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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Top Marginal Tax Hike Boondoggle
By William Sullivan
Socialist newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently revived a radical Democrat talking point from its slumber, suggesting to Anderson Cooper in a 60 Minutes interview that we should have a top marginal income tax rate of 70% applied to an arbitrarily set $10 million or so in annual earnings, or the "tippy tops" of income earnings, as she frames it.
First, let's state the obvious. When the top marginal tax rate is discussed in this manner, taxation is nothing more than a political cudgel to advance a narrative of class struggle. But let's pretend, as leftist social engineers often do, that there's actually an economic argument behind it.
Perhaps a good place to start is with the godfather of government stimulus himself, John Maynard Keynes. He observed that "[t]axation may be so high as to defeat its object, and that, given sufficient time to gather the fruits, a reduction of taxation will run a better chance, than an increase, in balancing the Budget."
It's interesting to note that, in this area, his ideas are not far removed from supply-side economists like Arthur Laffer, who observe that there is obviously a certain point at which tax rates can be so high as to reduce government revenue.
The reason for this is simple. Effective tax policy is a matter of economic calibration, and tax rates being arbitrarily (and massive tax increases on the "tippy tops" of income is as arbitrary as it gets) ratcheted upward may certainly be presented as a means to increase revenues, but the actual result is often to both disincentivize productivity and incentivize alternatives to paying the higher income tax rates, like tax-exempted securities or accounting mechanisms to avoid paying. This reaction among these individuals understandably vexes social engineers and leftist demagogues, who long to redistribute the highest earners' wealth, but it's reality nonetheless.
History has shown that the end result is often that higher marginal tax rates on top earners do not increase government revenue. Quite the contrary: History couldn't be clearer in showing that when top marginal tax rates have been lowered, government revenue has increased.
There have been four periods of broad income tax cuts since 1913. The first began in 1920, when the top marginal rates fell from 73% to 24%. The second was the 1960s, where the rate fell from 91% in 1963 to 70% by 1971. The third was the substantial Reagan-era tax cut, where the top rate when from 70% in 1980 to 28% in 1988. The fourth was the Bush-era tax cut from 39.6% in 2000 to 35% in 2003.
Without exception, each and every one of these tax cuts yielded economic growth and increased revenue to the government. Even the 2017 Republican tax cut, which lowered the top marginal tax rate from 39.6% to 37%, has already yielded an immediate increase in federal revenue, as the New York Times laments.
Not only have such tax cuts increased government revenues every time they've been achieved, but taxation has perpetually become more progressive for our having done so.
Take the aforementioned 1920s, for example. Under the Treasury's Secretary Andrew Mellon, the top marginal tax rate went from 73% in 1920 to 25% in 1929. The end result of this was increased revenue to the federal government, and moreover, the share of taxes paid became much more highly progressive, not regressive. Earners making $100K or more in 1920 represented a share of just 30% of the income tax paid, whereas in 1929, that same demographic represented more than 65% of the income tax paid.
This should present an intellectual quandary for proponents of raising the top marginal tax rate. After all, the hypothesis is, ostensibly, that levying higher taxes on Americans' highest earnings forces higher income-earners to not only pay more in taxes, but pay a greater share of federal taxes. This is what they mean by tax policy that would require the "rich" to "pay their fair share."
History proves, however, that there are many examples where lowering the top marginal tax rates has achieved both of those outcomes. So why aren't they in favor of keeping the top marginal tax rate lower in order to get the "rich" to pay their "fair share," when it's obvious that the "rich" pay more in taxes when their top income tax rates are lower than, say, 70%?
We should deal in reality, not talking points. The nature of our current tax system would make such an aggressive hike on top marginal tax rates disastrous. The top 20% of income-earners in the United States now pay 87% of federal income taxes. Inversely, the bottom 40% of American income-earners not only pay no income taxes, but collect additional income from the federal coffers. Seeking tax policy that would make such discrepancies in the tax burden more progressive than it already is should be a fool's errand, but suffice it to say, disincentivizing productivity or encouraging tax avoidance among the highest earning demographic by arbitrarily hiking the top marginal rates would be tantamount to cutting off our nose to spite our face – especially if the goal is that the "rich" pay more in taxes or a greater share of tax revenue.
