This commentary, by Erika Johnsen (I can’t call it journalism), Obama: We need more taxes and regulation, so we can have more bottom up economics came to my attention on another site where I often comment — Mario Piperni Dot Com
Unable to resist responding to this drivel, my comment is posted below, as well as on Mario’s site. If you haven’t found Mario Piperni Dot Com, it is a must read and his illustrations are fabulous!
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Oh where to start — Erika Johnsen — a paid political commentator at townhall.com. Definitely not the journalist she’s pretending to be at hotair.com (no mention at hotair.com that she’s a “political commentator”) – just another political hack with a one sided and fact free based commentary to push her own political agenda.
She laments “gigantic bailouts,” but offers just that as her solution to solve the problem. She claims, “peeling back regulation and lowering taxes is the way to create bottom-up economic growth” — seriously? This is just laughable. Nothing more than a continuation of the “gigantic bailouts” she just railed against.
The Bush tax cuts have lost us $2 trillion in revenue – that’s one hellava bailout.
The auto loans are making us money. The banking bailout was done by Bush with no strings attached and we’re still seeing how that’s [not] working out. The banks are still gambling and while the markets aren’t as frozen as they were when it comes to loaning money, it’s still not back to where it was. And with all the griping about Dodd-Frank only about 1/4 – 1/3 of it has been implemented, since the GOP withheld funding to the agencies responsible for writing the rules, putting them behind their target date for completion by 1 year. So it’s not even close to being effective yet. And won’t be if the GOP takes control of the Senate and keeps the House.
Profits are higher than they have ever been, while wages are lower than they have ever been.
I guess she just forgot to mention that phenomenon. Somehow that “trickle down” managed to trickle up. GOP doesn’t mind redistribution of wealth, as long as it floods up to the top, rather than sending even a golden shower down to the bottom.
She states, “How and why is an American entrepreneur going to start a small business if he knows that, even if he manages to get through all the red tape and make a profit, the government will tax the bejeezus out of him?”
But she fails to mention all the tax cuts put in place for small business: Facts about small business tax cuts from the SBA
Small business can’t blame all their problems on the tax breaks they are getting — these are new businesses with people often just getting started – many with little business accumen. I saw a segment the other day where several small business owners were brought in for training and learned how they could increase their profits considerably from the training they received.
And how does she explain this, Recession Brought a Small-Business Boom
Here’s a counterintuitive take on the Great Recession for you. There are actually more small businesses now than there were in 2006, when the recession began.
That’s according to Dun & Bradstreet, which released a report on the state of small business this week. The trend follows a deep trough through the recession, but a steep climb as the economy has slowly recovered.
While she contends “President Obama’s policies discourage growth, and the free market can solve our problems,” she forgets it was the “free market” that screwed us over and put us in this mess in the first place.
The deregulation of the financial industry giving them free rein over derivatives and a 40/1 leverage — let’s see, it all began with the savings & loan debacle after deregulation allowed them to run amok, then MCI, Tyco, Enron (derivatives there, too) and then with the Glass Steagall repeal, the Great Depression II held off by what little Bush & co did and tying Obama’s hands behind his back to prevent him from doing all that could be done to get us back on track.
And then, of course, the biggest omission is the stock market, The Stock Market Loves Obama:
It’ll be tough for the Obama haters to argue against this juicy little nugget.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has surged 60% since Barack Obama was inaugurated as president three years ago, according to research firm Bespoke Investment Group. This means President Obama is one of only five presidents that have witnessed the blue-chip index surge more than 50% during their first three years in office.
Had the states not laid off so many public sector employees, we’d be at 7% or less unemployment. The GOPs failure to participate in governing this country has kept us at 8%.
Gee, taking this argument apart is child’s play — give me something I have to work hard at refuting. She needs to learn how to do research…unless of course she wants to be nothing more than be a paid political hack all her life. No wonder she’s posting on “hotair” — she’s full of it.
Henry Ford had the right idea – pay his workers more so they could afford to buy the cars they were building. Unfortunately, the greedy Dodge brothers just couldn’t stand giving up a bit of profit so they could make more in the end by selling more cars. And that case just put another rung on the corporate ladder to personhood.
