Quote of the Day: Bruce Bartlett Edition

If only Bruce Bartlett would share his true feelings about the tea party.

Quote of the Day

"Also if you vote in a minority area in a wanker state make sure and vote early because the polls shut exactly on time no matter how many people are in line. If you vote in a white area, don't worry, they will hold the polls open for you all night if necessary."

Bruce Bartlett, on Facebook.

Quote of the Day

"Why doesn't Meet the Press make John McCain its host? He can interview himself every week and cut out the middleman."

Bruce Bartlett, on Facebook.

I'm holding out hope for McCain getting his own variety show.

Quote of the Day: Bruce Bartlett Edition

I am Facebook friends and a Twitter follower of economist Bruce Bartlett. I am not a bit surprised by Bartlett's contempt for the tea party. Bartlett is viewed as a conservative. However, Bartlett has been blasting the GOP establishment and the tea party for years.

Bartlett is a wonk who cares about policy. The current conservative movement denies basic scientific facts and proposes economic policies that neither stimulate job creation or create a fiscal surplus. Bartlett is even defending Paul Krugman from conservatives.

Bartleet's quote came from an appearance on MSNBC.

Quote of the Day

"There is no logical connection between believing in a gold standard and favoring gold as an investment or not. Fools think there is."

Bruce Bartlett

That fool would be CNBC host Larry Kudlow.

Update: Bartlett tweeted me that he is banned from Larry Kudlow's show.

Nowhere Man

Doesn't have a point of view, Knows not where he's going to, Isn't he a bit like you and me? Nowhere Man, please listen, You don't know what you're missing, Nowhere Man, the world is at your command. He's as blind as he can be, Just sees what he wants to see, Nowhere Man can you see me at all?

Nowhere Man by the Beattles.

During a recent interview with Noticias Univision 23, President Barack Obama admits that he is philosophically a moderate Republican.

"The truth of the matter is that my policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies that I had back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican."

Obama would not have had the courage to make that statement during the election. Bruce Bartlett takes the Univision interview as proof of Obama's conservative leanings. I think that is giving Obama too much credit. Obama told Bob Woodward that he is a Blue Dog Democrat. Obama doesn't seem to understand that Blue Dogs came from the racist Dixiecrats. Obama doesn't think deeply about what he stands for. In researching this post, I found this CNBC interview with Woodward. It seems Woodward came to the same conclusion.

‘A Divided Man’TFT : How does Obama compare in broad terms to other presidents you’ve covered? BW: Well, he’s very, very smart. But there’s a “divided man” quality to him. He tells people, “I’m a blue dog. I want fiscal restraint and order.” At the same time, as he told me, “I don’t want to cut entitlements in any way that would hurt vulnerable populations.” So, there isn’t the quality of, “This is how we’re going to do it.” When I was in the Navy in the ‘60s an executive officer had a plaque in his office that said, “He who does not know to which port he is sailing has no favorable wind.” Sometimes it is not clear whether Obama is sailing to the fiscal restraint port –or to the “protect-the-entitlements-at-all-costs” port.

If Obama doesn't know what he stands for, it makes me wonder why he wants to serve in government.

Update: National security blogger Steve Hynd has a theory about why Obama wanted to serve in government.

As to the Q at the end of yr post. When he entered office he was worth just over $3m. now over $6m.

Quote of the Day

If Democrats are going to accept Republican premises, they shouldn’t be surprised if a majority of people eventually conclude that Republicans ought to be in charge of government policy.

Economist Bruce Bartlett.

This is the problem with the triangulation strategy deployed by President Obama and his political team. Harry Truman made the point that voters will choice a Republican over a President that governed like a Republican any day. The 2010 elections sent the Blue Dogs irrelevancy. The only upside about a potential Obama loss is that it will kill triangulation and neoliberalism. To that I say good riddance.

Marco Rubio: Deficit Peacock

Apparently, Marco Rubio thinks that Social Security is in a deficit. Rubio is not even aware that Social Security is a surplus. Rubio appeared on Rush Limbaugh's show and uttered economic nonsense.

SENATOR RUBIO: Sure. He can stop it right now by basically saying, "You know what, we need to do something to grow our economy. Let's pass tax reform. Let's pass regulatory reform." He can stop this by also starting to implement some of the spending measures we think are necessary. He can also stop it by basically prioritizing spending on certain things if it comes to that. But let me tell you one thing, Rush, that no one said yet or maybe they have, the fact that payments on Social Security and Medicare may stop is a stinging indictment and a wake-up call. What Americans should realize, "Hold on a second, my Social Security check and my Medicare benefits are borrowed? The money that you're using to pay for my Social Security are borrowed? I thought I paid into a trust fund. I thought I worked my whole life to pay into some system and now you're paying my money back and you're claiming that the money is being borrowed?" That's what they're basically conceding when they're saying this.

Rubio continues spreading misinformation about Social Security.

RUSH: Yeah. You know, that's exactly right. We always thought Social Security was in a lockbox.

SENATOR RUBIO: Well, maybe a Chinese lockbox because that's what we're borrowing the money from. The point is if that comes to pass or he's threatening to do that, then the wake-up call and the message to Americans is, hey, your Social Security benefits, your Medicare benefits, what we're paying soldiers in the field, all these things that are being cut off, this is borrowed money. This is not money we have or money we saved for you. This is money we are borrowing from your children and your grandchildren, and we have no way of paying it back, and that alone should send a chill up the spine of millions of Americans.