So, since there's little to no evidence that hiking top marginal tax rates to an obscene rate will do what leftist social engineers suggest that it might do, why are they out there pitching that strategy?
Franklin Delano Roosevelt answered that question long ago.
In July 1941, Roosevelt suggested to his budget director that he would like "to see a tax which would tax all income above $100,000 at the rate of 99.5%." When his budget director was understandably aghast at the suggestion, according to Mark Leff in his book The Limits of Symbolic Reform, FDR jokingly said, "Why not? None of us is ever going to make $100,000 a year."
You may hear that there's more substance than this behind the calls for government to arbitrarily set high income tax rates upon arbitrarily high amounts of income. There's not. It's about nothing more than promoting the politics of envy and promoting class warfare to increase the government's power to redistribute wealth. That makes it no less dangerous, because human nature remains unchanged, and this type of rhetoric remains an effective propaganda tool to rouse and enrage the populace, and particularly the SJWs whom Democrats, headlong into a hard pivot leftward, are courting with increased fervor.
After all, none of us is ever going to make $10,000,000 a year.
William Sullivan blogs at Political Palaver and can be followed on Twitter.
Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/alexandria_ocasiocortez_and_the_top_marginal_tax_hike_boondoggle.html#ixzz5cE2tch64
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
You mean SMALL FEET RIGHT???
Ohh Mrs. EZ is going to hit on me???...doesn't she know I'm taken by Dianna...from Orkney???...
I'm hoping the CC Pharma deal helps push APHA up
WOWSER...eye opening and flunked the one big time...LOL
Our New 'Most Dangerous of Morons'
By William L. Gensert
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is my congresswoman. I know that because I drove two hours to vote against her, to no avail. The rude woman at the poll challenged my vote because my signature didn't match from when I registered as a Conservative in 1976. It's possible that the "C" next to my name provoked her ire, because the man in front of me, a stinky white nonagenarian from the retirement home, escorted by an apparently olfactory-challenged, nice, and tolerant young black woman (she smiled as he told the poll lady she was his illegitimate negro love-child) didn't sign at all, and the malicious monitor didn't throw her challenge flag.
I explained that I had been crushed against a wall by a 48' tractor-trailer in 2008, and my hand had been cut off and sewn back on, which was why I was wearing a glove. I offered to show her my driver's license, which had proved enough, lo these many years. She said ID wasn't allowed, and the mere mention of it made her angrier and ruder. I thought she was going to slap me in my privilege.
So I guess my vote didn't count. Living in the Bronx, it never counts. Still, I vote every year, although, unlike the apocryphal Einstein quote, without expecting different results.
I'm not entirely confident that the doctors who promised me the hand job did it correctly.
For a sarcastic bastard like myself, Ocasio-Cortez and her constant stream-of-consciousness utterances are a target-rich environment. As America's own special lacuna, she has much in common with our last president. Except, to my eyes, she fills her empty suit a little better. As with Barry, she knows very little about a lot of things and a lot about very little. Yet she is pretty enough and enigmatic enough that people listen.
She is absolutely convinced that every idea she has for America's future is so good, so transformational, so "halting the rise of oceans" transcendent that we must all be forced to follow her down the Yellow Brick Road to a fantasy world where she is both Dorothy and the Wizard, happily dancing her Breakfast Club homage as we try not to look into her crazy eyes for fear we'll be turned to stone.
Of course, we'll be walking down that path since with her Green New Deal, there won't be any cars, and we'll have plenty of time, because having destroyed the world's economy, there won't be any jobs, either. And though we'll be weak from the resulting starvation, we can take cold comfort in our unheated homes that she's going to save humanity even if it kills us.
You see, like Barack Obama, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a most dangerous of morons: the moron who doesn't know she's a moron. And she's not afraid to prove it every day.
Like Barry, she is almost too easy to mock, as CRTV host Allie Stuckey did way back in July. I'm looking forward to doing the same.
