Chris
11-02-2017, 02:48 PM
If nothing else there's this:
https://i.snag.gy/Caey15.jpg
From...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsQJBUOMW6w
George Will takes a broader view in So Republicans agree with Democrats on taxes after all (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/so-republicans-agree-with-democrats-on-taxes-after-all/2017/11/01/6a72d01e-bf22-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html?utm_term=.a292ef51434d)
Needing a victory to validate their majorities, congressional Republicans have chosen not to emulate Shakespeare’s Henry V before Agincourt. He advocated stiffening the sinews, summoning up the blood and lending the eye a terrible aspect. The Republicans would rather define victory down.
What began with a bang of promises of comprehensive tax reform will end with a whimper: The only large change will be to the national debt. Consider a small proposal — repeal of the estate tax. It will be paid by an estimated 5,500 people dying this year, raising about $20 billion — a pittance in the $3.88 trillion budget. Repeal’s significance would be philosophic rather than economic.
...Desperate to propitiate impatient constituents, Republicans say this is no time (actually, there never is a time) to fret about the national debt, which was $9 trillion a decade ago and passed $20 trillion two months ago, having increased 22 percentage points under the Republican president who preceded the present one. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) says do not worry, “we finally have a president who is willing to actually even balance the budget.” Ryan underestimates the president, who has promised to eliminate not just the budget deficit but also the national debt in just eight years, without touching entitlements.
...Republicans should have heeded Dwight Eisenhower’s axiom: “If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.” They should have made the case for large reforms that annoy democratically — almost everyone, simultaneously — but for a large purpose. The aim should have been a revenue system that stops subordinating economic efficiency to social engineering and rent-seeking, thereby maximizing the probability of economic growth sufficient to fund the entitlement state. Such a bold aim requires a commensurately bold argument — for a consumption tax or a carbon tax or a zero corporate tax rate or anything for which public-spirited people might stiffen their sinews and summon up their blood.
https://i.snag.gy/Caey15.jpg
From...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsQJBUOMW6w
George Will takes a broader view in So Republicans agree with Democrats on taxes after all (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/so-republicans-agree-with-democrats-on-taxes-after-all/2017/11/01/6a72d01e-bf22-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html?utm_term=.a292ef51434d)
Needing a victory to validate their majorities, congressional Republicans have chosen not to emulate Shakespeare’s Henry V before Agincourt. He advocated stiffening the sinews, summoning up the blood and lending the eye a terrible aspect. The Republicans would rather define victory down.
What began with a bang of promises of comprehensive tax reform will end with a whimper: The only large change will be to the national debt. Consider a small proposal — repeal of the estate tax. It will be paid by an estimated 5,500 people dying this year, raising about $20 billion — a pittance in the $3.88 trillion budget. Repeal’s significance would be philosophic rather than economic.
...Desperate to propitiate impatient constituents, Republicans say this is no time (actually, there never is a time) to fret about the national debt, which was $9 trillion a decade ago and passed $20 trillion two months ago, having increased 22 percentage points under the Republican president who preceded the present one. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) says do not worry, “we finally have a president who is willing to actually even balance the budget.” Ryan underestimates the president, who has promised to eliminate not just the budget deficit but also the national debt in just eight years, without touching entitlements.
...Republicans should have heeded Dwight Eisenhower’s axiom: “If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.” They should have made the case for large reforms that annoy democratically — almost everyone, simultaneously — but for a large purpose. The aim should have been a revenue system that stops subordinating economic efficiency to social engineering and rent-seeking, thereby maximizing the probability of economic growth sufficient to fund the entitlement state. Such a bold aim requires a commensurately bold argument — for a consumption tax or a carbon tax or a zero corporate tax rate or anything for which public-spirited people might stiffen their sinews and summon up their blood.