Gov’t, capitalism need each other
Given public anger and fear, that “socialist” Barack Obama could be a lot more radical than he has been. For example, he could be proposing marginal tax rates of 80 percent or higher on the richest Americans, like we had back in the ’50s, and with just a little stoking of public anger at the economic elite, he could probably pass it.
After all, 85 House Republicans — almost half the GOP caucus — bowed to populist sentiment last week by voting in favor of taxing AIG bonuses at 90 percent. That idea began to die only when Obama stepped in to say he didn’t think it was wise or necessary.
Obama does propose to raise the top rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent, largely to help keep the deficit within the lower stratosphere. But that hardly makes him socialist. All he’s doing is letting the Bush tax cuts end, as they were scheduled by Bush to do. As Obama said in his news conference Tuesday, “Let’s go back to the rates that existed … during the Clinton era, when wealthy people were still wealthy and doing just fine.”
Obama could also make himself a popular man —- at least for a while —- by announcing that he was finished trying to bail out Wall Street with hundreds of billions of dollars and that the financial industry should be allowed to collapse into a smoking pile of ruin as punishment for its greed.
There’s a bull market for that kind of populism, and its appeal cuts across the political spectrum. Many on the ideological right distrust any government involvement with business, dismissing arguments that it might be necessary in a crisis. In their purist view, the free market has to be allowed to punish failure, even at the risk of that punishment falling on millions of innocents as well.
Many on the left would be happy to let it fall as well. They’re unhappy that Obama is trying to reinforce the existing economic structure; they don’t like the fact that some of those who got us into this mess are being rewarded for helping us get out of it. And they see a trillion dollars going to prop up Wall Street and they wonder how many poor and middle-class people could be helped with that kind of money.
But Obama isn’t doing that either. He’s trying to use government to save capitalism, understanding that in the modern era, both institutions need each other. Government provides the basic, essential stability that unfettered capitalism cannot. And capitalism provides the prosperity that government cannot.
Obama further understands that it’s not just public faith in capitalism that is being tested in this crisis. Public faith in government has collapsed as well. Obama is trying to resurrect the reputations of both simultaneously, understanding that you can’t save one without the other.
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195 comments Add your comment
I Report/ You Whine
March 26th, 2009
7:22 am
Yeah, with friends like Oblahmi, who needs enemies?
Imagine how much worse it would be if Bushie hadn’t spent all the money already-
On the campaign trail last June, Obama declared that the Bush administration was “the most fiscally irresponsible administration in history.” At the time he made that statement, Bush’s record deficit was $413 billion in 2004. Yet according to the CBO, if Obama’s budget gets passed, the deficit will never be lower than $658 billion during his time in office should he serve two terms.
The president is displaying the same type of thinking as Bush did when he pursued policies that caused the record deficits Democrats blasted during the campaign; the same as lenders who sold adjustable rate mortgages that allowed people to buy houses they couldn’t afford; and the same as Wall Street bankers who borrowed money to load up on complex financial products backed by those risky mortgages. -AmSpec
Mrs. Godzilla
March 26th, 2009
7:25 am
Capitalism has been very. very good to me. With a little intelligent regulation it might also be very, very good for my kids. Without it…
bye-bye middle class and bye-bye USA.
I Report/ You Whine
March 26th, 2009
7:27 am
This is just some of what Bookman calls “saving” capitalism-
Nor can it be said that these Democrats are merely scapegoating the private sector to deflect blame for the politicians’ share of the mortgage debacle. Using the private sector as the party’s punching bag is also now routine. Al Gore and John Kerry ran at Big Oil, Big Pharma and Big Insurance. With mercurial suppleness, so did the current president. These “big” industries are proxies for the whole world of owners and managers, who somehow now always find themselves beyond acceptable politics as enemies of the people’s interests. A Democratic Party that was always anti-Wall Street is becoming anti- Main Street.
Meanwhile, plaintiffs lawyers assault the private sector, dig cash out of it, and transfer a percentage back to Democratic re-election campaigns. Democrats in Congress then try to legislate provisions to make the private sector vulnerable to more such lawsuits. Congress has passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, with the Paycheck Fairness Act on tap.-WSJ
Marxism at it’s finest.
Redneck Convert
March 26th, 2009
7:33 am
Well, it looks like pretty soon Bookman won’t have nobody left on his blog that ain’t been banned. Some people are just too good at egging people on till they blow up. Anyhow, I figure what with AJC Commie and Chad gone this blog will be lucky to have maybe 15 posts. Pretty soon we’ll be seeing bumper stickers that say Honk If You Been Banned by Bookman.