Breaking: Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-Da Bronx) lambasts Trump on his wall, saying, "It's a scam, meant to divert attention from where a wall is really needed, between America and Romania because their lettuce is killing us!" Adding, "Trump doesn't care about vegans because they're mostly Democrats who are also mostly minorities, so his refusal to block Romania's act of war is racism – impeach 45!"
Don't misunderstand: calling Ocasio-Cortez and Barry the most dangerous of morons is not an ableist screed. I have nothing against morons. I've known many; I've employed many. Heck, I've even lived with a few, although for the most part, when I was cohabiting with a girl and there was a moron in the house, it was usually I. My saving grace was that I've always known I am a moron.
That makes all the difference.
You see, a moron can be a productive member of society. Harry Callahan said, "A man's got to know his limitations." He was right. When a person understands the game and his capabilities, he can work effectively up to his potential. A person who needs his fingers to tell you 2+2=4 should not be designing a bridge. The most dangerous of morons will insist that they not only should design that bridge, but are entitled to design that bridge. And, à la JFK Jr., "they/them" would willingly drive over that bridge every day. We all know how that worked out for John John as he lost his horizon and, along with his wife and sister-in-law, hurtled straight into the ocean.
Yet a digitally challenged individual can be great at customer contact, or sales, or perceiving trends. Heck, a moron could be the best damn machinist in the world without ever being able to spell "machinist." Intelligence has nothing to do with success or value. The understanding of one's own intelligence, its reaches, and its limitations, however, does have much to do with how far a person can travel down the road of life.
Ocasio-Cortez thinks she's brilliant just as Barry thought he was brilliant. Barry spent his life having people tell him he was a genius, and with Ocasio-Cortez, it was probably just the voices in her head (thank goodness they didn't tell her to kill, what with her sycophants' threats to Congressman Scalise).
Just as politics is Hollywood for ugly people, pre-eminence in politics is reserved for the best-looking of the "ugly." See: Barry and Alexandria – they are ugly only on the inside and the two are at the "tippy top" in politics. Maybe we should lop off 70% of both as our "fair share"?
Personally, now that she's been "inaugurated" and will soon start "signing" bills into law, I am looking forward to a solid two years of mocking her. And since I am, after all, a constituent, what I say should be taken every bit as seriously as her own pearls of wisdom.
She has admitted that she may not always be "precisely, factually, and semantically correct," but she's always and forever "morally right." Maybe she meant to say "left." It's all so confusing – "I just want to dance..."
Breaking: Alexandria Ocasio Cortez brags that "over 200 languages are spoken in my district alone." And she knows the names of almost half of them and the ones she doesn't know, she has her best team of intersectional, they/them, undocumented migrants who are "more American than any person who seeks to keep them out ever will be" working on it.
I don't care what any privileged, white, greedy, racist deplorable says; she will always be my "tippy top." I hope that's not an insult to the LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ crowd – if it is, Ocasio-Cortez is it.
Because as Joe Biden would literally say, Ocasio-Cortez is literally a big f------- deal, and literally the only person who can make a big f------- difference for literally all of us.
Please follow William L. Gensert on Twitter @williamlgensert.
Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/our_new_most_dangerous_of_morons.html#ixzz5cD0YqLRS
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
Yep...but get the trade deal and it's through the roof...
46 here on the way to 59...rain tomorrow
Morning Larry
Morning EZ...I over slept...running a tad late
Progress....slow progress...
Aphria Inc. (APHA)
6.3714 ^ 0.0414 (0.65%)
Couldn't agree with you more my friend...and getting so deep have to wear waders 24/7
Couldn't agree more...AND...proud Grandpa...
The entire WALL BS is sickening...it is a political ping pong ball ...has been for decades...I still want it built...and now...I don't care if it's 30 or 40 feet tall or if Mexico pays for it...just get er done...
Sad thing is...the MAIN reason they are against a wall...they don't want to give Mr T a victory...the good of the Country be damned...I was glad to see him point that out last night.
Good thing she doesn't read this site...LOL
Morning AJ...you catch the speech??
I'm glad he didn't declare an emergency last night...now he's giving the Dems a chance to come to the table first. He showed a lot of compassion in that speech.
Ouch...I resemble that remark...Robbie thinks I'm in a pattern...every 6 months...it's my cycle...
