Alright, I know I am biased but Tom Daschle should withdraw his nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Geithner I can forgive because he has talents and skills we sorely need right now but Daschle does not have any such skills. In fact, I always cringed whenever he was on TV stumping for Obama. Why my guy made him the co-chair for his election is still a head scratcher for me.
Tom Daschle represents so many things that I loathe about the Democratic Party that I am hoping and praying that he goes away soon to a life of quiet rumination.
8 comments:
I'm really warming up to Obama. He nominates a guy to head the IRS who doesn't like to pay taxes and I think this whole Daschle thing is part of Obamas plan to reduce the deficit - getting democrats to pay the taxes they owe. I saw it described this morning (may still be on msn) as an "error". Yup, just an oversight, a simple error, an accounting glitch.
Hey, now I know why Dems/liberals always think we need to pay more taxes - because they aren't paying theirs!
[At least until they are nominated for a Cabinet post.]
Damn, nobody bit. I was joking when I said raising taxes will reduce the deficit.
Can somebody here explain why the state of California is broke despite having among the highest sales and income tax rates in the nation?
It's the same reason why the banks of our country did a great job running their businesses for 28 quarters and then suddenly were bankrupt in 3...they were greedy and they lied.
Being specific isn't your game is it? Who in California was greedy and lied?
Well, how about the entire state government? I would think, rld, that you would be happy when I admit that government is a bad thing.
You seem to only admit that when it is convenient for you to do so. You've called for "increased government oversight and regulation" so many times on this blog and now, when people from "your side" (you know, that standard you always use) have their incompetence in full view, you are magically able to separate yourself from your liberal agenda that has dominated the state of California. Nothing you have said has explained why California is broke despite having among the highest sales and income tax rates in the nation. I'll have to wait for Juris to pop in here.
Well, since I've been summoned...
CA stage govt, oops, that should be state govt, shouldn't it? Well, anyway, it is run for the benefit of state (& municipal) employees. The two most powerful groups in CA are the prison guards union (w/ Dems because they are a union and state employees, w/ Repubs for the law and order BS) and the teachers union (a Dem monopoly).
The last census realignment saw the triumph of spineless Repubs who wanted safe districts rather than competitive ones. They got 'em - and a permanent minority role in the legislature. Yes, I hate the Repubs in this state just as much as I do the Dems.
Now, as to the matter of taxes. The high sales tax is the only thing keeping the state afloat. As anyone should know, sales tax is highly regressive and hits low income families harder (proportionally) than high income ones. The state income tax is very progressive, which is good for the state when the economy is humming. Unfortunately, high incomes (including capital gains) tend to take big dives when the economy goes south - and thus the tax loss is also disproportionate (state total income goes down a little, but mostly at the high end - where the most taxes are collected). So the situation is highly unstable - drawing too much when times are good (and the Dems never miss the opportunity to spend every last dime) and bleeding out tax revenues (but not spending of course) when the economy softens.
That's it in a nutshell. Entire books can be and have been written about it.
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