Wednesday, February 23, 2011

I am in the middle of reading Dick Morris and Eileen McGann's new book Revolt!: How to Defeat Obama and Repeal His Socialist Programs. The book gives the authors' game plan for tackling Obamacare, the crippling of free speech on talk radio and the internet and how to stop cap and trade. As most of you probably know, Morris was Bill Clinton's political consultant for 20 years, and is now a commentator for Fox News.

The chapter that I found most helpful was entitled "How Obama has screwed up our economy" in which the authors discuss why tax hikes won't cut the deficit, and how tax cuts stimulate the economy. They give examples such as when Reagan agreed with a Democratic Congress to raise taxes in 1982. "The deal was that for each dollar in tax hikes, they would cut $3.00 in government spending. ...But although the taxes went up, the spending never came down. In fact it rose. From 1983 to 1988 federal outlays increased 808 billion to $1.1 trillion." The authors also point out that when Clinton cut the capital gains rate from 28% to 20%..."growth averaged 4.6% over the next three years--1.6% higher." Morris points out that part of the growth during the Clinton administration was due to this capital gains cut (along with a booming tech bubble and economy). Interesting stuff.

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15 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

You'd need to go back to 1913 (Federal Reserve Act) to find the root cause of Big Government in today's America. Not 2008.

As for "socialism", I agree with Congressman Ron Paul that Obama is actually "corporatist" and not a state socialist as such.

Corporatism is the common ideology of both parties in US politics today.

7:34 AM, February 24, 2011  
Blogger TMink said...

Ron Paul's greatest contribution is his son.

The problem with our government is that Congress is like a a rich, irresponsible kid with daddy's credit card. They have been talked to repeatedly, it is time for daddy (the taxpayers) to cut up the card and punish the irresponsible child to teach them some responsibility.

Trey

9:42 AM, February 24, 2011  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What is meant by big govt? probably those things you don't want or use but that others might.

Now if you want to talk about big govt, you should state that you refer to number of people employed by the govt or the amountof money that govt spends--or both.
In fact, Helen, your charming husband works for a university.Does he know how much money goes into his university and he is willing to give that up in behalf of downsizing?

Where is all the money? Use this site and the slider and you will see what has been taking place over the years:

http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/pages/interactive#/?start=1974&end=2008

9:53 AM, February 24, 2011  
Blogger I R A Darth Aggie said...

Here, Fred:

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/19/opinion-what-does-government-do/

examine the graphs. What Big Government does best is take your tax dollars and...give them to someone else. After taking a "service fee", of course.

Most universities these days position themselves to be as much a self-supporting entity as possible. Perhaps you've heard of tuition increases?

And seriously, Fred, are you actually suggesting that we cut back on higher education? and if so, then why not look at the K-12 budgets?

10:36 AM, February 24, 2011  
Blogger TMink said...

"What is meant by big govt?"

Government that exceeds the constitutional limits placed on the feds.

It is not just that big government is expensive fred, it is addictive. Look at the black family, what is left of it. Almost one out of three black Americans are on welfare. There are now MORE black on welfare than there are whites, despite our larger numbers in the population.

This is not to criticize blacks, although that is completely warranted, it is to show the effects of 50 years of government intervention in the lives of black Americans. This is the result of the government's war on poverty, more people impoverished.

A large government is bad for Americans, because we WANT it. Without it, we must fend for ourselves and become stronger, more creative, and more productive.

That one in three black Americans live on welfare is the most damning example of how the government fixes things, and it is a national disgrace.

So much for the efficacy of big government.

Trey

3:00 PM, February 24, 2011  
Blogger Dr.Alistair said...

well, i would imagine that civil servants vote for more of the same.

and corporatism is another word for feudalism. giant shining glass and steel castles.

3:41 PM, February 24, 2011  
Blogger DADvocate said...

fred made a good comment yesterday at PJM. Guess that was too much for him.

fred a lot of the increasing costs of college educations is due to administration, not professors salaries, although they get paid fairly well.

Consider the abuse of money by a former president at the University of Tennessee were Prof. Reynolds teaches.

$300,000 charge on a university credit card for a consulting contract with an old friend.

