So what really happened? Most importantly, what happened is that many of us chose to reprehend the Republicans for their failure to win in Iraq. If they had won and democracy was now spreading to engulf the Axis of Evil the election would have been an overwhelming and historic victory for Republicans. In no analysis, however, did the Democratic victory say a thing about the ascendancy of their political philosophy because, in fact, Democrats don't have a political philosophy, unless you call opportunism or exploitation a philosophy? Democrats are merely the opposition party which gains power by default when there is a sad circumstance, such as an American loss on the battlefield, to exploit.
But now that they have gained some power let's once again look at the Pelosi Democratic plan for the first "100 Hours", and what's so goofy about it:
The Pelosi Democrat Plan
1) Raising the minimum wage.
2) Halving the interest rate on college student loans.
3) Rolling back subsidies to big oil companies.
4) Stopping any privatization of Social Security.
5) Committing to no new deficit spending.
6) Authorizing the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare.
Why its plain goofy:
0) The War- Democrats won the election because America lost in Iraq, and yet they have no legislation planned regarding Iraq? Imagine that? They have not even unveiled their plan to finally capture Bin Laden, despite having stomped their feet about it everyday since Tora Bora.
1) Minimum Wage- A Federally mandated increased minimum wage means fewer jobs, higher prices, and a distorted, less efficient economy. The net benefit is zero or worse. Raising the price of labor or of a TV will always result in less demand for labor (fewer jobs) or TVs. Most Democrats simply lack the intelligence to understand this; those who do understand it chose to exploit it with a know nothing populism that, seemingly, makes them look "sensitive" to poor people.
2) College Loans- Arbitrarily giving money to a relatively smart, rich, healthy constituency such as college students is unfair to many other constituencies who may need the money more, i.e., patients in nursing homes or kids with cancer, for example.
3) Oil Subsidies- Rolling back subsidies to oil companies is probably a good thing but will not do one tiny thing to increase energy supplies or lower prices, whereas subsides might.
4) Social Security-Maintaining Federal Social Security is a blasphemy when the gov't continues to this day to steal every last penny from the Social Security Trust Fund even as baby boomers begin to retire and the work force begins to dramatically shrink. Democrats love to claim that Bush made a crisis out of the budget, debt and deficit, but somehow they still claim there is no crisis in Social Security?
5) Deficit Spending-No more deficit spending is good, but perfectly innocuous and utterly meaningless without a commitment to higher taxes, reduced spending, or freeing up the economy for more growth. This is the exactly the kind of no reform, reform we'd expect from a Party that throughout its history has opposed a Balanced Budget Amendment for the Federal Gov't like the ones that impose an exacting fiscal discipline on each State of the Union.
6) Drug Prices-Negotiating lower drug prices is preposterous and perfectly Democratic . If it were possible, they could negotiate lower prices for everything and we'd all be rich thanks to the miracles performed by socialist elites.
If the Democrats had landed at Plymouth Rock in the 17th Century their economic proposals would have sentenced every new American to slow starvation because they contain nothing whatsoever to increase the production and quality of goods and services offered by business. Democrats, like Marxists, hate business and so do not propose anything to encourage business. Nevertheless, it is business innovation that got us from the 17th Century, when an indentured servant had to work 5-7 years to pay for a dangerous months long trip across the Atlantic, to today, where a minimum wage worker can pay for a safe seven hour transatlantic trip with only two days work. It is exclusively this Republican capitalist supply side miracle that transformed humanity, with innovative goods and services, that wonderfully serves the poor and minimum wage workers of today who have seen their real wages increase 1095 times since the 17th Century.
So let's look at some Jeffersonian,Republican, Libertarian, Supply Side economic policies that might be implemented were it not for the Pelosi Democratic cancers which have consistently interfered with the higher standards of living business has so magnanimously bequeathed to us since the 17th Century.