I haven't told her about those little blue pills...
Morning Gman
Wait what???...get busy for one afternoon and....get your hands off me you damn dirty ape...
Hope you caught Mr T's speech last night...my only wish was he had used names of the victims to bring it home....and...followed by the lobotomized Nancy and Chuckie show...talk about creep night...they looked like Night of the living dead...zombies.
Morning EZ
Please only big board stocks posted here...
I think the overall winner last night was...Chick-Fil-A
It is Robbies dream to own a franchise...
My fav is their nuggets...taste just like KFC original
He does love Chick-Fil-A. Back in Cartersville, that's where Lawrence would hide out, ducking the crush of being a local celebrity to watch film of upcoming opponents in a corner booth on his laptop. In Clemson, they say he does the same, poring over Notre Dame and Alabama defensive cut-ups while snacking on Chick-n-Minis. After his last teammate handshake of the night, he finally turned and started walking toward the waiting explosion inside the Clemson locker room. But he paused when he caught a glimpse of the postgame meal boxes stacked up on a table in the concourse.
"Now we're getting Chick-Fil-A, too?" college football's best quarterback exclaimed as he brushed his long, golden locks from his face. "We can't lose tonight."
LOL I should have looked for this first...woot woot
Good Lord...and to think...AOC thinks Mr T is racist...
Grins....check this out...
Pelosi and Warren obviously need a history lesson
By Jack Hellner
Nancy Pelosi said it looks as if Trump just wants to abolish Congress and that a border wall is immoral. Elizabeth Warren says the Republican Party is corrupt and caters to the rich and powerful. It is obvious to me that they must be referring to Obama, the Clintons, and themselves when they are claiming to talk about Republicans and especially Trump.
Here is just a small sample of what Pelosi, Warren, Obama, the Clintons, and other Democrats have done over the years where the media and other Democrats not only didn't care, but supported the moves wholeheartedly.
Obama, the authoritarian, couldn't get DACA through Congress, so he dictatorially and unconstitutionally implemented it. Pelosi didn't care about Obama usurping congressional authority.
When Obamacare came up short of funds, Obama didn't go through Congress for appropriations. Obama, the corrupt authoritarian, just illegally stole taxpayer money from other sources. Pelosi and other Democrats didn't care.
The immoral and corrupt Obama and others continually lied to the public to get Obamacare passed. The authoritarian Pelosi dictatorially told the Democrat minions in the House to vote for Obamacare without reading it. They wouldn't want the public to see what freedoms the Democrats were taking away. What would Pelosi, the media, and other Democrats say if bankers told their borrowers they should sign the loan documents before they read them? They will tell them later what the payment is, what the interest rate is, and what collateral they are taking. I am sure that would not be OK. Yet when the authoritarian, corrupt, immoral Democrats did that when they passed Obamacare most of the media cheered.
The authoritarian Obama didn't go through Congress to get permission to pay Iran in unmarked bills. The authoritarian, corrupt, immoral Obama even dictatorially stopped an investigation into drug running by a terrorist group to appease Iran and goose his legacy. I didn't see Pelosi and other Democrats say a word about this despicable act by Obama. How many deaths from opiates are OK to appease the terrorist-sponsoring Iran that pledges death to America?
The corrupt, immoral Obama rewarded rich and powerful supporters with contracts and jobs handing out taxpayer money like candy. I am sure that the contracts were not awarded to the middle class and poor that Warren pretends to care about, but I have never seen a word from Warren talking about Obama catering to the rich and powerful.
The corrupt, immoral Obama stole money from other more secure creditors to reward political supporters in the GM bankruptcy. I didn't see Pelosi and others care that he intentionally violated the nation's bankruptcy laws.
The immoral, corrupt, power-hungry Clintons physically and mentally abused multiple women over the years. Women who dared tell the truth about Bill's proclivities had to be destroyed. Pelosi, Warren, the media, and other Democrats supported putting the corrupt, immoral Clintons back in the White House.
