Always worth repeating
Barak Obama: " It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant"

Don't forget that when lower taxes are paid by corporations and the elite that revenues go up!
So really, this is an entirely good thing.

So, I don't get how this would work. Are they saying that the Galt-worthy owners said to their corporations to stop making profits? These are the larger corporations, not S or individual proprietors (their tax reciepts are down 11%)

They say beauty is skin deep but stupid goes all the way through to the bone.

How does $32.6B down to $3.4B become a 57% decrease?

I'm quite certain that the Pajamas Media people are aware that their argument is perfect nonsense but then such arguments are not intended for thoughtful or intelligent people. They are intended for the low hanging fruit of even lower intelligence such as might be found in the demographics of the viewership of Glen Beck or Sean Hannity.

Danp,

Perhaps because the 32.6B down to 3.4B was a one-month figure, while the 57% was "so far this fiscal year".

Actually, the elites did indeed "go Galt" and withdraw from productive endeavor. But it wasn't because the government was penalizing them, it was to a large extent for the opposite reason: Republicans pushed for cuts in capital gains tax rates, which encouraged switching from being paid for work done to flipping stocks and houses etc. (long or short-term, there were still various incentives.) These Galtards were specifically promoted by the government by being given what they wanted.

Isn't Pajamas Media the outfit (pun intended) that hired Joe the Plumber to cover the Mideast? That should tell you everything you need to know.

Charles - Got it. Thanks.

Facts are facts, and you once again ignore them. The truth speaks itself in facts, which liberals know nothing of.

Therefore, you cannot know anything. You silly liberals.

Dumbest people on Earth. I work with loads of wealthy people on Wall St.. Not 1 single person would give up a nickle income to avoid paying a higher tax. An absolutely asinine notion. Did George Will stop writing under Clinton rates? Did anyone?

These Galt folks didn't even wait for tax increases -- they went on strike to spite society based on proposals that haven't even passed.
======================

Haven't had coffee, so you do the calendar math, but it seems like these Gult folks didn't even wait for proposals to be thought of and proposed, much less passed.

Prescient, what I mean. Clair Voyant.

Perhaps some corporations in Oregon started this Galt process or, simply, employed better accountants, as several have hired Brink's Guards to hand carry their puny $10.00 Corporate Tax checks to Salem.

If they've gone Galt, why are they in Washington asking for billions in bailouts, and not off in some mountain retreat building fantastical technology, like they are supposed to?

I'm willing to take back the nasty things I've said and ask them "back", just as soon as they pony up that static electric motor and the Rearden metal.

Wasn't the top tax rate about the same under Reagan? Did they all go on strike then?

This, of course, is a true sign of progress; the whacked-out fringe spins a yarn worthy of a bedtime story, and the fanatic faithful tuck themselves in for a nice evening snooze. But in reality, we all know that the monsters under their beds---the collective beasties called "Truth and Justice"---never come out to play until after "the children of the Bushylvanian Era" have fallen into the depths of comforting sleep.

Then---and only then---will their nightmare-without-end truly begin....

Not only that...but they think confiscation of guns has begun.

Congress is now starting on the firearms confiscation bill. If it passes, gun owners will become criminals if you don't fully comply.

It has started.

Very Important for you to be aware of a new bill HR 45
introduced into the House. This is the Blair Holt Firearm
Licensing & Record of Sale Act of 2009.

Even gun shop owners didn't know about this because the
government is trying to fly it under the radar.

These people are in need of some serious meds.

Speaking of logic....

Question...why do wingers like Tom Blumer (who is one of the biggest hacks out there) insist on calling it the "Pelosi-Obama-Reid" axis or whatever.

If we were going by alphabetical order, it would be Obama-Pelosi-Reid.

If we were going by order of importance, it would also be Obama-Pelosi-Reid.

And yet, with the wingers, it's always Pelosi-Obama-Reid. (Also known by the acronym "POR".) Ladies first maybe?

What do you expect in a country whose policies have been based on the work of fiction writers (the TV comic book "24" and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, a masturbatory fantasy that rich people "hold up" the world)?

Of course, Rand's fantasy work was ... well, fiction! In fact, the economy is a pyramid with the parasite class at the top, held up by people like you and me whose labor and productivity, creativity and contribution make their lives possible. Rand was either an idiot or a satirist (me thinks the latter) especially in view of the fact that she KNEW her work was fiction.

Pity our "leaders" don't know the difference between fiction and fact.

Let the wealthy stop "contributing" to society. People ate and housed themselves long before there was money. Time for these parasitic growths to contribute something meaningful or fuck off.

Once again, the hilarity of these people knows no bounds. "Going Galt" ...hah. Any Rand hated paper stretchers. Galt's Gulch was populated by (1) count it ONE banker - the rest were all titans who actually produced something tangible.

"Producing Wealth" does not automatically qualify one as a Galt Acolyte.

