dagblog - Comments for "What's the Big Idea This Election? Reality"

I would say so. In the New

erica20 — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:46:58 +0000

In reply to Nice. There are genuine

I would say so. In the New America, it's patriotic for poor people to give money to rich people...go figure.

Nice. There are genuine

DF — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:23:31 +0000

In reply to Big idea of this election?

Nice. There are genuine ideological differences at play here.

Wow, thanks. That's

DF — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:22:42 +0000

In reply to Excellent post, DF. It hits

Wow, thanks. That's incredibly nice of you to say. I'll do my best to write more like this, though I can't say I have any particular hopes of being more widely published.

When I heard Obama's

DF — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:21:12 +0000

In reply to "You didn't build that," is a

When I heard Obama's comments, I knew exactly what he was talking about. My job would not exist had the government not created the Internet. It's the perfect example of how government can make monolithic infrastructure investments that massively multiply private industry - just like the national highway system, GPS, etc. Denial of this is childish and pervasive. Maybe he could have chosen better words, but I think there would be screaming no matter how artfully he doused the kids with cold water.

Krugman's refrain that the

DF — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:17:55 +0000

In reply to It would not be imprudent to

Krugman's refrain that the government is an insurance company with an army needs to become a mainstream mantra. That's what it is on paper. The deficit/debt talk all really irks me because it has nothing to do with the actual numbers. Medicare is what's growing spending the fastest, but that's because of rising costs across the health care sector. Nothing about it is sustainable. People who aren't talking about that are just being silly about US debt/deficit.

I thought Romney said he

DF — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:14:47 +0000

In reply to Preferential tax treatment

I thought Romney said he would repeal Obamacare, but replace it with something that would keep all the good stuff like patient protection. At least, I'm sure he had something like that at some point. Not sure of his current superposition.

Big idea of this election?

erica20 — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:37:49 +0000

In reply to What's the Big Idea This Election? Reality

Big idea of this election? Whether in a declining America, shitty really is just a different kind of fair.

Democrats say no, Republicans say yes.

More on the withdrawal of the

AmericanDreamer — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 14:53:21 +0000

In reply to What's the Big Idea This Election? Reality

More on the withdrawal of the Congressional Research Service report you cited:

.............

Congressional aides and outside economists said they were not aware of previous efforts to discredit a study from the research service.

..............

Jared Bernstein, a former economist for Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., conceded that “tax cuts for the rich” was “not exactly academic prose,” but he said the analysis did examine policy time lags and controlled for several outside factors, including monetary policy.

“This sounds to me like a complete political hit job and another example of people who don’t like the results and try to use backdoor ways to suppress them,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this, and frankly, it makes me worried.”

Janine D’Addario, a spokeswoman for the Congressional Research Service, would not comment on internal deliberations over the decision. She confirmed that the report was no longer in official circulation.

A person with knowledge of the deliberations, who requested anonymity, said the Sept. 28 decision to withdraw the report was made against the advice of the research service’s economics division, and that Mr. Hungerford stood by its findings.

..............

"Nonpartisan Tax Report Withdrawn After G.O.P Protest", Jonathan Weisman at the NYT yesterday, at http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nonpartisan-tax-report-withdrawn-g-144808999.html

Excellent post, DF. It hits

AmericanDreamer — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:03:50 +0000

In reply to What's the Big Idea This Election? Reality

Excellent post, DF. It hits what I think of as a sweet spot in between the two types of left-of-center MSM political commentary I observe: the overly watered down, too reluctant to call a spade a spade type of the otherwise excellent E.J. Dionne, Jr (aiming to win over more moderate readers), on the one hand, and hard left populism that can be a bit long on attitude and short on authoritativeness and thus ends up preaching mainly to the choir. Would love to see more weighty pieces with edge like yours published in major media outlets.

"You didn't build that," is a

Michael Maiello — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 08:56:50 +0000

In reply to If for no other reason,

"You didn't build that," is a perfect example of this. Though I don't blame the Internet, so much. Mainstream journalists who consider themselves so much better than bloggers reported it as a "gaffe," and out of context, without apology. Look at any Time political writer and they'll uncritically call it an Obama misstep even though it really wasn't and the point, that no person who built a business, did it without the help of fellow citizens who built the roads and bridges they rely on.

The Internet doesn't help, but the low-IQ political coverage from big press outlets is killing us.