Posts Tagged ‘taxes’
October 18th, 2011 by John Feehery
Originally posted on The Hill: 10/17/2011
Rarely has such a positive story in The New York Times been so potentially damaging to a presidential candidate.
There was nothing in Sheryl Stolberg’s piece about Mitt Romney’s role in the Mormon Church that was in any way incriminating, disqualifying or threatening, unless, of course, you have an irrational fear of the Latter-day Saints taking over the world.
It showed Romney to be compassionate, caring, serious, resourceful and devout, qualities that Christian conservatives ought to find appealing. Unless, of course, they have an irrational fear of Mormons.
The Romney story wasn’t the only one making news on the religion front. Rick Perry’s wife made the head-scratching charge that her husband was the victim of religious persecution. This, after Perry has made his religious beliefs the centerpiece of his campaign and after preachers allied with the Texas governor have gone on the attack against Romney’s religious beliefs.
It was Thomas Jefferson who said: “But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” Read more...
Tags: Politics, Religion, taxes
Posted in Religion | No Comments »
October 12th, 2011 by John Feehery
Dana Milbank had a funny story in the Post today about the pathetic protest movement that has gripped (well, gripped might be a strong word), Washington:
Attempting to emulate the Occupy Wall Street protests, Washington activists and some out-of-town guests set themselves the lofty goal of occupying the Hart Senate Office Building. “We are there to shut the place down!” organizer David Swanson told his small band of followers.
But how to do this with only a few dozen demonstrators? Well, Swanson said, they could push all the buttons on the elevators — the way naughty children sometimes do in apartment buildings. “There are people who are wanting to go into the elevators and fill them and not get out and push all the buttons,” he said. “If you like that, do it.”
Forcing Senate staff to take the stairs is a pretty interesting way to spark rebellion in the streets.
E.J. Dionne earlier this month complained that the left needed its own version of the Tea Part Movement.
Hey, E.J., you can have ours. We are done with it.
If ever there was a time for some real good protests, now is the time. Read more...
Tags: Dana Milbank, E.J. Dionne, local and federal governments, state, taxes, Tea Part movement, Unemployment, wall street protests
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Politics, Theory, Unemployment, bad news, spending, taxes, welfare | No Comments »
October 11th, 2011 by John Feehery
President Obama has made taxing the rich the centerpiece of his reelection campaign. He talks incessantly about it. It is a key part of his jobs package. So far, an apt summary of the Obama presidency might very well be: “He killed Osama bin Laden and he really, really wanted to tax the rich.”
The President is no dummy. He reads polls like any other politician, and he knows that the taxing-the-rich meme polls well. Most polls show about 70 percent of all Americans supporting higher taxes on wealthier Americans.
In fact, polls show that even wealthier Americans support higher taxes on wealthier Americans. One commissioned by American Express showed that nearly two-thirds of voters making more than $100,0000 support raising taxes on rich people. A CBS poll shows that 65 percent of voters specifically supported a millionaire’s tax, with only 30 percent opposing it.
You would think that the President would be making up some ground with voters because of his pleas to raise taxes on those rich suckers, but the more Obama attacks the rich, the more his poll numbers go down.
Why is that? Here are a few reasons: Read more...
Tags: American Express, Americans, Franklin D. Roosevelt, higher taxes, new tax increases, Obama, Osama Bin Laden, Politics, presential election, President Obama, reelection campaign, tax hikes, taxes, taxing the rich
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, bad news, election, spending, taxes | 1 Comment »
October 5th, 2011 by John Feehery
Apparently, Radiohead couldn’t get its schedule straight with the Occupy Wall Street protesters and they didn’t play for the grungy crowd last week. I am not hip enough to know exactly what kind of music the band plays, but I do know that a couple of years ago, the members of the band came up with a brilliant marketing strategy to sell one of its albums. “Pay what you want or pay nothing at all if that is what you want to do.” The band never released how much money it made by letting its fans name their own price, but they chose to not pursue the same strategy for their next album.
Despite the scheduling snafu, Radiohead still has endorsed the protest movement that seems to be gaining strength every day. For example, all of the government employee unions are now on board with Michael Moore and assorted other left-wing radicals to protest the money that Wall Street financiers make every day.
