Oh look! Krauthammer's back from his post-election rehab! And he's brought the neo-conservative word on the economy with him in the form of former AEI think-tanker Irwin Stelzer. Bad Krauthammer, you didn't cite your source. I had to go through all the trouble of googling Stelzer. I mean, when the guy you're about to use as the basis for an argument on the economy and how Capitol Hill is handling things once edited and wrote the introduction to The Neocon Reader, don't you think it's pertinent to mention that to your audience? No? Not even when the sitting president appears to have checked out and the president-elect gives all the appearance of already running the country? Not even when the appointees selected by the current president are the ones asking for the billions of dollars you mentioned (without regulation of course)? Oh, and you forgot to mention that Wall Street came running to D.C. first, not the other way around. Fuck all man, own up to your ideology's mistakes. Welcome back Krauthammer. When's your next vacation?
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Capital Gains My Ass
David Kurtz mentions this item on Tuesday from Rep. John Boehner who argues that cutting capital gains taxes further would stimulate the economy more than new spending would. I'm about ready to carry around a flaming effigy of capital gains taxes if the GOP claims one more time that cutting capital gains taxes will solve the economic crisis. How the fuck would cutting taxes on investments do that? Right now there's little incentive for people to even start investing in the financial markets let alone make further investments. And investment money is not money that flows into the economic markets so there's no help for the middle class there. Yes the financial markets need help but cutting capital gains taxes isn't a real solution nor does it solve the problem of a flailing consumer market. It's a ruse of an argument allowing the GOP to give the appearence of offering a solution while not actually providing one. What's more, it's a poor ruse as most of the middle class would look at a capital gains cut as some benefiting the rich, well-invested types versus their small annuities and savings accounts that keep getting smaller. Why the GOP keeps running this argument I don't know, but it shows a lack of seriousness on the part of the House GOP to come up with real solutions to this crisis. It's almost as if the GOP has checked out for the rest of the year and left everything for the Democrats to do, which actually might not be a terrible idea at this point.
