Well…yeah, I know, I stole that from Al Gore but it does describe the situation here in Michigan where the misguided repubs are betting the future of job growth on tax cuts for business while raising taxes on everyone else. This idea came from a couple of columns I read this morning and caused some of the econ 101 memories to come back to the top of my head. One of the articles was by Brian O’Connor in the Detroit News…yeah, I know, with an article going against the repubs line, where is he going to go to work next? The article dealt with the repubs claim that tax cuts for business will cause the cost of labor to decrease so business will hire more people, and he used the example of a conversation with the owner of one his favorite pizza places; when asked the question, the owner wanted to know what corporation would be buying the extra pizzas he needs to sell to justify hiring new employees and expanding his business. With tax increases on everyone else, the first thing to go in discretionary spending is eating out, and without an increase in demand for his pizzas, no amount of tax cuts will make him hire even one more person.
This points to the inconvenient truth that the repubs don’t want anyone to think about…with tax cuts for business and increases for everyone else, demand is going to fall and no business is going to hire in the face of decreasing demand….gov Snyder might have made millions selling off Gateway, but he and his administration are acting like the truths of economics can be trumped by belief….a recipe for disaster for our state and country….geez…
Well…a fun Sunday with SF with K,K, V and Tom out to two places for a few beers…..good to get out of here if even for a little while….was good when I got home so I don’t feel bad today…just the normal aches and pains….but I am having problems grinding my teeth again…I thought I had that one fixed but the pain in my jaw says different…oh, well….it did keep me up most of the night so I am a little tired….not much to do today..have to work on some equipment and do the resume thing but that is about it. I will update in a while when I get my head cleared and I start to think….I did get a couple out yesterday so that should keep you occupied until I get a new one out today….more later….
Well…I just had to comment on the article by Rick Haglund in the GR Press this morning that supports my assertion (as do the numbers behind it) that tax cuts for business and for high income individuals do nothing to create jobs. But, as you know, I take it farther than that by following the money….that these tax cuts go directly to the bonuses of the ceos and board members and are paid by you and me by the increases in our taxes. The figures show that the tax burden for business has been falling for years in Michigan so where are the jobs? As I’ve said before, these tax cuts are ideology driven, not reality based as any economic policy should be.
The second thing I wanted to talk about this morning is the slap in the face to the repubs that came from the health insurance industry over the past couple of days. If you’ve been reading the news lately, you have seen that health insurance premiums have been skyrocketing over the past few months and the repubs have been trying to pin this cost increase on the healthcare law but the repubs had their legs cut out from under them when the industry tied the increases to increases in the cost of care instead. They went further to say that the increases would have been worse without the law. How do you feel about your buddies in the industry now repubs? So, any time you hear a repub talking about “Obamacare” and how it has increased costs, chalk it up to another lie from the liars…should we start doing a lie count everyday? Nope…the numbers would overwhelm me….
One last thing…when you hear any repubs talking about job growth and that cutting spending will create jobs…remember that the cuts they have proposed on the federal level have been projected to cost the country almost a million jobs in the first year….and that doesn’t take into account that these cuts are all politically motivated…do you see any cuts in the subsidies for business? Nope, you didn’t since they are not there….just cuts to the things that benefit the poor and middle class…can’t wait for 2012 to get here and we can send these idiots back to Fox news……geez…
Well…running late this morning…hmmm..not really, this appears to be the emerging pattern for Sundays…read the paper first with large amounts of coffee, then here to get the first one out for the day. Had a nice day yesterday and accomplished some things but not nearly enough of them..this place is getting to have that shabby patina because I have been avoiding doing the cleaning…What I want to know is where do the spiders come from in the winter? I have another crop that have set up shop in the bathroom that need to be removed…I think that will be my focus for the day. Don’t know what is going on with the Wings…3 losses in a row and really inconsistent play…not the thing you want to see with only 11 games left in the season…and that is another thing I can’t believe….the NHL season almost over? It seems like it just started. Not much to do today…probably a SF with K later and the race of course, but not much else….and I know I have to get the cleaning done before that…never very ambitious when I get back….I do have a topic for later…I am in shock that a columnist for the GR Press has come out against the budget plans of gov Snyder….and supported my contention that tax cuts don’t create jobs…..I wonder where he’s going to work next? More later….
One last thing I wanted to comment on is a food find that really surprised me yesterday….mad a pork loin roast yesterday, as you know, but the potatoes I made with it are new to me….some small, round, yellow potatoes that when cut and roasted, get a crust on the outside and when you bite into them, the inside is almost liquid…like good mashed potatoes. I know, little things make me happy now….
Well…just needed to comment on one last thing for today….I’ll try to be a little more calm about this one since the absurdity of it makes me laugh….after the announcement this week that the justice department will stop wasting money and defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, the tanned one (John Boehner), has stated that the House will now take it upon itself to defend the act in court. He goes on to state that it is unconstitutional for the executive branch to make that decision. Really, John? the last I checked justice department is part of the executive branch and choosing to not enforce discriminatory laws has a long history in the US. In this time of record deficits caused by tax cuts for the rich and the worst recession in a hundred years, these idiots will spend yours and my money on this folly instead of focusing on getting the economy moving again. But, did you expect any different? The repubs only govern for their base and don’t care that the majority of Americans want to move forward away from this divisive issue….geez….
Well….just looked back at a few from the past couple of weeks and I didn’t know I was so angry and combative….I’m getting tired of being pissed off and I’ll bet you are tired of reading it here so, let’s try to lighten things up a bit and smile a little. Hold on….need to take a shower first and get the pork loin cooking so I can have it for lunch….be back in about a half hour….going to try some of these little, round potatoes with it that I’ve never cooked before but were on sale at Meijers for a buck for a three pound bag…and I have become hooked on fresh broccoli too, and I am going to start trying some new recipes for cooking and seasoning it…okay, now I’m going to take that shower…..back in about a half hour…go!
