Friday News Roundup - Domestic
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-12-23/friday-news-roundup-domestic
The House of Representatives rejected the Senate's extension of the payroll tax cut on Tuesday and the stalemate continued with days to go before the end of the year; the U.S. economy grew at just 1.8% in the third quarter, down from the original 2.5% estimate; and the latest Iowa polls show Congressman Ron Paul with a slight lead over Newt Gingrich in the race for the 2012 Republican nomination. Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, Major Garrett of National Journal and Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post join Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Guests
Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Washington correspondent, The New York Times.
Major Garrett
congressional correspondent, National Journal.
Karen Tumulty
national political reporter, The Washington Post.
Comments
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Why do so few get it so wrong about money and taxes in this sovereign nation?
Because we are sovereign, we have a sovereign currency and can never go broke. Because it has this capability provided to it since going off the gold standard and fixed exchange rates, it never needs to raise revenue through taxation. Think about this for a minute. Why would a currency monopolist need to levy a tax to raise revenue? Why would it take back a portion of the money it had earlier issued? The sole reason a sovereign currency government taxes is to stabilize aggregate demand. If spending nudges prices up and there exists a threat of inflation, government should then levy a consumption tax, not an income tax.
The payroll tax debate is a fraud. The government needs to simply eliminate the entire tax code. With its authority to generate debt-free currency it needs only to transfer the equivalent amount of what would have been FICA tax collections to the SS/MM accounts.
The Government cannot go broke. President Obama doesn't get it either. I chalk that up to Geithner and Bernanke keeping him in the dark, both of whom do get it but don't work for the President or the American people. They work for the 1%. Moreover, at state and local levels a sovereign currency nation can distribute debt free currency to all political jurisdictions eliminating local debt.
Americans are just too uneducated and poorly self-informed to give a hoot about the fact that they could save 15% to 36% of their gross income. As for the deficit argument....a $15 trillion deficit in the government sector means there also exists a $15 trillion savings in the non-government sector. Just ask the CBO. They'll tell you that this is an accounting identity. The money spent by government goes into the non-government sector dollar-for-dollar.
The deficit terrorists are at work.
How do you define traitor?
Teece Bowman wrote:
"The simple reason why congress has been in a stalemate since 2010 ….it is being held hostage by an angry white minority of insensitive clods called the Tea Party. The Tea Party is Southern... blah, blah, blah"
TB, there is so much false in your post, I hardly know where to begin, but I'll just start here ... the Tea Party elected Scott Brown in MA.
Case Closed.
And end this way
"For Americans who are fed up with and tired of a congress that cannot govern, the solution should seem self-evident. Get rid of this band of primitive obstructionists."
This last sentence nicely summarizes the point of view of the liberal progressive ... "you are entitled to my opinion".
That is not freedom. That is facism.
My very best to each and every one of you ...
To my Christian friends may you have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas. To my non-Christian friends ... if you think we should all say, "Happy Holidays" and you object to the creche appearing along with the menorah or whatever on the grounds of your local City Hall, yet you're taking off work with pay for Christmas, Merry and Blessed Christmas to you too. Sorry, that's just the way it works. If you're not taking off work or you refused pay for the Christmas holiday based on priciple, then kudos to you for not being a hypocrite and a Happy New Year to you. To my Jewish friends, happy Hannukah and may Jhwh Bless you in the coming year. To my African American friends here, happy Kwanzaa if you celebrate it, even though your holiday is made up and less than 50 years old. If you are of the Islamic faith, happy Ashura to you even though it is passed. And of course, a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year to everyone.
If you don't fit into one of the above categories ... have a nice day!
ecgberht and StLouis <> Merry Christmas and happy new year.
Good way to end the year here. Why these big government authoritarians demand we pay for their desires of total government control over our lives is beyond my understanding of decency. Misery loves company, who knows why.
A weak discussion today, but strong commentary—remarkably thoughtful and tempered this holiday season, I must say. And I must weigh in with a supporting view for Teece’s initial overview of capitalism, with additional emphasis on what I have also observed as a “culture” of capitalism evolving over the last thirty years. Some aren’t old enough to remember, but the word “loser” never worked its way into mainstream lexicon, or mentality—particularly in youth culture—until after Ronald Reagan. It coincided with people losing their jobs, their political power, their social services, and, more recently, their homes. I see it as a defensive social posture in the face of diminishing opportunities and widespread socioeconomic loss, which might otherwise reflect negatively on those who dare to point to structural economic problems instead of attributing it all to matters of personal deficit and/or shortcomings. Conspicuous consumption is the social and psychological foundation of capitalism. It’s the material expression of what ostensibly defines people according to merit and social value. The problem is it doesn’t. As wealth concentrates, corporations dominate, and financiers securitize, unions disappear along with opportunities and financial security. And people get meaner. Some just want to be on the side that’s winning, whatever it takes. Every man against his brother (or sister) is a good way to describe it. I would not go so far as to say that people who don’t understand this (by now) are stupid (although I’m tempted to), nor are they innocently ignorant; I believe they are actively misinformed and kept in ignorance by like-minded ideologues, or are perhaps blinded by their own success.
