Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Fair's fair - Roger Kimball predicts that Obama will play the "fairness" card in his speech tomorrow on the federal budget. Because if somebody earns more money than you, well, that's just not fair. (H/T Instapundit.)

6 comments:

One-Eyed Jack Welch said...

Too bad Obama can't play the "shame" card, but it no longer exists.

So many obsequious suckers who'll never be dealt any card higher than a 4. All so grateful they've been allowed to sit at the game.

Bram said...

I garuntee he won't be playing the logic card when he claims we have a "revenue" problem.

Krugman suggested killing the Bush tax cuts on the "rich" for revenue increase of $363 billion.

We are running an annual defict of $1.65 TRILLION! Is Obama going to tell us that a $1.3 Trillion annual deficit is going to fix everything?

There aren't enough rich people out there to close this deficit. We have a spending problem.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, we have a spending problem. We spend it on the Bush tax cuts.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010-11-16bud-f1.jpg

Tell me again about the grownups making the hard decisions, Papa.

Bram said...

Anonymous - You realize it's 2011? Look at the chart. There is a whisker's difference with the Bush tax cuts and without - and we are running a $1.6 Trillion deficit.

What Obama is proposing has nothing to do with the Bush cuts. Those cuts extended down to people making $28,500. There are lots of people and lots of tax dollars to be had down there.

Obama is talking about only the "rich" - people earning above some magical line like $250k. Taking them from 35% back to 38.6% isn't going to make much difference. Somewhere in the $300 Billion range if behavior doesn't change. So what? Stil a $1.3 annual deficit.

--- said...

What Obama is proposing has nothing to do with the Bush cuts.

So that part where he said "I refuse to renew them again," that was Obama talking about his magazine subscriptions?

The Bush tax cuts, which were sold in 2001 as a plan that would reduce the debt by $1.8 trillion, have instead added $2.5 trillion (and counting). Not including over a trillion in interest that will later have to be paid.

Well over half of the debt is attributable to the tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CBO_Forecast_Changes_for_2009-2012.png

--- said...

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/business/economy/13leonhardt.html?_r=1

"A trick question: If Congress takes no action in coming years, what will happen to the budget deficit?

It will shrink — and shrink a lot.
...
On Jan. 1, 2013, the Clinton-era tax rates would return.

This change, by itself, would solve about 75 percent of the deficit problem over the next five years. The rest could come from spending cuts, both for social programs and the military.

Over the longer term — 20 years — letting all of the Bush cuts lapse would close only about 40 percent of the budget gap. But 40 percent is a great start.
...
So keep your eye on Jan. 1, 2013. The best hope for a solution may be the possibility that the two parties can’t agree to a solution."