Boehner to Obama: Come clean on cost of new regulations

The only question I have about this is: What took so long?

From a letter Speaker John Boehner sent today to President Obama:

This year the Administration’s current regulatory agenda identifies 219 planned new regulations that have estimated annual costs in excess of $100 million each. That’s almost a 15 percent increase over last year [when there were 191 such regulations], and appears to contradict public suggestions by the Administration this week that the regulatory burden on American job creators is being scaled back. …

I was startled to learn that the EPA estimates that at least one of its proposed rules will cost our economy as much as $90 billion per year. The Administration has not disclosed how many of the other 218 planned rules will cost more than $1 billion, nor identified these rules. This information is of great relevance to the American people, who face so much uncertainty about these new regulatory costs, and to the Congress, where we continue to aim to work with you in relieving unnecessary burdens and helping employers move forward to create jobs.

I am again asking that your Administration provide a list of all pending and planned rulemakings with a projected impact on our economy in excess of $1 billion.

A reporting threshold of only $100 million is far too low. If we only know that each of the 219 new rules would cost at least that amount, we can only say that the aggregate cost is at least $21.9 billion. That’s bad enough — but as Boehner’s letter notes, one of the 219 on its own is projected to cost at least $90 billion. So, the total cost is really at least $111.8 billion, and probably much, much more.

The public ought to know exactly how much more.

Obama can propose all the new stimulus he wants, but any effects will be severely dampened by the $111.8 billion-plus his agencies are taking back out of the economy at the same time. And not even hard-core Keynesians claim there’s a multiplier effect for regulatory costs. This is the bureaucratic version of Bastiat’s broken window fallacy.

A better, no-cost stimulus would be, as I pointed out last week, to put a freeze on these costly new rules.

– By Kyle Wingfield

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209 comments Add your comment

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
11:24 am

Obama….Come clean??? Yeah right!

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
11:37 am

“The only question I have about this is: What took so long?”

TESTIFY! :D

Lower taxes have been tried. Partial success at best.

Deficit spending has been tried. Dismal short-term success and disastrous long-term failure.

The ONLY things left to address that are holding back business are uncertainty and regulations. A recent study showed that the cost to businesses by regulations exceeds that of income tax burden. It HAS to be addressed.

The uncertainty can be fixed in November of 2012. ;)

carlosgvv

August 26th, 2011
11:39 am

Boehner’s letter needs to be translated. It is actually saying “We in the Republican Party are completley dependent of Big Business for our election and re-election funding. Therefore, they require us to fight as hard as possible to get rid of any and all Government regulations so that they can have a 100% laissez faire business environment and can then scam the public for all they are worth”.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
11:41 am

Carlos….yeah kind of like Obama has scammed us for the last two years. Garbage!

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
11:45 am

Carlos, grow up!

NOBODY wants to “get rid of any and all Government regulations”.

NOBODY.

I suggest you think of this government as a pendulum swinging back and forth. Right now, the pendulum is at it’s highest point in regards to regulatory oppression, and it’s being held there by the government and not allowed to swing back to the middle.

But as a big government kind of guy, I’m sure you simply love all regulations, regardless of their effectiveness (or lack thereof).

Jefferson

August 26th, 2011
11:48 am

A man with a breifcase will steal more money than a man with a gun.

quick work break

August 26th, 2011
11:49 am

When you mentioned “Broken Window Fallacy”, I thought you were referencing the “Broken Window Theory”, which would contradict your intent. Applying the Broken Window Theory to regulation would imply that having correct regulations (keeping things “clean”) will prevent a higher number of problems, as opposed to lax regulations (the “broken glass”) which would only encourage more bad behavior and hurt everyone.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
11:53 am

Jefferson….I dont know man. A gun scares me a little more than a breifcase….

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
11:53 am

Jefferson….however you are right Obama is attempting to steal ALOT of money from most americans!

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
11:54 am

“A man with a breifcase will steal more money than a man with a gun.”

Especially in the name of a compassionate government.

dylandawg

August 26th, 2011
11:55 am

well Tiberius, Bachmann wants to shut out the lights on the EPA……….can’t say I disagree…nothing bad ever happened to the land, water, air or people before the EPA…….business will always do the right thing when they regulate themselves……can’t think of any past events that would refudiate that fact

BuyMadeinUSjobs

August 26th, 2011
11:56 am

Republicans, how many trillions have been spent because we do not have strong regulations and regulators to enforce them. Think savings and loans and financial/wall street bailouts. What about costs to clean up love canal and many radiation sites(look at what many of the dollars are paying for at EPA and Energy. The poorly written unfair trade agreements have cost millions of U. S. workers jobs..