The greedy, corrupt, immoral Clintons gave tremendous access to countries that were willing to fork over big bucks to the Clinton Foundation or the Clintons personally. The corrupt, immoral Obama administration, including the "independent" Justice Department, willingly looked the other way, even allowing the sale of Uranium One to the dangerous Russians. I would ask Warren if the poor and middle class were given access to Hillary the way the rich were.
It is immoral, corrupt, and dangerous for Democrats to encourage people to come into the U.S. illegally. It is a shame they are willing to put so many children and women at risk. When Democrats like Schumer were trolling for votes and acting tough on illegal immigration, they voted for border barriers. The fact that they are willing to shut down government instead of funding border barriers now shows how dishonest they are.
The immoral and corrupt Obama and Hillary left people to die in Benghazi while concocting a lie about a video because their political power was much more important than the truth. How immoral is it to lie to the families of those who died along with the public because they liked political power? How immoral is it of Pelosi, Warren, the media, and other Democrats to not care about the lies to the families of those who died?
The corrupt, immoral members of Congress from both parties stole money from the American people to pay off people who alleged abuse of some sort by members of Congress. Those payoffs were meant to protect powerful incumbents from disclosure. Pelosi, Warren, and others certainly care more about the powerful members of Congress than the American people, or else they would release the payoff and scandal information to the public.
The rich, immoral, corrupt Elizabeth Warren committed fraud at Harvard by pretending she was a minority, to enrich herself and increase her power – and now she lectures about corruption. What would happen if white students claimed to be minorities to game the system the way Warren did? That is fraud, pure and simple.
The corrupt, immoral Warren and others sought to destroy Brett Kavanaugh even though they had no actual evidence. How many individuals and families are Democrats willing to destroy to protect the power they have amassed? Journalists gladly participate in this intentional, fraudulent persecution.
Warren was the brain behind the fiefdom of CFPB that is answerable to no one. This corrupt fiefdom blackmailed companies and set up a slush fund for political purposes and to pay kickbacks to left-wing supporters. Democrats love slush funds because they are hidden from the public.
The most immoral, corrupt thing I have seen in my life was done when the Obama administration, including the supposedly reputable Justice Department, the FBI, and intelligence agencies, colluded with the corrupt, immoral DNC and Hillary to use a fraudulent document paid for by Hillary and the DNC to destroy and spy on a political opponent. Not only did Pelosi, Warren, and the media not care about the danger of the out-of-control bureaucrats who sought to destroy a political opponent while protecting the lawless Hillary and others, but they climbed aboard.
It is clear that Democrats cater to the extremely rich Steyer, Soros, unions, trial lawyers, and others. Not the poor and middle class, whom they claim to care about.
Something Americans can be sure of: Most of the media will never call Democrats out for their pure corruption and hypocrisy because they support them no matter what they say or do. The Democrats' regressive, oppressive agenda is all that matters.
Most of the ten richest counties in the U.S. are around D.C., where they produce nothing. Those are the people whom Warren and the Democrats cater to, not us. The Constitution talks about "We the People," but every policy I see Democrats propose focuses on making the government more powerful, not the people.
Make no mistake: the people attacking Trump, including several Republicans, want the power and purse to reside with government, not the people, and that is truly dangerous to all of us, especially the poor and middle class.
It is tremendously moral that Trump's policies are attempting to help all races, both sexes, and people of all education levels move up the economic ladder. It is immoral to intentionally hold people down.
Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/pelosi_and_warren_obviously_need_a_history_lesson_.html#ixzz5bxEekPOt
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
ROFL...I hope the intention was NOT to provoke me because it is Hysterical...and so...TRUE
Even Aphria Inc. (APHA) is some good chit today...well better anyway...
LOL great minds and all...
Damn George....We have GREAT Air Conditioners here Sooooo...wait...can she cook???...
I could see why they are ranked #2...I'm just proud our Hoosiers didn't let it get out of hand and stayed with them...hopefully we mature a little after EACH game and are better prepared to fight from the opening whistle NEXT Time...
Watching right now...I heard her Trump is a racist comment on my way to work...my take after seeing a few of her weekend tweets...she is dumb like a fox...am listening as I type though.
Morning EZ
Umm Dude...this ISN'T South Florida...LOL
Morning MG
We started off too slow to overcome ...but a 9 point loss AT Ann Arbor isn't too shabby...next time in Bloomington.
