oh please, jeebus, please!!! make the Gopers go fer the newtster.
grant them their usual infantile idiocy and insular surreality, and convince them thoroughly that newt -- he with the calm caramelly voice of pseudo-intellectual wackiness -- is gawd's gift to america for 21st century...thanx, man!

What's the point of tax cuts if you're not earning any money because you lost your job?

Newt could have simplified his "brilliance" by writing "Whore For the Wealthy" on his forehead.

There is a reason the only thing they can do is yell 'socialist' and attend tea parties (although given the turnout, it looks like they are just sticking to yelling socialist)."

They have literally dozens of members! Nationwide! Meanwhile, here in Kansas City on Friday, many, many more people showed up at a workshop to prevent foreclosure.

"There is a reason the only thing they can do is yell 'socialist' and attend tea parties (although given the turnout, it looks like they are just sticking to yelling socialist)."

Just have to say, a group of people here in St.Louis had themselves a 'tea party' down on the Mississippi the other day. The local news covered the sad affair with a tepid turnout in cold weather.

Do these people realize the Boston Tea Party was about taxation without representation? Holycrap, I would think a 'real American', a true patriot, etc. would at least learn SOME American history.

As a homeowner, some assistance with some projects around the house would be nice, but if they send Joe the Plumber to help with a leaky faucet, I'm voting Democratic.

Replace Sarbanes-Oxley.  This failed law is crippling entrepreneurial startups.  Replace it with affordable rules that help create jobs, not destroy them.

Sure, because without all those accounting rules, we can return to the age of Enronomics.

attend tea parties (although given the turnout, it looks like they are just sticking to yelling socialist)

Funniest photo ever.

Just because the bodies in the pews thin out, you don't change the Commandments -- no, you hurl more anathemas.

Many are called, few are chosen, and fewer still are washed in the blood of the Newt.

Seventy-nine years ago, we proved that throwing money into "stimulus" during a recession only makes the recession deeper. If Roosevelt hadn't been president, the economy would have corrected itself by mid-1933 at the latest. Instead we paid for decades for highways, electrification, art, and other things we didn't need just to make a few salary types feel more "needed" through make-work jobs paid for by the tax dollars of the real movers and shakers in this society.

I was 35 years old in 1929, and I was forced to help fund Roosevelt's boondoggle. I'm not doing it again.

Newt's 12 Point Plan

1. Reduce the Business Tax Rate
2. Abolish Taxes on Capital Gains
3. Abolish the Death Tax
4. More American Energy Now (Energy exploration)
5. Replace Sarbanes-Oxley (More Enrons & Worldcoms please)
6. Protect the Rights of American Workers (from ... Unions)
7. Invest in Energy and Transportation Infrastructure (More offshore oil platforms please)
8. Control Spending So We Can Move to a Balanced Budget
9. No State Aid Without Protection From Fraud
10. Homeowner's Assistance
11. Payroll Tax Stimulus
12. Real Middle-Income Tax Relief

Order FIXED to better reflect ACTUAL GOP priorities.

Myke K, thanks for your "Tales from the Crypt" comment.

"taxation without representation" means to some on the right that their particular views are not represented in Congress. Recently, a caller to C-Span, an older lady from Arizona associated with an anti-immigrant group, kept saying she and her friends were not "represented" for the stimulus vote. She blasted McCain, as well. No, they have no knowledge of the original meaning.

Wow, Myke K. I didn't know there were any 115 year-olds who posted blog comments! Awesome!

Item #9 (kill the Unions) is a Newt bugbear. Not a new idea, to put it mildly.

As for Myke K, I think he's a vowel away from one of our resident trolls...

Performance art, in other words.

This is actually a more honest list than the Contract with America, which contained several items (like term limits) which Republicans had no intention of carrying out.

Gingrich never really got any traction with national voters - he got as far as he did by appealing to the Republican hard core and journalists who were looking for novelty. The attention he still gets from Beltway media is now fairly perfunctory.

