The elephant in the room – taxes
By Brian Kirwin | Friday, July 29th, 2011 | ColumnsMy latest column in the Daily Break focuses on what is really what fuels the current debt ceiling debate, and truly most other political debates – Taxes.
I’m not what some call a single-issue voter. I usually can find a whole host of reasons to oppose Democrats. But the issue of taxes keeps coming back to me, and not by my choice.
Because when you cut through the rhetoric and the smoke, taxes are the core of most key issues.
Read the brilliance by clicking here, and bonus points if you can guess who makes the mystery quote before I identify him.
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About the author
The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
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17 Responses to "The elephant in the room – taxes"
Of course, Brian returns to his one and only theme; lower taxes, but in the turmoil created by the disintegration of the republican party, there is a different elephant in the room; that is, civility. By repudiating their past in which they had as much of a role in creating the defict and the debt as the democrats, the tea party wing of the Party has repudiated the lawful actions of the Congress of the U.S. in appropriating funds to pay obligations. By doing so, they rip out the core of a civilized society; that is, citizens honor their obligations, they don’t slink away in the night and fail to uphold the actions of their forebearers.
Mike seems to intimate that with the disintegration of the Republican Party we are now an oligarchy under Democrat control. Mike is pushing one party tyranny that relies on public servitude to further Democrat control under an Obama “strong man” model that is their goal for our former, in their view, Constitutional Republic. They have already drafted Articles of Confederation to replace our Constitution, borrowing heavily from the former Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and other failed states, the platform of which is past, present and future blame and that has been presented here by Mike ad nauseam.
Mike, “Where’s the Democrat’s plan?”… Turmoil is being created by the disintegration of the Republican Party… Mike, “Where’s Obama’s plan?”… Republicans repudiated their past and created the deficit and the debt…
Mike, “Where’s the Democrat’s plan?”… The tea party wing has repudiated the lawful actions of Congress… Mike, “Where’s the plan?”… The Republicans are ripping out the core of a civilized society… Mike, “Where’s any kind of CBO scoreable plan from any Democrat?”… Republicans slink away in the night and fail… Blame, Blame, Blame, Blame and more Blame which has been poll tested and has worked in the past, but maybe some are getting a clue after the abysmal GDP numbers this morning.
At least somebody gets it.
http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2011/jul/27/checks-mail-haymarket-residents-ar-1198511/
You have to thank the intrasigent right wing republicans for one thing; that is, a large majority of citizens and voters now acknowledge that a balanced approach is required, and that means increased revenues from the end the Bush tax cuts, to the closing of tax credits and loopholes, and of course, from entitlement reform. The irony of the childish behavior of the far right is that by over reaching, they have changed the dynamic and helped to inform the center that the balanced approach is the best long term solution. Most rational centrist’s have always known that, but now, most of the rest of the country does too.
Were is the plan? The plan was “give Republicans enough rope to hang themselves”, and now they through self determination they are twisting in the wind. The plan was buy market “put options” on the S&P 500 before the close of trading Thursday and sell at the open today, now follow-up with August calls. While bloggers are mimicking Jessie Jackson epistrophes and ideological discussion of taxes and plans, the follow-the-money concept completely alludes them.
Now Tim J, who is over the top? Perhaps you simply don’t recall that since both the House and the Senate have authorized expenditures, and appropriated money, that raising the debt ceiling is actually a very simple act, done over a hundred times by Congress whether controlled by Democrats, Republicans, or both. Frankly, no plan, no negotiation, frankly even no discussion is really necessary. All the Congress needs to do is raise it, and then get down to business developing a long term balanced approach to reducing expenses, increasing revenue, and growing our tax base. Frankly, in a nut shell, that is all that needs to be done, and the republican strategy to hold our economy hostage to this simple act while they display their madness, their indecision, and their divisiveness will be their undoing.