Bada Bing Bada boom....drumroll...LOL
Watching them makes the crap going on tolerable...
Democrats Hoist with Their Own Petard
By Clarice Feldman
“Hoist with his own petard” is a phrase taken from Shakespeare and means someone destroyed himself with a weapon (a petard, that is, small bomb) intended for another. President Trump has hoisted the #NeverTrumpers on theirs and is about to do the same thing to the now irremediably lunatic Democrats.
Christopher Bedard has done a brilliant job describing the downfall of the #NeverTrump scribblers. It’s worth reading it all, but here are some highlights:
The Never Trumpers say they don’t recognize a Republican Party where the core tenets are neither free trade nor foreign democracy promotion. But maybe they just didn’t know their voters by sight, because the only party that has truly departed recognition is Never Trump.
Each week brings this movement a new and bizarre position: Opposing tax cuts, supporting Obamacare; wishing North Korean talks ill, wishing Democratic investigators well; dreaming of European political meddling, pining for American political comeuppance. [snip]
Though the president’s House was defeated in the first post-Trump national elections and his two-year approval among Democrats lies at historic lows, his approval with his own voters -- those who the Never Trumpers courted not long ago -- is second only to George W. Bush after 9/11.
As the second year of Trump’s presidency ends, these former Republicans have insulted and alienated their readers until they had none. They’ve squandered their time on unimportant, self-righteous panel discussions, finally reduced to bobbing up in partisan anti-Trump venues surrounded by men and women who called them war criminals just years before, buoyed for a time by saying the right thing about the right enemy.
NAFTA, mean words and Donald Trump cannot possibly be the origin of these shattered minds, however vital those were to the breaking.
In the same classic misreading of the base, this week Mitt Romney penned a foolish anti-Trump opinion editorial in the heart of D.C. darkness, the Washington Post.
A number of writers responded to this obvious effort to make himself stand out as the new McCain, a Republican willing to destroy the party’s leader for (temporary) press approval.
Steve Hayward nailed it nicely at Powerline blog:
Romney has unwittingly provided the devastating argument against his style of Republicanism. Yes, it is quite true that nearly all Republican presidential candidates -- and presidents -- have promoted tax reform, lower regulation, getting tough with China, and appointing better judges (and add in moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem), if by “promoted” you mean giving lip service to the ideas.
None of them have delivered on these “promoted” ideas (Reagan excepted, of course). The two presidents Bush botched judicial appointments, extended regulation, delivered little in the way of serious tax or spending reform, and did nothing serious with regard to China. I wish Romney had defeated Obama in 2012, but does anyone think this Massachusetts technocrat, who gave us the state-level version of Obamacare in the Bay State, signed up for a regional climate change cap-and-trade scheme, who appointed the egregious Gina McCarthy (Obama’s second EPA administrator) to be his environmental adviser, and appointed state judges who struck the first judicial blows for same-sex marriage, would have governed as a serious conservative had he won?
The point is, Trump has proved that “mainstream Republicanism” was a colossal failure. Whereas Bush-Romney Republicans “promoted” good ideas, Trump has delivered on them.
As Mickey Kaus tweeted, he sensed there must have been a consultant behind Romney’s spectacular failing strategy -- you know, the kind of geniuses who sandbagged their candidate’s running mate Sarah Palin, the sort who talked Al Gore into wearing brown and stuffing a sock in his pants, who persuaded John Kerry to speak in phony backwoods talk to “get me a hunting license”, and who this week encouraged Elizabeth Warren to enact a folksy News Year’s Eve in her kitchen drinking beer out of a bottle.
Overpaid campaign consultants like the ones behind these stunts regularly reveal their contempt for our intelligence and we repay them by defeating their employers.
One would think that despite Romney’s half-hearted backtracking the next day on CNN, he’d be assigned to an inconsequential committee position. Instead, he was inexplicably handed a plum slot on the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.
If you think this is stupid, the opposition is even dumber.
Just One Minute Typepad’s Matt describes the first week:
Alexandria "I can't afford an apartment" Ocasio Cortez and her cast of clowns are going to be interesting to watch. The NY Post is already going after her and she is already threatening the Democratic Party's biggest donors with doubling their taxes.