Wow!! Mike K. You are 115 years old? That's impressive! Hard to believe, but so are your "facts".

Maybe the reason the GOP can't come up with good ideas is because Obama took all the good ones.

I didn't know there were any 115 year-olds who posted blog comments! Awesome!

Again with the liberal ageism. You punks think you invented political discourse. I have a blog and you might learn something if you read it, like how to link to something worthwhile instead of the porn and drug sites you frequent between stints at your low-salary, non-job-creating positions.

I made a little mistake with the last post, but that doesn't make any of you less stupid. Here's the link to my blog. Read it and learn something.

Mike K, take your meds old man. I'm just glad to see someone so ossified has actually LEARNED to USE the inatrwebs.

Now back to my pr0n.

Ah, the performance artist troll - When even Scotian was taken in by a liberal "troll".

My god Shortstop that's the funniest damn thing I've seen in years.

And Myke k you certainly are a sparkling representative of the conservatives in this country.Dumb and dumber.1929 at 35 years old.Bwahahahahaha!!!

This one is the most fraudulent of all:
8. Abolish Taxes on Capital Gains

Most capital gains don't accomplish any real "work" anyway since they aren't start up capital, and even if they did - #8 hypocritically contradicts stated conservative opposition to government fiddling with tax rates and regulations to favor and disfavor what "the market" ought to do on its own. If they really believe the latter, the only legitimate way is to have the same tax rate regardless of income (just setting aside the flatness of rates per se, which is NOT the same issue) and just index.

I would (since I do think fiddling is OK) support a special break for genuine start-up capital, which is not trading of stocks, house flipping, etc.

The CG tax cut is above all a reward for Republican donors, nothing more.

tyrannogenius

How funny...Mykes webblog is an Amazon book review! I tried it twice.

Hee, bert; I had forgotten that. Scotian used to argue so earnestly that Norman was for real. Any number of examples of blatant over-the-topness in Norman's posts could never dissuade Scotian from this conviction.

1. Payroll Tax Stimulus
Um, your sainted Ronald Reagan was the last president to raise the payroll tax limit, to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
2. Real Middle-Income Tax Relief
The Republicans had two terms to do this, but cared only about cutting taxes for the wealthiest.
3. Reduce the Business Tax Rate
Bush presided over record-high corporate profits, thanks to business tax cuts, and clearly those profits weren't funnelled into hiring new employees.
4. Homeowner's Assistance
We're doing that already, targeting those who actually, you know, need it.
5. Control Spending So We Can Move to a Balanced Budget
Bush and his Repug colleagues ran up the largest deficits in history, making drunken sailors look like ascetics.
6. No State Aid Without Protection From Fraud
How about no federal contracts without protection from fraud? I'm lookin' at you, Halliburton...
7. More American Energy Now (Energy exploration)
We have 3% of the world's oil, and consume 25%. I know math is tough for Republicans, but give it a shot, eh Newt?
8. Abolish Taxes on Capital Gains
We lowered them dramatically, hoping to spur the ol' trickle-on -- oops, I mean trickle down! -- effect. Instead, surprise, surprise, the the proceeds from the tax breaks were merely pocketed.
9. Protect the Rights of American Workers (from ... Unions)
Nonunionized American workers watched their earning power erode during the Bush years, if they were lucky enough to hang on to their jobs at all. What is Newt trying to "protect" them from -- eating?
10. Replace Sarbanes-Oxley
With what -- further deregulation? That's worked out well...
11. Abolish the Estate Tax
Already done, for all but the largest estates. And the rich don't spend their tax breaks, they pocket them, since they're already spending at the maximum rate. See "trickle on," above.
12. Invest in Energy and Transportation Infrastructure
Um, doing that in the stimulus, with almost no Republican support.

How funny...Mykes webblog is an Amazon book review! I tried it twice.

Posted by: Mari

So I made an error. Doesn't make you any smarter. Here's the book I wrote. Don't you wish you could do that?

