantial incomes, usually upper middle class but do not see raised taxes as a problem because it benefits them in raised salaries, continued pension benefits, etc. Also, Obamacare doesn't affect them because they are exempted. In many cases, Social Security is a nonissue because of healthy pensions that make SS a nice extra bit of change. Medicare fees are paid for them as is the supplement so that is also a nonissue. This is the new "middle class" and it's interests are best protected by voting democrat. It is not just the stereotypical welfare voter who has been bought and paid for. It exists on the federal, state and local level and until it broken a la Scott Walker, elections and, hence, policies such as budgets and spending will be influenced accordingly.

[Jane: Mock the Media]

Peter,

That 4 year old article is as inspiring as it gets. What a great kid!

[henry]

Obama met with some governors today. From the picture, it doesn't look like he is listening to Walker. /shock

[narciso]

I was hearing Rush play an CNBC 'audience' by
Juliana Goldman, the former Mrs. David Schuster, of Obama, saying as to 'they all get along gambit' it's not personal, it's just math, of course Duke and Duke, had her moderating one of the primary debates, on that channel 'where the buses don't run,' of course she didn't challenge him.

[narciso]

If I were him, I wouldn't advertise I wrote a script for a sequel, to a film, no one saw in the first place;

http://thebitterscriptreader.blogspot.com/2012/12/eric-heisserer-lifts-curtain-on-studio.html?spref=tw

[narciso]

I remember these folks, the CSF, from my reading of Al Aswani, the Egyptian dentist who wrote that very timely novel although it was set in the early 90s

http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/update-morsy-leaves-presidential-palace-amid-clashes

[Jane: Mock the Media]

I love Professor Jacobson's post calling for all the whining Obamaphiles to STFU. Frankly I'd be inclined to punch them out.

[narciso]

You how you find with some actors, they were'n
really acting, this was their true nature;

http://dougpowers.com/2012/12/04/ashley-judd/

[narciso]

Do they really think, that happens that way, without white house imput;

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/12/04/report-cia-edited-libya-talking-points.html

[Jane: Mock the Media]

So why didn't the WH correct the record Narc?

[BB Key]

Low information voters elect Obama .LUN

[narciso]

because they were the ones, who made the suggestions, it's like photoshopping intelligence, so we have a document that is utterly useless, and by it's very existence confirms the terrorist's victory, in retrospect, this a little like AQ's first attack against the national guard post in Riyadh, not Khobar towers,
it was their first real marker,

[narciso]

I'm referring to Ashley Judd's string of paranoid, neurotic, sometimes serial killers,
like that film with Ewan McGregor, she wasn't
just being herself.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

NJ Jan's analysis is one to clearly bear in mind. The current system is designed to encourage ever more bloated public service (government) bureaucracies at the expense of free enterprise and entrepreneurship. RSE's perceptive writings explain one major way that system is being made permanent. The age of the permanent nomenklatura in the US is upon us, and, as in the Soviet Union, will remain until the money runs out. Therefore AFAIC, everything should be geared to make the money run out ASAP.

Scott Walker and his Wisconsin colleagues have shown the way to begin the process.

[Melinda Romanoff]

narciso-

I think the ink's still wet on that last one.

[Enlightened]

Seriously - Ashley Judd? She is borderline schizo. I guess that fits the bill in LiberalLaLaLand. She should do it. How amusing. She is one person who should just sit and look pretty. (Well she is starting to look Hollyweirdish so the prettiness is about to go ala The Pelosi Blink)

[NJ Jan]

Jim Rhoads@2:54pm
You have stated what I was trying to say in a clearer, more succinct manner. It is exactly a soviet style nomenklatura that has been created and depends upon an ever larger, controlled government for its well being.

[narciso]

I think you're being too charitable, with the borderline description, I thought she was perfect for the Broadwell role,

Of course, Eli Lake, had the 'talking points' story, two months ago, and why it made no sense.

[narciso]

If you thought 'Back to Blood' was too strange, this story involving one of Janet Reno's former
top aides, a future Cynthia McKinney type in Congress, and two other figures who should have known better;

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/03/3124701/miami-commissioner-spence-jones.html

[derwill]

The irony is that there was no welfare, no EBT cards, no free phones in the Soviet Union or Red China. You worked where the government told you to work, for the pittance the government deigned to give you. Then you stood in line for four hours and spent that pittance on a loaf of bread. And if you complained you got sent to the Gulag or the re-education camp, where you worked for nothing. They did have free "health" care, though.

