Primacy Of The Past

Coulter Of The Day
Why do only tax cuts come with an expiration date? Why not tax increases? (Ann Coulter, 11/28/2012)


The Numbers
Jared Bernstein, who served as chief economist to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., said the Times analysis highlighted the need to raise taxes on the affluent and cut taxes for the poor. He cautioned that the middle class most likely would need to pay more, too. “When you look at these numbers, you understand why we’re not collecting the revenue we need to support the spending we want,” said Mr. Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research group. “We’ve really gutted the system.” (NYT, 11/29/2012)

"Complaints aside, most face lower tax burden than in 1980" reads the headline, with its broad implication that Americans have enjoyed something of a tax holiday for the past 30 something years. But the best line for us was Obama proxy Bernstein's admission that the middle class will get socked next, right after "the rich." Exactly as Republicans have told us. We also liked the part about not having enough of the taxpayers' money to "support the spending we want." "We" meaning the Democrat party, of course.   


Details
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner presented the House speaker, John A. Boehner, a detailed proposal on Thursday to avert the year-end fiscal crisis with $1.6 trillion in tax increases over 10 years, $50 billion in immediate stimulus spending, home mortgage refinancing and a permanent end to Congressional control over statutory borrowing limits.

The proposal, loaded with Democratic priorities and short on detailed spending cuts, met strong Republican resistance. In exchange for locking in the $1.6 trillion in added revenues, President Obama embraced the goal of finding $400 billion in savings from Medicare and other social programs to be worked out next year, with no guarantees. (NYT, 11/29/2012)

Tell us again. Who is not being serious in negotiations about the fiscal cliff? (Of course there is special irony in the proposal coming from an acknowledged tax cheat!) Even the Times choked a bit on this nonsense.


Face Off
To the extent the GOP has an elected face, it is that of Speaker John Boehner. And he is precisely the man with whom Mr. Obama should be having friendly lunches. In fact, the meal with Mitt just may be a clever attempt to obscure the fact that the president isn't really meeting with those with whom he's supposed to be thrashing out the fiscal cliff. (Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 11/29/2012)

'...should be having lunch with.' Sometimes a point is so simple and so obvious that it catches us by surprise. Obama runs off to Southeast Asia, lunches with Mitt, probably gets in some serious hoop time, all the while evading his responsibilities. The country's first slacker president. 


In The Army Now
Private Manning is trying to avoid trial in the WikiLeaks case. He argues that he was punished enough when he was locked up alone in a small cell for nearly nine months at the brig in Quantico and had to sleep naked for several nights. (NYT, 11/29/2012)

Traitor Manning also cited as "punishment enough" the loss of access to his Lady Gaga music and not being able to watch Glee. 


Burger And Fries
Jocelyn Horner, 35, a graduate student, said she supported the protesters. “If anybody deserves to unionize, it’s fast-food workers,” she said.

A cashier whose name tag read “Milady” said she chose not to participate in the demonstration.

“At least I have a job,” she said. (NYT, 11/29/2012)

This from an article about a union-led protest of a handful of fast food workers. Who gets it? We vote for Milady over Jocelyn (a 35 year old grad student? She reminds us of Sandra Fluke!)