Herbert Hoover was black!?

we are going to be subjected to a lot of right wing opinion that the solution to our economic problems is to do what we were already doing, but do it harder.

and it will still be wrong.

burndtdan: we are going to be subjected to a lot of right wing opinion that the solution to our economic problems is to do what we were already doing, but do it harder.

I'm doing it as hard as I can:

This guy makes some idiotic points, which is sad to see from the Atlantic. The Bush tax cuts were objectively regressive. He gave much larger percentage cuts to the rich than he did to the middle class.

But much more astonishingly, he says this:

McCain had been complicit in most of the great travesties of the Bush administration and the execrable Republican Senate. I've learned that's largely untrue. He voted (to my great surprise!) against the prescription drug entitlement, against the Farm Security Bill, against milk subsidies, against Amtrak subsidies, and against highway subsidies.

So to him the "great travesties" of the Bush administration are the prescription drug plan (which I agree was not something we can afford), the farm security bill, and the milk, Amtrak, and highway subsidies. wtf? Seriously?

What about misleading us into a disastrous WAR in Iraq? Did he just forget about that little fark up?

What about the trampling of the Constitution with domestic wiretaps, rendition, torture, and denial of habeas corpus?

What about the extraordinary expansion of executive power under Bush that has made a mockery of our system of checks and balances?

What about the incredible deficits the Bush administration and for six years of it the Republican Congress have run?

What about the disastrous federal response to Hurricane Katrina?

What about the current financial crisis?

Milk subsidies? Are you farking kidding me?

The Onanist: I'm doing it as hard as I can:

FTA: Finally, protectionism, like creationism, requires an extraordinary level of willful ignorance.

A big reason why I can't see myself voting for Palin/_McCain. Palin's dead serious about creationism.

Anyway, I think Obama's smart enough not to put the brakes on the International Trade Money Train. NAFTA has thoroughly been proved effective at increasing prosperity in Canada, Mexico, and the US. But a democratic candidate can't get elected without a little protectionist rhetoric. McCain pretends he's a good Christian, Obama pretends he's a good protectionist. They wouldn't be politicians if they didn't pander a little.

Obama said: "Globalisation is here, and I don't think Americans are afraid to compete. And we have the goods and the services and the skills and the innovation to compete anywhere in the world." Doesn't sound like a knee-jerk protectionist to me.

Link (new window)

Hoover wasnt muslim. Bad subby.

B Hussein Obama is a fly fisherman?

I knew Obama was a cross-dresser!

Because they both followed years of biblical-level Republican corruption and incompetence?

Oh, the atlantic.

Thanks for using the tag, subby, now I know it's pointless to RTFA.

Not a dam thing?

Obama doesn't suck and blow.

There's nothing quite like someone pretending to be non-partisan and then exposing themselves as such through their ignorance.

For the record, I don't even claim to be non-partisan. I think that right-wingers are one of 2 things:

1. Selfish
2. Ill-informed

How could you be conservative and not at least one of them?

Hoover dug black chicks too??

FTA
The reason they're overinsured is that employer-provided health benefits aren't taxed, so employers overprovide them.

I nominate this for the dumbest thing said / written all day. The competition is steep but this level of full retard takes the cake.

Oops! Dyslexia moment. What I get for Friday Farking.

They were both teased in school for having funny names?

Without reading the article, I'll guess raising taxes in a recession/pre-depression economic environment.

Not trolling - just asking. Don't like McCain.

Author (pictured) should stick to acting.

that made no sense to me.

Neither will be inaugurated in Jan 20, 2009?

To be fair, Hoover had a Kenyan half-brother, too.

/Was Herbert Hoover REALLY born in America? HOW DO WE KNOW?

They're both bipeds.

John Mccains Healthcare plans suck!!!

The last line of TFA was a rousing endorsement:

The bottom line is that I support John McCain. With trepidation.

Your mom.

I give up what?

Someone explain the whole taxing of health care benefits provided by employers thing. As I understand, they aren't taxed now. The article claims that taxing them would be good because employers would no longer overinsure.

Wouldn't taxing them lead to most employers simply dropping health insurance? Bar those in the few industries that compete for workers, that is, and even then I'm seeing a tiered system put into place: cushy insurance plans for the companies' positions that are hard-to-fill, and stripped or basic plans for administrative and easy-to-fill positions. I can see insurance companies offering these "tiered" plans to large employers as a single package, in order to lure their business and save them on their taxes.

I'm sure this disastrous result I'm thinking of isn't how the "tax employers on the health insurance plans they offer" plan works. I'm totally serious here, not snarky. Please tell me I'm wrong!

AdolfOliverPanties: Author (pictured) should stick to acting.

Greenlit but I wish I could have thought of a good Barney Miller joke. Well played sir.

Lumi: Someone explain the whole taxing of health care benefits provided by employers thing. As I understand, they aren't taxed now. The article claims that taxing them would be good because employers would no longer overinsure.

Wouldn't taxing them lead to most employers simply dropping health insurance? Bar those in the few industries that compete for workers, that is, and even then I'm seeing a tiered system put into place: cushy insurance plans for the companies' positions that are hard-to-fill, and stripped or basic plans for administrative and easy-to-fill positions. I can see insurance companies offering these "tiered" plans to large employers as a single package, in order to lure their business and save them on their taxes.

I'm sure this disastrous result I'm thinking of isn't how the "tax employers on the health insurance plans they offer" plan works. I'm totally serious here, not snarky. Please tell me I'm wrong!