That is the government you get after you've surrender all your liberty to their will, and they no longer need to buy your vote.

[narciso]

True, Derwill, but before 'la libreta' the ration book, and portions of victory gin, and
increased chocolate rations, they offer, 'bread and liberty' in Russia, China, Cuba, et al,

[NK]

Derwil@321: that sounds like ChiTown!

[Rob Crawford]

That is the government you get after you've surrender all your liberty to their will, and they no longer need to buy your vote.

Ah, but the peasants will have what they are convinced is truly justice -- those nasty "rich" people will have been brought low!

Anyone remember when the goal was "keeping up with the Joneses"? Seems today the goal is "keeping the Joneses down/in their place".

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Don't blame me; I voted for:

[NK]

.. nice mountain bike.

[narciso]

The problem is, it's always what their far left wing is doing, and like viruses or logic bombs,
they don't take effect immediately, with Clinton
he introduced the CRA revisions, Reno's 'nudge'
of unwilling institutions, Cisneros and Cuomo's
further efforst at HUD, on the fiscal front, the
retroactive tax increases were countered by capital gains taxes, but that didn't hold for ever,

[NJ Jan]

Derwill and Narciso,

We are also talking about 2 different classes -- one (the "don't haves") being bought by ebt cards, phones, etc and the second (public sector) who have been bought by an elevated lifestyle that is protected and guaranteed by government which they are a part of.

I think both would be in for a rude awakening if liberty is removed but for different reasons. Meanwhile, these are voters who election after election vote "progressively" and take the country down the path it is going.

[narciso]

How many write in vote, Ignatz,?

[matt]

I have that Queen song stuck in my head now....

[Enlightened]

Ig - Isn't that the guy that sued to get his sex change operation in jail in San Fran?

;O|

[narciso]

Which one, Matt, even the agonizing bad, Flash Gordon, had the catchy soundtrack,

[narciso]

Well, there was one other detail, that commended it, in the LUN

[James D.]

NJ Jan,

The people being bought with EBT, etc. already don't really have liberty. They're trapped into crappy communities ahd shitty schools and broken families, led by the nose by corrupt leaders, and they for the most part have no hope of changing their circumstances, or even any interest in doing so.

What they do have is the freedom to fuck without consequences, and to pass their days with the narcotic of their choice, be it booze, pot, harder drugs or reality-TV. And they've been conditoned to think that those are the only liberties worth having.

And the government employees have the only real liberty they want, which is job security, and a modicum of power over their fellow citizens, and they'll likely have those (especially the second) right to the bitter end.

[derwill]

I realized that, NJ Jan, and yes, you're right, the public sector class--those that survived the purges--belonged to the Party and so were paid slightly higher wages and got to shop in "special" stores. Their lives still sucked, though--they just sucked a little less than the "don't haves."

Of course, the Party elites did just fine, with their dachas and their Levi jeans imported from the USA.

[Dave (in MA)]

Seriously - Ashley Judd? She is borderline schizo. I guess that fits the bill in LiberalLaLaLand. She should do it. How amusing. She is one person who should just sit and look pretty.

Back when she still had a TV show there was some gossip-mag brouhaha about whether she did or did not have a "puffy face", but I never heard what came of it. At least she's running for KY's puffy faced seat.

[Dave (in MA)]

NK, what bike?

[Frau Fies-vor]

Gack! Warning: The praise for Susan Rice at the Daily Beast was nauseating. If John Bolton got the axe for his direct approach--"creating a hostile work environment"-- Rice should get even more. In addition, her carpy history starting with Clinton is well-documented. Smart, strong female? Pfui!

[NJ Jan]

On a happier note, for me anyway. Coffe drinkers rejoice. Apparently, there is nothing coffee can't cure. Drink and be healthy!

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/11/the-case-for-drinking-as-much-coffee-as-you-like/265693/#.UL5LZnaR7kI.mailto

[NK]

Dave(inMa)-- Heh...

[Frau Fies-vor]

The events in Cairo cheer me. I hope Clarice's 'Pikes 'R Us' has a monopoly in Egypt.

How many do we need around the WH to make Pres. Candyman flee the grounds?

[narciso]

the bike girl, reminds me a little of Mrs. BHL, Arielle Dombasle, back in the 80s,

[Clarice]

I was just about to post about that very thing, frau. What a surprise!

[NK]

Even when narciso talks babes I only get every third word....

[narciso]

Sometimes, I have to spell out everything, she was big in the 80s, on most B movies, and a half dozen tv shows

[matt]

the bicycle song...