1) Imagine if there were no capital gains taxes on venture capital firms so they could have more money to invest in new businesses with new ideas that raised our standard of living? Imagine if venture capitalists were rewarded for success rather than punished for it by the gov't ?
2) Imagine if there was no taxation on any business profits so business wasn't punished for success. Businesses would be free to invest for economic growth rather than to, in part, pay or avoid taxes.
3) Imagine if there was just one simple flat tax or fair tax for individuals so armies of IRS workers, tax accountants, tax lawyers, court workers, tax preparers, life insurance company employees, estate planners, payroll tax workers, securities brokers, and State tax workers would have to get real jobs that produced real goods and services that contributed to, rather than depleted our standard of living?
Imagine if there was one fair or flat tax, from which the gov't received all its revenue so every politician had to state exactly what your total flat tax or fair tax would be every year? As it is now a politician's free spending ways can be hidden behind a thousand different taxes, collected in a 1000 different places, at a 1000 different times, and implemented by 1000 different politicians most of whom no longer even hold office. Imagine just one big flat or fair tax that each politician had to go on record as wanting to raise or lower each year?
Imagine if tax day was moved from April 15th to election day? Clarity and honesty in the system would mean that the Democrats would be gone in a flash.
4) Imagine if health care, instead of consuming 14% of national wealth and rising, were free of gov't and insurance company laws, rules, and regulations so that the quality and price of health care was subject to the same capitalistic, supply side , competitive pressures and incentives as transatlantic travel?
Imagine if Democrats were smart enough to realize that health care is the most screwed up, inflated, expensive, and threatening sector of our economy precisely because they control 50% of health care spending already. Republicans, of course, want freedom and capitalism in health care, transatlantic travel, and all sectors of the economy.
5) Imagine if the Federal Reserve were not free to direct a huge proportion of the national wealth into the residential real estate market when it might be directed into competitive international industries that raise our standard of living? The Fed has changed course 12 times in the last 22 years; each time artificially inflating and then deflating the housing industry. This is an incredibly inefficient way to allocate capital in a free society that is absolutely dependent on steady, efficient, coherent capital allocation .
6) Imagine if all pension money were in private hands 1) so the gov't couldn't steal and waste the money, as they do with Social Security, rather than invest it productively, 2) so pension money would still be there if companies went bankrupt, 3) so companies would be free to concentrate on new goods and services rather than pension obligations, funding, administration, and management, and 4) so future increases in benefits were paid for by a rising stock and bond market rather than higher taxes?
7) Imagine a Constitutional Amendment to prevent the Democrats from taxing more than a tiny percentage of national income so more of our money could then stay in private hands where it would be used productively and efficiently to improve our standard of living rather than wasted or used inefficiently by gov't monopolists who necessarily operate in a hugely wasteful noncompetitive environment with a huge percentage of the national income.
8) Imagine the change in mentality, if instead of a Nobel Peace Prize and Nobel Science Prize there was an huge American prize given to the business person who raised our standard of living the most each year? Only the anti business Democratic mentality prevents this.
Indeed, it is not a stretch to imagine that if more Republican Libertarian supply side efficiencies were introduced, transatlantic travel for minimum wage workers could quickly be reduced to the cost of only one days work. Only Democrats, Communists, Socialists, Dictators, Liberals and others who naively believe in gov't miracles can slow the march of Republican capitalism to transform the lives of poor people. In fact, in the last six years when Republican free trade (globalization) has really taken hold, the world's poor have experienced the highest rates of economic growth in recorded history.
Sadly, not only are the Democrats ruinous to our economy but they are ruinous to our souls too. The Republican supply side approach is designed to encourage everyone to get out there, make no excuses, and offer superior goods and services that other people want to buy, and to then define themselves largely by how well they do in that effort to please other human beings. But, it is a sine qua non among Democrats that everyone must be discouraged from playing on the same team with the same goal of service to humanity. They seek to win votes by dividing America, creating class warfare, encouraging a victim mentality, or as John Edwards says, making us aware of, "Two Americas". The idea is to redress your grievances or assuage your victimhood through the gov't; not to please or serve your fellow man or respect him by what you offer or give him in a free market place. In the seriation of Democratic political life, not withstanding what JFK said, what your country can do for you is seen as far more important than what your productive capacity can do to serve your fellow man.
