NYTimes "Stands By" False Reporting

-- by Dave Johnson

Last month I posted NYT Propels Anti-ACORN Propaganda,

The NY Times ran a story today about the "high jinks" of the right-wing smear artist O'Keefe, repeating the smears on ACORN, without mentioning the investigations that concluded his ACORN videotapes were doctored and that ACORN employees did nothing wrong.

The Times reported as fact that O'Keefe was "dressed as a pimp" - he was not, he was representing himself as a candidate for Congress - and that ACORN employees gave advice on setting up a brothel - when an investigation concluded that the videos were "heavily edited" and had "substitute voicovers" inserted to make it sound like ACORN employees said things they did not.

Brad Friedman pressed the Times on this. The Times said it "stands by" the story and cites FOX News as their source.

Go read the whole thing - it's really quite stunning.

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:29 AM PST on February 09, 2010.

Link to this | Comments (0) |

Tax Cuts HURT Small And Medium Businesses

-- by Dave Johnson

This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF). I am a Fellow with CAF.

Much of the public believes that tax cuts "create jobs." A recent Rasmussen poll found that 59% of voters believe cutting taxes is better than increasing government spending as a job-creation tool. This proves that repeating a slogan over and over can effect what people believe.

But here is some news: Corporate taxes are on profits. So a tax cut means that the more profitable companies -- the Wal-Marts, Exxons, and other giants -- benefit. They pay back less to the government for their use of the roads, schools, courts, police, fire & military protection and all the other services that helped them get so big and powerful. So the giant monopolistic corporations that are chewing up small businesses, destroying local and regional retailers, take those tax cuts and use them to turn themselves into even better small-business-destroying machines.

For example, giants like Wal-Mart are destroying local and regional retailers. But it is the Wal-Marts, not the local and regional retailers that are the beneficiaries of tax cuts. They already have every advantage in the world and tax cuts are just more ammunition helping them destroy the small and medium businesses that are the job engine of our economy. This is why the "usual suspects," the politicians who get their campaign funds from the giant companies and work with lobbyists for the largest corporations and the right-wing talk show hosts who always advocate what the largest companies want are the ones who always advocate corporate tax cuts as the solution to everything.

Meanwhile, since smaller businesses that are struggling don't pay taxes, the tax cuts do nothing for them. They're already being walloped by these giants, then walloped by the government giving their competitors even more advantage with these tax cuts, and then they get the infrastructure they depend on cut out from under them. When taxes are cut the infrastructure that supports building new businesses is weakened. The services these companies need are cut back. The schools get worse, the government services are cut back.

If you ask the managers of a small or medium business, they will tell you they want customers, not tax cuts. Customers cause companies to hire people, not tax cuts. All the tax cuts in the world won't "create" a job, if there aren't enough customers coming through the door or ordering products because there is nothing for the new employee to do. And if there are more customers and orders the company will hire people whether they get a tax cut or not. (A job-creating tax credit for small businesses like President Obama is proposing is a different story, and will incentivize hiring.)

So remember, businesses need customers not tax cuts.

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:52 PM PST on February 08, 2010.

Link to this | Comments (0) |

Dear Conservatives Please Explain What "Big Government" Means

-- by Dave Johnson

Conservatives complain about "big government." Can any conservatives reading this please leave a comment explaining what you mean by "big government?"

Thanks.

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:48 AM PST on February 08, 2010.

Link to this | Comments (0) |

Did Bush Leave Us Bankrupt, Corrupt, Ungovernable?

-- by Dave Johnson

From Open Left

When you sell the farm, the farm's gone.

Is it already too late for America? I’m starting to think that the anti-tax, anti-government conservative movement that started in the mid-70s, elected Reagan and led to the terrible Bush Presidency may have effectively destroyed the country, leaving it bankrupt, corrupt,ungovernable, ruled by a wealthy elite -- and we're only now just starting to realize it. To cover tax cuts we stopped maintaining the infrastructure and started borrowing. To satisfy their hatred of government we increasingly stripped away rule of law, regulation, and belief in one-person-one-vote. We are seeing the consequences of all of that coming back to roost now.

Reagan left us with massive debt and ever-increasing interest payments. Bush left us with $1.3 trillion deficits and a destroyed economy that would force further increases in the borrowing for years - to be blamed on Obama. The "free marketers" gave away our manufacturing base that will take decades and massive capital investment to recover. Obama can try, but it may just be too late to do anything about the borrowing. We need massive investment in jobs and infrastructure, and a national economic/industrial plan. But, with their own Reagan/Bush debt as ammunition, conservative ideologues continue to block every effort at investment to get out of the mess we are in.

Continue reading " Did Bush Leave Us Bankrupt, Corrupt, Ungovernable?"