[maryrose]

Too bad Obama can't go the way of Morsi{fleeing the castle} and Bammy fleeing the WH.
we are stuck with this loser for the next 4 years.
We must continue to protect our individual states or move to more friendly ones. Adjust your family income situation and protect your assets.
I had lunch with my 2 sisters today and at the end discussed the political situation.One says become more dem-like with a popular candidate and no longer have gay marriage as an issue. With young people it is no longer an issue. The other says retain our conservative values and get better candidates.I find myself somewhere in the middle.
TC: I believe your response to TK and your summation of JOM posters was excellent and kind.

[Clarice]

Taranto on why the Origination Clause challenge will not likely succeed in overturning Obamacare.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323901604578159431428593260.html?mod=djemBestOfTheWeb_h

[NJ Jan]

Yet another stellar JEF appointment.

http://dyn.realclearpolitics.com/twitter/archive/message.php?message=276036887678947329&date=1354647297&t=RT+%40FreeBeacon%3A+Obama+appointee+gave+tens+of+thousands+of+%24+to+a+group+run+by+a+convicted+terrorist.++%3Ca+href%3D%26apos%3Bhttp%3A%2F%2Ffreebeacon.com%2Fthe-ties-that-bind%2F%26apos%3B+class%3D%26apos%3Btlink%26apos%3B%3Ehttp%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FkpAMVTgA%3C%2Fa%3E

[Janet]

The UN Treaty for Disabled Rights got defeated in the Senate.
I didn't know much about it, but just by Googling & seeing the post list at Kos, Huffington,.... & seeing the Republicans that voted FOR it -

Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), John Barrasso (Wyo.), Scott Brown (Mass.), Susan Collins (Maine), Dick Lugar (Ind.), John McCain (Ariz.), Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) voted with Democrats in favor of the treaty.

I can know it is lousy.

“I do not support the cumbersome regulations and potentially overzealous international organizations with anti-American biases that infringe upon American society,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla. Amen, Jim. Amen.

[Clarice]

The Hill------

"Entitlement cuts should remain on the table as party leaders seek to hash out an end-of-the-year budget deal, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday.

A number of Democratic leaders — including Reps. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), John Larson (Conn.) and Xavier Becerra (Calif.) — have said they would support some spending reductions in Medicare, but that cuts to direct benefits should not be a part of the negotiations. Along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), they also maintain that Social Security reform has no place at all in the "fiscal cliff" talks.

But Hoyer, the Democratic whip, warned that taking entitlement benefits off the table is a bad place to start the negotiations. Such entrenched positions are little different, he said, than the Republicans' refusal to consider hikes in tax rates — a central element of President Obama's deficit-reduction proposal."

[NJ Jan]

I am looking forward to visiting Drumthwacket in Princeton tomorrow. It is the governors mansion and is an interesting piece of history beginning with William Penn.

http://www.drumthwacket.org/

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--How many write in vote, Ignatz,?

Posted by: narciso | December 04, 2012 at 03:50 PM--

Well our pre-election internal polls had us up big but right now we're still working on forcing a recount. We know of, well, um...one vote for sure...so far. However a large contingent of crack GOP election lawyers became available unexpectedly around a month ago so we're hopeful we can at least double her total.
I tried to strong-arm centralcal away from her pitiful garden gnome but am doubtful she pulled the trigger.
It's unclear to me why we couldn't get the CA electorate interested, especially since we embraced that scurrilous sex change rumor Enlightened repeated above. Figured we'd get the Folsom Street vote at least.
Guess it was not too plausible, given her "assets", for want of a better word.
2016 for sure!

[bunkerbuster]

Tell me what sacrifices the 47% who pay no federal income taxes are willing to make.

An increase in payroll taxes would be one example, but DoT has a point. We can safely bet their sacrifices would be much greater had a Republican been elected president.
47 percent. It's a number that haunts poor Mitt Romney but the wingnuts just don't get it. LMAO...

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Democrats can't cut SS because it goes directly to senior citizens.
They can cut Medicare because it goes indirectly to senior citizens through doctors who Dems can demonize when seniors lose their doctor or get lousy treatment.

[bunkerbuster]

off

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Smooth move bubu

[Mike Huggins]

Speaking of Ashley Judd, does anyone remember
this classic?

[NJ Jan]

Clarice@4:42pm

Why do you think Hoyer came out with this statement ? I can't help thinking that he has less than noble motives.

[Clarice]

Polls show that people still hate Obamacare and still want a cut in spending. If It's ignoble to pay attention to that then Hoyer is.