See you after Easter Labor Day.
I’m in a rush, but I am taken with these charts lately. I will just leave you with another one showing that Democratic presidents manage taxpayers’ money much better than Republicans do:
Brian Beutler: “Today’s GOP, unlike yesterday’s Democratic Party, pursued a purposeful and unprecedented strategy of blanket obstruction designed to damage the president.”
Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis illustrates a key difference between Reagan’s first term and Obama’s: the pliancy of the Congresses they had to work with. Despite the fact that it was controlled by Democrats, Reagan’s Congress was ultimately accommodative, and the result was significant fiscal expansion, which likely helped bring down the unemployment rate.
Despite presiding over a Democratic Congress, Obama enjoyed no such co-operation. Serial GOP filibusters limited the extent to which he could use deficit spending and temporary tax cuts to hasten economic recovery. Republicans bucked historically bipartisan policies to thwart the president. And when they took over the House in 2011, Republicans pursued an austerity agenda, and, separately, spooked credit markets by taking the government to the brink of default. All of these factors, combined with contraction at the state and local levels, offset the stimulative policies Obama secured at the beginning of his term. And that prefigured a significantly slower labor market recovery than Reagan enjoyed.
The Stock Market doesn’t work as well under Republican presidents, either:
Wall Street to lawmakers: Here’s how to fix the deficit
Republican party leaders may be surprised by the results of a new poll of institutional investors: A majority of them want Washington to fix the deficit the Obama way, with both spending cuts and tax hikes. …
A clear majority of analysts and portfolio managers in a new poll say Washington should get behind a package that mixes tax hikes with spending cuts in order to stem the tide of red ink.
Investors are in even stronger agreement about the need to act. Seven in ten say such a deal would improve the short-term outlook for the U.S., and nine in ten see it goosing both the long-term outlook and global confidence in our economy.
The survey — conducted by the global advisory firm FTI Consulting and released exclusively to Fortune — reveals an investor class at odds with a Republican party that has come to view any tax increases as anathema. …
Broader popular opinion has shifted since, in line with investors’ views. The public now gives the President a 9-point edge over Congressional Republicans on the issue, after dividing on it last spring.
Today in New Hampshire, President Obama renewed his call to repeal the $4 billion in subsidies that taxpayers provide the oil industry each year and said there’s only one real path forward for America’s future — an all of the above approach that develops every source of energy available to us.
So when it comes to oil production, under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. That is a fact … Under my administration, we have a near-record number of oil rigs operating right now — more working oil and gas rigs than the rest of the world combined. Think about that.
Oil “companies are making record profits right now — tens of billions of dollars a year. Every time you go to the gas tank or fill up your gas tank, they’re making money. Every time. Now, does anyone really think that Congress should give them another $4 billion this year? Of course not. It’s outrageous. It’s inexcusable. And I am asking Congress — eliminate this oil industry giveaway right away. I want them to vote on this in the next few weeks.” President Obama, March 01, 2012.
Transcript of speech as written on following page.
Continue reading »
Wall Street Abandons Republicans — Now Supports Higher Taxes on the Wealthy
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, now supports increasing taxes on the wealthiest earners, including increasing capital gains and dividends’ taxes. Same for Home Depot’s Ken Langone.
…much of Wall Street is on-board with some of the tax changes Obama has been proposing. “I would tax dividends and interest income higher and capital gains,” said Dimon. “Have a higher tax rate. If you said there’d be a certain percent rate for people making over a million dollars and a higher percent rate for people making over $10 million, no problem with me. I don’t think people should be able to pass unlimited amounts on to their kids.”
Even Home Depot founder and financier Ken Langone (“You bet I’m a fat cat,” he told me proudly) isn’t arguing for the status quo. “I would enthusiastically embrace a tax increase,” he told me. “I’m more than willing to pay taxes. I’m saying, take the money and use it to lower the debt.” New York Magazine
It is not just that they support it, they actually state that they understand it is necessary.
