Republicans Save the Worst Insult for Last and Call JFK One of Their Own

On the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's death the right-wing is attempting to claim his legacy for their own. After excoriating President Kennedy as soft on communism and a socialist they now call him a conservative, the cruelest cut of all. One of the biggest lies they tout is President Kennedy's tax cuts. Like all great lies it is wrapped in a kernel of truth. Kennedy did indeed cut taxes, but unlike tax give-a-ways to the rich President Kennedy's tax cuts were skewed heavily in favor of the working man. And that's why they worked and "Trickle Down Economics has never worked. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Republicans Cite JFK's Tax Cuts They Are Not Telling the Truth, -here it is- http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_09/the_rights_misplaced_love_of_j032417.php Bill O’Reilly repeated a familiar refrain to go after President Obama’s plan to increase taxes on the wealthy in 2013, relying on President Kennedy’s tax cuts in 1962 to make a misleading historical point. Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly is urging President Obama to follow President John F. Kennedy’s footsteps and propose lowering taxes for the rich to spur economic growth. […] “[I]n 1962, President Kennedy proposed a big tax cut for the rich in order to stimulate the economy and encourage investment. And the rates have been moderating ever since.” [Fox News, The O’Reilly Factor, 9/22/11] This comes up from time to time. It’s a little game the right plays to make it seem as if tax cuts are, or at least were, a bipartisan approach to economic growth. Given the spectacular failures of the Bush-era tax breaks, it’s tempting to think even the most stubborn Republican hack would give up and move on, but apparently that’s not the case. So, let’s set the record straight. When Kennedy cut taxes, he lowered the top marginal tax from 91% to 65%. Many congressional Republicans opposed his plan at the time, citing concerns that the treasury couldn’t afford such a tax break — the Republican Party used to be quite serious about fiscal responsibility, but it’s been a half-century — but Kennedy proceeded anyway because the higher rates, instituted during World War II, were no longer necessary. Also at the time, the country had very little debt — Eisenhower, thankfully, kept taxes high throughout the 1950s — almost no deficit. Fiscal conditions, obviously, are far different now. Keep in mind, unlike contemporary GOP policy, Kennedy’s plan distributed “peace dividends” broadly across the wage spectrum. As the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation explained at the time, the bottom 85% of the population received 59% of the benefits of JFK’s tax cut. The top 2.4% received 17.4% of the tax cut, and the top 0.4% received just 6% of it. Those on the right who see themselves as descendants of the Kennedy policy are either deeply confused or they assume you won’t bother to learn the truth. Steve Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog, Political Animal.

"Filibuster" is an old Dutch word for "Free-booter or Pirate"

That is exactly what the unprecedented Republican obstructionalism and massive abuse of that rule is, piracy. It is the theft of the treasure of democracy: civil discourse and deliberation. The Senate should have dealt with these thieves the same way President Obama dealt with pirates, quickly and decisively.

And as abuse of the filibuster grew, effectiveness in the Senate fell to record lows.

President Obama, the greatest deficit reducer of all time

by mike kohr 5/1/2013

Super Deficit Reducer
-President Obama-

You'd never know this fact if all you listened to was the Chicken Little, sky is falling crowd, of Faux Gnus. And if all you listened to was the Nixon aide, turned right-wing propaganda huckster, Roger Ailes's, fact free network, you certainly would not be aware that President Obama's deficit reduction results would be even greater if the obstructionist Congress would allow the President to remove the biggest single contributors to today's yearly deficits, namely the George W. Bush era tax give-a-ways to the rich.   

Republicans ran the economy over a cliff, put in place spending and tax policies that exploded the debt, and then  after America elected Barack Obama as President, engaged in unprecedented obstructionism all the while crying that President Obama is not fixing their catastrophic failures quickly enough.

Most amazing in all this, is that on a political level, the Republican Party and Faux Gnus has succeeded. Most Americans are not aware that President Obama's economic policies have actually shrunk the yearly deficit both in raw numbers, and in relation to GDP, the only true way to examine the size of the national debt from administration to administration.

