http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/fleecing-the-yokels/Content?oid=2695576 Comments On: Lyons: 'Fleecing the yokels' by Gene Lyons en-us Copyright 2013 Arkansas Times. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Arkansas Times readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Arkansas Times. robert@arktimes.com (Arkansas Times Webmaster) Thu, 20 Jun 2013 00:00:01 -0500 Thu, 20 Jun 2013 02:00:00 -0500 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
" In consequence, GOP True Believers have rendered themselves incapable of noticing "the complete failure during the last 30 years of tax cuts for the wealthy to increase revenue"

Don't believe me get any Time Almanac and look up the following figures, under Business- US Government Spending.


From 1981 - 1989 Federal income almost doubled. The first and only time that has happened. It went from 599,272,00 to 991,190,000.(In real amounts and in

Percentage of increase) Again almost doubling the amount of revenue coming in. The greatest increase of revenue this nation has ever experienced.
Posted by Runner55k]]> Thu, 28 Feb 2013 11:46:49 -0600 Arkansas Times
There is no one else to put the blame on!

There are only two ways to recover an economy and restore full employment;

you have to put a massive infusion of cash into the economy either through government programs, which Obama and the Democrats just tried and failed (that's also been the policy of every nation in Europe that is now in depession)

or you put cash into the economy through across the board tax cuts, flat tax etc.

Obama has took tax cuts off the table when he raised taxes.

I'm sorry you're so ideological you can't see failure when it's staring you in the face.

and contrary to Bill Clinton, it doesn't take longer than 4 years to recover an economy!

He should know because he signed an 8 point cut in the capital gains tax that was legislated by a Republican congress in 1997 and Democrats are still raving about the 22 jobs created and balanced budget!
Posted by Thomas Pope]]> Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:30:40 -0600 Arkansas Times
According to Shapiro, the best definition of conservatism was proffered by 19th c British legislator Sir Robert Peel, who defined it as "changing what you must in order to preserve what you can." By this definition, Obama is more of a conservative than many Republicans.

Inflexibility is NOT a conservative principle. The turmoil within the GOP is caused by this reality finally hitting its leaders full in the face.
Posted by Brad Bailey]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:42:41 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by mrprincipal07]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:23:32 -0600 Arkansas Times
Republicans and people in general want to know why the White House didn't send a reinforcement team which was only 2 hours away to prevent the assault and the deaths of consulate personnel in Benghazi! Which first the president and Secretary of State answered by claiming the attack was spontaneous by demonstrators angry over a You Tube video that insulted Islam, later to learn that in the crowd were hand held rocket launchers, weapons used by al-Qaeda and other terrorists.

The fact is, Barack Obama wasn't paying attention to the desperate situation of those Americans because he was engaged in a campaign and some more of his excessive leisure time and Hillary Clinton was too exhausted and didn't have the procedures in place at the State Department to deal with crisis situations. If it was a Republican administration that had performed so poorly resulting in the deaths of embassy personnel Lyons would be calling for their executions even though he doesn't believe in capital punishment.

As I said last time liberals, gloat now, for your time is short! Obama won by only 3 million votes, many of them stolen or multiple votes in corrupted election districts. That's 5 million less than 2008. And considering that 3 million conservative Republicans didn't vote because Romney was too moderate. That makes it dead even in terms of overall party support. You can scoff if you want but the tide for liberal economics has peaked and it's actually going the other way as the recession endures.

Do you guys ever ask yourselves why the economic recovery is still so weak after 4 years? Why the U3 rate is currently 7.8 %and will probably cross back over 8% next year? Why the U6 rate is 14.5%? Do you understand that 6 million workers have dropped out of the work force in the last 4 years? Do you ever wonder what was the effect of 3 rounds of Quantitative Easing at the Federal Reserve? Do you know why the price of gas is going up as we speak? Do you realize that the US is currently borrowing 46% of its federal budget, 60% of that by the Fed, only 40% by investors? Do any of you understand the desperate situation America and the world is facing because of Obama and the Democrat's disasterous economic policies?

Well, let me enlighten you. The only two ways to restore full employment and end a recession is to put money into the economy through government programs or through the much preferred and supported by economic data, tax cuts! Obama's 890 billion borrowed stimulus package which has been made permanent by the increase of federal spending 300 billion annually through continuing resolutions has only been powerful enough to lower U3 2.1 points in 4 years.

That performance is absolutely pathetic! Economies are either growing or contracting and the only reason the US isn't already back in a second recession is the Fed's QE programs, which up to now the inflationary effects have been concealed by quantity depreciation in the supermarkets and omitting the price increases of certain high volatility goods in the Consumer Price Index. Consumers now purchase half of the quantity they used to in packaged foods for a little more than before Obama became president. Inflation is already a problem and is being concealed by America's corrupted networks.

