Your first front of the year, and first on the latest blog format:
- Dow Notches Best Day in Over a Year (WSJ) — Note to all the self-described “conservatives” on the SC delegation who voted against the “cliff” deal: Love it or hate it, said deal was the best thing Wall Street has seen come out of Washington in a long time. Think about it.
- G.O.P. Spoils for a Debt Fight Obama Wants to Sidestep (NYT) — The biggest flaw in the deal, of course, was that we still have to have this fight — next month.
- Syria unrest ‘has killed 60,000’ (BBC) — That’s according to the U.N. human rights commissioner. Just today, dozens were killed in explosions around Damascus.
- Gov. Christie lambastes ‘toxic’ House Republicans over Sandy aid delay (WashPost) — First he gushes praise for Obama. Now this. Christie doesn’t care whom he ticks off, when the welfare of New Jersey is at stake…
- Special election for Scott’s seat set (AP) — This is sort of turn-of-the-screw stuff, but it was the only thing local that seemed front-worthy. I thought it more significant than lurid crime news, or the fact that Nikki Haley’s husband is headed for Afghanistan.
- Patti Page, Honey-Voiced ’50s Pop Sensation, Dies (NYT) — The NYT was the only one of my regular sources playing this up, but I decided to include it, for my more mature readers…
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Has Ron Morris left The State?
His column has not been in the newspaper for a couple of weeks.
I don’t know what to say… people still read The State?
I have no idea. But my first guess would be that he was on vacation for the holidays.
This is why the stock market is such a farce and house of cards. Congress’s fiscal cliff vote will put less money in consumer’s pocket which will lead to less money to spend on products… so the stock market goes up as if this is good news??? The whole market is now based on speculation rather than actual production.
Wall street craves stability. Uncertainty means people stop hiring, and go into wealth preservation mode.
Stock market is mostly about speculation. Your paying for the company’s tomorrow not today.
There are a few value stock hunters but with the wealth of information wall street does alot better job at pricing them.
Had the vote NOT passed EVERYONE’s taxes would have increased rather than the 2% of the rich that actually did see an increase. Of course the FICA tax went up which is a huge burden. Still not sure why there was no champion in congress to extend the 4.2% rate.
Another example of bud’s “increase taxes as long as you don’t increase mine” statements. bud, you want the benefits, but don’t want to pay the bill.
Apparently the Republicans have a real death wish and the leadership is furnishing all of the necessary ingredients to insure the final death knell of the party. How the hell could Boehner not vote on the measure before leaving DC? This is becoming totally insane. It is also a fact that the senate added pork amendment after pork amendment but the house could have taken action and sent it back to the senate without all of the pork if they wanted to.
They don’t need the media and Democrats to do the negative ads, they are more than capable of doing permanent damage all on their own.
Boehner may also bear some of the wrath for allowing the bill for Sandy relief to die without a vote.
I think you missed one Brad.
The Michael Haley going to Afghanistan story.
Haley bashers are out in full force over him being an agricultural-engineer. Basically just playing him up as a hick in overalls.
As a veteran this really gets to me.
1- your going in a war zone. It SUCKS. You don’t see your family, you gotta live in the boonies, ohh yea you get pot shots thrown at you. Its also either hot as hell or witches titty cold.
2- Agricultural – engineer is a farmer. This is REAL nation building. This is how you sway the hearts and minds of people. This is the same tough job that missionaries have been doing for centuries.
How do you think a lot of the radical Islamist convert people? Its with their charity work. One of the tenants of Islam is taking care of the poor. So they function as a welfare system. This gets them in the system. The guy that is giving you a loaf of bread doesn’t seem nearly so bad.
Haley is a train wreck and she is going to play this as much as she can. She will make this into lemonade. Your not going to gain points with moderates in SC by bashing a dude that is in the freaking mountains.
If a governor were called up for duty in a war zone, that would be front-page news. Not a governor’s husband.
On the FICA thing…
When liberals complain about the tax being returned to the full rate, they really open themselves to the “class warfare” charge, applauding only tax increases on the well-off.
As for the complaint that the working class pays a higher percentage of its income than wealthier people do — that is very easily fixed, and should be fixed. In fact, there is not one good reason in the universe why it should not be fixed.
Simply eliminate the cap. This is a must. And it would get us most of the way to making Social Security solvent and solid. A slight increase in the retirement age, instituted incrementally over the next 15 years, would more than cover the rest of the gap. And then we wouldn’t have to talk about anybody not having their SS when they retire.
“When liberals complain about the tax being returned to the full rate, they really open themselves to the “class warfare” charge, applauding only tax increases on the well-off.”
You could have saved that whole paragraph by just writing, “bud” in that space.
Brad, how about those who actually make money by filing income tax? Those who get back more than they’ve paid in? How does that work, besides having more kids than you can afford and declaring that every one of them has some sort of disability which will qualify them for free services and additional welfare payments. I talked to a social worker who says that there are churches around this state that have classes in how to abuse the system… they don’t call it that, they title the classes in a more positive spin but the information distributed is the same regardless of what they call it.
The givers vs. takers arguement doesn’t work in the current political climate.
You end up attacking the people. Focus on the metrics.
For example you could focus on the hunger statistics and how misleading they are.
About 15% of the households in America are affected by hunger.
Hunger (low food security) is defined as if you went without anytime in the last year. Hunger sounds like famine which is much different. So you can use it to spin up people since we naturally want to help each other.
Once you attack the particular issue all of a sudden it isn’t such a huge issue.
This is from your AARP focus group if memory serves.
Would the AARP support a measure like that?
I’m lucky enough that I get to pay off social security. I would fully support removing the cap. Im all for phasing in the benefits over years too. I actually think this is a fairer system than means testing,
Nuance is a wonderful thing when you are pondering how to consider a complicated issue. However, it can lead to misunderstanding. I was not necessarily championing the retention of the 4.2% payroll tax. Rather, I was puzzled that no one in congress was pushing for it. It does feel like a tax hike and is going to hurt the poor more than the rich. That will result in damage to the slow recovery.
However, it does seem as though the social security system would suffer if the rate remained low. Difficult situation. My solution would be to soak the rich a bit more and keep the payroll tax low. Or perhaps something like a 5.2% rate with no upper limit on income as a compromise. That would minimize the harm to the economy while keeping the SS program solvent.