In the example above, young, healthy, intelligent college kids get money that might have gone to nursing home patients or children with cancer. How can that be a correct Democratic guess about how precious American capital should be allocated? Life is unfair to Democrats; everyone gets to feel a sort of therapeutic alienation, no matter what their real situation, that frees them from having to work and produce for others in a loving, civilized, and capitalistic way. Instead, they are encouraged to elect politicians who will steal for them what they need through taxation or change the rules to make things easy and fair. In the case of college kids, they are encouraged to believe they deserve cheap money and to pray that at the moment they need it, they are in, by pure luck, one of hundreds of favored and arbitrary Democratic special interest group constituency.
No group has been more subject to this Democratic thinking than American Blacks and no group has suffered more, and so no group illustrates the ultimate manifestation of Democratic thinking more than Blacks. You see it in their poverty, the incredible incarceration rate (which seems to indicate that assault, larceny, and drug use are more acceptable than honest capitalistic work), in their illegitimacy rate, and even in their Hip Hop music. Their music has replaced simple and sweet love songs about respecting, and, getting and giving love to other people. The viscous Hip Hop Democratic songs are about stealing from or degrading other people or being better than they are and bragging about all of it. Everyone is against somebody as an excluded, bitter, resentful, and hostile minority with a legitimate grievance who is then encouraged to steal from everyone else rather than to drop the nonsense and give to everyone else in a capitalistic marketplace. It is exactly opposed to the Republican capitalist spirit of giving and loving. But tragically, it is what Democrats wish on our entire economic and spiritual life. God help us now that the Democratic children have finally won an election!
Ted Baiamonte
bje1000@aol.com
121006:42
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7 comments:
Now that tax reform is regularly in the news, blogosphere and Google alerts, many people are saying we need to switch to a flat tax.
The tax code we have is a drag on the economy. It is a hopeless morass of regulations, loopholes and special interest influences. For the good of our country, its economy and citizens, the tax code and infrastructure must be dispatched
I'm opposed to any form of a flat tax as a replacement.
In 1995, the flat tax reform proposal was a definite improvement over the convoluted tax code. It gained some popularity. However, history teaches us that a flat tax doesn't offer a permanent or satisfactory solution to our tax code problems.
The income tax started out as a single rate (flat) tax. Under the power of government and isolated from the People, it gradually grew into an oversized, complex mess, with numerous loopholes, multiple brackets and high rates. In 1986, the tax code was overhauled, simplified and reduced down to two brackets. Many deductions and loopholes were eliminated. Today, we have six brackets, and most of the loopholes are back. This demonstrates twice over how a flat tax simply won't stay flat. The reason is simple: Congress makes the laws. Precedents have been set. Lobbyists have more access to Congressmen than the People have.
Finally, a flat tax is still income tax, counter-constitutional and contrary to the founders' vision. The income tax was made possible only after self-serving politicians did an end run around the Constitution in 1913 and took powers for themselves that the Constitution denied them.
In Congress, the FairTax Bill (HR 25) has 58 congressional co-sponsors; the Flat Tax Bill (HR 1040) has six. Popular support for the FairTax is strong and growing; flat tax support has all but vanished. Two very successful FairTax rallies have taken place; no flat tax rallies have been held or planned. The FairTax Book has outsold Steve Forbes' Flat Tax Book many times over.
It appears that the flat tax is dying on the vine.