Anyway, me and my buddy Jim Earl and Joe Bill were talking about this tax stuff down at Billy Bob’s last night and we decided things are upside down right now. They charge the lowest rate for people that don’t make much money anyway. You can go broke real fast that way. No wonder the guvmint is in debt so much.
So we decided we ought to just flip the tax rates. Charge the rich people maybe 10% tax and the poor people something like 36%. That will give all the lazy bums a good reason to work harder to get a break on taxes. Pretty soon we’d have a whole bunch of people walking around and looking happy and telling everybody they went down to the 10% bracket and never had it so good in their life.
Besides, us Conservatives beleive the rich people are just better than the rest of the scum. They need to pay less taxes as a kind of reward for being so good. They are rich because God is rewarding them for being so much like Him. But no, the guvmint got to sock them with higher taxes and let the lazy bums off light. I know My President tried to do something about this kind of thing with his tax breaks but the system’s still upside down.
Matter of fact, we ought to make a reverse tax for rich people. The richer they get the more the guvmint pays them just for the priviledge of having them live here.
Anyhow, it’s pretty clear this Obama is the AntiChrist for wanting to tax rich people more. He’s going against God’s Will.
So that’s the kind of deep thinking you can get when three good old boys get together over a PBR or five or ten. I know there will be lots of people on this blog that will agree with the idea.
Have a good day everybody.
Rush Limbaugh for President
March 26th, 2009
7:43 am
Couple of things:
The current economy is different that the one Bush was working with,i.e. no stimulus or bail outs needed.
The budget hasn’t passed yet and won’t in it’s current form.
Taxpayer
March 26th, 2009
7:52 am
Ooh! Ooh! I know. Let’s go back to a time when housing was affordable and people lived within their means. I wonder if these people even know about AIG and their bonuses. Somehow, I bet they have heard about the economic crisis though. Just call it a hunch.
herbK
March 26th, 2009
7:54 am
Truly enlightening – Redneck Convert either held tongue-in-cheek, or reinforced my belief in the need for abortions. Government provides NO stability. Stability in what? Government does not operate with the same set of constraints that the private sector does. The private sector does NOT always offer prosperity. That is dependent on the current economic climate and marketplace forces. The government should, due to it’s innate inability to solve problems, stay out of the private sector save for basic, yet stern regulation. The private sector should NOT be approaching government for bailouts, and attempt to preserve both it’s labor base and it’s customer base. See? Simple.
Rush Limbaugh for President
March 26th, 2009
8:10 am
Herb K.
I think Gov’t is wasteful and inefficient. If we could fix that we might have the best of both worlds. If it were as simple as you think we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in right now.
Convert
Good riddence to AJC Communist. It didn’t take much to spin him out of control.
herbK
March 26th, 2009
8:13 am
RLFP, it is every bit as simple as I think – problem is you need willing participants. We don’t have that scenario right now.
Taxpayer
March 26th, 2009
8:16 am
He’s not a socialist or a capitalist. Why, he’s a…
To be fair, the Teleprompter also telegraphs “words” that were written by “speechwriters” as a means of assisting the President to “explain” stuff “clearly.” Before the advent of the Teleprompter, a President might have to “read” his remarks from “notes” written on “paper.” Obama, however, apparently likes to face forward while reading the speeches he gives, like a bleeped Bolshevik.
Ken
March 26th, 2009
8:23 am
President HOPEEE CHANGE and his wrecking ball crew do not have a clue. I feel sorry for my Grandson.
ConservativeAnchor
March 26th, 2009
8:44 am
Yes. He is trying to boost guv’mint. Just look at that $3.6 trillion budget that will destroy even more jobs with cap-n-trade, nationalized healthcare, etc. Obozo is a nitwit.
Mrs. Godzilla
March 26th, 2009
8:44 am
Ken,
I think that my grandkids (if I ever get any, hint hint #1) will be much better off we if follow through with the transformational changes President Obama is working for. Better schools and healthcare, green energy, emphasis on science….these are things that help kids get stronger and wiser.
If you don’t see these changes as improvements, then I am sorry for your grandson too.
G
March 26th, 2009
8:45 am
Bravo, Jay, Bravo!
And Bravo also to Senator Byron Dorgan, Democrat-North Dakota. Smart man.
This video is from 1999.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veAOoQEy0PI
Jethro Bodine
March 26th, 2009
8:51 am
Okay, so business is efficient and gov’mint inefficient. We here in North Carolina had a wonderful mental health system which was basically state run until some folks had the wonderful idea of handing it over to private companies. Now, a few years later, the whole system has collapsed and folks find it just about impossible to get any services at all. The same thing when you hand over probation and parole, prisons, and a host of other services to private enterprise. They’re gonna find anyway they can to wring as much profit out of the situation as possible while short shrifting the service aspects.