Citizen of the World

August 26th, 2011
12:03 pm

One persistent myth is that the cost of regulation is always passed on to the consumer. That’s not always the case. Say a company has to adhere to a new regulation that protects the environment. Compliance would up the cost of the widget — but maybe the consumer says, whoa, I’m not paying that for a widget! So at that point, maybe the CEO says, you know, instead of making $6 million a year, maybe I should only make $5 million and charge less for my widget so people will still buy it.

Regulation is not what kills jobs. It’s often the greed of people at the top who, recognizing there’s a consumer price point to protect, take their manufacturing overseas where they can trash the environment and take advantage of cheap labor, continue to offer a cheap product, and pocket their huge executive salaries.

For small business owners who can’t take their business overseas, as long as regulation is applied and enforced equally, it shouldn’t hurt their competitive advantage and should protect them from unscrupulous suppliers and competitors.

The Republicans want to make regulation the boogieman du jour. They are exploiting the issue for votes. If you look at the history of regulation, the cry for it came from businesses as much as from consumers.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
12:05 pm

Exploiting the issues for votes???HAHAHAH

The biggest fraud in politics is how the Demoncrats exploit blacks and mexicans in an effort to get votes….nice try.

carlosgvv

August 26th, 2011
12:08 pm

Tiberius

Once upon a time in America there were 6 day work weeks, 12 hour work days, no paid vacations, no overtime, no insurance, no paid holidays and child labor. Doctors and Dentists did not have to be licensed and patent medicines abounded. Then the Unions and Government regulations kicked in and forced Business and Medicine to accept regulation. Business in particular did not go quietly. They fought a 5 day work week, 8 hour day, paid vacations, paid holidays, and child labor elemination every step of the way. Since every fairly decent High School graduate knows this, I can only conclude you are either a little kid who should not be posting here or someone who is just not very bright.

Dusty

August 26th, 2011
12:10 pm

Go for it, Kyle. $111.8. the cost for new regulations when we aint got the money!!! Would someone please whisper in the presiden’st ear that important fact: We do not have the money, honey!

Dusty

August 26th, 2011
12:11 pm

That’s billions we are talking about, folks!!

ByteMe

August 26th, 2011
12:12 pm

I was startled to learn that the EPA estimates that at least one of its proposed rules will cost our economy as much as $90 billion per year.

And that’s the money sentence. How a regulation “costs our economy” as though the money didn’t change hands from business to business — for compliance costs — thereby actually increasing our GDP. Every regulation can either be thought of as costing jobs or creating new jobs, you just have to think outside the box of protecting the status quo. Boehner can’t, he’s too beholding to the status quo as long as it gets him re-elected.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
12:16 pm

“Think savings and loans and financial/wall street bailouts.”

And why did we bail out these neer-do well’s in the first place?

If you keep bailing out the miscreants when will they ever learn their lesson?

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
12:21 pm

Citizen of the World, you can’t have it both ways, (even if your point can’t be made unless you do).

First you say that regulatory costs aren’t always passed onto the consumer, because those wonderful big companies are so concerned about the little guy that they will sacrifice profits.

And on the other hand you rail against big business for being greedy.

Nope. Not buying it one bit. You can’t have it both ways.

Citizen of the World

August 26th, 2011
12:24 pm

Dacula 1995 — do tell: How do Democrats exploit blacks and mexican [sic] to get votes?

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
12:26 pm

“Since every fairly decent High School graduate knows this, I can only conclude you are either a little kid who should not be posting here or someone who is just not very bright.”

Carlos, I suggest you need to stay over at the Children’s Table, i.e. the Bookman Blog if you want to use the personal attack argument instead of facts.

Now, once upon a time we still made buggy whips in America, but someone finally realized that buggy whips were no longer useful. When your cost of regulation is now higher than your tax burden, we’ve gone way, way, way too far.

Citizen of the World

August 26th, 2011
12:27 pm

Tiberius, try to think beyond a dichotomy.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
12:27 pm

Citizen….you really have to ask that question?