I'm not entirely sure how it works across the board, but it would make no difference where I live. SF passed a law saying that all businesses with 10+ employees (i believe) must either provide health care for their employees or pay into a fund. That makes the incentive for businesses to cover their employees pretax.

Like I said, anecdotal at best. I am not sure how it would work specifically.

Obama, by contrast, is in many ways a continuation of Bush. Like Bush (only far more so), Obama is fine with tariffs and subsidies. Like Bush, he wants to send jackbooted thugs into every meatpacking plant in America to rid the American workplace of anyone who happens to have been born on the wrong side of an imaginary line.

Where's the "LOL WUT?" pear when you need it?

// Bush was in favor of amnesty
// so was McCain
// both got smacked down by their party

If everyone had health insurance, we wouldn't need to waste scarce emergency room resources treating those who should be seeing a primary care physician.

Prescription drugs? That's also not mentioned. Guy's a loon.

The author appears to be one of those hyper free-trade free market libertarians. It's like seeing an odd animal at the zoo.

aegisalpha: The author appears to be one of those hyper free-trade free market libertarians. It's like seeing an odd animal at the zoo.

I wonder if Thomas Friedman has a Fark login.

RsquaredW
// Bush was in favor of amnesty
// so was McCain
// both got smacked down by their party

That jumped out at me too. Kind of undercuts the rest of his argument. It was one of the few times Bush actually had the right idea.

Speaking of failing presidents, have you heard about the McCain/Palin healthcare plan? (new window)

Who wants to bet they're frantically rewriting it in lieu of the past week of market limbo?

"McCain wants to do away with the tax exemption on employer-provided insurance. Instead, he would give a $2,500 annual tax credit to individuals, and $5,000 to families, to purchase their own coverage.

McCain's plan is meant to encourage individuals to purchase their insurance and free companies from the heavy cost of providing coverage. His theory is that employees would take their tax credit and flock to the open market, where they could shop around for the plan that best meets their needs. Insurance companies would have to become more competitive to win their business."

so basically we get door to door insurance salesmen. selling us useless policies. hmmm it's almost like he wants to deregulate the health insurance business. because deregulated business are GREAT!!!! then 10 years later the government gets to foot the bill anyway.

I've been involved in personal correspondence with Steven Landsburg.

He is an eminently unpleasant man.

tartie_pants: FTA
The reason they're overinsured is that employer-provided health benefits aren't taxed, so employers overprovide them.

I nominate this for the dumbest thing said / written all day. The competition is steep but this level of full retard takes the cake.

yeah, i have never heard of anybody leaving a hospital after surgery, saying "yippee! i'm overinsured, so overinsured my insurance company sent me a big enough check i can pay my house off!!!!!" I guess they just don't print the good news anymore.

McCain's policies are fluid. They change every day. Now on the stump he's sounding more like John Edwards than himself.
Still don't see hoe you can be anti lobbyists when you have 85 of them running your campaign. Like Obama said they ain't there to put themselves out of a job.

aegisalpha: The author appears to be one of those hyper free-trade free market libertarians. It's like seeing an odd animal at the zoo.

Libertarians are the ultimate example of passive-aggressive;

They're AGGRESSIVE when it comes to their rights, finances, values and welfare...
They're PASSIVE when it comes to anybody else's!

HomoHabilis: The last line of TFA was a rousing endorsement:

The bottom line is that I support John McCain. With trepidation.

I guess its because Pol Pot and Hitler aren't on the ticket this year.

snowjack: FTA: Finally, protectionism, like creationism, requires an extraordinary level of willful ignorance.

A big reason why I can't see myself voting for Palin/McCain. Palin's dead serious about creationism.


She's specifically said that creationism and evolution should both be taught.

Does the GOP ticket even know what it is saying when it talks about the economy? (new window)

Hotlinked for the lulz.

Lumi: Someone explain the whole taxing of health care benefits provided by employers thing. As I understand, they aren't taxed now. The article claims that taxing them would be good because employers would no longer overinsure.

Wouldn't taxing them lead to most employers simply dropping health insurance? Bar those in the few industries that compete for workers, that is, and even then I'm seeing a tiered system put into place: cushy insurance plans for the companies' positions that are hard-to-fill, and stripped or basic plans for administrative and easy-to-fill positions. I can see insurance companies offering these "tiered" plans to large employers as a single package, in order to lure their business and save them on their taxes.

I'm sure this disastrous result I'm thinking of isn't how the "tax employers on the health insurance plans they offer" plan works. I'm totally serious here, not snarky. Please tell me I'm wrong!

That disastrous result is exactly what McCain is trying to force. The whole idea is to make employers stop offering group insurance. It's an amazingly stupid idea unless you want to go to a government single-payer model, because it would leave millions of people with preexisting conditions up shiat creek. McCain's healthcare plan is pure free-market-pixie-dust bullshiat.

glassa: She's specifically said that creationism and evolution should both be taught.

...which is the creationist position that they're trying to use to get creationism in the door of public schools. "Teach the controversy" is total nonsense, because there is no genuine scientific controversy.

Oh, and whenever I see someone agree with McCain's healthcare proposals that tells me they are either a Rand-bot fool, or on the payroll of the insurance industry. That little tidbit told me all I need to know about this guy.

...and from a quick Google, it looks like I'm correct. He describes himself as a "hardcore libertarian".