5 Responses to The Taxman?

1. Jules Gordon says:

   August 16, 2008 at 12:53 pm

   Your Honor,
   How about the;

   1. Capital Gains rate increase (Punish the people who start companies and provide jobs)

   2. Let Bush tax cuts run out.

   3. increase everyone’s taxes earning over $250,000. The Democrats will hit a lot of Family run business. Another great idea.

   4. Working wih that great non-democrat Democrat, he will keep the oil in the ground. They will hit us all in the pocket book.But, don’t worry, he will punish Big Oil with results noted in 1.

   Question; Do you think these are are good economic practices?

   Jules

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2. Bill Manzi says:

   August 16, 2008 at 1:17 pm

   Let me start with the concept that I am a balanced budget disciple. I am firm in my belief that both parties, but more so the Republicans, have sold America on certain tenets which are nonsense and indeed very harmful to us. What are these tenets.

   1) That you can run deficits forever. Dick Cheney said “deficits don’t matter” and both Reagan and Bush 43 have driven that through reckless fiscal policies. That principal is wrong, and the chickens are now coming home to roost.
   2) That where a major undertaking in the national interest must be embarked upon no sacrifice is required of anyone! Let us for the moment put aside our differences on the Iraqi war, and let us say for the sake of this discussion that the military action was warranted. Do you mean to say that the billions of dollars we are spending should be borrowed instead of raised through taxation. Do you mean to say we should make the same mistake that LBJ made in trying to have “guns and butter”? Is this sound economic policy Jules?

   I think that sound economic policy is paying for what you spend. If you cannot cut spending then you must raise taxes. If you do not wish to raise taxes then you must cut spending. But Jules George W. Bush wants to cut taxes while hiking spending by record amounts, both military and non-military. The nonsense that this is good economic policy or sustainable is a cancer on this country.

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3. Jules Gordon says:

   August 17, 2008 at 4:44 am

   Your Honor,

   You are absolutely correct in this matter of increasing spending without cutting taxes.

   As a conservative, I am very disturbed at George Bush for his failure to curb our Government’s spending. I DO agree with tax cuts, but followed by budget reductions.

   Massive spending has been a by-partisan issue these past eight years. Nobody’s innocent here.

   A note: Keynesian economics uses deficits as a tool to correct for unemployment. when corrected then the budget should be re-balanced.

   I have a question for you; If the price of oil stayed well below $3.00 would there be a problem with the economy?

   Jules

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4. Bill Manzi says:

   August 17, 2008 at 6:56 am

   Jules,
   Richard Nixon, just before he imposed wage and price controls, said “we are all Keynesians now”. You are correct in what you say about cyclical deficits, and I am not saying that a deficit should never occur. What I am saying is that these policies are most definitely not Keynesian in that there appears to be no cycle in which we are going to run the cyclical surplus. The Republicans are supply siders now, worshipping the Laffer Curve and bringing us to financial ruin. If the price of oil were to fall substantially there is no question that it would help the economy. But I do not think that is our only problem. The credit mess, the fiscal condition, the huge trade imbalance, the dollar (although it has been strengthening)all have created a real mess that will take strength to resolve.

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5. Jules Gordon says:

   August 17, 2008 at 12:56 pm

   Your Honor,

   The credit mess will eventually resolve itself with evil banks taking big hits. Don’t misunderstand, they deserve it. Giving mortgages with a minimal requirement of a 98.6 deg body temperature made absolutely no sense to me. The borrowers also deserve to share the blame for signing documents that probably seemed to good to be true (they were right).

   Have you noticed there was no economic collapse with all the foreclosures? That just shows you how strong our economy is especially when coupled with the increase in oil prices. we conservatives can see the silver linings in the darkness.

   Trade imbalance is a problem that will be mitigated by a world wide economic slowdown.

   As you say, the dollar is strengthening.

   Presently it’s going to be up to Nancy Pelosi to ALLOW a vote on drilling to increase our oil supplies. This is critical as it appears our good friends, the members of OPEC, are going to cut back on the production of oil.

   Now it’s up to the Democrats, who championed this wrong headed no-drill policy, to ALLOW a vote. What a country.

   Jules.

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