Jimmy62

August 26th, 2011
12:27 pm

CarlosGV: Love how you ignore the fact that Obama is as much or more beholden to big business than the GOP. See GE, Goldman Sachs, etc. An see how he’s giving out waivers to Obamacare to the big businesses that give him money. See how he made sure his buddies at Goldman Sachs got bailed out even though they were as much or more responsible than any other single group of people for the housing mess.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
12:29 pm

“well Tiberius, Bachmann wants to shut out the lights on the EPA”

An if you don’t understand the difference between campaign rhetoric and public policy, dlyandawg, I suggest you stay home when election day comes around.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
12:29 pm

Jimmy62…..Really??? I thought the fools who didnt make their house payments were responsible for the housing mess…..

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
12:31 pm

“Tiberius, try to think beyond a dichotomy.”

I do. I suggest you try to think like a business person who is trying to make money and employ people that can help them do so.

Citizen of the World

August 26th, 2011
12:31 pm

Dacula 1995 — yes, I do, because I’m really interested in how you would answer it.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
12:34 pm

Citizens…..the fact is that the Republican party historically has done more to help AA’s. However demoncrats continue to preach Amnesty, Medicare and other entitlement programs. This keeps the black society leaching onto the Demoncratic party.

Whenever the Repubs mention that we may have to cut some of these entitlement programs, blacks always scream that it is “racist”. Such a tired arguement.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
12:38 pm

Dacula, I’m not following your 12:34 argument one bit. I can buy into a general argument that the Democrat party panders to – well – everyone they think they can get a vote from, and that does include policies that target minorities specifically, but I don’t see the argument that Republicans have done more to help African Americans one bit.

Nor should they specifically target anyone with preference, but rather treat everyone equally.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
12:41 pm

Tiberius….I would suggest you research the republican party and slavery……it has continued on throughout history.

Citizen of the World

August 26th, 2011
12:43 pm

So Dacula 1995, do tell: How has the Republican party historically done more to help AAs?

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
12:45 pm

Citizen…..wow you guys should have really paid attention in middle school! Look it up.

Phil's Tel-A-Gramm

August 26th, 2011
12:49 pm

Kyle,

I know of no individual that would dare to deprive you of your right to drink all the polluted water or breath all the polluted air or eat all the tainted food that your overtaxed heart desires. Have at it.

Citizen of the World

August 26th, 2011
12:50 pm

Dacula 1995 — you should be paying attention now, instead of being caught up in the closed information loop that is Fox “News” and right wing talk radio.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
12:51 pm

Citizen? Who said a word about Fox news?

Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)

August 26th, 2011
12:52 pm

ByteMe
August 26th, 2011
12:12 pm
—————

Only a mind-numbed libtard could be so intellectually weak as to believe we can regulate our way out of Obozo’s new normal of 9% unemployment.

Citizen of the World

August 26th, 2011
12:54 pm

Dacula, I can read between the lines.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
12:54 pm

Citizen….you sure assume a lot! I figured.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
12:55 pm

Dacula, please.

If all you have to hang your hat on is the Emancipation Proclamation made by a specific President in the 1860’s (and not the policy of the GOP at the time, btw), then you’re gonna have to do better than that.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
12:56 pm

Tiberius….what “policies of this time” are you referring to?

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
12:57 pm

Phil, I find that people who rely on hyperbole to make their argument do so because they can’t come up with a valid argument against a valid point.

Citizen of the World

August 26th, 2011
12:58 pm

But do I assume correctly, Dacula?

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
1:00 pm

Citizen…sure I watch Fox as well as CNN, MSNBC and CNBC. Your point?

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
1:01 pm

I’m saying that emancipation was not popular with the GOP at the time of the Late Misunderstanding, Dacula. It was a political move calculated by The Great Federalist (Lincoln) to bring a quicker end to the war.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
1:02 pm

Tiberius…..every political move is calculated! Welcome to politics.

Citizen of the World

August 26th, 2011
1:04 pm

Dacula, that’s what they all say.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
1:04 pm

Citizen….who is “they”?

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
1:06 pm

Dacula, I would suggest I know a bit more about politics than you might ever know, so don’t try to be condescending to me about same.