Hi, I’m back…have the food cooking for lunch and it is starting to smell good in here…..I think what I’m going to do is come back all day and add to this one…don’t have a lot to say right now….I used to be funny and I don’t know where that went but I do want to try to reclaim it…I think it will help my mood a bit and a SF with K would get me out of this place…in the snow…come on..it’s March already, can’t it stop snowing so I can get on the bike? I have gained the normal 12 pounds that I gain every year in the winter but I started at a lower, leaner, level…..say that three times fast….that is fun to say…lower, leaner, level….so I don’t feel as bad about it this year….as I said, I’ll be back later….have been moving around since 6 and want to take a veg hour….
Well…after reading all week of the deficits that plague both state and the federal government and the efforts to cut spending to match the depressed tax revenues caused by the recession, I find one part of the puzzle missing…the direct cause of most of the deficits. It’s one that the repubs don’t want to talk about anymore: the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich. Of the 1.4 trillion dollar federal deficit, 1 trillion of that is caused by the extension of the tax cuts for the rich and if Obama and the dems had some guts, they would have said no to that compromise that put us on the path of “starve the beast” that the repubs have been preaching forever.
This little tidbit comes from a front page article in the GR Press the other day where the Lt gov here in Michigan defended the budget proposals that give tax cuts to corporations by raising taxes on the poor and retired by saying “forget the present”…and put your belief in some vague future where tax cuts are supposed to spur business; never mind that they never have…never in history. What the problem with these guys is that they are saying trust us, trust that we know what we are doing and our budget process is not driven by ideology and lies. Well…Mr. Calley…the one thing that we are learning here in Michigan and across the country is that the repubs can’t be trusted…their entire reason for being is to transfer wealth from the middle class to corporations and the rich and to shred what little is left of the social safety net. What I want to ask you and your cronies is: “How much is enough?” Companies in the US have the highest retained profits in history…and they are not creating any jobs. So you propose to throw more money at them and say “pretty please, create some jobs”…you know where that extra money is going to go…right into the bonuses of the ceo’s…and you want the poor and retired to pay them? Geez….
Well…a fun day yesterday with a great lunch with T…after lunch, though, I just vegged and watched movies being totally unproductive and that sloth continued into the evening with cocktails and more Neflix on my roku. I think I’m getting to the point that I don’t even watch the dish anymore….it was off in the rain last night and I didn’t even know it….I do feel a little slow this morning but I think it’s from just eating lunch yesterday and nothing else…I am going to make another pork loin roast today so I’ll make up for it later. Not much to do today..might have a SF with K and V later but I’m not sure if it will be today or tomorrow…and I have some work to do around here that I shouldn’t put off anymore….but, it will probably be more vegging later…just can’t get motivated and not sleeping well doesn’t help…I will get at least one more out today with the front page article by the Lt. Gov that basically said “trust us” something that you just can’t do with those liars….
Well…if you thought you’d heard it all from the crazy repub thugs in Wisconsin, yesterday brought us a level of crazy that even takes my breath away….and shatters their facade that they care about the constitution at all. The gist of yesterday’s outrage is that the repub controlled congress there is planning to pass a law that make it illegal for the dems that have fled the state to prevent the crippling of unions to stay away…yep, you’ve heard it right, the repub thugs there want to send the Wisconsin police across state lines to physically abduct the dem senators and force them by gunpoint, if necessary, to go back to Wisconsin and vote on the bill that will take away people’s right to collectively bargain. There are so many ways that this is unconstitutional that my jaw drops when I even think of it. What about the fourth amendment? These repub thugs now look like the leaders of any corrupt third world country that doesn’t get their way and are not above using force to change it. This idiot Walker should be recalled by the people of Wisconsin…I’m sure they didn’t vote for government by gunpoint…geez…
Okay…just read the latest in thuggery from the governor…he has threatened to lay off 1,500 workers if the dems don’t come back to the state….is this Wisconsin or Libya? Keep doubling down idiot….
I have to comment on the “elections have consequences crowd” that is casting the protest there as just sour grapes from the dems…I would agree with that if the repubs had not lied and covered up their real agenda, not to reveal it until after the electorate was duped into voting for them…the bait and switch that I talked about yesterday….
Well…I don’t know if I had an epiphany this morning or not…and I may have talked about this in earlier posts but I think it’s an important distinction that we have to keep coming back to…oh, I guess I just “buried the lead” like they say in newspaper business. What I’m trying to say is that we need to recognize the differences between the dems and repubs, and I think it can be boiled down to a few points…the number one being that the repubs are all about restricting peoples rights while the progressives and dems are all about enlarging them. It is odd that the repubs keep harping on limited government and individual rights on one hand, and then they always turn around and use the power of government to limit or even take away rights. We’ve seen this so many times in the past decade or so that I really don’t know why I have to keep bringing attention to these charlatans and their mendacity. Okay, I just love the word mendacity….look it up. While the rights of corporations have been on an arc of unlimited expansion with deregulation and the Citizens United decision, across the country the repubs are limiting the right of women to control their own bodies, limiting the right of association by making sure that unions have no power to represent people in negotiations, limiting the human right of loving and marrying whomever they choose…and the list goes on and on, and on.
The founders of this country envisioned that the rights of the people would continue to expand over time, and constructed a form of government that they thought would guarantee it….they always thought the greatest threat to the freedom of the people would come from within, when ignorant politicians and an uninformed populace would conspire by their action or inaction to bring us down…geez…