Posts Tagged ‘Tax cuts’
July 26th, 2011 by John Feehery
President Obama has not been shy lately in trying to use the power of the bully pulpit to get his way on Capitol Hill.
It is not clear that his bully pulpit approach is working.
I listened to the President’s address last night on the radio (yes, I went old school), and predictably, I found his comments to be unconvincing. He talked about his balanced approach (which, to be clear, is different than a balanced budget; which is a pipe dream in his vision of the future), he blamed Republicans for being stubborn, he talked about raising taxes on the wealthy (which nobody in Congress includes in their plan), and then he used the same rhetoric he has used time and again.
I doubt the speech worked well for the President. He has been pounding on these message points for weeks, and if anything, his poll numbers have grown worse. Both Gallup and Rasmussen have found that the President has hit historically high disapproval ratings. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Bill Daley, boehner, bully pulpit, Cantor, Capitol Hill, Congress, Congressional Republicans, Conservatives, Economy, gallup, GOP, Government, health care, House Republicans, McConnell, medicare, Obama, Politics, President Obama, raising taxes on the wealthy, Rasmussen, reform, Republicans, Senate Majority Leader, Social Security, spending, Tax cuts, taxes, Tea Party, Washington, White House
Posted in Bad Decisions, Bailouts, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Laws, Liberal Media, Media, Politics, Promises, Reviews, Theory, bad news, election, health care, medicare, speeches, spending, taxes | No Comments »
September 24th, 2010 by John Feehery
When you enter the Chamber of the House of Representatives, if you look up near the ceiling, ringing around the room, you see bas-relief sculptures of 23 great lawgivers in history.
Hammurabi (fl. c. 1792-1750 B.C.). King of Babylonia; author of the Code of Hammurabi, which is recognized in legal literature as one of the earliest surviving legal codes. (image courtesy www.aoc.gov)
One of them is Hammurabi, the famous Babylonian ruler who put in writing the first law code.
The Code of Hammurabi was famous for its simplicity and directness. If you did this, you were punished this way. Even for most of the Babylonians who couldn’t read, they got the message.
I was thinking of Hammurabi and the need for a complete overhaul of our legal system when I saw that House Republicans were unveiling their pledge to America.
The pledge was fine, as far as it went. Designed to put something positive out into cyber-world without actually creating the kind of waves that could prove to be politically counter-productive, the Republican pledge was conservative in its approach. It certainly doesn’t excite many passions. Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Bush tax cuts, china, dollar, election, George W Bush, Government, Hammurabi, Obama, Politics, Presidential election, reform, Republicans, spending, Tax cuts, taxes
Posted in Economy, Foreign Relations, Government, History, Politics, Theory, election, spending, taxes | No Comments »
August 16th, 2010 by John Feehery
Former President George W. Bush signing a tax cut law.
So, George Bush has been out of office for close to two years and Barack Obama has been President for close to two year. So, why are Republicans getting sucked into a debate about the Bush tax cuts? The debate should be on the Obama tax increases, not the Bush tax cuts.
Sure, it was Bush who signed tax legislation a decade ago that is set to expire at the end of the year. But Bush is no longer President. Obama is the President, and he is the one who seems more than willing to allow tax increases to spring immediately into place.
Republicans need to center this discussion on the broader tax debate. And here is the debate. Do you think the tax code should be recreated to allow for more long-term job creation, greater productivity, greater economic growth and improved American competitiveness or do you think the tax code should remain status quo, with tax cuts only going up on rich people? Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats, George W Bush, Republicans, Tax cuts, taxes
Posted in taxes | No Comments »
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