If you don’t think the North cared little more about the plight of the black man in 1865 than the South did, then you don’t really know your history.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
1:08 pm

Tiberius…..apparently not….you think the civil war was about slavery dont you? Really?? You know more than me? I think not.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
1:10 pm

Actually, Dacula, I don’t. Would you like to be wrong again about something today and guess incorrectly about something else?

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
1:11 pm

Tiberius…..regarding what?

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
1:13 pm

Regarding your contention that the GOP has done more for African Americans, or that I believe that slavery was the cause of the Late Misunderstanding.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
1:16 pm

Tiberius……Go ahead.

Check these stats

August 26th, 2011
1:17 pm

What a douche, and I’m not talking about Boehner.

Plato

August 26th, 2011
1:18 pm

Government regulations killed the US buggy whip industry.

MarkV

August 26th, 2011
1:18 pm

Kyle,
You article as well as Boehner’s letter share the same fallacy: That the cost to “the burden on American job creators” and a “burden to the economy” are the same thing. The “burden on American job creators” is an increase in the cost of running their business. It says nothing about the effect on the economy in general, or about the benefits for the society gained by the application of the regulations.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
1:19 pm

“Tiberius……Go ahead.”

With . . . what? :roll:

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
1:24 pm

I was waiting for you to spew your ignorace about this….

Regarding your contention that the GOP has done more for African Americans, or that I believe that slavery was the cause of the Late Misunderstanding.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
1:27 pm

“You article as well as Boehner’s letter share the same fallacy: That the cost to “the burden on American job creators” and a “burden to the economy” are the same thing. The “burden on American job creators” is an increase in the cost of running their business. It says nothing about the effect on the economy in general, or about the benefits for the society gained by the application of the regulations.”

Pure, unadulterated lack of understanding of what it takes to create jobs or economic reality, MarkV.

If you have a burden on American job creators, it automatically becomes a burden to the economy, because now you have more reasons and resources to NOT hire people. When you increase the cost of doing business, you force companies to do ore with less. The less comes out to be layoffs.

Some regulations are certainly helpful, but do we really need a OSHA certification standard for a freakin’ step ladder?

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
1:28 pm

Already did, Dacula. Please try to keep up.

ByteMe

August 26th, 2011
1:28 pm

Lil’ Barry, only someone with poor reading comprehension skills would think that’s what I wrote. Perhaps they let you out of middle school class for lunch… time for you to get back to class, little one. You’re the next generation, time to start working hard and make us proud!

Truth

August 26th, 2011
1:28 pm

Jimmy Carter, I mean Obama is done on 2012.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
1:29 pm

Tiberius…..actually you didn’t. What color Kool Aid are you drinking today? You may want to slow down.

ByteMe

August 26th, 2011
1:29 pm

If you have a burden on American job creators

…and there’s the fallacy in the logic. Regulations are not automatically “burdens on American job creators” unless you believe they are. Reality is often quite different from your beliefs.

Tom Mariner

August 26th, 2011
1:31 pm

Wait, it gets better — this is regulations that cost the regulated because of the restrictive nature that may or may not make sense, but costs money. The real costs come from the hiring of hundreds of thousands of PERMANENT new employees to administer these programs. They locked into a Civil Service system designed to keep incoming administrations from sweeping away employees to put in those with ones who agree with their agenda. That was why it was vital that the Congress pass all of this new legislation while they could instead of tackling the economic disaster. Now that the hiring requisitions are out, the Federal Government will be flooded with new, never leaving employees hired not because of the job they can do in the area they were hired for — but because they share a philosophy with the current Administration and will fight any Conservative values from within the government.

Costs now? How about for the next 30 years. S&P was an optimist — wait until everybody gets the truth that we are locking in some serious cost upticks.

Dacula 1995

August 26th, 2011
1:32 pm

AWWWWEEE!!! Poor Barack had to end is vacation a day early. Poor thing.

cs

August 26th, 2011
1:34 pm

Boo hoo hoo….we want to deregulate everything like George Bush did and get some more of that? Yeah, the gusher up economy supporters would like that.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
1:34 pm

“Regulations are not automatically “burdens on American job creators” unless you believe they are.’

And regulation that costs the job creator money which could be better used for expansion of his or her business is a burden. Period.

You can argue the efficacy of the regulation all day long, but you cannot argue against the economic burden to the job provider.

JF McNamara

August 26th, 2011
1:35 pm

LOL, I guess since Obama was dominating in poll position, Kyle had to get out an article to move that down the list.

Boehner is doing what he always does. He’s looking for press. Sadly, people commenting don’t even know what the regulations are, yet are talking about how bad they are and how bad Obama is.

Furthermore, Kyle didn’t even look for what the actual regulations are either. He works for a major newspaper and just promoted the propagana. List the regulations and say why they are a waste of time. Otherwise, you’re just printing “He Said, He Said.”

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
1:37 pm

“Boo hoo hoo….we want to deregulate everything like George Bush did and get some more of that? ”

Gee, and here I thought that all Federal regulations on “everything” disappeared from 2001-2009. :roll:

Silly me.

Oy!

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
1:38 pm

Kyle
14% of Americans polled think we are on the right track. Yet, everyday these liberals come on these blogs and lobby for more regulations, more taxes, more government spending. They argue that tax cuts do not work, when tax cuts have pulled us out of these periods of recession before. None of their ideas have worked and they continue to say that we just didn’t do enough spending or we didn’t regulate enough. It is useless to argue with them. Boehner is wasting his time, Obama will never even give him the courtesy of a reply.

Obummers mindless minions will continue to defend the indefenseable. My mother tells me her county is raising property taxes 28% and she expects people to lose their farms and homes at courthouse auctions. We are truly entering a depression and Obummer knows how to get us out, but refuses to do anything that will repudiate what he believes. An ideological depression is what I call it.

[...] Post (blog)Boehner hits administration over planned new regs : 2011-08-26Washington TimesAtlanta Journal Constitution (blog) -Heritage.org (blog) -The Hill (blog)all 14 news [...]

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
1:41 pm

JF McNamara, I think Boehner’s and Kyle’s points are valid. It is a bit disingenuous to make statement after statement on your taxpayer-funded campaign bus tour about scaling back regulations when the new ones you’re working on right now are going to cost billions, the ones already in the books cost businesses nearly a trillion each year, and you haven’t even gotten around to writing the regulations on your health care reform act.

Greg

August 26th, 2011
1:42 pm

Boehner is right. We don’t need environmental regulations. Private companies should be able to dumb toxic sludge in our neighborhoods whenever they feel like it.

brad

August 26th, 2011
1:42 pm

A more complete picture of the issue:

“States are required to clamp down on emissions in areas that violate the EPA’s ozone limits, which can result in higher costs to businesses. The estimated cost of the EPA’s proposal ranges from $19 billion to $90 billion, and industry says it has the potential to be the most expensive environmental rule in U.S. history. Meanwhile, the EPA says a standard between 60 and 70 ppb would yield between $13 billion and $100 billion in health benefits by reducing premature deaths, respiratory illnesses and emergency room visits.”

Comments, Kyle?

BuyMadeinUSjobs

August 26th, 2011
1:44 pm

All I am interested in is seeing fees put on all of the wallstreet/wealthy to pay back the hidden costs of bailouts. Every item sold but not made here should have a tariff like China has. That money shoul go in a fund in our local small banks or credit unions for small buiness, and worker’s co-ops loans so they can make quality Made in the U.S. products for us to buy. But since large coporations get U. S. tax breaks to move overseas, and cheap labor and Chinese government paid healthcare and unfair trade agreements, they will continue to fire us and go. Politicians are slaves to corporations, who pay billions to get them elected and then send lobbyist in to write the bills in their favor. We are on own own to create our jobs. We need to buy used if we cannot find new other than China and save our money. Let corporations sell to their workers wherever they are if they pay them enough.

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
1:44 pm

JFM
Boortz was saying yesterday that Obamas panel assigned to revue the regulations and find those that need repealing had only removed one so far. It was the milk spill rules that the dairy industry was required to implement. They had to have an emergency plan and equipment to deal with a accidental milk spill. As a former federal investigator, I can assure you there are thousands of these useless or ourdated regulations still on the books that cause businesses to waste energy and expense on daily.

BW

August 26th, 2011
1:45 pm

Rafe

It’s assuming how little that number is changed from the “conservative” years of Dubya.

MarkV

August 26th, 2011
1:46 pm

Kyle,
One more point. You wrote: “And not even hard-core Keynesians claim there’s a multiplier effect for regulatory costs.”
No? Think again.
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/fuel-economy-standards-could-add-236000-california-jobs/

BW

August 26th, 2011
1:46 pm

Assuming should be amazing

Really?