Bosch
March 26th, 2009
8:54 am
Drat!!! One day, one day, I WILL get all five answers in the “Find Five” game. I was THIS close today.
Been saying for weeks that Obama is trying to get capitalism up and running again – and just like any economic of political system, you need the some of both – pure systems are unheard of and do not work.
Good article Jay.
Dan
March 26th, 2009
8:58 am
Everyone talks about “the people that got us into this mess” but they are always talking about the wrong people. The real mess makers are those who couldn’t or wouldn’t pay their mortgages and those that enabled them by forcing lenders to lower their standards. Period
Bosch
March 26th, 2009
8:59 am
Hey guys – Obama is blogging today at the White House’s website.
Ken and Conservative Anchor and the other wingnuts – why don’t you go over there to call him Obozo and Presbo (although I kind of like that one) or President Teleprompter, or any of the other pet names you have for him.
Obama is answering your questions today – why don’t you go over there and ask him these things yourself, or just plop down some of your comments.
I’m sure he’d get a kick out of it!
Taxpayer
March 26th, 2009
9:00 am
Enter your comments here
Bosch
March 26th, 2009
9:02 am
Taxpayer,
I’d rather enter my comments in the comment box. Thanks for asking though.
Taxpayer
March 26th, 2009
9:02 am
Bachman needs help to implement her plan to take over the country. She should start by enlisting Ted…Turner, that is. Together, they could rent — to own or just lease — a tour bus, head for the open road, slam it into Overdrive and spread the word from coast to coast…tent city to tent city…RV site to RV site. Bachman and Turner in Overdrive on a highway near you just Takin’ Care of Business. Hey, it beats a Britney concert any day. She either CantOr won’t just do us all a favor and give it up. After all, she’s no saint and certainly not a Madonna. Even Michael Jackson, as old as he is, can beat it on stage.
Taxpayer
March 26th, 2009
9:05 am
Bosch,
It cuts out the middle man when you enter the comments directly like that.
G
March 26th, 2009
9:06 am
Both Socialism and Capitalism need to exist side by side. And there needs to be a balance because either…separately or together can tip to the extremes of either Communism (Lenin/Mao type) or Capitalist Imperialism…the worst form of Capitalism. Both are equally dangerous.
Capitalism needs to be regulated so that the rich do not become too powerful and cause an extreme imbalance in the degree of have and have-not.
Socialism needs to be regulated so that the government doesn’t tip the balance and become Totalitarian.
After the past 8 years… we are tipped way too far on the Capitalist side ..and are becoming borderline Imperialistic. We need to balance it more with Socialism or the majority of us will be slaves to the few rich and powerful.
Kamchak
March 26th, 2009
9:16 am
Ken
I began to feel sorry for my great-nephews six years ago.
Taxpayer
March 26th, 2009
9:19 am
Tent cities need mailboxes too. They are the truly disenfranchised voters. They cannot be reached by Internet…no WiFi hotspots. Discarded cell phones do them no good either for the phone companies either disable the old phones or simply do not place cell towers such that these tented citizens can communicate. The only way I even knew that these tent people existed was via their use of morse-coded Coleman-generated smoke signals. They should burn cleaner fuel in those stoves and lanterns. Haven’t they heard about the green initiatives sweeping the country. It’s the latest rage — a blend of the best that capitalism and socialism each have to offer. They’re missing out on lithium-ion battery technology, LED lights, and so much more by remaining off the grid, so to speak. The first thing that these people need is a morse code to ASCII converter box. Maybe Wal-Mart can fill that need.
Mrs. Godzilla
March 26th, 2009
9:21 am
Dan,
A little reading from FactCheck:
So who is to blame? There’s plenty of blame to go around, and it doesn’t fasten only on one party or even mainly on what Washington did or didn’t do. As The Economist magazine noted recently, the problem is one of “layered irresponsibility … with hard-working homeowners and billionaire villains each playing a role.” Here’s a partial list of those alleged to be at fault:
The Federal Reserve, which slashed interest rates after the dot-com bubble burst, making credit cheap.
Home buyers, who took advantage of easy credit to bid up the prices of homes excessively.
Congress, which continues to support a mortgage tax deduction that gives consumers a tax incentive to buy more expensive houses.
Real estate agents, most of whom work for the sellers rather than the buyers and who earned higher commissions from selling more expensive homes.
The Clinton administration, which pushed for less stringent credit and downpayment requirements for working- and middle-class families.
Mortgage brokers, who offered less-credit-worthy home buyers subprime, adjustable rate loans with low initial payments, but exploding interest rates.
