Quotes for the day -- right and left
"Income tax rates are now lower than they were under Ronald Reagan and far lower than they were under Eisenhower. And yet it has become a Norquistian non-negotiable that no taxes can be raised at all on anyone, let alone the beneficiaries of the last thirty years - and those who differ must be "leftists" - even when the US is facing debt of historic and dangerous proportions. Someone advocating what Eisenhower was perfectly comfortable with would be regarded by the Republican right today as a communist."
Andrew Sullivan
"The reality is that the meaning of left and right have changed tremendously over the years. There is no longer a battle between capitalism and socialism. The truth is that today the Democrats and the center-left are the supporters of capitalism in the United States. Despite their rhetoric, most on the right do not. The right now supports a system of plutocracy which has been corrupting our free market system.....In past years Republicans would support the religious right by with their rhetoric. Once in office they would throw them a few small bones, and then laugh them off as the kooks of the party. Under Bush, the kooks took control and social issues increasingly defined left vs. right."
Ron Chusid
Andrew Sullivan
"The reality is that the meaning of left and right have changed tremendously over the years. There is no longer a battle between capitalism and socialism. The truth is that today the Democrats and the center-left are the supporters of capitalism in the United States. Despite their rhetoric, most on the right do not. The right now supports a system of plutocracy which has been corrupting our free market system.....In past years Republicans would support the religious right by with their rhetoric. Once in office they would throw them a few small bones, and then laugh them off as the kooks of the party. Under Bush, the kooks took control and social issues increasingly defined left vs. right."
Ron Chusid
posted by Infidel753 at 2:25 AM
8 Comments:
I'm glad it is "non-negotiable" to want to steal more from the people like this. The government has record level tax revenues, and it is wasting it more and more flagrantly.
Sure, Click and Clack are nice. I listen to them. I don't doubt that they would thrive in a public radio environment entirely free of wasted tax dollars.
"Someone advocating what Eisenhower was perfectly comfortable with would be regarded by the Republican right today as a communist."
It's not just the right, but a large number of Democrats would probably balk at the idea of such a massive and unnecessary tax hike. Probably MOST Democrats.
Let's not turn the clock back to the Eisenhower Administration. A time of excessive tax rates and no civil rights, either.
I want to ask members of the "Religious Right" why it is that, over the periods of time where the country has been ruled by both a Republican presidency AND Congress, why Rowe V Wade was never overturned or abortion outlawed?
I would also ask them if they thought the Republicans REALLY wanted a huge increase in the demand for Social Services spending that the injecting of millions more unwanted children into society would impress on the national budget.
Haven't the Religious Right figured out yet that they have been played like a $2 banjo just to secure their votes? That would require too much thinking and less believing.
I keep wondering how bad the nation is willing to let things get (state and local job loss, for example) before the Anti-Tax Terrorists are seriously challenged. It's gonna take both cuts and taxes to dig out of this hole, people. Period.
Meanwhile, the jobless rate has improved for March. I worry that the cuts at the state and local level will negate the slight improvement in hiring in the public sector.
Not only do I not recognize the parties as they were defined in my youth, I don't even recognize them as they were defined ten years ago!
DM: Was this comment perhaps meant as an April Fool's joke, or do you seriously think taxes and stealing are the same thing? Also, tax revenues and especially corporate tax revenues are at record lows; tax rates on the highest incomes are lower than at any time in recent history.
I'm glad to hear a conservative recognize the evils of the pre-Civil-Rights era, but that had nothing to do with its tax rates. It was, recall, an economic boom time. The overall drop in tax rates since then has coincided with an economic slow-down, and the massive tax cuts for the wealthy of the Bush years preceded a recession in which total collapse was avoided only by massive government bail-outs. Laissez-faire has been tried and doesn't work.
RtS: Luckily neither Congress nor the President has the power to overturn Roe v Wade, and the Republicans have never managed to get enough really reactionary judges onto the Supreme Court to do it. They've passed no end of anti-abortion laws, but thanks to Roe v. Wade, they haven't been able to take effect. And, as you imply, abortion wasn't really a priority for Republicans back then -- such laws were a cheap way to appeal to the Christian Right without paying the political cost of them actually taking effect. Now, though, that the Christian Right really dominates the party, I agree with Chusid that they really mean it -- which makes the situation more dangerous.
Nance: I think the activism launched by their union-busting is encouraging, and now some of them are even openly attacking Social Security -- which used to be recognized as political suicide. If it weren't for all the idiots on the left who stayed home from last year's election because they were disappointed in Obama, turn-out would never have sunk so low as to allow them to win what they did. It's hard to imagine that many people now think there's no real difference between parties -- so I hope for a better outcome next year.
You sound like a damn liberal!!!
You are correct in your analysis, but still. Liberal!
I was dating someone once and I said something that set her off. I was on the phone with her. She said: "You're a liberal." Then she hung up on me.
Stealing is taking of things that don't belong to you.
My taxes don't belong to me. They belong to the government, eventually.
You sound like a damn liberal!!!
I'm in good company, I think.
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