Alan Grayson reminds us that the Bush tax cuts are now eleven years old. Bush signed the first tax cut package into law on June 7, 2011 2001.
Bush claimed (as right-wingers always do) that tax breaks for the rich would create jobs in the private sector. Well, they haven’t. There were 110 million private sector jobs in America in 2001. There are 110 million private sector jobs in America today. Despite a population increase of more than 25 million, there are no more private sector jobs today than when the Bush tax breaks for the rich became law.
Further, most of the continent of Europe has been going whole-hog on “austerity” in recent years to bring down government debt, and the result is disaster. Will Hutton:
It could hardly be more sobering. Money has flooded out of Spain, Greece and the peripheral European economies. Signs of the crisis range from Athen’s soup kitchens to Spain‘s crowds of indignados protesting in the streets against austerity and a broken capitalism. Youth unemployment is sky-high. Less visible is the avalanche of money flowing into hoped-for safe havens in the US, Germany and even Britain. The last time the British government could sell government bonds at interest rates as low as today’s was in the early 1700s.
One would think that anyone bright enough to tie his own shoes would look at these results and conclude that more tax and spending cuts probably are not going to help. But the capacity of true believers to deny reality is boundless. The crew at Reason argue that Europe just hasn’t been austere enough. More spending cuts … that’s the ticket!
Of course, in 2010 the famously stupid Veronique de Rugy thought that Europe was getting everything right.
I’ve been haunted by this video of Paul Krugman trying to explain reality to a couple of pro-austerity Brits. The two Brits are obviously well educated and successful, and they seem incapable of understanding anything but budget cuts good, spending bad. The two of them sputter and babble and repeat ideological talking points and look at Krugman as if he has worms coming out of his nose. And you know that no amount of real-world experience would ever make a dent in their fantasies.
At one point, Krugman gets to the bottom line:
“By the way, I think you’ve just given me confirmation of something that people like me tend to say, which is, actually none of this is at all about fiscal responsibility. It’s all about exploiting the current situation to pursue an ideological goal of a smaller state.”
Which is why they can’t be reasoned with.
BTW, at the end of the interview one of the two twits asked “What about Estonia?” Estonia’s economy has improved somewhat, which proves to the twits that austerity works, even if it is failing everywhere else. Krugman addresses that on his blog.
Speaking of religion, see also “The GOP’s Bizarre, Disturbing Passion for Raising Taxes on the Poor.” Also, too,”Not With a Bang, But a Whimper: The Long, Slow Death Spiral of America’s Labor Movement.”
Krugman said something that I’ve LONG suspected.
Yes, they CAN’T be reasoned with.
But it’s not that they’re without “reason.”
Or that they WON’T “reason.”
It’s that they just have their OWN ‘reasons!’
And these are what they’ve been, and continue, presenting to everyone, trying to justify the global movement by the .01 – .0001%er’s, to move money away from working and retired people WORLDWIDE, and keep if for themselves.
So, most of them are NOT at all stupid. The smart ones are in on this – the largest “Grift” in the worlds history!
And they’re using the ones who are stupid, and filling their heads with BS, so they can present a unified front to the MSM – most of whom, if they’re not obtuse, ARE stupid – and/or cowardly, compliant, and complicit. They want to keep their jobs, which keep them pretty well off – so don’t expect them to say anything about this.
And the Galtian Overlords in this “Cannibal Capitalism Grift,” are giving this theft cover by saying, merciful caring souls that they are, that cutting deficits, and having “Austerity,” and by sacrificing safety net programs, it’ll save “OUR” poor children, and “our” poor children’s poor children, and “our” poor children’s poor children’s poor children, etc.
BULLFUCKINGSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THEIR children, for many, many, many, many generations, will never have to work a day in their empty and useless lives, living off of trust funds that will move from any country in the future that’s growing unstable – and moving that money to whatever place(s) is/are stable that month, year, decade, etc.
They are trying to ruin the social safety net programs of as many countries as possible, and take that money, and pocket it.
And not only that, they want to use the coming economic collapse as an example for any emerging countries in the future who may think of establishing social safety net programs of their own, and tell them, ‘look at what a disaster THAT brought back then – and that was to to places as stable as America AND Europe! Don’t do that here – we’ll take care of your little nation – trust us!’
THIS is all being done on purpose!
The richest are making the biggest money grab in history – and it’s International in it’s scope!
They want to rule over a world of serf’s – just like in, and before, “The Feudal Era”.
They want to make this “The Futile Era.” Where, with modern technology like listening and tracking devices, new weapons, and new ways to control crowds, resistance will be futile – AND deadly!
I know this sounds crazy. Maybe it is…
But go ahead – tell me I’m wrong!
Go ahead – tell me I’m mad!
Maybe it’s not too late to try to stop this!
We’ll deserve our fate, and the fate of future generations, if we DON’T AT LEAST TRY TO REVOLT!
And if they won’t appreciate and accept a peaceful revolution, well, let it be on their be-headed heads! Or, ours…
Remember the song by Johny Nash where he sings “I can see clearly now the rain is gone; I can see all obstacles in my way; gone are the dark clouds thad had me blind”?
Well I certainly feel that way. The problems are obvious, and the fix is painful but not impossible.
The fix does NOT include cutting “entitlements”.