August 26th, 2011
1:49 pm

Lil’ Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
August 26th, 2011
12:52 pm
Only a mind-numbed libtard could be so intellectually weak as to believe we can regulate our way out of Obozo’s new normal of 9% unemployment.

This coming from a Retardlican who thinks that cutting government spending (and the associated government jobs) will help the U.S. unemployment rate. Lil BB is the same Retardlican who thinks that George Bush presided over a job jobless rate of 4% throughout his presidency. In other words, your opinion doesn’t mean much.

That Black guy

August 26th, 2011
1:50 pm

carlosgvv
August 26th, 2011
11:39 am
“Therefore, they require us to fight as hard as possible to get rid of any and all Government regulations”

Why is it that when someone suggests taking a look at the impact of regulations on businesses and the economy, the left almost always responds in the extreme? Please site where anyone (other than you) advocated getting rid of ALL gov’t regulation.

Also, using your logic, if the right is for NO gov’t regulations on business, does that mean the left is for COMPLETE control over business?

See how STUPID it sounds when you use such extremes?

Jefferson

August 26th, 2011
1:51 pm

If you don’t want to follow the rules and regulations, just pay millions to lobbists and buy the politicians. I guess the GOP only wants to regulate peoples private lives, as they don’t regulate anything huh?

Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)

August 26th, 2011
1:54 pm

Everyone knows that American companies are moving jobs overseas to escape our lax regulatory environment.

Craig Spinks/ Augusta

August 26th, 2011
1:54 pm

Kyle,

How might I obtain a listing of citations of the impending environmental regulations to which you have alluded in today’s column?

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
1:54 pm

“One more point. You wrote: “And not even hard-core Keynesians claim there’s a multiplier effect for regulatory costs.”
No? Think again.
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/fuel-economy-standards-could-add-236000-california-jobs/

Well, counting you, the author of the article and the subject of the article, that makes three people who believe made up data. ;)

I suggest that anyone thinking that government-generated regulations can create jobs in the private sector (rather than the public sector where job creation via regulation thrives), need merely to look at the recent green technology boost by the Feds and states. Green car company in CA out of business after taking millions of Federal dollars. Evergreen in MA fleeces the taxpayers to the tune of about $45 million and goes out of business and shifts jobs overseas.

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
1:57 pm

BW
I ‘assume’ the number you are referring to is the right track number of 14%. You are right, Bush was on the wrong track, that compassionate concervative crap was just a cover for big spending liberal republican. Although his administration looks like a booming success compared to Obummer, he started us down this hole.

I do believe that even if Dubyah had served a third term this would have been a short lived recession as he would have dramatically reduced taxes and regulations and halted the coming depression in its tracks. Would the debt have increased, probably a great deal, but we could have worked it down later when the economy got back to good times. Everything Obama has done to remedy the situation, by intent or neglect, has made things worse.

MarkV

August 26th, 2011
1:59 pm

Tiberius @1:54 pm: Only someone with a complete ignorance of history would cite a few anecdotal cases as evidence of long-term effects.

josh gibson

August 26th, 2011
2:00 pm

Why do we respect corporations who seek certainty. If our forefathers craved certainty we would all live on the East Coast or more honestly on the continents from which we came. Capitalism is about risk taking. The business I work for is in expansion mode because the owners sense opportunity in the uncertainty. Uncertainty is for socialists. capitalists take chances because in our economic system to the chance takers go the spoils.

The better description for these global dinosaurs who avoid risk like the plague is hoarders. That’s what they are. Not good business people.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
2:02 pm

Ah, the personal attack argument by MarkV.

Works every time when you have no real argument.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
2:04 pm

Josh, just because YOUR business feels it is OK to take a risk, doesn’t mean that everyone should. Businesses CALCULATE risk, and then act accordingly.

At least, the good ones do.

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
2:04 pm

josh
I agree somewhat with what you are saying, take advantage of the uncertainty, but in America, we can change course quite rapidly. If you are business, why not wait 15 more months and hope we can get an administration that is more business friendly.

Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)

August 26th, 2011
2:05 pm

Capitalism is indeed about taking risks…risks that can foreseeably return commensurate profits. Capitalism is not about taking foolhardy risks, such as having your business regulated out of existence, harnessed as a cash cow for big government, or seized and handed over to political cronies such as union thugs.