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who in 2004, near the peak of the housing bubble, encouraged Americans to take out adjustable rate mortgages.
Wall Street firms, who paid too little attention to the quality of the risky loans that they bundled into Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), and issued bonds using those securities as collateral.
The Bush administration, which failed to provide needed government oversight of the increasingly dicey mortgage-backed securities market.
An obscure accounting rule called mark-to-market, which can have the paradoxical result of making assets be worth less on paper than they are in reality during times of panic.
Collective delusion, or a belief on the part of all parties that home prices would keep rising forever, no matter how high or how fast they had already gone up.
Read the whole thing here:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/who_caused_the_economic_crisis.html?rel=link
This piece is simple and succinct, I’d suggest the Time Magazine list also.
Would hate to have you miss a Period.
Obambi's TelePrompter
March 26th, 2009
9:24 am
Obambi isn’t blogging at the White House website, I am!
Get your facts straight moonbat!
And you can call me Obozo if you want.
I’m not as thin skinned as my little tard is.
Corporal
March 26th, 2009
9:25 am
Jay:
Reading between the lines of your article I truly sense you are “whistling in the dark” and even you with your wisdom and intelligence are worried (but will never admit it) that we have a serious four year problem with a dangerous “runaway” President. Moderate Democrats are starting to realize this.
The Tsunami is coming ……….
Kamchak
March 26th, 2009
9:26 am
Well put Mrs. G.
DB, Gwinnettian
March 26th, 2009
9:28 am
Shorter Jay: Behold, a President who can walk and chew Nicorette at the same time. Refreshing, huh?
Bosch
March 26th, 2009
9:29 am
Corporal,
Wow, you should look into a new career in drama.
I guess you’d know a thing or two about those political tsunamis considering the backlash the conservatives have seen in the past few years!
G
March 26th, 2009
9:36 am
DNC attack ad circa 2010
No narration whatsoever….
30 seconds of images of these tent cities with stats re: foreclosures, personal income stagnation, job losses, etc. over the past 8 years.
Tag Line (white letters over a black screen):
This is what 8 years of Republican government will get you.
America can never risk putting them back in power again.
If they run an ad like this in every close House and Senate race in ‘10, the Dems will have gains comparable to or surpassing the gains they made in ‘06 and ‘08.
Corporal
March 26th, 2009
9:39 am
Bosch:
Yep, along with those moderate Democrats who are also getting real worried and are messing with “T T T’s” budget. Heresy !
Rush Limbaugh
March 26th, 2009
9:41 am
Corporal
Why don’t you form your on militia move out into the woods and miss the comming Tsunami?
On the other hand if you don’t think we just got hit by a Tsunami of greed and incompetence then you won’t feel the one that’s coming.
Davo
March 26th, 2009
9:44 am
I’m glad to see the AJC decided to change your pay rate by character count; noticeable improvement.
You think that govt/market is a symboitic system. That is the way it should be, but not the way it is. It’s actually a parasitic system in which the govt saps treasury from the people to fund unneccesary wars, intervention in Israel, sub-prime mortages…etc.
Obama’s policies are accelerating this…the federal reserve (illegal) printed $1 trillion dollars last week to ’steady the economy’ which by steadying you mean de-valueing the dollar, which means you have less money than before and your kids get to pay the debt. So, ’steady as she goes’ Obama is not really any different than ‘where the hell are we’ Bush in regards to fiscal policy…just keep spending and hope for the best because it’s not the system thats broke, right?
Obama is a socialist. Nothing he has done so far leads me to believe otherwise. He is of the opinion that govt interference in every aspect of your life is a good thing and you, citizen, should like that. Pretty soon he’ll roll out nationalized health care. Look what a fine job the govt has done with the financial and automotive sectors; they want in on the medical side now as well. The economic world around us now…you know, the coming depression, is the result of govt intervention in the market. This govt is against the individual and favors the corporation and you liberals cheer it on.
Change..ya..right
KJ, Cantonian
March 26th, 2009
9:49 am
The problem that I see is the same as it has always been – too many people trying to blame everyone but themselves for the problems, and everyone thinking that their ideas are the only ones that will work.
Unfettered greed has caused much of this mess – greed on the parts of the banks making the loans, the loan officers telling people how to get them, and greed on the part of the homeowners who wanted to buy so much more house than they could afford in order to impress the Jones’ of the world.
Socialism is a complete failure wherever it is in place, so that is not an option either – Regulated Capitalism,while possibly an oxymoron, is a necessary evil in today’s world. That being said, we must all learn to at least get along enough to solve these problems that we are facing, regardless of ideology.