Ahh yes, I guess after 100 days it's not too early to rely on your base's very frail memories. A good many are well over 70. This whole thing was failed Democratic policies, sure.

Any way Pajamas, the rest of the world doesn't so easily forget reality that transpired a mere 9 months ago.

John Cole wrote: "As stupid as that piece is, you can guarantee some wingnut will repeat it. Why?"

Easy. Because slavishly, robotically regurgitating the corporate-sponsored propaganda that is spoon-fed to them is what wingnuts do.

Indeed, slavish, mindless acceptance of corporate-sponsored propaganda as absolute truth is pretty much the defining characteristic of so-called "conservatives" in America today.

Brand it "conservative", pay Rush Limbaugh to broadcast it, and all the wingnuts will unquestioningly believe it and endlessly repeat it and be angrily certain that anyone who questions it is an evil "liberal".

There is a reason that they call themselves Ditto-Heads.

Dumbest people on Earth. I work with loads of wealthy people on Wall St.. Not 1 single person would give up a nickle income to avoid paying a higher tax. An absolutely asinine notion. Did George Will stop writing under Clinton rates? Did anyone?

I think the Joe the Plumbers of the world like to picture themselves heroically refusing to continue working if they ever make enough money to hit a tax bracket that they're never in a million years going to get into. No word on whether they envision themselves dressed as Sam Adams, Davy Crockett or Ellis Wyatt while engaged in these tasty fantasies, but standing alone on a hilltop looking granite-faced and straight-spined is a common feature.

There's a rare opportunity to lay them out over here:

http://www.bizzyblog.com/2009/04/16/going-galt-reaxes-at-pjm-and-aprils-indicator/#comment-148419

They appear to a right-wing blog that actually let's people comment.

Media Pajamas should go galt so we won't have to read any of its rambling madness! -Kevo

Actually, that crowd should "go Galt." The ones who most want to do it are the most arrogant, selfish, low-wage paying, regulation-dodging skunks. If they "drop out" then plenty of public-spirited folks can take over, provide real services and production instead of financial manipulation, and the economy will actually get more productive.

There's a lot of spoiled, entitled adults in the Republican party who love using emotional blackmail to get their way. Whether it's a threat of 'going Galt', or their tea-parties with their over-reaching anger, they want to have their way. And they're going to stomp their collective foot, pout, and take their toys home if they don't get their way.

What they fail to realize is that their are plenty of highly successful, driven achievers who are also 'non-Galts' to fill any possible void that their absence might produce.

perhaps i'm a bad american, but when my taxes went from 15% to 10% that didn't make me WORK HARDER...i was already working hard....i'm into that whole "protestant work-ethic thing..."

"Pajamas media" is the creation of a failed screenwriter (Roger Simon) who became a "9/11 conservative" and then discovered there was a way to con money out of morons by following the advice of a failed Stalinist (David Horowitz) on how to get money from right wing heirs whose existence proves the value of confiscatory tax rates on estates.

"It's quite a creative piece, which argues that the global recession began in 2008 as a result of the 'Pelosi-Obama-Reid economy', which began failing about seven months before Obama took office."

Nevermind that the national economy officially entered recession 13 MONTHS before Obama took office, and would have had to start slowing well before that.

Wow, this is a whole new level of RightWing stupidity.

Of course the economy began failing before Obama took office, it happened 8 years before, when Clinton was prez. (I'll let the wingnuts connect the dots, but I'll eat my hat if an argument of that nature can't be found in a 3 minute search.)

I am fascinated by the people who read Rand and think, "The Galtian superproducer of whom she speaks, possessed of singular talent, intellect, vision, and moral clarity, perfect in mind and body -- that's MEEEEEEEE."

Also, the premise that once these superbrains take their whiffle balls and go home, the country will collapse reminds me of the arguments for why CEOs have to be paid $20+ million to shepherd our large companies further into loss and debt. Somehow I think we could find people who would be happy to do the same crappy job for $2 million.

Herb: I too noticed the odd "Pelosi-Obama-Reid" construction. I think they put their biggest hate/fear first. Reid may be a Democrat and a Mormon, but at least he's white. Obama may be a Democrat and black, but at least he's male. But Pelosi -- there's no excuse *at all* for her being in power! Misogyny goes deeper than racism, for most of these idiots.

How many taxpayers are there in America?
What would be the flat single rate they'd have to pay to bring in ALL of the federal government revenues each year (including corporate taxes)?

The other day Kevin showed us individual rates were in the 14-28% range (as I recall), but did that include corporate taxes?

I think a lot of the wealthier folks are worried their investment income tax rate of about 15% will be hiked to 35% and they really don't like that. Maybe that's been one reason the Repub flat taxers haven't gotten very far with their proposals in the past.

What if one individual tax rate of 25% would drive the 15% crowd wild? Would they go-Galt or leave America for France or TaxFreeLand or somewhere that lets them live in a postal drop?