OK to Tax and Spend for This, Grover Norquist?

Hurricane Irene
(NOAA Photograph)




From the National Hurricane Center:


HURRICANE IRENE DISCUSSION NUMBER 24
NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL092011
500 AM EDT FRI AUG 26 2011

REPORTS FROM AN AIR FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT INDICATE
THAT THE INTENSITY OF IRENE IS NOT QUITE AT MAJOR HURRICANE STATUS.
THE MAXIMUM FLIGHT-LEVEL WINDS AT 700 MB WERE 109 KT ABOUT 75 N MI
EAST-NORTHEAST OF THE CENTER...AND THE MAXIMUM SURFACE WINDS
REPORTED FROM THE STEPPED FREQUENCY MICROWAVE RADIOMETER WERE 87
KT. BASED ON THESE DATA...THE INTENSITY ESTIMATE IS REDUCED TO 95
KT...WHICH IS ALSO BETWEEN THE SATELLITE INTENSITY ESTIMATES OF 102
KT FROM TAFB ANND 90 KT FROM SAB. THE AIRCRAFT DATA INDICATE THAT A
20 N MI WIDE EYE IS PRESENT AND THAT THE CENTRAL PRESSURE REMAINS
NEAR 942 MB.

THE INITIAL MOTION IS NOW 360/12. IRENE IS MOVING THROUGH A WEAKNESS
AT THE WESTERN END OF THE SUBTROPICAL RIDGE...AND IT SHOULD RECURVE
INTO THE WESTERLIES DURING THE FORECAST PERIOD. THE TRACK GUIDANCE
IS TIGHTLY CLUSTERED AROUND A NORTHWARD MOTION DURING THE FIRST 24
HR...FOLLOWED BY A TURN TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHEAST. THE NEW
FORECAST TRACK CALLS FOR IRENE TO MAKE LANDFALL ALONG THE NORTH
CAROLINA OUTER BANKS IN ABOUT 36 HR...THEN PASS NEAR THE COAST OF
THE MID-ATLANTIC STATES BEFORE MAKING LANDFALL IN NEW ENGLAND IN
ROUGHLY 60 HOURS. THERE HAS BEEN NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN THE TRACK
GUIDANCE SINCE THE LAST ADVISORY... AND WHILE THE FORECAST TRACK
HAS BEEN ADJUSTED SLIGHTLY TO THE EAST THIS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A
NOISE-LEVEL CHANGE. AFTER LANDFALL... IRENE SHOULD MERGE WITH THE
CORE OF THE WESTERLIES AND TURN NORTHEASTWARD WITH ACCELERATION.

WATER VAPOR IMAGERY AND ANALYSES FROM CIMSS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF

WISCONSIN SUGGEST THAT IRENE IS ENCOUNTERING LIGHT TO MODERATE

SOUTHWESTERLY VERTICAL WIND SHEAR. THIS...ALONG WITH THE CURRENT
CYCLONE STRUCTURE AND DRY AIR ADVECTING TOWARD THE HURRICANE IN
WATER VAPOR IMAGERY...ARGUE AGAINST SIGNIFICANT STRENGTHENING....
AND INDEED THE INTENSITY GUIDANCE SHOWS LITTLE CHANGE IN STRENGTH
BEFORE LANDFALL. ON THE OTHER HAND...THE EYEWALL CONVECTION IS
CURRENTLY STRONG...AND THE SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES ALONG THE
FORECAST TRACK ARE 28-29C. THIS SUGGESTS SOME MODEST STRENGTHENING
IS POSSIBLE. IRENE IS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR THE CATEGORY 2/3
BOUNDARY WHEN IT REACHES THE VICINITY OF THE OUTER BANKS.

Way to go Bucky!   Keep an eye on Irene!

Feeling Nostalgic for Dubya. Who'da Thunk It !

Below is an interview conducted of Texas Governor Rick Perry in October, 2010, just before the gubernatorial election in Texas.  Perry was running against Democrat Bill White, the former mayor of Houston, and ended up winning handily.

Perry is interviewed by Evan Smith, the editor of Texas Tribune.  Smith has a national program on PBS and public radio called Texas Monthly Talks, a Charlie Rose style show.  Smith comes across as a mix of Rose, Jon Stewart and Woody Allen, but with a mildly annoying habit of panning for the camera.  Watching the entire interview takes 59 minutes, but as politicians are fond of saying:  "we need to care about what kind of country we are going to leave our children!"


Watch live video from texastribune on Justin.tv

If you're undecided about devoting time to this, here is a small piece of it, addressing abstinence education, to whet your appetite:



Poor Mrs. Perry!

Ohio GOP Prepared to Back Down on Union Busting?

 Semi-truck delivering veto referendum petition signatures to Ohio Secretary of State in Columbus, Ohio on June 29th.
(Columbus Dispatch Photograph)

In late June I posted on the powerful Ohio "veto referendum" Buckeye voters were implementing in an attempt  to overturn Ohio's new public union-busting statute.  Overturning the law is currently slated for a state-wide referendum in November.  Today's New York Times has an article suggesting that Governor Kasich and Republican leaders in the legislature are fearful that their anti-union law will be overturned by the voters.  This is probably a politically shrewd move by Governor Kasich.  If nothing comes of the negotiations with labor leaders described in the article, Kasich will be able to try and claim that the inherent intransigence of the unions demonstrates why the law was passed this past spring.

The Power of Public Schools for Community

Joplin Senior High School
August 17, 2011
(New York Times Photograph)






Between June 4 and 7, 1942, the Japanese Imperial Navy and the U.S. Navy fought the Battle of Midway, a sea engagement leading to what one naval historian has called "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare."  The order of battle for the Japanese fleet included four aircraft carriers, two massive battleships and numerous other combatants.  It was commanded by Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor. His intention was to strike a decisive blow against the U.S. fleet that would cause the United States to retreat from engagement with Japan in the Pacific, perhaps permanently.  The success of the U.S. Navy and its three aircraft carriers, in sinking all four of the Japanese carriers, did more than any other event to quickly turn the tide of the war in the Pacific in favor of the allies.  It might not go too far to say it may be why Japanese isn't the predominate language taught in Hawaiian schools today.

A major key to the success of Admiral Spruance at Midway was the fact that he had three rather than two aircraft carriers at his disposal for the battle.  The U.S.S. Yorktown had been so severely damaged at the Battle of  Coral Sea just a month earlier that Japanese naval  intelligence had it as "sunk."  The Yorktown limped into Pearl Harbor on May 27, 1942, with the intention of proceeding on to Puget Sound, Washington, for extensive repairs.  The best estimate of the time to repair Yorktown upon her arrival at the Puget Sound naval shipyard was 90 days.  Because of the need to engage Yamamoto, Yorktown sailed out of Pearl Harbor three days later ready for battle.

John Toland, in his Pulitzer Prize winning history of the Pacific War, The Rising Sun, described the sortie:

The day after Nagumo's four carriers had left the Inland Sea,  Spruance sailed out of Pearl Harbor on the carrier Enterprise, with Hornet, six cruisers and eleven destroyers making up the rest of Task Force 16.  Two days later, Fletcher followed, with two cruisers and six destroyers, on Yorktown.  Thanks to the almost superhuman efforts of fourteen hundred workmen, the estimated three months' repair of the carrier had been accomplished in two days.

Yorktown sailed from Pearl to Midway with hundreds of shipyard workers embarked in order to finish the final necessary repairs.  The ability of the Yorktown to join the U.S. Fleet was described as miraculous.  Even if you don't believe in miracles, it was a history-changing accomplishment that remains a testament to the ability of people to accomplish great things in short order with focus and determination and material resources.

