The One Honest Line in a Stephen Moore Article

It’s not very easy to find.  He writes these long, number and ratio laden whine-rants, usually serving as an obscure rationalization for whatever the Republicans are doing/against what the Democrats are doing.

In this case it’s against the idea, NAY, AGAINST THE VERY NOTION, that a government might be able to raise taxes to pay down its debts and obligations.   For those that are unaware, it’s much harder for conversative commentators to do this in 2011, as we have faced pretty much the same scenario in the past, did the right thing, and it paid off handsomely.[1]

That’s the one (kinda) honest line in this piece ‘o shilling shite.

It’s true that the economy was able to absorb the Bush 41 and Clinton tax hikes and still grow at a very rapid pace. But what the soak-the-rich lobby ignores is how different the world is today versus the early 1990s. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, over the past two decades the average highest tax rate among the 20 major industrial nations has fallen to about 45%. Yet the highest U.S. tax rate would rise to more than 48% under the Obama/Democratic tax hikes.

Yes, we were able to “absorb” tax rates which actually paid for government and balanced the budget (and led to the strongest economy is ages…again…why are you against *that*?).  But that 3% difference, on the top, would apply only to those with an *annual income* of over a million dollars.  

Someone has to pay for the Bush tax cuts which went largely to the same people. I alwasy thought it was fair that people pay for what they get, no matter how many politicians or newspapers you buy.   

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Note, for those unfamiliar with the “work” of Stephen Moore, here’s pretty much all you need to know…he wrote an article making the “serious” argument that this title is accurate, “‘Atlas Shrugged’: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years.”

It starts with this line…”Some years ago when I worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, we used to label any new hire who had not yet read “Atlas Shrugged” a “virgin.””

Hmmm, as someone who read Atlast Shrugged in their teens, I can certainly see how someone who waits to read it in their 30’s would give it WAAAAAY more weight than it warrants.    Some things it’s best just to get out of the way early, especially if you want to be an expert in the field.

[1] A banking crisis created by deregulation following massive tax cuts (Thanks Ronnie!) hammered the economy leading to the obvious necessity to restore tax rates and reign in savings and loans (Thanks George 1).   This led to massive job growth and a balanced budget.   Read up on the 90’s, good times.   Our Presidents used to get “rewards” for doing such a great job.

Yesterday = Good Candidate for Best Day of the Year

There’s a few things I’d like to do dang near every day if possible.  Three of those things include 1) writing good stuff, 2) having deep, honest, soul-sharing conversations with others, 3) do some dancin’ and 4) engaging in wild, passionate, sexual relations.

So yea, yesterday was a good day.  Particularly since 2) and 4) were both with different people (3 and 4 went together, obviously).  It’s a bonus when it’s the same one, but splitting it up a bit is nice too.  🙂

BTW, the book is up past 20K words.  This is right on schedule to reach 50-60K by the end of the month (my goal, as mentioned).   If you want to get a very vague outline for the book, read those mini-bios above.  The book expands on those by a couple orders of magnitude and is interspersed with a number of philosophical and spiritual metaphors.  I’m not sure if it works yet, but I’ve been able to work in a number of things that I’ve been thinking about for years, and I’m *really* liking the direction it has taken.

If I can work up the courage, I might put up an excerpt later this week.  I’m not sure exactly how to proceed on that angle, so I’m probably going to have to ask some offline advice.

UPDATE: This is kinda funny…I found it on my door this afternoon.

RE: Noise Complaint

Several times recently our Courtesy Officer has been alerted for loud noise complainst regarding excessively loud music coming from [my section of the apartment building] {ed note: this is my neighbor who likes to crank the tunes}.  One specific instance occurred between the hours of 6:30 and 8:00 this morning {ed note: it was loud, but it wasn’t music  ;-}.  Our goal, as you know, is to create  a peaceful living environment for all our residents.  Please be considerate of your neighbors an be observant of any excessive noise {ed note: I was quite observant}.  Please remember that excessive noise causing disturbance to your fellow residents is a violation of your lease agreement.

[etc. etc.]
Like I said…passionate.

Drill, Baby, Drill!!!

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House, responding to growing public demand for more domestic energy, voted Wednesday to end a quarter-century ban on oil and natural gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, giving Republicans a major victory on energy policy.

An extension of the ban for another year was left off a $630 billion-plus stopgap government spending bill that President Bush had threatened to veto – possibly shutting down the government – if the anti-drilling measure were included.

The bill was approved 370-58 and now goes to the Senate, where it is likely to be approved within the next few days, also without the drilling ban.

WWL – AM870 • FM105.3 | News • Talk • Sports | OnDemand@1350 – AP – content.

My guess is that if Obama is elected, we’ll probably see a bit of a drawback on thiis one.  If McCain/Plain are elected, it will be expanded.

Opening up drilling doesn’t do much for now, but might help a tiny bit in the future.  If we structure the deals right, we could make some money, but without real pressure, expect to get raped like we were before.

WASHINGTON — As Congress prepares to debate expansion of drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal — including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.

[full story]

What this group did was collect money on the oil and gas we are already letting be “drill, baby, drilled”.  This office was rife with corruption as the profits involved in the gas business, and the payments tied to them, have skyrocketed in recent years.  What Big Oil realized was that by boozing and blowing certain humans that represented the government, they could avoid paying any extra taxes on those record profits.

This was one of the tactics in their strategy to maximize shareholder value.  And is something that would be multiplied a couple-fold by allowing more drilling (it’s really not going to change the equation that much).