In the fiscal year 2008-2009, the last year of George W. Bush's budgets, the yearly deficit was $1.4 trillion dollars. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) the upcoming 2014 deficit will :  "shrink this year to $845 billion, or 5.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), its smallest size since 2008."

Steve Benen of the Maddow Blog, notes that this is the fastest deficit reduction since the end of World War II and at the same time resulted in the strongest job creation in 8 years.

For the math impaired Republican Party and their hair on fire friends at Faux Gnus that is a reduction of $555 billion or a reduction of 40%. In raw numbers, -the misleading numbers that Faux Gnus uses- this is more deficit reduction than all other presidents in history combined.

Adversity presents opportunity, and President Obama, like every other Democratic President was presented with the opportunity to fix a failed economy from his Republican predecessor. President Obama has achieved historic accomplishment because in part he was presented with a a failure of epic proportions.

Republican criticism of the President is nothing more than they wishing to be the hero of their own self inflicted disaster.

sources: http://stuffthatmattersblog.com/2013/03/24/how-to-prove-obama-lowered-the-deficit-in-4-easy-steps/
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/05/08/18127236-a-deficit-shift-the-gop-may-struggle-to-explain?lite 

Hey Wisconsin! How's that Walker thingy workin' out for ya?

hate to say we told you so, but....

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“Now is the time for leaders in Illinois and across the nation to take on these tough choices,” Walker wrote in an opinion column in the Chicago Tribune last summer after that state’s Legislature voted to raise taxes.
Still, despite new highway signs touting Wisconsin as “Open for Business” the state has continued to sputter. It ranked 42nd in overall job creation for the one-year period ending June 2012, according to the federal Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), a statistically accurate survey of 96 percent of state employers.
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source: http://host.madison.com/business/did-scott-walker-s-budget-cuts-hurt-economy-some-economists/article_125bd12a-6fca-11e2-ba01-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz2K7wwJhYv



And while jobs are fleeing Wisconsin, Walker is keeping the criminal justice operation in Wisconsin humming:

•Walker's campaign website manager Brian Pierick was sentenced Thursday to community service and a $2,100 fine for the misdemeanor of sexting a 17-year-old boy.

•Walker's deputy chief of staff, Tim Russell, was sentenced in January to two years in prison for stealing from a charity meant for military combat veterans and their families.

•Walker's constituent services coordinator Darlene Wink took a plea deal in which she was given probation for two misdemeanors for planning campaigning fundraisers, including one with Sarah Palin, on the taxpayer dime.

•Walker's Veterans Services Commissioner Kevin Kavanaugh was convicted in December of stealing $51,000 from a charity for military combat veterans. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

•Walker's deputy chief of staff Kelly Rindfleisch took a plea deal and was sentenced in November to six months in prison and probation for doing political fundraising at her county job.

•Walker's campaign contributor William Gardner was convicted on two felony counts for the largest campaign finance violation in state history. He laundered more than $43,000 to Walker's campaign. He was fined and sentenced to two years of probation.
source: http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/02/more-convictions-expected-in-scandal.html?spref=fb



Class, Accomplishment, Results.

Over the last 4 years:

Dow Jones up 5585.8 points or +70%
GDP up 8.4%
Consuner Confidence up 27.7%
% who believe the country is headed in the right direction up 15%
Federal Budget Deficit down 21%
Federal spending as a percentage of GDP down .9%
Median sales price of new homes up 15%
Number of U.S. troops in Iraq down more than 99.9%
                                     Then: 139,500 (Jan. 2009) Now: 200 (Jan. 2013)

source: http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/17/16548026-obamas-first-four-years-in-office-then-vs-now?lite

Private Sector Job Growth Graph

Cowboy Incompetence versus Pragmatic Progressivism. See the difference?

 

Republicans are not Conservative or Fiscally Responsible, -never have been-