Hank Johnson is still trying to find out if Guam has capsized while calling for impeachment and the nutter from Tennessee wants to eliminate the Electoral College while others are moving for impeachment. All. on. day. one.
The Circus is in town!
Ladies and gerbils, step this way to the Midway! A mere Semolian will gain you access to the Greatest Clown Show on Earth, formerly known as the U.S. House. See the Jabbering Jihadis! The Bearded Lady! The Speaker who talks in tongues! Watch as Members commit feats of strength and air their grievances! Watch as Alexandria Ocasio Cortex wrestles Nancy Pelosi on the House Floor!
Popcorn!! Peanuts!!! Get ya Red Hots!!
And folks, enjoy the show!
Dumber still has been the Democrats’ ridiculous refusal to fund the $5 billion the President has asked to build the wall. Polls show overwhelming support for a hardened border and a halt to streams of illegals storming into the country from Mexico. Despite the best efforts of the media to show that it has created great hardships, the shutdown of about 25% of the federal government has not done so. The vast majority of the furloughed workers are Democratic voters. In effect, the Democrats handed them over to the president as hostages.
A look at Senator Schumer’s face in the public “negotiation” in the White House showed me that he realized the stunt was a loser. If I had any doubts, the picture of his face as he left the White House this past Friday confirmed it. He looked like a man being led to the gallows.
As James Freeman noted in the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web”, the Democrats are already backstroking
Having already agreed to spend money on physical barriers to prevent illegal crossings of the U.S. southern border, Democrats are casting opposition to the particular architecture favored by President Donald Trump as a matter of conscience worth shutting down a portion of their beloved federal bureaucracy. This argument was already going to be difficult to sustain and Democrats have just made it even harder.
The problem lies in legislation passed on Thursday by the brand-new Democratic House. Reuters reports on the spending items approved after Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) reclaimed the Speaker’s gavel:
The two-part Democratic package includes a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security at current levels through Feb. 8, providing $1.3 billion for border fencing and $300 million for other border security items including technology and cameras.
The second part would fund the other federal agencies that are now unfunded including the Departments of Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Commerce and Justice, through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
“We’re not doing a wall. It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with a wall is an immorality between countries. It’s an old way of thinking. It isn’t cost effective,” Pelosi told reporters late on Thursday.
To recap, the position of the Pelosi House -- and also of many Senate Democrats -- is that fences between countries are sensible and worthy of 10-figure appropriations of taxpayer dollars but “walls” in the same locations and serving the same purpose are immoral. Anyone thinking such a distinction is ridiculous may be encouraged to know that Speaker Pelosi seems to think so, too. A serious person normally would not call a program morally unacceptable and then add that it’s not “cost effective.” Is the Speaker demanding more efficient immorality?
The President has said he’ll keep the government shut down as long as it takes to build the wall, that the wall will be differently constructed in different places to suit the terrain and the Border Patrol’s recommendations. It may not have yet occurred to the Democrats, but the government cannot be reopened until they pass a spending bill that the Senate will vote for and the President will sign. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t do it otherwise. Basic civics.
But Nancy Pelosi seems to have missed that while flunking high school civics, because she claimed this week that the Constitution makes her the President’s equal. The consequences of failing to understand the basic federalist structure in which she heads only one-half of one of the three branches are more significant than just getting an “F” on the final exam.
Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/democrats_hoist_with_their_own_petard.html#ixzz5bpkUdN2S
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
I've always been told I'm a funny guy...but hey...looks aren't everything...
Now you starting to sound like Dianna...LOL
I don't like Dr's but I do try to keep in tune with my body...from time to time it screams at me...like after a brush with a cedar chest or an ice slip...but over all ...well it just shakes its head...
I am enjoying watching my son play and interact with his son. Gives me a little faith and...scares the hell out of me when I read the news and see how the libturds are tying to tear apart this Country...ahh but I digress...
MAKE it a great day True...
HMO board has a ring...only 500K??..now I know why Pelosi thinks the bonuses were crumbs...
Sparty in black today...looks good...Goooo Sparty