Year: 2010

Facts, Polls Be Damned, Republicans Fight to Keep Ruinous Bush Tax Policy – Their Goal Is Not ‘Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,’ It’s to Make Obama ‘Fail, Fail, Fail’

Jon Ponder

Quintile: A fifth portion or band of a set of data. A quintile is a proportion of a set of data that has been ranked and divided into five equal groups (or bands), where each group contains an equal number of data items.
Quintile: A fifth portion or band of a set of data. A quintile is a proportion of a set of data that has been ranked and divided into five equal groups (or bands), where each group contains an equal number of data items.

The Republicans have now boiled down their debate points for extending tax breaks to the uber wealthy to this:

INTERVIEWER: But, Your Excellency, the Bush tax cuts have been in place for 10 years and they have not produced jobs. They are also directly responsible for the deficit. So why should we extend them?

REPUBLICAN: We cannot raise taxes in a recession!

Of course, if the economy were in great shape, the GOP answer would be:

REPUBLICAN: We cannot raise taxes when the economy is booming!!

And I’m just kidding about the interviewer’s question. The news-show hosts rarely if ever confront Republicans about the simple, empirically knowable, no-two-sides-to-it fact that these wealthy Americans, whom Republicans euphemistically refer to as “small business owners” — the Paris Hiltons, Koch brothers, Meg Whitmans, Donald Trumps and, strangely enough, George Soroses of the world — having enjoyed the luxury of the Bush tax cuts for 10 years, did not create jobs with their “extra” money.

It is an equally knowable, non-debatable fact available to straight-down-the-line, fair-to-both-sides journalists that during the Bush era the rich got much richer:

[…]

Verbatim

Buck Banks

I just think, if [Obama] caves on this, then I think that he’s gonna have a lot of swimming upstream … He would then just be hoping and praying that Sarah Palin gets the nomination.

— Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), expressing the frustration of Senate Democrats over the White House’s handling of the tax cut debate this week to the Huffington Post.

Verbatim

Trish

I was in business for 35 years and nothing happened until somebody bought something. I never based my production decisions on the amount of taxes but did base my decisions upon the likelihood of sales.

— Charley B., a Pensito Review commenter, responding to Republican claims that tax cuts produce jobs, stimulating the economy. Charley, and most of us, prefer the more direct route, which begins with consumer spending. He also notes that if the Bush tax cuts were intended to produce jobs, judging by American unemployment numbers, they were a failure. We admit, though, that the tax cuts did create plenty of jobs in other countries (while the rich back here pocketed their tax savings).

Watch Out in Florida, Sen. Marco Rubio – Gov. Scott Supports Giving Authorities Power to Demand Proof of U.S. Citizenship from Latinos

Jon Ponder

Florida’s Republican Sen.-Elect Marco Rubio had better make sure he doesn’t leave home without documents proving he is a U.S. citizen when he returns to Florida from D.C. next year.

His state’s GOP Gov.-Elect Rick Scott says he backs legislation that empowers authorities to demand proof of U.S. citizenship from Latinos and others who are detained or arrested:

“We need to come up with an immigration policy that works for the country,” he said. “Finally, if you’re stopped in our state — no different than if you’re asked for your ID — you should be able to be asked if you’re legal or not.”

Under the proposed law, police and other authorities would not be allowed to detain or arrest people solely on grounds that they look Hispanic suspicious.

‘Oh You Thought I Was Including My Tea Party Self in That Whole No Earmarks Thing? Nah’

Trish

What’s more hypocritical than a born-again homophobe with a same-sex “escort?” How about tea party politicians criticizing government spending while requesting all they can get for the folks back home? The National Journal:

Advocate: ‘It’s disturbing to see the Tea Party Caucus requested that much in earmarks. This is their time to put up or shut up.’

According to a Hotline review of records compiled by Citizens Against Government Waste, the 52 members of the caucus, which pledges to cut spending and reduce the size of government, requested a total of 764 earmarks valued at $1,049,783,150 during Fiscal Year 2010, the last year for which records are available.

“It’s disturbing to see the Tea Party Caucus requested that much in earmarks. This is their time to put up or shut up, to be blunt,” said David Williams, vice president for policy at Citizens Against Government Waste. “There’s going to be a huge backlash if they continue to request earmarks.”

In founding the caucus in July, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said she was giving voice to Americans who were sick of government over-spending.

“The American people are speaking out loud and clear. They have had enough of the spending, the bureaucracy, and the government knows best mentality running rampant today throughout the halls of Congress,” Bachmann said in a July 15 statement.

And who had the most requests? Not Bachmann, but probably someone from a large population state with plenty of constituents, right? Wrong. How about a guy from Mon-frickin’-tana which, with just under a million people, is ranked 44th in residents in the country?

Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) takes the prize as the Tea Partier with his name on the most earmarks. Rehberg’s office requested funding for 88 projects, either solely or by co-signing earmarks requests with Sens. Max Baucus (D) and Jon Tester (D), at a cost of $100,514,200. On his own, Rehberg requested 20 earmarks valued at more than $9.6 million.

The full list of tea bagger earmark for the past year is here.