Heading back where it is really cold for a few days for work. I am expecting some long days at least at the start of the week.
Driving to the hotel I was listening to an NPR show with Grover Norquist. He is the worthless bastard who came up with the idea that you can never adjust tax rates upwards once they have been cut. No matter how many wars you start-no matter how bad a recession the country is in, no matter how pressing your need to improve infrastructure is.
During the program, he kept coming back to the talking point that “Europe got it”-they cut spending. I thought that was rich-since it’s only partially true and ignores some real differences between Europe and the US. He also blithely ignores the fact that most European countries can leave Iraq and Afghanistan-and several have done so. The US is in the position of being unable to. Norquist also ignores that even with austerity-the results have been only piecemeal;. For every Germany -there is an Ireland of Greece. And that Europeans-even with reduced spending, still have social safety nets that we do not.
But that does not make a good sound bite – as well as it requires a level of comprehension that most of Norquist followers are incapable of rising to.
So instead – we will end 2010 with a major cave in on two signature issues. For a guy who is a Nazi and a Socialist-Obama has actually ended up looking like George Bush. He will end the year leaving tax cuts in place for millionaires who have already seen major jumps in income-while the average American has seen a net drop in his or her earnings / buying ability. And second-he will end the year still mired down in the quagmires that are Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now the second was probably unavoidable-but the Tax Cut thing was just a case of lousy poker playing. The deal was simple-only extend for those making less than 250K. Take it or leave it. If the GOP had left it, fine-all of the tax cuts would have expired. That’s a much better idea in the long run, and Obama would have been able to lay the blame at the feet of people who love making rich people richer.
The idea that the Bush Tax cuts remaining in place will somehow help the economy has already been proven incorrect. If so we would be on a track of greater growth. If anything – it proves how bankrupt the ideas behind supply-side economics are. For tax cuts to create jobs-business and individuals have to invest the money. The track record shows that companies are not disposed to do so – if anything, they are hanging on to cash and hoping to be able to respond to rising demand eventually with fewer workers. In that way, they would have seized on the opportunity to cut their labor forces permanently. They were going to make money either way-but this way they make even more money for fewer “survivors”.
But somehow – in the twisted world we live in – these folks were made to be the victim. When in reality it is just the opposite-average Americans are the victims. Especially since Norquist’s fans love both the wars and the tax cuts, will be in the position of cheering on what was always a fiscally irresponsible policy -at least as far as reducing the deficit goes.
But as I have pointed out before-that has never been a priority for most supply-side advocates. It certainly was not for the Bush administration who created this mess to begin with. There are people who are actually celebrating the fact that the Bush tax trap worked.
What’s really disgusting is that we saw it was coming. And the administration caved-when it had no business doing so.
But hey- tax cuts for the rich it is, while we ignore our crumbling nation and debate how to starve future senior citizens.
And people ask me while I am so on fire to move out of this country and back overseas……………………………..