The fix does include huge “defense” cuts, cuts to countries that stab us in the back,
the creation of a gigantic publics works project, and telling the very rich that we need THEM to step up to the plate and help save the republic. It’s time to stop crushing the middle class, and stop sending our kids to fight in wars like those of the deceased British empire.
The whole scene reminds me of England during the days of Kipling, with far greater stakes.
It is pretty weird how many conservatives don’t even understand what capitalism is. Or maybe not so weird, which I guess is your whole point. Once something becomes a religion, it doesn’t really matter what it actually is–sort of like the way fanatical Christians use the Bible as something to beat people over the head with, not to actually read and understand. Or the way the wingnut image of St. Ronaldus Magnissimus has very little to do with the actual person.
But still. Capitalist economies are driven by the flow of capital. What could be more basic than that? Is it asking to much for people who call themselves capitalists and sing hymns of praise to the Free Market to understand such a basic point? In a capitalist economy, if capital isn’t flowing, nothing happens.
Whenever a wingnut replies with something like “What about Estonia?” – this is classic wingnut reasoning, I’ve seen it over and over. They trot out one datapoint – typically it’s an outlier, something obscure like the country of Estonia, or (in the case of an argument I recently had with a climate change denialist) an unknown, obscure scientist in Japan who denies climate change – which they really believe refutes the argument being made against them.
They cannot be made to see the entire picture, because this would challenge their rigidly held religion. They have literally spent years living in comfortable little box, tuning out any and all contradicting data, on purpose. They cannot bear to admit they’re wrong, because their all or nothing, true believer worldview would come to an end. Mental flexibility – except when it comes to defending their preconceived notions – they utterly lack.
In other words, these are willfully stupid people, who shouldn’t be in charge of anything significant.
The stunning point made in the labor article is this: “. . . the decline of the labor movement is one of the primary causes of American income and wealth inequality, particularly among male workers.”
But, alas, few in America will never understand this.
One point that strikes me as odd is many conservatives are in favor of eliminating or vastly reducing retirement benefits in the name of curtailing wasteful government spending. It should be obvious (especially to residents of Florida) that without seniors with disposible income and good health care benefits, the whole system goes down.
Orlando is now poised to be a major health care research center, something the people here realize will bolster our economy and move it beyond the current status as a theme park center.
Doctors and medical researchers do not plan on donating their services or working for minimum wage. The costs will mostly be carried by health care insurance which is mostly provided by large companies or government.
The right has a circular firing squad.
Martin Wolf, again.
This time, he responds to Ludger Schuknecht, a senior and highly respected official of the German finance ministry.
http://blogs.ft.com/martin-wolf-exchange/2012/06/07/the-german-response/#axzz1xDh8bgOi
And in his response, Mr. Wolf breaks “Godwins Law,” and brings up ‘you know who.’
I’m telling you, these “Austerity” people aren’t stupid, and they aren’t clowns!
They’re doing this on purpose!!!
Maybe they are Fascists at heart.
Or maybe they see immense and countless profits in a world where there are endless hungry serf’s willing to work for next to nothing for the very wealthy – and those who help them get that “feudal” system back in place, will be given a share of the profits.
Sweet Jayzooz – I AM starting to sound like a nut!
Or am I just a less civil, paranoid, very, very, lightweight Krugman or Wolf?
Probably a nut…
Gulag:
Found you guys by accident thanks to an Internet search: “Libertarian Fascists.” Libertarian fascist indeed. Thank the universe, an oasis of sanity. I spent most of the evening battling Ron Paul enthusiasts until I got a headache. I was worried that I was all by my lonesome out there, so you can imagine how relieved I am.
Anyway, the reason I decided to post a commnet was mainly to respond with this>>> you’re not nuts. I’ve come to the same conclusion independent of anything other than my own research. Turns out 2 + 2 does = 4. This global economic crisis was a deliberate set up for the obvious reason stated by Krugman in the video above. Hadn’t yet seen it, but had noticed the exact same deficits/austerity rhetoric coming out of Europe as well as Canada and to some extent from Australia as we’re hearing from our right-wing baggers here in the US.
I’m pretty sure that if anyone cared to scratch the surface, they’d discover the self-described “Christian mafia” (otherwise known as “The Family) in on this.
It’s the right-wing “Starve the Beast”/”Shock Doctrine” wet dream on a massive scale alright. I think I even remember Krugman aluding to it as far back as last year. Not to many of our brilliant minds are catching on (which I find difficult to believe). It’s willfull obtuseness.
Working on sounding the alarm (here, there, everywhere) little by little exposing Christian Reconstruction, “Biblical Economics,” ALEC, Wall St. and the GOP’s religious fundamentalist tea party. It’s slow going but better than sitting around waiting for them to pull it down around our ears.
Hope you get to read this – I realize it’s an older thread so maybe not. Just for the record then.
Meanwhile, I think I’ll read more of this here excellent blog.
P.S. Sorry ’bout the typos, I’ve been up around the clock and it’s 10:30 a.m. here. I’ll confine myself to reading, rather than writing and sounding like a lunatic.
Saving this blog to favorites!
kfreed,
Welcome to maha’s great site.
It’s nice to find kindred souls!
For you, and for me/us – especially those who tell me that I’m still sane. 🙂