The time has come to purge our delusions of any form of income tax, scrap the entire tax code once and for all, then replace it with a tax that generates the same amount of revenue for the government, puts power back in the hands of the people, and encourages economic growth. Tho only tax reform that will accomplish that is the FairTax Plan. It is a nonpartisan national grassroots campaign to replace the federal income tax system with a progressive national retail sales tax and dollar-for-dollar federal revenue replacement. It provides a "prebate" to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to poverty level. Companion legislation already in Congress will repeal the 16th Amendment. The facts and research are online at FairTax.org and 1-800-FairTax.
Sign the FairTax petitions:
Congress.org
FairTax.org
Grassfire.org
Patriot Petitions
National Taxpayers Union
*******Hello
Why do I have the feeling that if this were the GOP agenda, you would find a way to
explain how these policies made sense.
*******Jeffersonian policies always make sense to real Americans????
Ridiculous.
******you forgot to say exactly what is ridiculous??
Minimum wage increases simply force business owners to pay people a living
wage. Check out the data on states that have a higher wage than 5.15---they have more jobs and better growth. After a certain point, a low minimum wage hurts the lower class and causes them to need more assistance.
********any price or wage increase lowers demand. If you raise the price of a TV people will buy fewer TVs. More people go to fast food places than 5 star restaurants-get it now?? If a communist gov't could set prices on all things and get a better result than Jefferson it would have happened a long time ago- get it now??? see why we say Dumb Democrats.???
Speaking of trying to escape the lower class, why not go to college and pay 7% interest
so loan companies can pad the coffers of their investors while kids cannot pay off their loans. What an idea!
*******so you want Democrats to set the price of minimum wages and college loans too?
Is there any price that a communist Democrat does not want the gov't to fix?? What about cancer care and food- surely those are too high too? A communist miracle can fix everything right? Actually North Korea does worse than South Korea because of Jeffersonian freedom- get it now??
Social Security trust fund would exist if not for Bush.
*****NO NO dummy. Don't you remember Al Gore talking about a Lock Box for Social Security so the money could not be stolen???. This has been going on for 30 years.
He would rather take that money from the working class and dump it into defense
spending and tax cuts for the very wealthy---always a wise investment.
*******the Democrats opposed the lock box and a balanced budget amendment and the shutting down of gov't and privatizing security (so go'vt could no longer steal the money)- get it now?????
As for deficit spending, if the GOP was gonna put a balanced budget amendment in, they would have.
******no no no. They wanted it, plus privatized social security, school vouchers, privatized health care and private pensions plus a Balanced Budget Amendment but couldn't do any it because of Democrats who openly oppose all these attempts at freedom form gov't. Their philosophy is always toward gov't and communism and away from freedom- get it now?? IT has been that way since Jefferson versus Adams in 1800
The fact is it does not make sense in case of a depression or a war to artificially limit
spending.
******you forgot to say why???? you are not an economist so why not ask about it???
What does make sense is pay as you go, which kept spending growth under Clinton low,
******why do you say "under Clinton" when it was a Republican Congress that wanted A Balanced Budget Amendment except in time of national emergency and when it is Republicans who historically been opposed to taxes and gov't and Democrats who openly favor big gov't?? This is not in dispute
and since it was abandoned has been catastrophic.
*******it does not happen in any state because it would be illegal. All we need is an agreement from the Democrats for a BBA(Balenced Budget Amendment) but it is against everything they have ever stood for since Adams.
So go ahead and malign Dems for not "shooting the moon" to solve the fiscal crisis the
GOP created,
******no idea what you mean??? Democrats since Hamilton have been for gov't and taxes?? While republicans since Jefferson have been openly against and even proposed the BBA many times and to this day oppose highrer taxes while Democrats always favor them???
but pay-as-you-go will save billions of bloat.
******the states have BBA not pay as you go nonsense
I can only hope they get serious about
earmarks as well, at the very least opening up the process for transparency.
******agreed but ever higher DEmocratic taxes will always lead to more waste of all kinds.
Health care cannot be free market because it is not a commodity,
******neither is dentistry or lasik eye surgery, computer consulting or all the services that now make up 60% of the economy-get it now??
it is a necessity.
