The Real GOP Fiasco: Fairness (from The American Conservative)

[Faryn Balyncd]

a remarkable article:

The Real GOP Fiasco: Fairness

Wick Allison

. . . A capital gains tax rate (making money off money) that is lower than the earned income rate (making money off work) is just not fair. Bestowing that rate on hedge-fund managers through a specially designed loophole is just not fair. Allowing the rich to take mortgage deductions for second and third homes, or for homes worth over $1 million, is just not fair. Allowing business owners like me to take myriad deductions that our employees cannot take is just not fair. But, most of all, allowing the wealthy to pay very low tax rates while interest on the war debt accumulates, deficits continue, and middle-class incomes deteriorate is just not fair.

Perhaps McConnell and Boehner have taken their stand on principle. Or perhaps they are still scared of Grover Norquist. Perhaps they truly believe – in contrast to three decades worth of evidence and a recent study by their own Congressional Budget Office – that lower tax rates on the rich actually produce jobs. Or perhaps they’re just waiting for the kind of face-saving compromise Galupo has suggested (and the president is now unlikely to approve). Or perhaps they’re just not very bright. The reasons don’t really matter...


. . . The GOP can recruit candidates with Hispanic surnames, tone down its platform, prep its members on talking points, and try to duplicate the Obama turnout machine. But if it remains the party of entrenched unfairness, it will never win another national election


http://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-real-gop-fiasco-fairness/

[Arugula Latte]

1. Wow. Talk about a moment of clarity.

[Faryn Balyncd]

4. "the party of entrenched unfairness"

[Skittles]

2. love all the squealing in the comments

[reformist2]

10. What are you talking about? Half the comments agree with him (and most of us!)

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. The whole "spending is the problem" thing keeps repeating...

And their #1 target?

The poor.

Gotta cut em off and get their lazy asses out the door to get a job.

And you KNOW what color they're imagining.

[RepublicansRZombies]

18. Why not cut BIG Government Constitution violating programs like Homeland Security and the TSA

How about eliminating expensive slush fund programs that violate our bill of rights and personal freedoms, like illegal wiretapping and the drug war?

I just wish they actually cared about their own professed beliefs.

I wish they would act as real Christians too, we would all be better off.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. I they acted like "real" Christians they would be meek and kind. I haven't seen that.

[cliffordu]

15. Me too, kiddo, me too....

[DonViejo]

3. . . . The GOP can recruit candidates with Hispanic surnames...

Just make sure those surnames aren't Franco, Batista, Peron, etc

[GitRDun]

5. Awesome post!

The bolded section pretty much sums up my views.

[frazee]

6. Cheers

[Maplegrass]

7. Anybody ought to know...

...That work is a scam in this country. The real rewards are to be had by producing nothing and manipulating the labor of workers in immoral and borderline illegal ways. This is one of the reasons I don't work - there's nothing in it. I'd prefer poverty and free time, since the system is rigged to strip away any value I might produce and redistribute it upward anyway.

[xfundy]

9. Say...

You sound like someone who has gone Galt.

What do you like on pizza?

[Maplegrass]

11. I have definitely not gone Galt.

I have gone SSI.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. I know someone in that boat....

Anyone envies him for not working he says, "I'll trade you my emphysema for your ability to run up a flight of stairs." He has 40% lung capacity.

[RainDog]

8. GREAT read

I am so happy to see the none-nutter conservatives speaking up.

We need them to fix our problems.

[Cresent City Kid]

12. The ones they drowned out are now speaking up

Dissident voices from a very tight party line are tuned out in the gop. There are a handful that can be interesting to listen to despite my disagreements with their world views and political aims. Now they are coming out of the woodwork as the party licks its wounds.

When the Democrats won in 2008, there was talk of the gop fading into obscurity but not of moving to the left. Now there is. The amount will be small, but the direction is significant. Since Reagan, the rightward move of the party has had a ratchet effect, you can move any amount right but never one iota to the left. Tied in with this, you could cut a rich man's taxes as much you want, but they can never go one penny higher.

The moderation of the gop may not happen, or make the world better if it does, but there does seem to be a tidal shift. The moderate, swing voters have realized that the Democrats have met them halfway. The republicans figured they could drag the swing voter rightward with them, not the case.

[RainDog]

14. The ones who operate in the reality-based world are trying to help

and I appreciate them for speaking to a group that I cannot address as part of their mindset.

And it seems that those who operate in the reality-based world see the train wreck that Reaganism and its whacked out heirs have produced. Bush Jr. and now the Talibornagains have been cast out of the national debate by "serious" people.

As long as the Republicans continue to pander to the nutters, they'll lose. Sort of makes me wish they would. It would be nice if, for at least another two election cycles, they could put up their tea baggers for the nation to really see. When the nation does see them, they turn out to get rid of them.

That would give the nation enough time to correct some bad legislation that came from both sides of the aisle regarding corporate coddling.

[loudsue]

13. Oh yes.

Someone needs to take these knuckle draggers to school. This is a good start.

[mercuryblues]

20. the republican

sanity train won't even get out of the station. Not enough people to hop on board.