So your mane is Susan Johnson and you write "bodice rippers"? I'm SO impressed!

just curious...
so when they say abolish capital gains taxes -- are they advocating that hedge fund managers should not pay any income tax at all?
also...this 'investment in infrastructure' - that's just in theory, right? they don't want to invest in high-speed rail or anything (and certainly not anything involving 'magenetic levitation'), right?

Millions of people pay Federal taxes weekly or bi-weekly from their payroll taxes. They expect Government to institute policies which will help enrich their lives -- not reduce monies for school programs such as drivers' ed, shop, home economics, drama, gym, school lunches, books, and even toilet paper. Anyone over 40 had the advantages of these good school programs which have now become defunct. This is not how good Government should treat their young people while spending billions of dollars on killing machines and wars. These Federal taxes individuals pay into should be then given back to them by investing in good roads, bridges, sewer and water systems, schools, clean air, something which has been lacking the last 8 years and futhermore lacking whenever a Republican has control over the government -- it becomes non-existant yet a place of employment and obstruction for the GOP Party who come daily to work to obstruct and be the Party of No!

Further on capital gains: we should, contrary to Newt Gangrich's proposals, be actively discouraging effort focused on making (ironically, "redistribution of wealth") money by speculative activities. That's what got us into this mess in the first place. Really, it should be the opposite with capital gains taxed more than regular income. That way, people will be motivated to have real jobs "doing something" instead of all that "build wealth" stuff which is actually just buying and selling, milking the extra money generated by the Fed's monetization of debt (all so very ironic).

But I'm willing to settle for the rates being the same.

tyrannogenius

Heh, we not only attract mostly stupid, dishonest, nasty, shilling, etc. trolls; we attract weird ones advertising links to bodice-ripping "romance" chaff!

I am tired of reading Republicans spent like a drunken sailors during the Bush years. Look at the facts Nondefense discretionary spending rose about .2 percent of potential GDP over the 2001 to 2008 period. About 0.1 was higher homeland security and .1 on veterans health care. Elsewhere they expanded Medicare with the drug benefit but allowed low income transfers (think TANF and SCHIP to fall behind needs). So if that is like drunken sailors then how are you going to describe Obama's budget. Bush was irresponsible because he raised defense and Medicare spending and did not finance it with higher taxes. The spending story that Heritage likes to spin is false, and you should not be abetting its dissemination.

eric,

You are right to take a look at the tax rate of hedge fund managers. Presently, they pay capital gains tax rates on their income. Capital gains taxes are what money owners pay (or deduct) on their gain or loss upon sale of the investment. But hedge fund managers are not gaining a return for their own investments. What they are doing is earning a commission on managing the fund. They should be paying the same income tax rate as anyone else who works on a commission basis. But they aren't.

Part of the big push from Wall Street Hedge Funders to end the capital gains tax is to end income tax completely for themselves. Think of it, they already pay 10-15% on their income (millions of dollars annually) when the rest of us pay a greater percentage of much less income.

Ah rana the beauty of the internet is you can instantly check facts. Those pesky things.Better check your numbers again. Your either a liar or blatantly misinformed.

10. Replace Sarbanes-Oxley
11. Abolish the Death Tax

Say what?

The first demonstrates the incredible short memories of the Republican Party. Yes, SOX compliance is a pain, an some streamlining is possible, but SOX was in response to Enron, Worldcom, etc. How much worse would the crash be now if SOX hadn't been in place? To bring this up now is just horrible timing.

The second illustrates how badly the Republican Party has succumb to groupthink. Yeah, I understand the very rich trust fund babies in the College Republican clubs would love to get their inheritances tax free while the rest of us plebians have to pay tax on our income. And I understand the sophisticated marketing investment that has gone into this campaign in order to get the right jargon into the mainstream (such as renaming the inheritance tax, first to the "estate tax" then to the "death tax").

But seriously, do they actually think that either a) eliminating the inheritance tax will provide any economic boost, or b) that anyone who isn't in the Republican base actually cares about this issue?

"Wow, Myke K. I didn't know there were any 115 year-olds who posted blog comments! Awesome!"