$493,000 to renovate his official residence that had had a $787,597 renovation a year earlier.

$97,350 for a new sun room.

And the lists goes on.

You really say little of value but, rather, make whiny, juvenile comments that say more about you lack of reason and rationality than anything else.

4:58 PM, February 24, 2011  
Blogger J. Bowen said...

Where is all the money? Use this site and the slider and you will see what has been taking place over the years:

http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/pages/interactive#/?start=1974&end=2008


And? What does that have to do with anything? That infographic says nothing about anything.

7:11 PM, February 24, 2011  
Blogger SGT Ted said...

What Obama is instituting is socialism. It's more along the lines of liberal fascism, where government picks winners and losers, but its still socialism.

10:28 AM, February 25, 2011  
Blogger knightblaster said...

Most of what passes for the federal "government" today is actually the product of FDR's explicit bullying of the Supreme Court, by threatening to alter the number of justices on the Court by adding to their number and "packing" the new slots with FDR-sympathetic judges who didn't care about the long-established precedent regarding the commerce clause of the Constitution and the limits on federal power.

In effect, the entire programme of the Democratic party is thoroughly unconstitutional, and only came about because the "hero" President of Democratic party history, FDR, bullied the Supreme Court and threatened to create a constitutional crisis if he couldn't get his way, regardless of what the by then well-settled constitutional law on the commerce clause was.

The Democrats and "progressives" are complete and utter tools, no respect for the constitution, no respect for election results, no respect for anything other than raw power and getting their way. Again, their entire programme is unconstitutional. If Obama is done in '12 and one of the leftie justices is replaced by a rightie justice, look out. Because there are now 4 votes on the Court to overturn basically the whole damned thing that the Democrats have erected on an unconstitutional basis for the past 70 years -- hateful, spiteful, aggrandizing, power-worshipping bastards that they are.

3:52 PM, February 25, 2011  
Blogger Kevin said...

I don't think it is that simple this time- i.e. cut taxes and all will be well. There is too much debt now and we have destroyed our manufacturing class (middle class). Cut taxes and there will indeed be more jobs- in China. Also, with regard to health care, a couple more years of 20% premium increases and we will have a society where some people, such as government employees, will have free health care, paid for by others who can't afford their own. That is a formula for civil unrest. So just being against "Obamacare", and letting it all slide, is not so smart, imo.

12:10 AM, February 26, 2011  
Blogger DADvocate said...

So just being against "Obamacare", and letting it all slide, is not so smart, imo.

I agree. It's too much to discuss in this comment. But something needs to be done about the run away cost of health care (and education).

10:11 AM, February 26, 2011  
Blogger Dean Esmay said...

One of the thing that consistently amazes me about Dick Morris is that people still read and listen to him, even though he's probably got one of the worst track records of any pundit I've ever seen, ever.

I'm not saying I agree or disagree with anything he's saying, EXCEPT, his track record of ridiculous predictions that turn out horrendously wrong would seem to point to me to someone whose advice you should be very leery of following, no matter how engaging, interesting, and thought-provoking or sensible it sounds.

Do people just not notice that he's almost never got the right predictions or strategies? He's like the psychics who "predict" things that already happened.

Whatever your ideology, one thing that seems likely is that Dick Morris makes his money, at least in the popular arena, by telling people what they want to hear rather than actually, y'know, giving good advice.

Condie Vs. Hillary, anyone?

11:16 PM, February 26, 2011  
Blogger Dean Esmay said...

As for the notion that we're creeping toward socialism: God forgive me for favorably quoting Ron Paul, but he was right when he recently said Obama isn't a socialist at all, he's a Corporatist, as are many members of both parties.

Our problem isn't that we need more tax cuts. We have fundamentally shifted most of the power in this country to publicly-traded corporations, with large-scale government collusion in making that happen.

10:14 AM, February 27, 2011  
Blogger DADvocate said...

We have fundamentally shifted most of the power in this country to publicly-traded corporations, with large-scale government collusion in making that happen.

Obama and the Demockrats proved that beyond doubt. Bush provided some bailouts, but Obama took it to a new level.

3:52 PM, February 27, 2011  

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