On May 25, 2011, Joplin, Missouri was struck by an EF-5 tornado that resulted in 160 deaths, 900 injuries and the destruction of thousands of  homes, commercial buildings, a regional hospital, and 6 of Joplin's 18 public school buildings.  Yesterday, school started in Joplin on time.  Today's New York Times reported on the opening of the Joplin schools:

When the schools here were reduced to red-brick rubble in the deadly tornado three months ago, abruptly ending classes just before final exams, district leaders made a promise that seemed like a long shot: the new school year would start on time.   . . .

Exchanging the usual first-day greetings — the boys slapping hands, the girls embracing — juniors and seniors shared their schedules and marveled at the modern touches of the new Joplin High School, built in just 55 days out of what was a vacant department store at the back of a shopping mall.  . . .

The most anticipated indication of progress, one that led residents of a nearby retirement home to line the street cheering for the arriving teenagers, has been the opening of the schools. It is a moment the city is celebrating not only because it delivered on a promise that seemed out of reach to many, but also because it indicated a return to a measure of normalcy. . . .

Six of the 18 schools were so badly damaged that they will be razed. Three others, and the administration building, require serious repairs. But less than two days after the tornado, C. J. Huff, the superintendent, announced that the schools would reopen on schedule on Aug. 17.

Mr. Huff held to the deadline even as it became clear the damage was worse than estimated, and despite doubts from other officials and contractors that it was even possible.

“It became a rallying point for the community,” said Ashley Micklethwaite, president of the local Board of Education.

With the help of state and federal financing, the district spent more than $30 million to reopen the buildings that survived, rent new space and bring in special modular classrooms. The high school’s freshmen and sophomores were moved to one building, and the juniors and seniors are taking classes at the former department store. Architects were encouraged to “Eagle it up,” adorning the new spaces with images of the school mascot.

We didn’t want to lose our community; we didn’t want to lose our families,” Mr. Huff said. “Schools are a big part of why people are in Joplin, and getting back to normal quickly was very important.” 

 Hopefully, we will all continue to be as committed to the nation's public schools as the citizens of Joplin have been to theirs.

Treason Most Foul!

Ben Bernanke, Fed Chairman, raised in the tiny burg of Dillon, South Carolina







Rick Perry, the swaggering, hair-dying, boot-wearing, shoot-from-the-hip "good ole boy" from Texas, said yesterday in Iowa that if Ben Bernanke leads the Fed into a new round of Quantitative Easing, he will be acting "almost treasonous."  Here is Perry's quote:

If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don't know what you would do with him. We would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous -- or treasonous in my opinion.

Chairman Bernanke is an appointed official, named by President George W. Bush to a fourteen year term to the Fed, and renamed Chairman of the Fed by President Obama.  Since Bernanke doesn't stand for election, one shudders to think what Perry is suggesting when he says "we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas."

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines treason as:

Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies.

So you be the judge. Which of these statements seems to veer closer to the definition of treason?

Statement 1:

Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability.  The Committee now expects a somewhat slower pace of recovery over coming quarters than it did at the time of the previous meeting and anticipates that the unemployment rate will decline only gradually toward levels that the Committee judges to be consistent with its dual mandate.  Moreover, downside risks to the economic outlook have increased. The Committee also anticipates that inflation will settle, over coming quarters, at levels at or below those consistent with the Committee's dual mandate as the effects of past energy and other commodity price increases dissipate further.  However, the Committee will continue to pay close attention to the evolution of inflation and inflation expectations.

To promote the ongoing economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate, the Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent.  The Committee currently anticipates that economic conditions--including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run--are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through mid-2013.  The Committee also will maintain its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its securities holdings.  The Committee will regularly review the size and composition of its securities holdings and is prepared to adjust those holdings as appropriate.

(A portion of August 10, 2011 Statement released by the Federal Open Market Committee, chaired by Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, interpreted by some to signal a willingness to have the Fed buy back more Treasury securities to increase liquidity in the markets, and lower the yield on bonds, bringimg interest rates down.) 

Statement 2:

“Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that, My hope is that America and Washington in particular pays attention. We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that.”

(April 15, 2009  Statement of Governor Perry speaking to reporters after a Tea Party rally in Austin, Texas, where attendees repeatedly yelled in his presence:  "Secede!").

Time to lock in your votes . . . uh, wait a sec.

Maybe Perry was just a funnin', down home style.  His current supporters dismiss this secession statement as something the governor said with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek.   However two days after the the tea party rally, the governor doubled down.  As reported in the Austin American-Statesman on April 17, 2009:

Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday stuck by his earlier statement that Texas can secede from the United States — a far-reaching, legally questionable prospect that nevertheless drew Perry a fresh favorable mention by Rush Limbaugh, one of the nation's leading conservative voices.

On Thursday, Perry called potential secession a "side issue of Texas history. ... We are very proud of our Texas history; people discuss and debate the issues of can we break ourselves into five states, can we secede, a lot of interesting things that I'm sure Oklahoma and Pennsylvania would love to be able to say about their states, but the fact is, they can't because they're not Texas."

A Perry spokeswoman said Perry believes Texas could secede if it wanted.

Here's betting on a fairly short shelf life for the Texas governor.  He will have made many more such colorful statements over his four terms, and the national press is probably just beginning to scratch them to the surface.  Hopefully he will keep his head above water long enough to push Bachmann and Palin off the national stage.

Dominionism in American Politics

 St. Francis of Assisi  (I like the dog!)



Michelle Goldberg at the Daily Beast discusses the ties between Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry and the Dominionism movement in America.  To Dominionists, Barack Obama might as well be a Muslim.

As I watched the video of Rick Perry orating at "The Response," his National Day of Prayer event at the aptly named Reliant Stadium in Houston,  my mind wandered to the gospel that the Catholic Church and Protestant faiths feature on Ash Wednesday year after year:

¹ “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

² “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. 

 ⁵ “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.  Matthew 6:1-6.

I understand why this gospel might not strike a strong chord with some evangelicals.  But if they are believers in the inherent truth of all the literal words of the Bible (which no Catholic theologians are) then they need to think about how brazenly politics and theology should be mixed.  It's Jesus' explicit admonition, not one issued by liberals, atheists, moral relativists or the founding fathers.

Or to put it another way, as did St. Francis of Assisi:  "Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words."

Buffett or Bachmann? Whom do you trust?

 Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway




Are wealthy Americans really at risk of becoming an endangered species if taxes are raised on them?  Warren Buffett says "no," and repeats his call for marginal tax rates to be increased for the wealthiest Americans in an Op-Ed piece in today's New York Times. He essentially says that the GOP meme that raising taxes on the weathiest Americans, the "job creators," will inhibit growth is nonsense.

Money quotes:

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.

These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.

If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich friends do, your percentage may be a bit lower than mine. But if you earn money from a job, your percentage will surely exceed mine — most likely by a lot.

To understand why, you need to examine the sources of government revenue. Last year about 80 percent of these revenues came from personal income taxes and payroll taxes. The mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15 percent on most of their earnings but pay practically nothing in payroll taxes. It’s a different story for the middle class: typically, they fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher, and my percentage rate was in the middle of the pack. According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends.

I didn’t refuse, nor did others. I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

So if you were told you had to place the future of the nation's economy in the hands of one of two people, who would you trust?   The Oracle of Omaha, one of the, if not the shrewdest American capitalist of our time, or a lady who spent five years working as a low-level tax attorney for the IRS?  To ask the question is to answer it.

Yesterday on Meet the Press David Gregory exposed Bachmann as the consummate follower not a leader. She talked about how the people she is meeting on the campaign trail in Iowa tell her raising taxes to address the deficit is counterproductive.  She wants to be a president who "listens to the people."  Gregory could not get her to admit that the definition of a president is someone who leads in what he or she thinks is the best interest of the country, even when seemingly swimming against the tide of popular opinion.  She just repeated her talking point about "no one I am meeting on the campaign trail has asked to have their taxes raised."  Stunning.

But what about Romney?  He is a highly successful and very wealthy venture capitalist, and he raised his hand on that stage at the Iowa debate, pledging to reject tax increases as one arrow in the debt reduction quiver.  Who do you trust more, Buffett or Romney?  There are at least four reasons to trust Buffett over Romney.  Romney has always had a chameleon quality to him, saying what is expedient at the moment.  See conservative Ross Douhat's piece on the Republican field also in today's Times.  Second, and related to the first reason, Romney was forced by the expected entry of Perry into the campaign to move further right to have a good chance in the early GOP primaries.  Third, the Republican parties in the battleground states are controlled by apparatchiks who have signed on to the Grover Norquist pledge.  These are the people that Romney must connect with to be a successful candidate.  Fourth, Warren Buffett has, by about two orders of magnitude, more at stake financially. 

Governor's Tweet of the Day - Installment No. 4

Governor Walker just tweeted:

GovWalker   

Gov of Montana & I spoke about education reform on CNN: bit.ly/nQAEUV

1 hour ago

Here is the appearance:




Listen to the governor's conciliatory tone.  It is obvious he is now trying to appear to be as bi-partisan as possible between now and January.  It is interesting that after having the legislature play the Budget Repair Bill and Budget out in the most partisan fashion imaginable, causing two Republican senators to, as Scott Fitzgerald put it: "take a bullet" for his agenda, the Governor is now a leading voice for bi-partisanship. 

He is also committed to public education!  After mentioning that his two sons attend public school, here is his money quote:

"We need to give the teachers the kind of support and incentives they need to continue to have a great education. (Sic.)"

So teachers of Wisconsin, sleep easy.  He may have put the wheels in motion to take $800,000,000 a year out of your collective pockets, but Governor Walker is now in your camp. (Unless he intends the words "they need" to be defined in terms of "bare necessity" under Tea Party standards of stinginess.)

America's New Robo-Politicians

 Robo-Pol, circa 2011.


Yesterday I posted about how bizarre it was that all eight candidates on the stage at the Iowa GOP presidential debate had committed to reject enhanced federal tax revenue as a potential tool for us to collectively claw our way out of the national debt hole.

On today's New York Times Op Ed page, Kurt Andersen, the host of NPR's  "Studio 360" discusses Republican and Democrat "Robo-Pols;"  robots created in part by the kinds of pledges exacted by extremists on both sides of the political spectrum.

Money Quote:

I find ideologues creepy because they’re like robots, built to respond to the fluid, complicated world in simple, unchanging ways. What these pledges do is make the robotic quality of politicians more transparent and explicit by installing in each one a few crude lines of code that can’t be overridden or rewritten. And with the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, signed by more than 270 of the 287 current Republican members of Congress, we’ve lately witnessed the spectacular political power of an unreasoning, unpersuadable robot army. But, in fact, my metaphor does a disservice to state-of-the-art software, which can weigh competing variables, adapt to changing circumstances, customize responses. Sophisticated computers are more humanoid than ever before, whereas robo-pols are becoming more primitively machinelike.

 

Last Night Reagan Rolled Over in His Grave as Grover Chortled!

Grover Norquist, Founder, Americans for Tax Reform

 

Over two months ago I posted about Grover Norquist, the founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform. I called him the most dangerous man in America.   I promised to follow up my first post, but got sidetracked. Last night's GOP debate in Iowa reminded me of unfinished business.

