The dumbest thing Obama ever did
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
The dumbest thing Obama ever did
The politics of cutting taxes should not be that complicated, people. From a policy point of view, tax cuts are sometimes a good thing (that top marginal rate of 91 percent during the Eisenhower years comes to mind, as well as the Philadelphia city wage tax) and sometimes a bad thing (as in, cutting taxes for rich people while paying for two questionable wars overseas). But politically, there's no point in reducing levies unless you go out to the electorarte and boast about it.
Why the Obama administration did not do that is unfathomable:
“Federal and state have both gone up,” said Bob Paratore, 59, from nearby Charlotte, echoing the comments of others.
After further prodding — including a reminder that a provision of the stimulus bill had cut taxes for 95 percent of working families by changing withholding rates — Mr. Paratore’s memory was jogged.
“You’re right, you’re right,” he said. “I’ll be honest with you: it was so subtle that personally, I didn’t notice it.”
Few people apparently did.
In a troubling sign for Democrats as they head into the midterm elections, their signature tax cut of the past two years, which decreased income taxes by up to $400 a year for individuals and $800 for married couples, has gone largely unnoticed.
The only explanation I can come up with is arrogance -- the Obama people were so caught up in the Beltway politics and their presumed righteousness of their policy that they were utterly clueless that voters knew nothing about it and needed to be hammered over the head, perhaps with ads paid for by the DNC, which was flush with cash back in early 2009. It's too late now. The right-wing talk radio machine -- which is worth tens of millions in free advertising -- has convinced most Americans that Obama has raised their taxes, and there's nothing much they can do about it -- very stupid politics.
Comments (78)
Les -- the rising health care care costs issue was well known before the economy crashed -- employers knew how to handle it (by transferring more and more of the costs to their employees, not ideal, but not a job-threatening situation). One of the the net effects of the Healthcare bill (I assert from conversations with small business owners) is paralyzing small businesses from hiring people. Since large businesses pretty much have the Healthcare costs issue figured out, PLUS large businesses are not creating jobs in America (hello OffShoring), by paralyzing SMALL businesses, Obama has helped to continue the economic morass rather than fix it. Also, since he wasn't able to successfully tie Healthcare reform to any real type of future economic growth, or more money in people's pockets, he embroiled the entire country in an awful debate at a time where we should have been focused on job creation. To me, given the situation that he inherited, Obama should have put EVERYTHING in his agenda on hold except for the following: #1 Economy. #2 Wars in Iraq/Afghanistan.— IggleFan68- Ha TPS! I don't drink coffee... I'm just responding to the heat and noise from the left. To your point, it should be expected for Republicans to post mid-term gains, the question is "how much". It's my impression that the mid-term gains will be huge, due to tremendous dissatisfaction with government in general, the current state of the country/economy, and the way liberals have governed in the last 2 years. I asserted from the beginning that I would give Obama a chance -- I was extremely curious to see if liberal economic policies were better than conservative. I don't know if a representative amount of time has passed, but the start certainly ain't good here. O, and go Phils...— IggleFan68
I am still amazed just how much leeway Obama is given, not once during the election campaign was his highly suspect aqaintences, his highly suspect beliefs or those of his wife ever really looked at or questioned, the MSM completly failed and his opponents didnt have the guts because they were scared at being called racist. Obama is simply not man enough for the job, his constant whining everytime his ideas are questioned prove that. Everything he has done so far has been unpopular as poll after poll shows and the US is regarded with a mixture of contempt and open hostility abroad. Your allies cant beleive how arrogant and uniformed he is and your enemies cant beleive how gullible he is, basically he won the election because his name wasnt Bush.— PAEnglish
i cant seem to get any comments in here...I was nice, honest! Been submitting one comment for the last 20 minutes...— Les Ismore- Speaking of rising healthcare costs, I don't know that it's clear to everyone WHY healthcare costs are rising. (My own opinion here) -- people are living longer, creating more "healthcare transactions". Think of what happened in the 1960's. You lived to about 68 years old -- if you got cancer, you died -- maybe you spent a few weeks in the hospital getting basic care. Now, we treat all KINDS of diseases for older folks (and younger ones), and that costs $$$. Over the past decade: MRI, CT, PET scans TRIPLED, hip replacements up 33%, knee replacements up 70%, kidney transplants up 37%, liver transplants up 42%, statin drugs use up 1000%. Do people think that this level of advanced care is FREE? Or should be free? In the 1960's, you didn't get a heart/liver/lung/kidney transplant. YOU DIED. For FREE. Dying is still a free option BTW.— IggleFan68
- someone said:
"why the Democrats are about to get LAMBASTED in this mid-term election?" First, I dont think they will be LAMBASTED, but the reason I think they (we) will suffer sizable losses is the loss of political integrity in America and the ability of a few people and groups to spread misinformation. Lets start with the death panels. We all know there are no death panels and we also know this is not government run healthcare. In fact, that was one of the concessions to the republicans, no single payer option. But a handful of groups and individuals found it best to spread such nonsense and there are many Americans who wanted to believe that, if for no other reason, a way to rationalize their hatred for our duly elected President. Thats why people are fired up, because they have been fed a daily dose of lies, misinformation and innuendo. If I watched Fox News, I would be mad also!— Les Ismore - PA, the "highly suspect beliefs" of President Obama and his wife were made up from whole cloth by the rightwing press. If you listened to them they were terrorists for crying out loud. I have no doubts Obama is a citizen, he loves our country and is 100x smarter, more aware than Bush ever was. When people are polled about his policies, outside of the noise of Fox News, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and all of the other purveyors of misinformation, his policies poll very well. Thats a fact and why his personal popularity is close to 75%. That is the problem with America and why I think Glenn Beck will go down in history along with McCarthy as people who distorted what America is and is all about.— Les Ismore
- Iggle, those are some valid reasons. I'd add: 1) the consumer is often insulated from the cost. Many people pay for insurance premiums out of a payroll deduction, and then only owe a copay for visits, so they overvisit the doctor for every sniffle, because they don't see the true costs. I have a high deductible plan where most visits are out of pocket (negotiated down), so we're paying cash and get an idea of the real costs. I have much lower premiums, no copays, and a cap on total out of pocket. My insurance works more like a hedge against larger bills compared to other plans that resemble prepaid health care. The old analogy is you wouldnt expect car insurance to pay for an oil change, so why expect health insurance to pay for a Drs visit. 2) Cost shifting. Drs that see medicare patients take a loss on them and shift that to other patients. 3) Mandates. Everytime a state mandates that a new illness or disorder is covered, it raises costs, as everyone must pay for it. No one is able to buy a safe auto type plan for catastrophic coverage only. depending on the state, their plan must cover alcoholism, in vitro, etc.— RG
- IggleFan - you are exactly right about this healthcare bill killing job creation. As far as this article goes - instead of the "dumbest" thing Obama has done - "dumb" isn't the word I'd use. Granted he was handed the "worst economy since the great Depression" so what does he do? NOTHING - he makes it worse by ignoring joblessness & foreclosures and just starts cramming his liberal agenda right down our throats!! Incredible liar! The Dems got total control of Congress for the first time in 40 years and they said the heck with what all you people want - we're pushing our communistic, socialistic policies down your throat and there's nothing you can do about it!!
And any politician that was part of this assault on the American public deserves to be voted out!!!— gone with the wind - Les is the poster child for the delusional left. They will never, ever question their policies. Instead they'll insist others are dumb, racists, or under the sway of some boogeyman like gleen Beck or FoxNews. Yeah Les, everyone loves Obamacare, even though costs and premiums are already going up. If it weren't for FoxNews, we'd be basking in recovery summer as well.— RG
Comment removed.- "Granted he was handed the "worst economy since the great Depression" so what does he do? NOTHING " hmmmm....I guessed you missed ARRA, eh? Of course the other jobs creation bills, the wingnut right managed to keep in committee, G*d forbid we do anything to help the American people before the election.— Les Ismore
- RG - interesting point -- I pay about $12,000 per year for Healthcare insurance to cover me and my gaggle of kids. My company obviously contributes to that amount as well, meaning that between the two of us, we probably pay $25,000 - $30,000 for healthcare a year. My co-pays are about $10 for Dr's visits. For me, it works out sort of well because I need the protection against a disastrous situation with one of the kids -- i.e., better for me to pay $12,000 per year ad infinitum than pay $2000 per year and one year get whopped with a $300,000 healthcare bill if one of the kids has a huge problem.— IggleFan68
- Comment removed.
- Les - Obama's idea of job creation was "make busy work" for the unions. The homebuilding/ real estate business is a huge job provider for people and he did nothing to help that industry. Without CREDIT - to homeowners and small business - there will be no recovery. Obama continued to push his agenda for what he, Harry Reid, & Nancy Pelosi wanted passed - and to h... with everybody else.
I wonder if all these liberals would be still pro Obama if he cut their welfare checks and their new PHA townhouses?— gone with the wind
Popular Posts
Search this blog:
Blog Roll
- Andrew Sullivan
- Blinq
- Blogorrhea
- Blonde Sagacity
- Free Republic
- Instapundit
- James Taranto
- ScrappleFace
- The Corner
- Buzzmachine
- Eat the Press
- Editor and Publisher
- Media (Huffington Post)
- Media Bloodhound
- Mickey Kaus
- Pressthink
- Romenesko
- The Inksniffer
- A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- Above Average Jane
- BlankBaby
- Citizen Mom
- Keystone Blog
- Metroblogging Philadelphia
- Phawker
- Philadelphia - America's Hometown
- Philadelphia Will Do
- Philebrity
- Philly Future
- Phillyblog
- Phillyist
- The Clog
- The Next Mayor
- Welcome to Phillyville
- Young Philly Politics
- Afro-Netizen
- All-Spin Zone
- Atrios
- Bad Attitudes
- Billmon
- Booman Tribune
- CorrenteWire
- Fables of the Reconstruction
- iFlipFlop
- Kiko's House
- MyDD
- Philly (Dragonballyee)
- Rowhouse Logic
- Slacktivist
- Suburban Guerilla
- Tattered Coat
- upyernoz
- AmericaBlog
- Andy Borowitz
- BuzzFlash
- Crooks and Liars
- Cursor
- Daily Kos
- David Sirota
- Drudge Report
- Echidne of the Snakes
- Fire Dog Lake
- Glenn Greenwald
- Hullabaloo
- Jesus' General
- Jon Swift
- Josh Marshall
- Juan Cole
- Kevin Drum
- Mad Kane
- Majikthise
- Matthew Yglesias
- Oliver Willis
- Raw Story
- Swing State Project
- Talk Left
- Taylor Marsh
- TBogg
- The Carpetbagger Report
- Think Progress
- War and Piece
- Wonkette
- A Citizen's Blog
- Balls, Sticks and Stuff
- Beer Leaguer
- Dick Polman
- Phillies Nation
- Philling Station
- Shallow Center
- The 700 Level
- The Good Phight
Classifieds:
Site Services:
Partners: