Krauthammer: Swindle Of A Lifetime - Obama Tax Bill Is Biggest Federal Stimulus In U.S. History
Video - Krauthammer on the generational-thieving, deficit-busting rip off
---
Swindle of the Year
By Charles Krauthammer
Barack Obama won the great tax-cut showdown of 2010 - and House Democrats don't have a clue that he did. In the deal struck this week, the president negotiated the biggest stimulus in American history, larger than his $814 billion 2009 stimulus package. It will pump a trillion borrowed Chinese dollars into the U.S. economy over the next two years - which just happen to be the two years of the run-up to the next presidential election. This is a defeat?
If Obama had asked for a second stimulus directly, he would have been laughed out of town. Stimulus I was so reviled that the Democrats banished the word from their lexicon throughout the 2010 campaign. And yet, despite a very weak post-election hand, Obama got the Republicans to offer to increase spending and cut taxes by $990 billion over two years. Two-thirds of that is above and beyond extension of the Bush tax cuts but includes such urgent national necessities as windmill subsidies.
No mean achievement. After all, these are the same Republicans who spent 2010 running on limited government and reducing debt. And this budget busting occurs less than a week after the president's deficit commission had supposedly signaled a new national consensus of austerity and frugality.
Some Republicans are crowing that Stimulus II is the Republican way - mostly tax cuts - rather than the Democrats' spending orgy of Stimulus I. That's consolation? This just means that Republicans are two years too late. Stimulus II will still blow another near-$1 trillion hole in the budget.
At great cost that will have to be paid after this newest free lunch, the package will add as much as 1 percent to GDP and lower the unemployment rate by about 1.5 percentage points. That could easily be the difference between victory and defeat in 2012.
Obama is no fool. While getting Republicans to boost his own reelection chances, he gets them to make a mockery of their newfound, second-chance, post-Bush, Tea-Party, this-time-we're-serious persona of debt-averse fiscal responsibility.
And he gets all this in return for what? For a mere two-year postponement of a mere 4.6-point increase in marginal tax rates for upper incomes. And an estate tax rate of 35 percent - it jumps insanely from zero to 55 percent on Jan. 1 - that is somewhat lower than what the Democrats wanted.
Continue reading at Wash Po...
---
Funny clip with Clinton and Krauthammer on tax bill...
Video - Krauthammer on Clinton Quoting Him
- 'My Career is Done - Maybe NPR Will Take Me'
Reader Comments (5)
op-ed source...
One of India's topmost diplomats, Mr. Puri was asked by officials to remove his turban during a security check at the Houston Airport two weeks ago, sources said.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article950124.ece
Here's the story of a young lady who has $200k in college debt (from an undergraduate degree alone.) Yikes! Her words:
The severity of my situation goes a bit deeper than "I owe this money, help me" - I am actually forced to live with my parents (forced = I am lucky! But...) as the monthly payments for just my private loans are currently $891 until Nov 2011 when they increase to $1600 per month for the following 20 years... attached is my payment plan. I also mentioned I have a job - which is great! And I probably have my college education to thank for that! Except there is still no way to make these monthly payments, and live on my own as a contributing member of society. Neither of my parents, nor I, really knew how this would pan out — unfortunately — and now that I'm here, I see no real light at the end of the tunnel.
http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2010/12/we-have-a-new-college-debt-queen.html
Mr. Carr was a Canadian who served in the Royal Navy during both world wars and was deeply troubled by the continuing occurrence of this plague on mankind, so he began researching the causes. This work serves as a valuable reference point from which to begin an inquiry into the affairs that plague us today. Also invaluable as an accurate source of contemporary history is Webster Tarpley's work "Against Oligarchy"" which he has kindly made available online. See also his bios on George Bush I and Kid Kenya.
Other works which I have found to be valuable precursors to an understanding of our dilemma are:
Collateral_Damage_911 (Vols I & II) : Eustace Mullins' "The Creature from Jekyll Island" and "The Curse of Canaan" and "Murder by Injection" and "The Secret Holocaust" ; Juri Lina's "Under the Sign of the Scorpion".Anthony Sutton's "Trilaterals Over America"On youtube one can listen to Benjamin Freedman's radio talks-quite enlightening. See also the Clinton Chronicles on Google Video. Another recent video to see:"What's in the Sky".
Have you ever heard of Henry George or Lysander Spooner - both American. Why not?