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This is a brilliant soundbite: Twice today, CNN has done short segments on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s declaration that, To give the proposed economic stimulus plan some perspective, “if you started the day Jesus Christ was born and spent $1 million every day since then, you still wouldn’t have spent $1 trillion.” Both times [...]
David Boaz put together an astounding list of Democrats who cheat on their taxes. The party that wants to raise taxes, cheats and doesn’t pay them. I sympathize with anybody trying to hold down his tax bill. Government is too big and too expensive, few of us feel we get our money’s worth from our [...]
If I voted for a party that wanted to raise my taxes and spend even more money that the government doesn’t have; and if Joe Biden, our new Vice-President from that party described paying taxes as patriotic; and if that same party criticized a plumber for a $1,000 tax lien; and if it then turned [...]
UPDATE: This might not be chargeable to Obama: The Obama White House on Monday backed away from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s support for increased federal funding of contraception in the $825-billion stimulus bill now under consideration by Congress. h/t Ace If so, my apologies to Obama and to Catholics for Obama. Let’s see how this [...]
Not the Ramones, Kevin Hasssett on January 12: We are in the midst of a crisis caused by so many financial institutions borrowing too much money. Somehow, a critical mass of policy makers now believes that the correct response is for the U.S. government to borrow too much money. ****** This year may establish a [...]
Shannon Love at Chicago Boyz thinks that California has reached a tipping point: Of course no one is being whipped, but in effect an ordinary citizen of California cannot get their desires for reduced state spending implemented due to the disproportionate power of the State’s employees and allied interest. It appears now that the government [...]
In my entry on the MTA and labor costs, I stated that I feared that New York would become too much like New Orleans and Detroit — once thriving cities that choked their productive class out of existence, left with taxeaters and — at least in New Orleans, a concentrated professional class and tourist section. [...]
Last week the Metropolitan Transit Authority decided to punt its obligations, and agreed to refer its new labor negotiations to an arbitration panel. With skyrocketing deficits and the promise of higher fares, higher taxes, and even a new tax on payrolls, they made no effort to confront the union over wages, work rules, or pensions. [...]
Today’s opinion section in the Daily News today has three separate articles on taxes and pensions for government workers. Well, two-and-a-half, really. First, the lead editorial argues that government worker costs are way too high, and ends with this conclusion: The runaway costs of pensions and health care are a major reason the city and [...]
The New York Times lead editorial today: Concern over swelling deficits should not stop Congress from taking steps to revive the economy. But rising deficits — coupled with long-term budget problems driven mostly by the rising cost of health care — make it imperative to get the most from every dollar that is spent on [...]