An arguement that if you are think Obama leans more towards the extremes of the left than to the center it means you necessarily believe that education and healthcare reform are unwanted initiatives is as false as one that states if you are for Obama it means you want a complete collapse of America and the rise of a New World Order.
There are issues that need to be addressed, problems that need to be solved, and rifts that need to be healed – Sadly, as long as we have to choose sides – Either everyone should have a flame thrower and two grenade launchers or no one can have any weapon for any reason; either you can have late-term abortions, or morning after pills are murder; we should either provide a lifetime of government support to those who won’t help themselves or all hand outs are evil; We should let any and everyone come to this country legally or illegally, or we shouldn’t let anyone in – we will never get anything solved.
I tend to lean more conservative on most issues, but that doesn’t mean I can’t understand others perspectives – what happened to that concept? We need to not be so blind as to not see the mess that Bush made on many issues, but also not so blind as to see that he did some things right – Obama will be the same….
We need to get rid of career politicians in Washington, on both sides of the asle, and get fresh ideas from fresh Americans, and run all of the lobbyists out of Washington on a rail. Until then, it will always be as it is now – in-effective, unproductive, and generally a mess.
Mrs. Godzilla
March 26th, 2009
9:49 am
Can you imagine anybody submitting an incredibly important and
transformational budget and not anticipating having it messed with?
Kinda’ like payin’ full sticker for a car or accepting an insurance company’s first settlement offer……
Dave R
March 26th, 2009
9:51 am
Yeah, G, that will work for 2010, but if this economy is still in the tank in 2012 (a every likely scenario with Hope & Change as President and a Democrat Congress in charge), that can be turned right around in 2012.
And Jay, I actually agree with your headline, even if I don’t agree with the rest of your drivel.
Government needs capitalism to fund their excesses.
Capitalism needs government to go away and die.
Corporal
March 26th, 2009
9:51 am
To Rush Limbaugh:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iVAvb5_oXY
Some talk the talk and some walk the walk ………..
Corporal
March 26th, 2009
9:56 am
But Mrs. Godzilla:
“Can you imagine anybody submitting an incredibly important and
transformational budget and not anticipating having it messed with?”
From your own party? Heresy to go against the Messiah!
oldmac
March 26th, 2009
9:59 am
Having recently spent 3+ hours waiting in line at the DMV just so I could be told to go sit for another 45 mins just so I could be later be told to sit somewhere else for another 30 mins, only to be told that we’d have to come back 3 days later because closing time is 5PM sharp, I’m amused by your headline.
mn
getalife
March 26th, 2009
10:00 am
Major line storm heading your way. It got ugly down here last night,
Bosch
March 26th, 2009
10:02 am
Dave R.,
So, are you suggesting that government just disappear all together?
Bosch
March 26th, 2009
10:03 am
oldmac,
Why were you waiting in the DMV line if you don’t mind me being nosey?
Kamchak
March 26th, 2009
10:04 am
Dave R
Without government built roads, how would capatalists get their goods to market?
Barry
March 26th, 2009
10:05 am
Abolish the payroll (a.ka. FICA) tax. Simple really.
Mrs. Godzilla
March 26th, 2009
10:06 am
Corporal….
Of course it’s expected, even from fellow Democrats. It’s part of the give and take in a big tent poltical party.
And remember, you guys call hime the Messiah, we call him Mr. President.
Dave R
I have read some whacko stuff here over the years but this may take the cake: “Capitalism needs government to go away and die.”
Rush Limbaugh
March 26th, 2009
10:07 am
Jethro
Excellent post. Naught plus naught equals double naught.
Corporal…. I am beginning to believe your thinking is out there in the ether. Lots of spiritual and metaphorical stuff and there is a place for that but you offer nothing practical or tangible.
You sound like the guy on the corner holding the sign “THE END IS NEAR.”
mm
March 26th, 2009
10:10 am
Dave R,
“Capitalism needs government to go away and die.”
I know you’ve been brainwashed by Rush and Sean, but do you know how really stupid that statement is? Do you not see the result of the government letting capitalism run wild for
the last 8 years? The greedy businesses decided profit was more important than keeping jobs in the US. Now businesses are sufferering because they have fewer customers. Someone has to keep businesses in line, and they sure as heck aren’t going to police themselves.
Yeah, do away with government. I believe that’s called anarchy.
I Report/ You Whine
March 26th, 2009
10:10 am
Ahahahahahahaha-
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Want government assistance? Just say no to drugs.
Lawmakers in at least eight states want recipients of food stamps, unemployment benefits or welfare to submit to random drug testing.
Party’s over, deadbeats.
bwahahahaahahahaha