These Wall Street financiers and their other colleagues, known collectively by the collectivists as “the rich” or the “one-percenters”, pay about 30 to 35% of the taxes collected by the Federal government. Having the government employee unions protest against these prodigious tax-payers is somewhat akin to the protesting against the goose because he is not producing golden eggs fast enough. Read more...
Tags: America, anti-capitalist, Barack Obama, Capitalism, Democrats, Federal government, immigrants, Jobs, Mexicans, Michael Moore, New York Times, Occupy Wall Street protestors, Old Gray Lady, Politics, Radiohead, spending, taxes, Wall Street financiers
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, Politics, bad news, spending, taxes | No Comments »
September 29th, 2011 by John Feehery
It used to be that waivers were a bad thing.
It was bad to be put on waivers if you were in the NFL or played Major League Baseball. That meant you were out of a job.
Now, waivers are a good thing.
The Obama Administration announced that it was going to give waivers to the states of No Child Left Behind.
Too many states can’t meet the requirements of NCLB, so they are begging the Feds to give them a break.
If there is one thing that Mr. Obama and all the Republicans running for President agree on, it is that they don’t really love that landmark law legislated by John Boehner and Ted Kennedy and signed into law by W.
It’s too hard. Let’s give the states a waiver.
That, of course, begs the question: If the law is so bad, why don’t you just repeal it. Good question.
Mitt Romney promised that the first thing he would do if elected President would be to give waivers to all 50 states to the health care law signed by Mr. Obama. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Congress, Congressional laws, Democrats, Government, John Boehner, Major League Baseball, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, NFL, No Child Left Behind, Obama Administration, Obamacare, Republicans, Rick Perry, Social Security, taxes, Tea Party, Ted Kennedy
Posted in Bad Decisions, Bailouts, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, Laws, Presidential election, Promises, Theory, election, taxes | 1 Comment »
September 28th, 2011 by John Feehery
I was talking to a Democratic friend of mine this morning, and he told me to expect the President’s people to go after Mitt Romney on the jobs issue. “There is a lot more that hasn’t come to the surface,” he told me confidently.
I’m sure there is. There is always more on just about everybody. I wish we knew more about Obama before the American people elected him three years ago.
The issue that my friend talked to me about had to do with Romney’s time at Bain Capital.
Bain Capital is a private equity firm that buys undervalued companies and turns them around so they can become profitable. They have had a lot of success. You can wake up with a Bain Capital company (Sealy), check out the weather (they own the Weather Channel), get a cup of coffee and a donut (Dunkin Donuts), go to the store and buy some running shoes to work off the donut (Sports Authority), buy some office supplies (Staples), grab a burger (Burger King), buy a present (Brookstone), catch a movie (AMC Entertainment), and then get home in time for dinner (Domino’s Pizza). Read more...
Tags: America, Bain Capital, Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats, Economy, election, Government, Mitt Romney, Politics, Presidential election, private sector, public sector, Republican, Republicans, spending, taxes, Ted Kennedy, Washington, White House
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Laws, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, Theory, election, spending | No Comments »
September 13th, 2011 by John Feehery
I didn’t like the supercommittee when I first heard about its creation. I thought it was an abrogation of the regular order. I thought it was awkward legislatively. And I didn’t think it was going to work. But I am starting to warm to the idea. In fact, I am getting downright optimistic about its prospects.
While some believe that the supercommittee is destined for a super failure, I now believe that this bipartisan, bicameral panel of 12 members is going to produce something historically large, which will include far-reaching tax reform and long-term entitlement changes. Here are five reasons why I am getting more bullish on its prospects:
• The Members: Both Republican and Democratic leaders took great care to name members of the supercommittee who are both loyal to their team and pragmatic in their deliberations. While the co-chairmen, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), tend to be partisan and ideological, there are plenty of deal-cutters in the room. Republicans, who can easily make the case that any deal is better for Obama, have instead leaned forward by putting proven workhorses like Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Reps. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) on the committee. I believe that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) want to get something done, even if a big deal helps the president politically. By putting Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on the committee, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has also signaled that he could find a deal to be acceptable. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is the lone holdout, but presumably the president could put enough pressure on her picks to get a deal if he wants one. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Congress, Conservatives, Fred Upton (R-Mich.), George Romney, Government, Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John Boehner, Mark Prater, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Obama, reform, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), Reps. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), Republican Finance Committee, Republicans, Robert Kennedy, Sen. Max Baucus, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), taxes, The supercommittee
Posted in Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, Politics, Theory, spending, taxes | No Comments »
September 12th, 2011 by John Feehery
I turn the television on first thing every morning. Never again, will I wait until I hear what is happening in the world from somebody else. September 11th did that to me.