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:00 PM PST on February 06, 2010.

Link to this | Comments (0) |

Jobs Chart Everyone MUST See

-- by Dave Johnson

Look at this chart of jobs under Bush vs Obama:

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:05 PM PST on February 05, 2010.

Link to this | Comments (0) |

Senator Shelby's "Holds" Show Need For National Industrial Policy

-- by Dave Johnson

This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

Senator Shelby is placing "holds" (filibusters) on ALL OF the President's nominees, all by himself

Richard Shelby puts hold on President Obama's nominees

Shelby is frustrated over the Pentagon’s bidding process for air-to-air refueling tankers, which could lead to the creation of jobs in Mobile, Ala.

Over at firedoglake, emptywheel writes,

The key issue is that Shelby wants the Air Force to tweak an RFP for refueling tankers so that Airbus (partnered with Northrup Grumman) would win the bid again over Boeing. ... Airbus calculated that it would not win the new bid, and started complaining.

Essentially, then, Shelby’s threat is primarily about gaming this bidding process to make sure Airbus–and not Boeing–wins the contract (... this is the truly huge potential bounty for his state).

. . . But underlying the refueling contract is the question of whether the US military ought to spend what may amount to $100 billion over the life of the contract with a foreign company, Airbus. Particularly a company that the WTO found preliminarily to be illegally benefiting from subsidies from European governments.

$100 billion contract to build air to air tankers -- that's a lot of jobs and lots of them in Alabama.

This shows why we need a national industrial policy. The country has no policy to promote jobs and manufacturing so members of Congress are forced to do things like this to try to keep manufacturing in their district or state - competing with every other district or state. And in this case, even fighting to lose the contract for an American company!

Senator Shelby is fighting for jobs in his state, because the country is not. It is time for a coordinated national economic/industrial strategy -- just like every other country has -- so we're all working together instead of fighting over the scraps that are left behind.

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:40 AM PST on February 05, 2010.

Link to this | Comments (0) |

Roots Of Conservative Failure: Bush Called Deficits "Incredibly Positive News"

-- by Dave Johnson

This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.

Lest we forget where the huge deficits and debt came from...

On August 25, 2001, just seven months after taking office, George W. Bush learned that his budgets had already erased the previous administration's huge surplus -- that was paying off our country's debt at a rapid rate -- and had instead forced the country to start borrowing again. Bush said it was "Incredibly Positive News''

President Bush said today that there was a benefit to the government's fast-dwindling surplus, declaring that it will create "a fiscal straitjacket for Congress." He said that was "incredibly positive news" because it would halt the growth of the federal government.

Bush certainly wasn't the first conservative to think deficits and debt were a good thing. Conservatives had for years advocated a strategy to "starve the beast" by intentionally plunging the country into debt, forcing cutbacks in government oversight of corporate behavior such as regulatory oversight, safety inspections and consumer protections.

In the 1980 campaign for President, Reagan explained his tax cut strategy, after candidate John Anderson called for spending cuts,

"John tells us that first we've got to reduce spending before we can reduce taxes," Ronald Reagan declared in reply to the independent candidate, John Anderson. "Well, if you've got a kid that's extravagant, you can lecture him all you want to about his extravagance. Or you can cut his allowance and achieve the same end much quicker."

In his two terms Reagan quadrupled the federal debt.

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:59 PM PST on February 04, 2010.

Link to this | Comments (0) |

A Song About Buying From China

-- by Dave Johnson

Buy, Buy American Pie by The Capital steps

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:46 PM PST on February 04, 2010.

Link to this | Comments (0) |

Who Is On Main Street's Side?

-- by Dave Johnson

Republicans Chase Wall Street Donors

Last week, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio made a pitch to Democratic contributor James Dimon, the chairman and chief executive of J.P. Morgan, over drinks at a Capitol Hill restaurant, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Boehner told Mr. Dimon congressional Republicans had stood up to Mr. Obama's efforts to curb pay and impose new regulations.

In case it is lost on Tea Party readers, John Boehner, the REPUBLICAN leader, was the one bragging to Wall Street that REPUBLICANS have been blocking efforts to reign in the bonuses and consumer protections.

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:33 AM PST on February 04, 2010.

Link to this | Comments (1) |

Low Taxes Destroy Our Small Businesses

-- by Dave Johnson

This post originally appeared at Speak Out California.

Remember last year when the Republicans laid out the price of a budget deal and it was a giant tax cut for the biggest corporations? So in the middle of a revenue crisis they forced ... less revenue. Well, imagine that you are a struggling small or medium business in California, and the Republicans gave your nemesis even more power to crush you.

Click through to Speak Out California.

-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:15 AM PST on February 04, 2010.

Link to this | Comments (0) |