The Floors of Silent Seas

Systemic
The working poor or near poor are also disadvantaged by our tax system. When a low-wage worker gets a raise or his or her spouse joins the workforce, food stamps are cut back. The family’s Medicaid eligibility is in jeopardy, and earned-income tax credit refunds are reduced or eliminated. A November 2012 Congressional Budget Office analysis concluded that the marginal tax rate imposed on increased income for such workers can be as much as 95 cents on every additional dollar earned. This is counterproductive. (Robert E. Rubin, Roger C. Altman and Melissa Kearney, Washington Post, 12/8/2013)

Let's be clear. The working poor pay NO taxes. None. They get government benefits which are reduced when they begin earning money via something called "a job." Isn't this the way it should be? Are Rubin et. al. arguing that those who find employment (good for them!) should continue to receive all the government support they had before they found work?


To Be...Or Not
For the last half-century, Obama has simply had to be. Just being Obama was enough to waft him onwards and upwards: He was the Harvard Law Review president who never published a word, the community organizer who never organized a thing, the state legislator who voted present. And then one day came the day when it wasn't enough simply to be. For the first time in his life, he had to do. And it turns out he can't. He's not Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos. And Healthcare.gov is about what you'd expect if you nationalized a sixth of the economy and gave it to the Assistant Deputy Commissar of the Department of Paperwork and the Under-Regulator-General of the Bureau of Compliance. (Mark Steyn, Steynonline.com, 12/4/2013)

Loyal readers - really loyal readers - will remember that Mark Steyn's "America Alone" was the subject of RedStateVT's very first post. He is one of our favorites for sure.