This anniversary is handy because I remember pretty clearly what my life was like ten years ago. I was working hard as a Congressional staffer. I was single, and childless. I didn’t really think too much about mortality, because when you are in your mid-thirties, you think you will live forever.
Plenty of people in their mid-thirties saw their lives snuffed out overnight a decade ago, and if that doesn’t inject some urgency into living each day as it could be your last, nothing will.
I am a decade older and maybe a decade wiser, but I am not sure if that sentiment is widely held about me or about the country. As a country, I’m not sure if America has really learned anything. We can’t figure out how to get our economy started. We can’t figure how to feed the hungry and get the obese to eat a little less. We still aren’t sure if we will accept a little more risk in our life in exchange for more freedom. And the rest of the world baffles us if we even think twice about it, which most of us rarely do. Read more...
Tags: 9/11, America, Economy, Government, Politics, taxes
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Politics, Theory, bad news | No Comments »
September 9th, 2011 by John Feehery
It was back to school night in the Feehery Household, so I missed the President’s address to the Congress.
Bummer.
I knew the President was giving a big speech because all the roads around the Capitol were closed, complicating my effort to find parking at Back to School Night (my son’s school is about 4 blocks from the white domed building).
I can’t say I was that disappointed to miss the speech. In my Congressional career, I saw plenty of joint sessions where a President makes this or that speech. I remember when George Bush the first gave an address to Congress where he tried, in vain, to shift his attention to the fascinating things that were happening in the rest of the world to a domestic agenda back here at home. But Bush didn’t have much of the “vision” thing, and he ultimately lost. Read more...
Tags: America, Americans with Disabilities Act, Back to School Night, Barack Obama, Bill Daley, Blacks, budget deficits, Bush tax cuts, Civil Rights bill, Clean Air Act, Congressional Republicans, Dodd-Frank, George Bush, Government, high unemployment rates, Hispanics, John Boehner, medicare, Native Americans, Obamacare, Osama Bin Laden, Persian Gulf War, Politics, President Obama, President’s address to the Congress, Republicans, Sam Skinner, short-term economic stimulus, Social Security, state and local unions, Supercommittee, TARP, taxes, The Obama speech, Unemployment, White House, Women
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Media, Politics, Promises, Theory, Unemployment, health care, housing crisis, speeches, spending, taxes | No Comments »
August 31st, 2011 by John Feehery
Hurricane Irene blew in to Washington over the weekend and the biggest casualty was the Martin Luther King Memorial ceremony.
It turns out that the weather was pretty nice on Sunday afternoon, and the event could have still occurred, but it is hard to predict the weather.
It’s also hard to predict the future.
Are we as a country moving forward on the whole concept of racial harmony or are we moving backward?
Congressman Andre Carson said today that certain members of the Tea Party want to see black lawmakers “hanging on a tree.”
I wonder if Alan West and Tim Scott, two of the most influential Tea Party members of Congress (who coincidentally happen to be black), want to hang their fellow Congressional Black Caucus members up a tree.
I doubt it.
Carson believes that the Tea Party is to blame for the fact that unemployment is so high in the black community.
I find that hard to believe.
I guess it is far easier to blame a bunch of white conservatives than it is to blame the nation’s first black President.
The Tea Party hasn’t really had much of an impact on the President’s policies, not yet anyway. Read more...
Tags: affirmative action, African-Americans, Al Sharpton, Alan West, America, Barack Obama, Congress, Congressman Andre Carson, Conservatives, Democrats, Economy, election, first black President, George W Bush, GOP, hurricane Irene, Martin Luther King Memorial ceremony, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn, Msnbc, Obama, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Politics, racism, raising taxes, Republicans, spending, taxes, Tea Party, Tim Scott, Washington
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Media, Politics, Presidential election, Religion, Theory, bad news, election, poverty, spending, taxes, terrorism | No Comments »
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