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
2:10 pm

Lil Barry is right, risk is making a decision knowing the upside and downside and if you figure the odds right maybe taking an informed plunge.

Investing now is like playing roulette, you might win but it is all determined by sheer luck, not a good business practice.

MarkV

August 26th, 2011
2:11 pm

Tiberius @2:02 pm: It is you, who has no argument. Citing a few cases of failure is ridiculous. Each new industry, whether initiated by the government regulations or not, has had many failures, as anybody with the knowledge of history would know.

”Well, counting you, the author of the article and the subject of the article, that makes three people who believe made up data”
I know, any data that disagree with your view are “made up data.”

Also, what you failed to notice is that my post was in direct contradiction with Kyle’s assertion,” And not even hard-core Keynesians claim there’s a multiplier effect for regulatory costs.” Evidence submitted, case closed.

Jed

August 26th, 2011
2:19 pm

Boehner, WHERE ARE THE JOBS YOU PROMISED??? The Repubs ran on the platform in 2010 of creating jobs. All they have done is argue with President Obama about everything. The GOP/TP are so narrow minded. They attack the deficit, spending cuts for poor and middle class and don’t tax the rich. Keep giving Corporations tax incentives to send jobs oversees. NAFTA and CAFTA cost the US money and jobs. The GOP has but one objective and that is to make President Obama a one term president (their words). People that does not create jobs by slamming everything the president does, says, eats, or breathes. Speaking for me! I like to breath clean air, drink and swim in clean water. Have safe food to eat and safe transportation.

My vote is for President Obama 2012. If you want to get rid of the middle class and have two classes the rich and the poor, vote GOP.

Beachdog

August 26th, 2011
2:24 pm

What about the cost of pollution?

We totally ignore those costs.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
2:24 pm

MarkV, if you are here to make points in an argument by finding a statement made by an opinion columnist and then citing a cherry-picked column by another opinion columnist to win an argument, then you need to get a life.

Oh, and you do know that the study was funded by a supposedly non-partisan organization run by a liberal, and the study was performed by the author of the “Global Warming Solutions Act” in California, right?

Maybe you might try something a bit less partisan next time, written by someone who – I don’t know – actually creates jobs? :roll:

GT

August 26th, 2011
2:25 pm

For eight years we gave the Republican Party about everything they wanted, had too. Now they are the minority and they are seeing fit to clean up all the things they refused to do as a majority with a sitting president. They try to act like this is a new bunch, the Tea Party, but last I looked the two were in the same party. I am tempted to play their game, let them have everything they want, and when the world is ended by their actions tell em it was their fault, my last breath. Nope that would be too much like them.

Darwin

August 26th, 2011
2:28 pm

Let’s eliminate all regulations. No more FDA. If you eat or take a pill and get sick and die, well, that’s the price you pay for economic freedom. Let’s roll the clock back to the glory years of the 18th and 19th centuries, and even the early 20th century. No more laws. Every man, woman, and child for themselves. I might need to take a pill, as the right wing rhetoric continues to kill me. Taxes and regulations are what’s keeping us from having total employment and a full steam ahead economcy. It’s so simple. Why didn’t I think of that?

A new party

August 26th, 2011
2:32 pm

Interesting that Boehner will cite the upper end of the cost at $90 billion but won’t cite any savings, much less the projected upper end of savings at $100 billion. This cost as well as the resulting savings is for the smog rule, which Atlantans should know plenty about. The savings would be made up from the health care aspect (which could be overstated but if you cite the study for the cost, you should for the savings too). Healthier people, more living people, and fewer people jacking up my premiums – people that can work and spend money (or pay taxes, or draw welfare depending on your outlook).

Junior Samples

August 26th, 2011
2:34 pm

Regulations exist simply because businesses have no incentive to do the right thing, falling back on caveat emptor.

And yes, corporations are moving jobs overseas so they can exploit others without consequence.

If we remove the regulations, corporations will pocket the money and not hire anyone within our borders. Have any corporations been on record to say that if regulations were lifted, they would hire x number of people? No. They haven’t. And they won’t.

Yes, regulations hit a company’s bottom line, but it doesn’t impact supply or demand. That is the only reason companies hire more people, to produce more widgets.

Regarding the EPA, it’s the only thing President Nixon got right. In 1969 the Cuyahoga river actually caught fire. But I’m sure that the companies resonsible for that would stop what they were doing on their accord, right?