*******the more necessary something is the more its price should be brought down by competition, and the higher the quality something should be the more competition and less gov't the better. No competition in communism is why they have low quality- get it now???
A completely free market would price people out of health care.
*****Walmart is the free to operate all over the world in the freest market in history and they price poor people in more than anyone on earth ever has. It is communism that prices people out of the market and into day long long lines, for low quality often unavailable goods, that prevents them from having the time to work-get it now??
The biggest fuck up in the health care machine is the strong insurance lobby, which denies coverage to the sick,
*******don't be silly- sick people consume all the health care like rich people consumer all the Rolls Royces. If you're in the health care business or car business you want big buyers. The problem is gov't regulation whenever people can't afford to buy things. Remember East and West Germany???
insures the wealthy, and sucks up money while paying doctors nothing.
*****if Doctors got paid nothing they would stop being doctors- isn't thinking fun? .
But it's easy to pick on trial lawyers, so that's Bush's magic plan. It won't work.
*******No no No his plan is capitalism a free market. Privatization! Specifically, health savings accounts. that way you are spending your own money and being careful about it, not gov't money or insurance company money. The driving force behind all quality comes from consumers who spend their own money wisely in a free market, This is the difference between North and South Korea= get it now???
If you want to live in a society that rewards investors, investment, and wealth ONLY
*******think for a moment dear. An investor cannot be rewarded unless the company he invests in makes money with which to reward him. To make money the company must please its customers with higher quality lower priced merchandise than any other competitor as for example Walmart does by making goods affordable to America's poorest people. And they pay double the minimum wage and at a recent opening they had 250,000 applicants for 1300 positions. So yes we all want to live in a country where investors and the poorest consumers and workers are rewarded-get it now???????. You cannot reward investors unless you first reward consumers and workers.
, then move to any number of 3rd world countries where business and government are two
sides of the same coin, and workers have no rights, no wages and no security. Your free market at work!
****** above
Your arguments are embarrassingly simplistic, as is your grammar and your logic.
********get it now?????? if you care about people please have the courage to learn
As ever,
Are you kidding. The Dumb Democrat. I suppose your a genius then. You have berated about half the country based on nothing but what party they belong to. So, who sounds dumb now? I love you people, I do, it actually seems like you would be happier in a one party system. So since you are grouping all democrats together let me do the same for republicans
If your a republican you must be
1.) gay
2.) in "love" with little boys
3.) A Liar
4.) A draft dodger
5.) A criminal
6.) Rich and selfish
7.) A racist
Is that true of all republicans, no of course not, but thats how your blog appears if you simply turn it around and apply your logic.
To all those reading this or other political based blogs, I have just one thing to say. Don't support this brand of crap, no matter what party it swings to. Do your own homework don't take some guys (including myself) word for it. This is just small minded people trying to pin us all against each other to keep us fighting to further there own careers or in this case crappy book sales.
P.S- "THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS" Really its a classic, news to me.
Are you kidding. The Dumb Democrat.
********no not kidding???
I suppose your a genius then.
*******no, most Republicans merely recognize that Democrats are caring idiots
You have berated about half the country based on nothing but what party they belong to.
********if people belong to the Nazi Party or Know Nothing Party can't they be dumb based on just their Party?? In fact, most Republicans think of Democrat as polite way to say "dumb."
So, who sounds dumb now?
*******so far it seems you do
I love you people, I do, it actually seems like you would be happier in a one party system.
*****No, not at all, Republicans believe in many different intelligent ideas and love to debate them. So, they want two intelligent Parties not one smart and one comprised of dumb Democrats-get it now??
So since you are grouping all democrats together let me do the same for republicans.
*****If you are about to say all Republicans believe in freedom from gov't as per Thomas Jefferson and basic American principals I will agree with you.
