Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, David Brooks and the descent into darkness of contemporary "conservatism"

Read THIS "shrill screed" if you read nothing else on politics and our dire straits today.
                                                   
                                                            Via Balloon Juice

"Put jobs at the top of the national agenda..."

President Obama has promised to deliver a jobs agenda in September.  Here's a good column by NYT's Nick Kristoff that helps put the jobs crisis in perspective:

When Americans are polled about the issue they care most about, the answer by a two-to-one margin is jobs. The Boston Globe found that during President Obama’s Twitter “town hall” last month, the issue that the public most wanted to ask about was, by far, jobs. Yet during the previous two weeks of White House news briefings, reporters were far more likely to ask about political warfare with Republicans...

2012: On political perspective and drawing lines where they matter the most

Winning Progressive lays out an excellent counter-critique to much of the over-heated criticism of President Obama coming from "the left" that dismisses his accomplishments and commitments:

Why any proposal to raise the Medicare eligibility age is not "fiscally conservative"

2 Charts:

 

 

In fact, given the cost-effectiveness of Medicare compared to private insurers, the country would save money on rapidly-inflating medical costs by lowering the Medicare eligibility age, allowing people to buy into the system earlier. 

Via Jared Bernstein - "Cost Shifting Is Not Cost Saving"

Reducing the costs of Medicare

There are smart, patient-friendly ways to achieve the necessary cost reductions, and dumb ones that put the burden of health-care inflation on seniors...

Some notes on the smart path, HERE. 

Republicans want to raise your taxes!

Harold Myerson at the Washington Post:

America’s presumably anti-tax party wants to raise your taxes. Come January, the Republicans plan to raise the taxes of anyone who earns $50,000 a year by $1,000, and anyone who makes $100,000 by $2,000.

Their tax hike doesn’t apply to income from investments. It doesn’t apply to any wage income in excess of $106,800 a year. It’s the payroll tax that they want to raise — to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent of your paycheck, a level established for one year in December’s budget deal at Democrats’ insistence. Unlike the capital gains tax, or the low tax rates for the rich included in the Bush tax cuts, or the carried interest tax for hedge fund operators (which is just 15 percent), the payroll tax chiefly hits the middle class and the working poor.

General Electric's global operations defy "conventional wisdom" about corporate taxes

It's been widely reported that General Electric paid no US taxes last year, despite over $14 billion in profits - and over $5 billion profits reported in the US.  GE actually got a $3.2 billion tax credit from the US government.

David Cay Johnston has an interesting column at Reuters about the distribution of GE's tax payments over the last decade that raises some questions about the impact of corporate tax rates on the  company's activities. The US has offered GE lower effective tax rates than it's foreign operations, but GE has been reporting more of its profits overseas, where it's been paying higher taxes. (The fact that GE pays much lower taxes than the supposed US corporate tax rate is also instructive.)  This trend of their reported profits shifting overseas where the corporate rates are effectively higher for GE counters the "conventional wisdom" about how taxes drive the investment decisions of a major global business:

The perils of ontological insecurity...

TalkingPointsMemo:

What are the four primary characteristics most associated with those Americans sympathetic to the Tea Party?

"Authoritarianism, ontological insecurity (fear of change), libertarianism and nativism." 

So says one of the many findings in a study presented to the American Sociological Association on Monday.

Who knew?

More HERE.

Looking Backward: Report Card on the Bush Tax Cuts

"I think clearly the evidence...uh, well..."

The extension of Bush-era tax cuts is still a centerpiece of GOP economic dogma around job creation and economic growth. Having been eneacted a decade ago, is there any empirical evidence that they worked?

Think Progress has posted a telling video of Tea Party-backed, first-term GOP Congressman Randy Hultgren at a town-hall being asked point blank by a constituent for evidence that the Bush tax cuts created jobs. He couldn't answer the question, stumbling over a non-response. Hultgren had good reason to stumble and evade the question.  There is no evidence that shows the tax cuts drove job creation.

Jobs, jobs, jobs - "Size, Speed & Smarts" are the essentials for an effective jobs strategy

Jonathan Cohn at The New Republic:

President Obama’s plan to give a major economic speech after Labor Day means that, finally, Washington is going to have a serious conversation about creating jobs. And it can't come a moment too soon…

Of course, whether that conversation on jobs leads to action on jobs is more a question of politics than policy. Republicans want no part of anything with Obama’s name on it and, until that changes, very little can pass Congress.

Still, the best policy conversations start with what we should do, not with what we can (or can’t) do...

The case for taxing capital gains like any other income

James Stewart at The New York Times:

The notion that low capital gains tax rates are a good thing because they promote investment, lead to job creation, encourage people to sell assets without fear of tax consequences and actually raise total tax revenue is so entrenched in both parties that the idea of equalizing capital gains and ordinary income rates is barely mentioned or, when it is, is quickly denounced. It’s become a third rail of tax policy and electoral politics. “It’s now so woven into standard thinking that it’s become a cultural norm,” a prominent hedge fund official told me this week...

It does seem intuitive that lower taxes and thus potentially greater rewards would encourage risk-taking and investment, and surely at some rate high taxes can discourage any endeavor. But even some hedge fund and private equity officials concede that the argument for lower capital gains rates rests more on faith than science. “I’ve seen study after study that says lower capital gains rates have no impact on behavior,” the hedge fund official told me.

"Watching Armageddon From an Armchair"

Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum offers this thought - a grim gut feeling undoubtedly shared these days by many who see the policy paralysis in the Beltway, while political fun and games play out on their TeeVees and the threat of a deepening economic crisis grows:

Watching the world slide slowly back into recession without a fight, even though we know perfectly well how to prevent it, is just depressing beyond words.