Last night, eight of the announced candidates for the Republican Party presidential nomination pledged their fealty to Mr. Norquist and the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party by committing to turn their back on raising taxes as part of a plan for reducing the nation's deficit. Here is the Democratic Party's Rapid Response Team's video clip based on a single question posed to all eight candidates:




Kudos to Fox News' Bret Baier for posing this question, and for following up the question with a "let the record reflect that all eight candidates raised their hands" statement to drive home the significance of the response.

The only way that Baier might have improved on his effort would have been to follow up by saying "Please keep your hands up for now, and drop your hand only if you would accept a spending reduction to tax increase ratio of 20 to 1?  Drop your hand if you would accept a 50 to 1 ratio?  How about 100 to 1?   (A la Abraham negotiating with God over how few righteous men and women in Sodom would be enough to warrant God not destroying the city.  Genesis 18:22-33.)

Not a single candidate kept his or her hand down and then asked to explain by saying something on the order of:  "I am not willing to commit to rejecting any spending cut and tax increase ratio in the abstract.  For example, I can envision that having to defend our country in some future conflict overseas would require a tax increase as part of an effort to avoid a substantial unplanned increase in our national debt."  or "If we restore full employment to the United States economy and decide it is best to accelerate the rate at which we want to reduce deficits, I could be persuaded that modest tax increases might be desirable as part of a deficit reduction plan tilted heavily towards spending reductions."  None of that.  Just "no new taxes." Full stop. 

Ronald Reagan is a patron saint of the Republican party.  On August 13, 1981, with the U.S. economy mired in the middle of a double-dip recession,  Ronald Reagan signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act, adopting the trickle-down theory that doing so, and reducing overall personal taxes over time by 23%, would stimulate so much growth in the economy that it would actually increase tax revenues for the government.  Just a year later, on September 3,1982, faced with burgeoning deficits, Reagan signed the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, which cut back on the tax reductions of the previous year.  In 2003, former Reagan adviser Bruce Bartlett wrote in National Review that "TEFRA raised taxes by $37.5 billion per year", elaborating, "according to a recent Treasury Department study, TEFRA alone raised taxes by almost 1 percent of the gross domestic product, making it the largest peacetime tax increase in American history." Following his initial tax cut, President Reagan signed legislation on eleven occasions that served to raise taxes. The patron saint of Republicans was too sensible to address deficits just by cutting programs protecting the elderly and middle class (which he also did.)

Today's successful Republican's must apparently pledge their unwavering loyalty to Grover Norquist and his no new taxes pledge. Here is what the pledge looks like for a U.S. Senator, like Ron Johnson, who has signed:

Taxpayer Protection Pledge
I, Ron Johnson, pledge to the taxpayers of the state
of Wisconsin, and to the American people that I will:
ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax
rates for individuals and/or businesses; and
TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and
credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

Grover requires someone like Ron Johnson to sign the pledge in the presence of two witnesses.  Living up to part two of this pledge would have put Senator Johnson on a collision course with President Reagan had Johnson served in the U.S. Senate in the early 1980's.

Here is the oath of office that Ron Johnson took as a U.S. Senator:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God."

An obvious question is which promise is more sacred to someone like Ron Johnson and other politicians that sign on with Grover and his cadre, the Taxpayer Protection Pledge or their oath of office?

Mad as Hell and Not Going to Take It Anymore

Talked to one of my smarter friends yesterday about the political and financial meltdown over the last several weeks, and learned that he was committed to burning the political system down and starting over, by working to kick all incumbents out of office.  Seemed like a pretty radical idea, but learned today that he isn't unique in this view:

Why the Health of Unions Should Matter to Non-Union Workers

 Boycott Poster, circa 1898






It is always a little disconcerting when I hear middle-class friends and acquaintances complain about the fact the unionized public workers are getting a free ride on benefits and pensions while they have to pay out of their salaries for some or all of the same benefits.  It is as if the benefits received by the public workers are only connected to the lives of non-union members on April 15th.