I'm just impressed that someone that old is comfortable with the computer! My 83 year old grandfather won't touch the damn thing.

Interesting book Myke, I knew Republicans reproduced, and here's a book all about it! Nice.

Here's my book:
http://tinyurl.com/c7d6n5

Also with a half naked man on the cover, but this one has a big axe.

If Mount Rush continues to be the guy speaking for the GOP, the gender gap is going to reach stratospheric levels.

If Newt is going to be the intellectual force of the GOP, their show will play in front of lots of empty seats. His act is stale.

The GOP seems to have an urge to go into suicide mode.

"3. Reduce the Business Tax Rate"

MORE THAN TWO-THIRDS OF CORPORATIONS PAY NO TAXES

"8. Abolish Taxes on Capital Gains"

Under the current capital gains and dividends rate, 98.3% of the benefits go to the top 20% of taxpayers. The other 80% of taxpayers see only 1.7% of the benefits.

"11. Abolish the Death Tax"

Only 1.7% of all estates paid ANY estate tax whatsoever.

In 2000, that was just 31,918 estates. Ninety-five percent of the revenue came from estates valued at more than $1 million. One-fifth of that total revenue came from just 374 estates worth more than $20 million each.

Republicans en masse oppose infrastructure investment.

Why? Really, why?

The only serious reason I can imagine is it is the most obvious way to hurt and injure as many people at once as possible while complaining this is evidence government just doesn't work.

8. Abolish Taxes on Capital Gains

WHAT capital gains????

Would it be asking too much, when the GOP brings up the so-called "payroll tax holiday", to point out that cutting FICA tax revenue would turn Social Security from a non-crisis into a real one?

Cal Gal, @16:57,

If you have to ask, then, obviously, you didn't have enough capital to be worth talking about :)

Vis Myke K's "production"... I thought it was a book; didn't realise it was a DVD. I knew he had his own vanity press to publish his books, but had no idea he had an equivalent for filming. Y'all figure his entire family -- 3 wives and all the fruit of his loins -- took part in it?

1. Payroll Tax Stimulus
2. Real Middle-Income Tax Relief
4. Homeowner's Assistance
5. Control Spending So We Can Move to a Balanced Budget
6. No State Aid Without Protection From Fraud
7. More American Energy Now (Energy exploration)
12. Invest in Energy and Transportation Infrastructure

7 out of 12 Obama largely is already doing.

That borders on endorsement.

Steve. Whose words were "Energy Exploration"? They mean "Dill, Baby, Drill!" don't they?

Any effort to balance the budget, REALLY balance the budget, would be suicidal for the economy.

The last two people who tried that were Hoover and FDR. What were the results? Well, Hoover tried it in 1930. Look at what it did for the economy - the depths of the Great Depression came after that, and before the New Deal kicked in.

Then, after getting re-elected in 1936, in early 1937 FDR tried it, after the economy had rallied to respectable numbers from 1933 to 1936. Result? It killed the momentum of the economy and threw us back into one just as deep.

The ONE thing we can't worry about is a balanced budget.

.

If the repugs really want smaller government, why don't they suggest spending cuts? Why don't they put the horse before the cart.

First, eliminate departments, agencies,and programs. Factor in the cost of their dissolution and provide realistic "future" cost savings. And then...reduce taxes.

What is the point of cutting taxes when expenditures remain the same or increase. Cutting taxes without reducing spending is irresponsible and fuels more borrowing.

The "starving the beast" theory when put into practice has been proven not to work. Most "thinking" people know that. Just like most people know supply-side voodoonomics is a fantasy.

I don't know why the Dems don't insist the GOP to offer spending cuts first.

If the repugs really want smaller government, why don't they suggest spending cuts?...
Posted by: Tec619
Quite so. Actually there is equivalency between the tax cuts of Bush and the stimulus of Obama. Both, combined with Bush/Pelosi style diarrhea of the pocketbook, are merely variations on the borrow-and-spend scam, and thus both qualify as voodoo economics.