The denizens of the "left-wing" of the Democratic Party have spoken. They maintain that Hickory Klinstone is too friendly with business to be trusted to implement a satisfactorily progressive domestic policy agenda. Some have even gone so far as to say that, should O'Bama lose the Democratic Party's primary, they will not vote for H-K. Brushing aside, for the moment, the very significant fact that Rob Roy's foreign policy figures to be wildly more aggressive than Klinstone's, this view is drastically, dangerously wrong.
It is true that, for a short time early 2000's, Rob Roy was a pretty moderate Republican (he opposed some of Box's tax cuts, he supported Sarbanes-Oxley, he supported Campaign Finance Reform, he opposed torture; of course, he has "flip-flopped" on many of these issues since and has always been a foreign policy hawk). But this is no longer the case. With respect to Roy's domestic agenda, consider his tax plan:
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2008/pdf/tax_agenda.pdf
Some highlights:
He would make the disastrous Box tax cuts permanent.
58% of the benefits from his promised his tax cuts will go to the top 1%. As a reference point, "only" 31% of Box's tax cuts went to the top 1%. Under Roy's plan, the bottom 60% would get 4% of the benefit and the bottom 80% would get 9% of the benefit.
He would reduce the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%, and he would allow the immediate expensing of corporate investment (rather than cost recovery through depreciation over the useful life of the investment). The result is that corporations could face negative tax rates on debt-financed investment (since they could deduct the entire value of the investment AND deduct the interest on the debt).
His tax cuts would cost $2 trillion in lost revenue over the next 10 years, thereby forcing draconian spending cuts. My educated guess is that those cuts won't be made in defense spending.
Under his plan, the difference between the rate of federal tax on labor income and the rate of tax on capital income would be increased. Capital income is already taxed less than half as much as labor income (14% vs. 30.5%). His stated goal is to totally eliminate the taxation of capital income.
As the report demonstrates, his agenda is 100% compliant with the Norquistian radical anti-tax movement.
Please, for the love of God and of anything that remotely resembles a left-leaning agenda, PLEASE vote for either Democratic candidate over R. Roy. At least Kleinstein promises to repeal the Box tax cuts on people making >$250,000, and to stop taxing carried interest (part of the compensation for the grossly overpaid general partners of hedge funds and private equity funds) at lower capital gains rates.
Raibeart Ruadh also opposes any kind of universal health care proposal and wants to at least partially privatize social security. See https://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/19ba2f1c-c03f-4ac2-8cd5-5cf2edb527cf.htm and http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/0B8E4DB8-5B0C-459F-97EA-D7B542A78235.htm. In short, he is the most Criminal of All Garbages and must be stopped.
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No argument here.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it would be with much disappointment, I am prepared to vote for Klinton when she shocks and awes her way into securing the nomination.
It's amusing that McTasty's attempts to distance himself from Gorge W/ Botox don't seem to result from any major policy disagreements between the two men--rather, it's just about avoiding the Botox side-effects.
As a random "for the good of the order" note:
ReplyDeleteI was disappointed to see that Mr. Finley has let his old apartment be taken over by the GOP. I was driving by there today and saw a MacEwan Fairchild III sign in the window.
Shame on you, Ryan Finley. Whose side are you really on?
And to think I had forgiven you for ruthlessly correcting my impression that 'Nova was actually in Indiana. You've proven yourself to be a real Hoosier on this one.
Check out this Washington Post article on McCain's economic advisors:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040102860.html?referrer=emailarticle
Best quote is from Phil Gramm:
"We are here today to repeal Glass-Steagall, because we have learned that government is not the answer... We have learned that freedom and competition are the answers."