It should be intuitively obvious that union wages and benefits have an impact on the wages and benefits paid to non-union members.  I know that has to be the case in the market for talented legal secretaries and para-legals.  The wages and benefits we offer in my firm are a function of a highly competitive marketplace, which includes a large number of unionized state legal specialists.

Now a couple of sociology professors at Harvard and University of Washington have attempted to prove the connection in a study that seeks to quantify the effects of unionization on income inequality since the early 1970's. The study published in the August issue of American Sociological Review is by Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld.  The authors use a regression analysis model incorporating census data that tries to account for both individual membership in unions as well as overall unionization rates in specific industries and regions. The study controls for age, education,  race, and gender, allowing the researchers to estimate the effect of unionization between groups and within groups.

Josh Harkinson describes the study in a blog post at Mother Jones.

Money Quotes:

It's well known that the death of America's labor unions coincides with a staggering rise in income inequality, though the link between the two has never been as obvious as it seems. Many academics argue that unions play a relatively minor role in the equation, instead blaming educational disparities and the shifting makeup of the economy. But now comes a major new study from Harvard sociology professor Bruce Western that suggests that the decline of unions is as important as any other factor, explaining a full third of the growth in of income inequality for male workers.

Their paper in the August issue of the America Sociological Review concludes that deunionization's biggest effects on inequality were indirect:

1) The threat of unionization caused non-unionized employers to raise wages; that threat disappered along with unions.

2) Unions occupied a bully pulpit; knocking them off left the moral case for equality vulnerable to attack. (What do you mean Viacom's CEO isn't worth $85 million?)

3) Workers lost their Washington lobbyists, and with them, any hope of winning political battles for better wages and benefits.

These ideas are nothing new. Kevin Drum ably explores them in his March/April Mother Jones essay, "Plutocracy Now." Yet the Harvard study bolsters them with a rigorous regression analysis of census data, showing empirically what many pundits have long suspected. "Our study underscores the role of unions as an equalizing force in the labor market," Western says. If only proving their importance was as easy as figuring out how to replace them.

Classiest Politicians in America - Installment 10 - National Republican Campaign Committee

Kate Marshall, Nevada State Treasurer




Nevada is holding a special election next month to fill NV-2, the Congressional seat vacated when Representative Dean Heller (R) was appointed by Nevada governor Brian Sandoval to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Republican John Ensign, another GOP hard-core "family values" guy whose dedication to marriage and family proved somewhat chimerical.

Democrat Kate Marshall, the state treasurer, is running for the seat against Republican Mark Amodei.  District 2 has been staunchly Republican in the past, although Barack Obama came within a couple hundred votes of carrying the district in 2008.

Marshall has substantially out-raised Amodei in the money race, and the National Republican Campaign Committee has tried to help by airing the following ad in Nevada.  Compare the attractive Ms. Marshall above with the rather cronish Ms. Marshall in the ad.



Two Reno television stations have refused to air the GOP ad, contending that it is not factual in claiming that she supported a $500,000,000 tax increase on Nevada businesses to handle the deep hole Nevada is in by way of borrowing from the federal government for unemployment insurance payments.  The Las Vegas Sun exposed the lie contained in the ad here.

In a statement to the non-partisan political blog, The Hill, the NRCC did not defend the specific claim it made, but continued to attack Marshall. "The fact remains that during Kate Marshall's tenure as Nevada treasurer, the economy suffered the largest increase in unemployment and home foreclosure rates in the nation," said NRCC spokesman Tyler Houlton.

When a politician, or a political spokesperson, starts out a statement with "The fact remains, . . ."  you are best off simply priming yourself for mendacity, inanity or both.

So there you have it.  The state treasurer of Nevada gets collared by the national GOP for playing some significant part in the unemployment caused by the Bush Recession, and the collapse of the housing market caused by a Wall Street which the GOP still wants to unfetter from the salutary protections of Dodd-Frank.

This is the kind of advocacy that tries to pass for rational political discourse in the United States in 2011.