Ironically, it does seem to find its roots in fundamentalist Christianity—what Paul Krugman has termed “movement conservatism.” How it all came to be is as mysterious as Jesus himself. Instead of healing the sick and urging the rich to sell all they have and give to the poor, anyone would think he had spent his ministry marching around Jerusalem with a for-profit health insurance plan in one hand and a military recruiter in the other. In response to Mr. StLouis’ rebuttal to these legitimate criticisms of capitalism: If your contributions have been as generous as you describe, you are the exception to the rule. Anyone who has been unemployed within the last twenty years knows that workers are a disposable commodity treated with indifference, and often disdain. They are not rewarded according to their skill level, education, or industriousness. If at all, they are rewarded for their loyalty, and that loyalty is a one way street. This is mafia capitalism. Companies are NOT taking the risks. People are taking the risks, as students, workers, and retirement investors. Companies are given enticements to set up shop in states that compete for their presence; they find supportive legislators who will help them obtain cheap labor via H1 and H2 visas; they have HR and temp agencies to help them find the most dispensable, smartest, cheapest, toothless, and compliant workers on the planet; and they get bailed out by taxpayers when they fail. Your vision of capitalism in the U.S. is admirable, but fictional.
Somewhere along the way, the concept of capitalism got turned around from a “less-risk, less-reward-but-more-financial-security” model to a gamble for wage-earners and guaranteed return for capitalists under all circumstances. Those who enjoy most of the profits now take the least risks, incur little expense, and are subsidized at taxpayers’ expense, while those who are rewarded the least or not at all take all the risks and then bail out financiers and investors when their bets go bad. America has been financialized and securitized with the market fundamentalist model, and is now cannibalizing itself for the failure of it. There is also the question of degree—even if laissez-faire capitalism did work as you believe it does, rewarding according to merit instead of power and privilege, how much can one person be worth? In any case, the reality is that wealth is power. The primary goal of capitalism, by its very nature, irrespective of individual players, is to control and consolidate wealth and power, to capture markets, destroy competitors, corrupt governments, dismantle companies to no useful purpose except to affect a net transfer of wealth from worker to financier; and to aggressively oppose any attempt to rein in the drive for private profit, including threatening recalcitrant governments with bankruptcy when they stubbornly insist on providing public competition and basic social services, for instance.
People do not want an equality of outcomes. They want all to realize what many still deny, even in the face of global financial collapse: America is no longer a land of opportunity and does not reward according to effort and/or merit. People are tired of the bigoted notion, in the face of a class war waged for over thirty years now, that they should blame themselves for all. It isn’t just America, of course, but it originated in America, and specifically, at the Chicago School of Economics with its disciples of neoliberal economics. But the culture has caught on here more than anywhere else, it seems. MIT economics professor Lester Thurow once noted that, in Japan, a CEO of a large company might come to his workers and apologize for having to break the social contract with them and dismiss them, pointing to the increasingly competitive global marketplace. In America, however, a CEO is more likely to blame his workers as he dismisses them (The Zero Sum Solution). How true, and that was over twenty years ago. In today’s world, of course, employees simply get a form letter in the mail as the company skips off to bankruptcy court to break its unions. If you have not recently worked in America as a wage earner, or if you have somehow managed to keep the same job for decades, or if you get most of your information from rightwing talk radio, you might not know this.
Such nonsense. I cannot speak for others, I can only speak for myself. Those that chose to share the risk of the enterprise thereby elected themselves to a seat at the table of success. Those that remained willfully ignorant and unsympathetic to my risk - they received wages and nothing more. Walk with me and I will reward you; use me and I will use you. This is common sense.
Writing on 12/26:
Obama did not cave? Hard to believe given that the social security busting FICA roll back is for 2 months and not Obama's previously stated demand for 12 months.
Wait for 2 months to see what else Obama (aka Obumer) agrees to. The Obama tax cuts (formerly known as the Bush tax cuts); raising retirement age for mine workers etc etc.
Well it might also be noted that the MASS AG, the D candidate for the Senate was not only a terrible candidate, but a week before the election she went to DC to meet with leading D lobbyists. That did not endear her in the election.
For good measure she (AG Coakley) met with or at (as I recall) the Patton Boggs law firm. Boggs whee have you heard that before: why that is Cokie Roberts brother. See it is all in the family....
You could also check out Gloria Borger's spouse to see another example of how tightly knit the "family" inside the beltway is. . .
Teece,
Excellent summation. Thanks