But that can't go on forever. Sooner or later the CPI will come roaring back, forcing the Fed to increase interest rates contacting the economy back into deep recession, increasing the budget deficit to around 2 trillion annually, a level that will ultimately lead the US into a sovereign debt crisis.

The point at which investors will not loan the US government even one more dime and the Fed can't purchase T-Bills because it's too inflationary is the point that the Second Great Depression begins.

All this has been known for decades because of the failure of the Keynesian model in the 1930s and 1970s. Knowledge Obama and the Democrats refuse to accept because they are obsessed with resentments of the wealthy person. This severe neurotic problem corresponds with their positions on the social issues.

Here's a tip for you Gene! In a recession, it doesn't matter how low tax rates are! If tax rates were zero there would have to be a negative income tax rate cut to get cash into the hands of businesses that can create jobs. Along with this cash, comes a tremendous psychological impact on these people who know that they as well as their customers now have money that they didn't have before. All of this liquidity going to work all at once cause an explosion of economic activity and the economy rockets out of recession, increasing the growth rate in the post recession quarter to 7% or greater which creates a self-sustaining recovery. Obama's stimulus package driven post recession quarter was only 5%, not powerful enough to begin the process of lowering employment and returning revenues to government.

Here's another tip for you Gene! The money to pay down the deficit doesn't come from raising taxes on the wealthy, that has the opposite effect. The money comes from the return to the work force of millions of unemployed Americans. The people who benefit the most are the unemployed through a job and benefits.

I'm not sure why you guys don't know this, perhaps you just haven't studied economic history much, but the Keynesian model almost always fails. It only works when the country has some type of advantage such as high quality manufacturing, oil wealth or engages in currency manipulation. Europe also has the luxury of slashing defense expenditures and depending on the US for its defense as well as increased economic activity when Reaganomics is being used. Europe can't recover because Obama's Keynesian model hasn't recovered the US.

All things being equal, the results are just about like we're seeing right now: anemic growth, U3 remains high, revenues low, deficit high, waiting on another recession, each recession worse than the previous and ultimately depression.

And next comes the scenarios seen in Argentina, Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Ireland etc.: Perpetual tax increases under the guise they are only for the wealthy but ultimately get passed on to working and middle class through inflation - but they never are able to balance the books because of the contracting effects on employment of tax increases.

Now Obama has his sights on individual IRAs and 401Ks and other forms of retirement accounts. If he has his way, he'll steal every dime he can from America's private retirement accounts to keep the Democratic Party vote buying schemes afloat to keep them in power, claiming they're just borrowing the money and will pay it back in better times, but never will!

But the schemes can't last forever and sooner or later the borrowing will stop, the depression will begin and Americans will then have to face hyper-unemployment, homelessness and hunger on a scale even greater than the 1930s and threats to their constitutional system of government and rights. That's when the social democrat begins to argue the country would be stronger if only there were an autocratic leader to restore the economy and order. After the reemergence of Fascism a second Holocaust begins. And they're trying to take weapons used for self-defense right now!

You can scoff if you want but we will face all these horrors and more in the coming decades brought to you compliments of the liberal, social democrat and socialist supporters of the US Democratic Party! The most destructive political party in modern American history!
Posted by Thomas Pope]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:12:01 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Silverback66]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:15:11 -0600 Arkansas Times That was the "toupee" party, not the wig party. If you're gonna argue history, get your headdresses on straight.
Posted by louie]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:46:24 -0600 Arkansas Times
On a serious note, I don't think Reagan would even recognize the Republican party anymore. I blame part of the problem on the Republican establishment's decision to "sell their soul" to the Tea Party conservatives and Religious Right.

I don't see the Republican party "imploding" over night but the signs are there that a major change in the party is unavoidable. Personally I think you could see a major third party created, (although may be short lived), in the next few years.

Impossible? "That's what the Wig party said in the 1850s when they were having an identity crisis. Many of it's members broke away to create the Republican party and the wigs disappeared into history"

The big question is who leaves or is outcast to become the third party? Does the Republican Party finally purge itself of the uncompromising tea party followers and religious zealots? Or, will the Republican moderates, (Yes I believe they do exist), become the third party of choice?

Regardless, given the normal evolution of thought and acceptance in this Country, while never disappearing entirely, the ultra conservative and religious right will find themselves more isolated over time. May take a few more decades, but it will happen.
Posted by OnlyInArkansas]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:36:17 -0600 Arkansas Times
That quote from Lofgren comparing GW Bush to Henry Cabot Lodge, apparently as a compliment, is noteworthy for the fact that Lofgren seems to think Lodge as some sort of progressive. It was Lodge who orchestrated and personally directed the murderous coup of the South Vietnam government during the Kennedy Administration. GW Bush certainly can be compared to the former ambassador, but only in the degree to which he engaged in war crimes and lied to the American people in order to push his personal agenda on the world.
Posted by GrizLee Blackbear]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:33:21 -0600 Arkansas Times