Let’s see, now we have… “Conspiracy Erb” and “Blame Barrett”. “raising the debt ceiling is actually a very simple act”… yeah, that’s why spending and debt has destroyed economic growth which was adjusted to .4% for the first quarter and the new non-adjusted number for this quarter is 1.3%. And in your theme of “oligarchy” and you leftists moving us to one party rule, “Frankly, no plan, no negotiation, frankly even no discussion is really necessary.” Wow, where have we heard that before… Putin? Castro? Chavez? Dictators in Africa?
I have developed a “Republican Blame Meter” (RBM) for Mike’s comments which counts each time the tea party, Grover Norquist, Eric Cantor or other Republicans are blamed, which is then is applied to the entire comment. Mike really scored high in the last sentence… “hold our economy hostage”, “display their madness”, “their indecision”, “their divisiveness” for a total score of RBM = 4. The rest of the comment was nailing down some more planks in their vision of one party government.
Well yes Tim J, I do blame the republicans, and if you cannot understand the reason, you simply don’t want to understand. First, the debt ceiling has always been raised based upon the accurate presumption that since Representatives and Senators authorized expenditures and appropriated funds, that they were then obligated to raise the debt ceiling if expenditures exceeded revenues. And that has been the case for the past 100 or so times the debt ceiling has been raised. Yes, it is 100% the fault of the House Republicans who refuse to honor the past decisions of Congress. All your attempts to spin this any other way simply fail the test of logic and precedence.
RBM = 3… a little better than the last comment. This isn’t about “Understanding” history, this is about the here and now… debt, taxes and spending… and you and yours are playing political charades that pander blame and threaten destruction in a concerted effort to divide us as a nation.
No Tim J, it is calling a spade and spade. The current political correctness by those not widhing to offend is to lay blame on both parties. In this case, it is crystal clear who is holding the nation’s economy hostage; it is the republican majority in the House of Representatives, and frankly, you seem to one of the few americans who continue to deny that obvious fact.
RBM = 1, much better, and we know any “crystal” are you looking through has to be a very dark blue. Ok, so who is holding the nation’s economy hostage in the Senate and the White House?
Whatever happened to JOBS and putting more people back to work? This stuff about spending cuts and raising taxes means nothing unless we have more people working. Spending cuts will only put more people out of work and how are you going to tax people who are not working. The tax base will never be enough to make our country prosper until people are working for a decent salary. It has been 8 months since the 2010 elections and all that has been going on is congress has been acting like 2 kids fighting in a mud hole.
When you are in a deep hole and need to get out – rule one. Stop digging.
Mr. Barrett’s response – “but we’ve always kept digging.” Blame those new guys for making us stop doing the only things we know how – spend until all the money is gone … and then keep spending and put the rest on the credit card.
Actually, Greenmun shows why so called common sense is totally wrong in this situation. Sure, it is counter intuitive that you would invest in tough times, but that is absolutely necessary. In fact, we are in recovery because republicans and democrats stopped us from fiscal oblivion two years ago. Intelligent leadership is absolutely necessary to sequence the reduction of expenditures, the increase in revenue, in order to stimulate growth in GDP, not curtail it. It is growth in the U.S. economy that will put our bedget back into balance. Regretfully, Reid’s little fairytale is just what has happened; republicans have gone stark raving mad cutting government, and that is slowing the growth the GDP. Just ask Governor McDonnell who takes such great pride in cutting state and local government, but who fails to acknowledge the effect of putting so many public workers on the unemployment rolls, thereby reducing their spending in the local economy. Now we face a downgrade in our bond rating because the cuts will hurt the state’s economy more than most. So Reid, keep you little ditty to yourself; it just reveals your ignorance of economics.
In 2013 there will be billions of dollars in tax increases per year, per month. No one seems to want to talk about that.
Hello. Mr. Louis Stadlin snapped us back to reality. Jobs. What was the loss of jobs caused by? What was the housing collapse cause? Does it have anything to do with Government debt ceilings, budget, and taxes? Absolutely not!
It’s time to stop attributing the country’s ills to governmental spending at look at ill-regulated free-wheeling investment banking and financial system.
Mike, you ran SPSA into the ground and you lecture others on their lack of comprehension of how to handle money?
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