Our descendents will view the grasping politicians and cowardly bankers responsible for this about as uncomprehendingly as we now view the world leaders who cavalierly allowed World War I to unfold even though they could have stopped it at any time.

Shaping the 2012 Message: "Class Warfare" Done Right!

"Congress won't work for the people!"

Historian Rick Perlstein - who has authored an excellent book on the right-wing Goldwater movement's impact on US politics and another on the legacy of Richard Nixon - offers some insightful and provocative commentary at TIME's "Swampland" blog. Perlsteins's observations are, in effect, some practical campaign advice directed toward President Obama, based on how the Democratic Party historically has won elections and why they've lost elections, in the context of two distinct terrains on which national elections get fought:

Sometimes they become battles over the cultural and social anxieties that ordinary Americans suffer. Other times they are showdowns about middle-class anxieties when the free market fails. Normally, in the former sort of election, Republicans win. In the latter, Democrats do — as we saw in 2008, when the tide turned after John McCain said “the fundamentals of the economy are strong.

Must-See TeeVee: Jon Stewart's World of Class Warfare

Part 1 - Warren Buffett vs. The Wealthy

The Daily Show - World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Part 2 - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over

The Daily Show - World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Recommended reading... but only with a stiff drink in hand.

Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the World Bank, suggests "it is increasingly likely that we will find ourselves in the midst of something nearly as traumatic (as the Great Depression) - a long slump of the kind seen with some regularity in the 19th century, particularly if presidential election-year politics continue to head in a dangerous direction."

Read his entire New York Times"Economix" column HERE, but pour yourself a little something to settle the nerves first.

Help Wanted: A Jobs Bill That Can "Do The Job"

A major jobs bill is promised to be forthcoming from President Obama in September. Many Democrats are concerned that insider advisers are watering down the proposals, still hoping for some sort of compromises with Congress as "the art of the possible" or "good optics for independent voters."

In my view, the "compromise with the GOP" train never even got out of the station except as a signal of Democratic weakness in the current toxic Beltway environment. What was done with Bush tax cuts and deficit ceiling extension may have been preferable to the alternatives, but neither was  forged as meaningful compromise.

Moving forward, the President must draw the clearest of lines between the Democratic agenda and the GOP's nihilistic, obstructionist assault on government . Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich offers a jobs bill strategy that would give the President a strong foundation for his 2012 campaign message -  a bold and coherent alternative to address the economic concerns of anxious voters. We hope the White House is listening:

The President is sounding like a fighter these days. He even says he’ll be proposing a jobs bill in September – and if Republicans don’t go along he’ll fight for it through Election Day (or beyond)...

The Economist has full confidence in presidential aspirant Michele Bachmann's cheap energy promise

Iowa GOP Straw Poll winner Michele Bachmann may appear clueless in most of her campaign spiel, but her promise to bring down gasoline prices is likely one "Bachmann economic plan" we can believe in according to The Economist's Washington correspondent:

REPRESENTATIVE Michele Bachmann, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, is getting a lot of flack for this statement:

"The day that the president became president gasoline was $1.79 a gallon. Look at what it is today," she says on tape at an event in Greenville, S.C., as chronicled by Politico. "Under President Bachmann, you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again. That will happen."

How on earth could she accomplish this, the critics ask. Where will she find the new supply? But supply is only one half of the equation. Petrol plunged from above $4 a gallon in July of 2008 to below $2 a gallon in January of 2009 thanks to the impact of economic collapse on oil demand. Ms Bachmann, meanwhile, was a strong opponent of an increase in the debt ceiling. Failure to raise the debt ceiling would have produced an immediate cut in government spending of 44%, leading to a larger output decline than was observed in 2008. Personally, I have total confidence that Ms Bachmann can bring back cheap petroleum, one way or another.

"It's the Aggregate Demand, Stupid!"

Conservative economics consultant Bruce Bartlett (he worked as an adviser to President Reagan) offers a column in the New York Times that puts the focus on what's holding back economic recovery.  Hint - it's not businesses lacking the capital to re-invest because of high taxes, nor does it have anything to do with deficits. It's the fall in consumer demand - primarily because of high unemployment, depressed wages and the hit people took as equity in their homes disappeared due to the disaster caused by the financial sector in 2008.

Governor Good-Hair flushes out the Fed for traitors & threatens to rough 'em up if they tread into Texas

Rick Perry sees treachery and treason coming from the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke...and, by implication,  conservative economics guru Milton Friedman. A sign of the times in a Republican party where conservatism has been almost wholly supplanted by rabid reaction. The God 'n Guns Governor suggests a pretty ugly "Texas welcome" is in order for Chairman Ben.

Milton Friedman can kiss gun-totin' Guv's butt!

Ezra Klein has it at WaPo "WonkBook":

What potential policy maneuver is a major presidential candidate calling "almost treasonous"? Is it a) going to war without explicit authorization from Congress, b) doing nothing about the 15 million unemployed even as their temporary joblessness hardens into a structural disadvantage, or c) purchasing long-term Treasury debt in order to push interest rates down?

Jobs and infrastructure investment - Common Sense (and Space Aliens)

With a long, slightly dorky introduction that involves the unifying potential of space aliens(!), Rachel Maddow highlights the political and practical importance of focusing on jobs and rebuilding infrastructure - with comments from Paul Krugman, President Obama and an excellent, down-to-earth discussion with former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell.

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