Monday Open Thread [5.14.12]

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1. puck says:

   May 14, 2012 at 12:04 pm

   It just dawned on me – in spite of our best efforts, the traditional Democratic agenda will take effect at the end of this year all by itself unless Democrats take action to stop it.

   At the end of this year, taxes on the rich will increase, and defense spending will be cut to responsible levels – all automatically, unless President Obama supports and signs legislation to the contrary. This agenda is immune to filibusters or Carper committee hijinks, because it is already current law.

   All Obama has to do is sit on his hands to implement a traditional Democratic agenda. The eleven-dimensional chess is about to pay off big time, unless he screws it up.

   231 days until expiration. You can do it Mr. President, just take it one day at a time. Every day wake up and tell yourself “One day without tax cuts for the rich, that’s all I have to do.”

   Barack Obama – the accidental liberal.

2. puck says:

   May 14, 2012 at 12:10 pm

   Former senator and current recipient of wingnut welfare Judd Gregg accidentally lays out a compelling case for the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

   Payroll taxes will increase by $120 billion; bonus depreciation will end, adding $64 billion in taxes; the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, will kick in, adding $46 billion in taxes; the tax cuts will end for upper-income Americans, increasing taxes by $83 billion; the tax cuts will end for middle-income Americans, increasing taxes by $198 billion. […]

   OK, we can live with the middle-class increases if we have to. After all we did just fine with those same taxes in the 1990s, hell we did better. But if we really want to cut the middle-class taxes, we can just keep bringing up a clean middle-class tax cut over and over again, with no dirty amendments or hostage deals accepted.

   Gregg:

   First, under the Obama plan, the tax on dividend income will jump to a record high. It will go from 15 percent to a new top rate of 43.4 percent. […] In addition, the tax on capital gains will go from 15 percent to 23.8 percent.

   Um – so what’s the downside? Finally businesses will start hiring and investing instead of scooping up the money for bonuses and car elevators. Yeah, seniors with stock portfolios that depend on dividends, blah blah. But as dividends dry up money will start pouring into businesses and employee hands, and equity values will end their long Republican stagnation. And with the new revenue there will be less pressure for Social Security/Medicare cuts or raising the age.

3. Jason330 says:

   May 14, 2012 at 1:14 pm

   There is something mesmerizing about that style of photography. The shots of trains and boats work the best.

4. SussexWatcher says:

   May 15, 2012 at 6:21 am

   Publisher and insane whack job Bryant Richardson to take on Venables: http://www.wgmd.com/?p=56968