Why Mr. Zuckerman Isn't For Mr. Obama
Mort Zuckerman on what's wrong with the President, in the WSJ:
He's certainly pessimistic about the current administration. That began shortly after inauguration day in 2009.At that time he supported Mr. Obama's call for heavy spending on infrastructure. "But if you look at the make-up of the stimulus program," says Mr. Zuckerman, "roughly half of it went to state and local municipalities, which is in effect to the municipal unions which are at the core of the Democratic Party." He adds that "the Republicans understood this" and it diminished the chances for bipartisan legislating.
Then there was health-care reform: "Eighty percent of the country wanted them to get costs under control, not to extend the coverage. They used all their political capital to extend the coverage. I always had the feeling the country looked at that bill and said, 'Well, he may be doing it because he wants to be a transformational president, but I want to get my costs down!'"
Mr. Zuckerman recalls reports of Mr. Obama consulting various historians on the qualities of a transformational president. "But remember, transformations can go up and they can go down."
Now comes the latest fight over Mr. Obama's jobs plan, which has as its centerpiece a tax increase on the wealthy with obvious populist appeal. Mr. Zuckerman supports raising taxes on the rich but says such a proposal cannot be taken seriously unless it's paired with other measures to grow the economy and restrain deficit spending. He also wonders why, if the president wanted to get a plan enacted, he didn't begin with private bipartisan discussions with House and Senate leaders, instead of another address to a joint session of Congress.
"Even if you want to do this to revive your support in the base, to revive your credibility on the issues of the economy and jobs, which has fallen off the table, this isn't going to accomplish it. Another speech from this guy? The country knows this is just another speech. They understand it almost instantaneously, and his numbers have continued to go down for that reason. What the country wanted was some way of coming up with a solution."
The only solution Mr. Zuckerman sees now to juice the economy "is to broaden the tax base and simplify and lower tax [rates]. To me that will be as close to revenue-neutral as you're going to have so it isn't going to be seen as a budget buster." He views GOP candidate Herman Cain's "9-9-9 plan" as a "little bit simple-minded," but he says that a reform that closes loopholes and reduces compliance costs will stimulate both business and consumer spending.
Well, Mort was smart enough to dump Gloria Steinem, so maybe he's on to something here.
Jerry Whitson at October 16, 2011 12:02 AM
Mr. Zuckerman supports raising taxes on the rich but says such a proposal cannot be taken seriously unless it's paired with other measures to grow the economy and restrain deficit spending.
It would also have to include heavy taxes on the outsourcing of jobs, and severe penalties for hiring illegals.
Patrick at October 16, 2011 2:11 AM
Patrick, it doesn't matter how hard they tax offshoring (we'll leave aside the legality of such), jobs will keep going until the cost of doing business here goes down. It costs car companies about $120 an hour to hire someone union here. They can get that same car assembled for about $20 an hour elsewhere. They would be stupid not to leave. What needs to be done is lowering that $120, not taxing the company for having good financial sense.
momof4 at October 16, 2011 5:30 AM
OFFTOPIC----
Would some fucker explain to me... What is "corporate greed"? It's all over the news nowadays. Is it like regular greed? Why is it worse? And why is there a global eruption of resentment about it, even in essentially communist countries, when it's never actually been seen in the wild? Could anything be greedier than a child demanding access to resources collected by others upon which he has no claim?
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at October 16, 2011 6:18 AM
"The monitoring group Global Financial Integrity estimates that people and companies are stashing away $9.4-trillion in secret offshore banks in places such as Luxembourg, Singapore and the Virgin Islands to avoid paying taxes on it. That’s $2-trillion more than all the money held in all the banks in the United States. Taxed at 11 per cent (a fraction of what’s actually owed on it), this would yield an instant trillion."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/we-need-a-global-army-of-tax-collectors/article2201647/
I see the problem as the tax code being so complicated that only the very rich can afford lawyers and tax accountants who understand it. A flat tax with no deductions would almost eliminate tax avoidance and much lower rates could still yield more tax revenue that is being collected now.
Steamer at October 16, 2011 6:59 AM
Obama doesn't do solutions. He is the solution. He's transformational! TRANFORM DAMNIT! We are failing Obama because we're soft and racist, like a vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing. It's still a racist cupcake! You're not fooling anyone.
niko at October 16, 2011 7:11 AM
We are failing Obama because we're soft and racist, like a vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing. It's still a racist cupcake! You're not fooling anyone.
Oh horseshit. Have you read Thomas Sowell's recent editorial, "Reverse racism at the White House"? He says Attorney General Eric Holder "became a key figure epitomizing the view that government's role in racial matters was not to be an impartial dispenser of equal justice for all, but to be a racial partisan and an organ of racial payback." Remember the case in Philadelphia were they televised young black thugs intimidating white voters? Well, the case was dropped by Holder after he took over, even though "the defendants had offered no legal defense". One of the lawyers who were prosecuting that case resiegned in portest and wrote a book. His name is J. Christian Admas and his book is titled "Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department". Sowell says "It is a thought-provoking book and a shocking book in what it reveals about the inner workings of the Department of Justices's civil rights division." He salos says "...the civil rights division of the Justice Department has turned the same blind eye to similar voter intimidation and corruption of the voting process by other people and other organizatoins in other cities and states - so long as those being victimized were white and the victimers were black." He goes on to report that the book names names and places in detail, "...also among those officials of the Justice Department who turned its role of protecting the civil rights of all Americans into a policy of racial partisanship and racial payback." He closes his editorial with the line "A post-racial society is the last thing that Holder and Obama are pursuing."
If Obama gets in for another term, we are ALL fucked. Royally. From the editorial: "The widespread, organized and systematic corruption of the voting procss revealed by the author of 'Injustice' is on a scale that can swing not only local but national elections, including the 2012 election."
If this doesn't bother you, you're not paying attention!
Flynne at October 16, 2011 8:47 AM
"VictimIzers"
I'm so mad about this, I'm typing way too fast!
Flynne at October 16, 2011 8:49 AM
Flynne, I do believe niko was being sarcastic.
Cousin Dave at October 16, 2011 3:09 PM
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