If your a republican you must be
1.) gay
2.) in "love" with little boys
3.) A Liar
4.) A draft dodger
5.) A criminal
6.) Rich and selfish
7.) A racist
Is that true of all republicans,
*******no in fact it has nothing to do with the basic idea at the heart of the Republican Party, i.e., freedom from gov't.
no of course not, but thats how your (you're) blog appears if you simply turn it around and apply your logic.
*******our logic says Republican believe in freedom while Democrats do not?? Republicans since Jefferson have believed that. Why not study up on the basics???
To all those reading this or other political based blogs, I have just one thing to say.
******we can't wait to hear
Don't support this brand of crap, no matter what party it swings to.
******is it crap to teach the difference between Democrats and Republicans??
Do your own homework don't take some guys (including myself) word for it.
*****Yes do read Jefferson to get a basic idea what America stands for
This is just small minded people trying to pin us all against each other to keep us fighting to further there own careers or in this case crappy book sales.
********why assume to keep you fighting rather than to teach you??
P.S- "THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS" Really its a classic, news to me.
******but so is Jefferson news to you!
Of many, there is one difference between liberals and conservatives you left out. When one's belief system is called into question, liberals are more prone to engage critical thinking skills, thus allowing alternate perspectives to be considered (a characteristic of intellectualism). Conversely, those on the right prefer to dig in and use every tool at their disposal to fight challenges (whether real or perceived)to the worldview on which they rely. An outcome of this dichotomy is that we liberals are viewed by conservatives as weak. Using a cops and robbers analogy - rather than building a case prior to making the arrest, the conservative prefers to shoot first and ask questions later. My sense is that our tactical differences have more to do with genetics than actual ideologies.
Thus genetically preprogramed (if you will) by God, we seek out the political affiliation that best addresses our innerworld. As such,
I have no doubt that you will use your formum to "prove me wrong," rather than critically engage in what must appear (at least on the surface) to be wrongheaded ramblings from the left. It is what you were put on earth to do.
Of many, there is one difference between liberals and conservatives you left out.
*******oh good
When one's belief system is called into question, liberals are more prone to engage
critical thinking skills,
******if you think that why not provide some evidence that its true??? I could say the same thing about liberals but why call names with no facts or logical arguments?? You're like a child on a playground.
thus allowing alternate perspectives to be considered (a characteristic of intellectualism).
*******facts and logical arguments rather than name calling???????
Conversely, those on the right prefer to dig in and use every tool at their disposal to fight challenges (whether real or perceived) to the worldview on which they rely.
*******yes I will agree because they believe there is nothing new under the sun. Jefferson was correct that freedom is good and all the other forms of gov't are and were bad and deadly. That is the whole story of history.
An outcome of this dichotomy is that we liberals are viewed by conservatives as weak.
******not weak at all, just plain dumb for not being able to understand history or America.
Using a cops and robbers analogy - rather than building a case prior to making the arrest, the conservative prefers to shoot first and ask questions later.
******they do shoot first based on Jefferson's idea about freedom which liberals communists socialists and monarchists are not smart enough to understand.
My sense is that our tactical differences have more to do with genetics than actual
ideologies.
*******Jefferson was very ideological. America is an idea; an idea about freedom from Democrats and Communists etc.
Thus genetically preprogrammed (if you will) by God, we seek out the political affiliation that best addresses our innerworld.
*******Jefferson was a logical philosopher who created America??? See why we say dumb Democrats??
As such, I have no doubt that you will use your forum to "prove me wrong,"
*******yes see above
rather than critically engage in what must appear (at least on the surface) to be
wrongheaded ramblings from the left.
*******get it now??????
It is what you were put on earth to do.
*******lets not change the subject dear
Wow. I'm really digging in here!
Ted, your denigration of the words 'Caring' and 'compassionate' puzzles me. Tell me, do you feel that any government has the duty to protect its citizens?
and i thank you for not being sarcastic with me. 'lets not change the subject dear'...that's beneath the level of our debate, Ted.
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