Social Security is solvent until 2037. Payroll taxes for SSI are taken out and used to fund other parts of the federal government. The government can repay that money back to Social Security. As for conservatives who lament that Social Security is merely IOUs? What do conservatives think Treasury bonds are? The Social Security doesn't keep money inside a giant bank vault.

Defense bonds helped fund American military operations during WWII. Americans got repayment and the interest from the bonds. Social Security is a trust fund that has been repaying retirees since FDR. Taxes were increased and the retirement age was raised in 1983 to make the trust fund for solvent. The fact remains that Social Security is not part of the national debt or deficit. Rubio is wrong.

Rubio claims that President Barack Obama wanted the debt ceiling crisis to go down to the wire.

Read more »

Rubio Still Dumb

I am not surprised when Marco Rubio says dumb things. The man is not smart. For instance: Rubio has never opened a history book.

America is pretty much the only military power in human history that has not used his power to conquer land and grow it's territory.

Military power was used to take land from the Mexicans and Indians. The fact that a United States Senator is unaware of this is disturbing.

Rubio supports drilling off the coast of Florida. The Daily News editorial board was shocked to learn that Rubio was unaware the Air Force was against offshore drilling because of military exercises.

But he was unaware of military officials’ concern about expanded drilling, which complicates the issue here on the Emerald Coast. In June, the commander of Eglin Air Force Base’s Air Armament Center told our editorial board that more drilling in water ranges that are used for training will, “at some point,” have an impact on national defense.

Mr. Rubio said he would have to research the matter.


The Miami resident also seemed unfamiliar with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s recent shutdown of amberjack fishing, which has riled folks in Destin. The most he could muster was a one-size-fits-all observation that federal officials were “overreaching.”

Read more »

Profile In Courage Award: Suzanne Kosmas

"Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican," President Harry Truman said. "People will vote for the real Republican all the time." Rep. Suzanne Kosmos has not learned that lesson. Kosmas voted against the Affordable Health Care for America Act. An internal poll of potential Republican opponent Craig Miller finds 66 percent of Republicans undecided. The best way for Kosmas to differentiate herself is not parrot Miller's position on the Bush tax cuts.

Kosmas wrote a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to extend the Bush tax cuts. Kosmas writes tax cuts for dividends and capital gains. These are taxes on profitable stocks. Wall Street is hiring again. Increased earnings in the financial industry have not produced jobs. The Bush tax cuts decreased the size of the middle class by 4.2 percent. What Kosmos is proposing is nonsense and an act of political cowardliness.

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer and Chairman Levin:

As you are aware, without action, the tax rates established under the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 are set to expire at the end of the 2010. As I have discussed with my colleagues and with economists, we must extend these tax rates in order to give our fragile economy the time it needs to recover from the ongoing crisis. Working families and small businesses in our communities are doing everything they can to make ends meet during these difficult times, and we need to make sure that they continue to have the tools they need to succeed.

Continuing this tax-relief is a common-sense measure that will ease the burden for middle-class families and provide tax certainty for small business owners looking to invest and create jobs. Extending the 2001 and 2003 tax rates will provide continuing stability to the millions of families who have benefited from reduced taxes. In addition, the 2001/2003 tax cuts lowered rates not only for ordinary income, but also for dividends and capital gains, which create incentives that are crucial to private sector investment and give our small business owners the opportunities and financial security they deserve. If we allow these tax rates to expire we run the serious risk of weakening job growth and economic expansion at a time when our economy has begun to recover.

The best way to reduce our deficit is to grow our economy. Allowing the 2001 and 2003 tax rates to expire before our economy fully recovers may reduce our ability to support our small businesses, stimulate the economy, and bring our deficit under control in the future. Given our fragile recovery, I urge you to support extending the 2001 and 2003 rates in order to allow our economy to fully strengthen and grow.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Kosmas

Member of Congress

Kosmas is promoting trickle down economics. I find it hard to believe any economist told her extending the Bush tax cuts would create a surplus. Conservative economist Bruce Bartlett has a list of quotes from Bush administration economists saying the opposite.

Alan Viard, senior economist at Council of Economic Advisers during Bush’s first term.

“Federal revenue is lower today than it would have been without the tax cuts. There’s really no dispute among economists about that.”

Robert Carroll, deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis at the U.S. Treasury Department during Bush’s second term.

“As a matter of principle, we do not think tax cuts pay for themselves.”

Former Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson.

“As a general rule, I do not believe that tax cuts pay for themselves.”

I challenge the Kosmas campaign to provide me with the economists who told her the Bush tax cuts would reduce the deficit. I will be waiting for a response.

The National Sales Tax

Fun fact: the national sales tax is an idea originated by the Church of Scientology. Bruce Bartlett explains:

For those who never heard about it, the FairTax is a national retail sales tax that would replace the entire current federal tax system. It was originally devised by the Church of Scientology in the early 1990s as a way to get rid of the Internal Revenue Service, with which the church was then at war (at the time the IRS refused to recognize it as a legitimate religion). The Scientologists' idea was that since almost all states have sales taxes, replacing federal taxes with the same sort of tax would allow them to collect the federal government's revenue and thereby get rid of their hated enemy, the IRS.

L. Ron Hubbard and the Church of Scientology didn't pitch a national sales tax because it was a good idea. They just hated the IRS. That might have something to do with Hubbard embezzling millions.

A national sales tax has been pitched in Freedom Magazine. The publication is run by (you guessed it) the Church of Scientology.

Find an economic idea conservatives love and it is bound to have a bizarre origin.