From a purely economic point of view you have to consider Walmart anti-capitalism. Add Amazon and few others I suppose, and there goes the profit motive, which is keystone one, and why we should consider Walmart a trojan horse inside the Capitalist economic system. (The other is Bernanke who would commoditize paper money down its cost of production, paper and ink. Hey Central Bankers, you are supposed to create added value to your fiat currency). At least Walmart doesn't run it's stock price up by laying off workers, but the notion that government should bail out underpaid workers rubs me the wrong way.

Well the talk is pretty but we're heading in the wrong direction.

I've been using the EITC to save for my son's college. Not much, but a little under 3000/year, and it's all I've got for that. But the thugs in Washington just destroyed my college savings plan. Now, because my partner claims my son as a dependent, I don't get the EITC for my kid. Now I get like $85/year.

I'm sure the thugs in D.C. are satisfied with their hard work. Nothing feels better to them (so it seems) then trashing the lives of folks who work for a living. (Really, after I heard the deal, I lay my head down on my desk and cried. Gawd, I hate, hate, hate, hate, this country. If only I'd immigrated when I was young.)

You must be talking about another article, because "affordable healthcare" is not "universal healthcare."

"Help families save and invest by making saving easier and more rewarding for moderate income families."

That sounds cool, but how the heck can it be done?

Subsidize savings interest rates? Sell savings bonds at a cut rate?

Anyone know?

"Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit by ...adding a "third tier" for families with three or more children."

What a grand idea. Let's create more incentives to overbreed. At a time when the biosphere is being destroyed and Americans are the parties primarily responsible, let's definitely do everything we can to encourage large families.

With our 4% of the global population we generate, onsite, 25% of all climate changing emissions and something like another 20% of all emissions are generated for us in other countries. We are quite literally f***ing and shopping ourselves into extinction.

Obama has clearly rejected the socialist wing of the democratic party (including much of the ideology of HTWW). Instead, he has embraced a more centrist, educated, and pro-market view. Fact is, Jason Furman's position on Wal-Mart isn't very controversial in mainstream economic circles.

"Progressive Tax reform?" A clear definition of that term is about as forthcoming as a definition of "windfall profits" and "fair share" is. But I suppose a 'feelings based' tax code is one most liberals would prefer. That way every perceived social inequity can be addressed by fiscally punishing those who have amassed 'too much money'; another phrase without a clear definition, and 'redistributing the wealth' to those that have done nothing more than show up with their hands held out for their 'fair share'. But if we're going to be 'fair', why not just call it "The Class Envy and Hypocrisy Redistribution Act" Castro would love it! .....I'm sure It'll work out just fine,............. right up until they come for Mr Leonard's paycheck..........

Dump the AMT which within the 4 years of His Royal Presidency will see more than 2/3rds of middle class families dumped up to it. This will result in an additional 25-40% tax burden for many families. It will complete the liquidation of the middle class in America. Now maybe the Stalinists here @ Salon think that's just wonderful. But it's not and in 2012 any candidate can ask 'are you better now than you were 4 years ago' & I promise you a child molester will be able defeat Obama at that point.

Imagine an America where people can't afford to live on their income because of taxes. Imagine people being homeless and hungry because of taxes. Taxes that ultimately lead nowhere. I predict French Revolution II

Why? What is the reasoning here? Someone please enlighten me!

Didn't Obama's campaign use the fact that Hillary was once on the Wal-Mart board to smear her during the primary? Obama is the biggest Hypocrite of them all! I lump him with all the Republican hypocrits I have been railing against for the last 12 years.

For those oh so blase about "fairness" and angered by redistributive tax structures, I posit the following: in America, income has nothing to do with work. That is, if you measure work by how arduous or onerous it is, you have little or no correlation between how much people work and what they earn. The hardest working people I have ever known were the Hispanic residents of Jersey City. These men and women worked like dogs, as laborers, sweatshop seamstresses, office cleaners, trash sorters, you name it. They made shit. Watch "Dirty Jobs" on Discovery Channel--then explain why some guy in a suit working in an air conditioned office and lunching in fine restaurants should make, literally, 500 times more than the guys who clean up the gunk in his factories or hump the stuff to his stores. Tell me true why my heart should bleed for people who make $10 million a year and pay no more as a percentage of their earnings in taxes than my wife and I do with a combined salary of 100k. The notion that people make more money because they "deserve" to because they work oh so hard is bunkum.

Obama vs. McCain.

I'm glad the democrats have been consigned to the dust bin of history. Two republican parties are better than one.

Let the best republican win and let's get our war on.

Friday, June 13, 2008

OBAMA: SORRY FOLKS

Beware of Obama. Yes, at times I become excited about the man, his hope, his speeches, but then every week or so reality slaps me in the face. I hope I am wrong, but probably not. Obama is no savior. He will be no Mr. Fixit magic bullet for our society. At best he will be smart and cautious, plodding and middle-of-the-road. We might get back to Richard Nixon’s level of progressive thought... I never imagined I would but those words together. But Obama's health plan is less than Nixon's would have finally been... I know, I know... the Republicans have dragged the nation so far right that today Nixon would be a centrist. Still, hope cannot be Richard Nixon... Hell he would have been impeached.

So, what do we make of this announcement of Jason Forman as Obama's man to be Director of Economic Policy? Deeply knows nothing about the fellow, except to have read his paper of 2005 praising Wall-Mart and all the wonderful things that enterprise has done for America....What? I can only imagine that this Jason Forman is a bright, data crunching economist. A man, sheltered from life, and looking at the numbers...Numbers which cause him to laud Wal Mart as good for the nation, while ignoring social costs, environmental costs, the destruction of the village. Numbers which somehow also cause Mr. Forman to miss that beauty has a place in the world too. There is no architectural beauty, industrial, modern, or otherwise, in the structure of a Big Box store. In other words, the man must be a bright idiot. The fact Obama would choose this Jason Forman to head his economics team is reason enough not to vote for him, and reason enough to toss all his golden toned speeches in the toilet.

Read Forman’s paper