Washington Needs Dose of Common Sense
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on January 10th, 2010 5:30 am by HL
Washington Needs Dose of Common Sense
Larry Kudlow, RealClearPolitics
After the arrival of a disappointing December jobs report, my thought on putting America back to work is simple: ) de-stimulate.That's right. Get rid of the Obama stimulus monster, including the government takeover of health care, cap-and-trade and all this nonsensical talk of creating green jobs. Get rid of the increase in marginal personal tax rates and capital-gains tax rates. Get rid of the payroll tax hike from the health care talks. Get rid of the spending that is a counterweight to growth. Get rid of it, every part of it. It's creating so much uncertainty that even profitable…
Obama’s Transparent Insincerity on Health Care
Rich Lowry, NRO
Barack Obama couldn't possibly have meant his campaign promise to hold negotiations on major legislation in public, broadcast live on C-SPAN. How could he?He'd been in the Illinois legislature for eight years and in the Senate for two, not enough experience to make him a Robert Byrd-style expert on Senate procedure going back to the Romans, but surely enough to realize that much important work has to take place in secret. Receive news alertsIf sunshine is a great disinfectant, it's also a great encouragement to grandstanding and obfuscation. Sensitive negotiations have to be…
States Face Disaster Without Federal Help
Bob Herbert, New York Times
We didn’t pay attention to the housing bubble. We closed our eyes to warnings that the levees in New Orleans were inadequate. We gave short shrift to reports that bin Laden was determined to attack the U.S. And now we’re all but ignoring the fiscal train wreck that is coming from states with budget crises big enough to boggle the mind. Bob Herbert The states are in the worst fiscal shape since the Depression. The Great Recession has caused state tax revenues to fall off a cliff. Some states — New York and California come quickly to mind — are facing…
Goldman Shouldn’t Pay a Penny in Bonuses
Simon Johnson, New Republic
Sources say that Goldman Sachs’s bonuses will be announced on Monday, January 18, and actually paid sometime between February 4 and February 7. In previous years, the bonuses were paid in early January–but the financial year shifted when Goldman became a bank holding company.For critics of the company and its fellow travelers, the timing could not be better.Anxiety levels about the financial sector are on the increase, even on Capitol Hill. The tension between high profits in banking and stress in the rest of the economy becomes increasingly a topic of…