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
2:36 pm

“Boehner, WHERE ARE THE JOBS YOU PROMISED??? The Repubs ran on the platform in 2010 of creating jobs.”

Yes, they did. But they are only 8 months into having control over 1/2 of 1/3rd of the Federal lawmaking apparatus. They first had to create and pas a budget – for THIS year. They then had to deal with the debt ceiling, which would have taken far less time if certain people in Washington, D.C. would accept the reality that they no longer control the whole process anymore. Finally, they have to come up with a budget for NEXT year. All the while, they have a Senate that will filibuster any regulatory reform (or take the brave move and table it like they did deficit reductions), and a President that will veto it.

“They attack the deficit, spending cuts for poor and middle class and don’t tax the rich.”

The deficit is a problem, unless you don’t understand the issue. And the rich are taxed plenty, so saying they don’t tax the rich is, well, wrong.

‘Keep giving Corporations tax incentives to send jobs oversees.”

Current incentive should be eliminated, but there are very few, if any, that encourage corporations to send jobs overseas. Perhaps you know of a few specifics?

“The GOP has but one objective and that is to make President Obama a one term president (their words).”

Technically, those are the words of Mitch McConnell and Michele Bachmann. I do not believe that it has been the platform of the GOP, however. And even if it was, shouldn’t that be ONE of the goals of the opposition party?

“Speaking for me! I like to breath clean air, drink and swim in clean water. Have safe food to eat and safe transportation.”

As do all of us. Many of us just have a different way of getting there with less tax dollars.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
2:41 pm

A little less hyperbole, a little more understanding of a business model, and a whole lot more facts might go a long way in the responses of GT, Junior Samples, and Darwin.

GT

August 26th, 2011
2:41 pm

A new party, it is almost humorous we have to point everything out in dollars and cents to our one trick pony opponents. The mere fact that some of us may live longer healthier lives should be enough motivation but obviously not for all of us.

You know if we didn’t have a government, cost or otherwise, we would go back to the tribual days and be constantly fighting upon ourselves. The ones of us that don’t think they need the government may be the ones that need it the most.

That Black guy

August 26th, 2011
2:45 pm

Ask the people if there are some regulations we could do without.

California’s Man-Made Drought
The green war against San Joaquin Valley farmers.

California has a new endangered species on its hands in the San Joaquin Valley—farmers. Thanks to environmental regulations designed to protect the likes of the three-inch long delta smelt, one of America’s premier agricultural regions is suffering in a drought made worse by federal regulations….

The result has already been devastating for the state’s farm economy. In the inland areas affected by the court-ordered water restrictions, the jobless rate has hit 14.3%, with some farming towns like Mendota seeing unemployment numbers near 40%. Statewide, the rate reached 11.6% in July, higher than it has been in 30 years. In August, 50 mayors from the San Joaquin Valley signed a letter asking President Obama to observe the impact of the draconian water rules firsthand.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204731804574384731898375624.html

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
2:46 pm

GT, NO ONE thinks that we don’t need any government.

NO ONE.

Less hyperbole, more substance to your arguments, please.

For instance, what’s your threshold for the number of lives saved vs. the cost to implement a law? One? A dozen? Hundreds? Thousands? Life is NOT without risk, nor is it the government’s role to eliminate said risk.

WAW

August 26th, 2011
2:46 pm

Reply: Dude, I’m still waiting for your bill to pay for your two “shoot now, pay later” wars. All I’ve done is release W’s hold on everything passed by Congress for eight years. He averaged 600 per year. I’ve still got a long way to go to administer the will of Congress.

That Black guy

August 26th, 2011
2:50 pm

Darwin

August 26th, 2011
2:28 pm
Let’s eliminate all regulations. No more FDA. If you eat or take a pill and get sick and die, well, that’s the price you pay for economic freedom. Let’s roll the clock back to the glory years of the 18th and 19th centuries, and even the early 20th century. No more laws. Every man, woman, and child for themselves. I might need to take a pill, as the right wing rhetoric continues to kill me. Taxes and regulations are what’s keeping us from having total employment and a full steam ahead economcy. It’s so simple. Why didn’t I think of that?

Yup, because that is the ONLY other option. It is truly an either/or situation. Nothing EXTREME about that statement right there.

That BS is the EXACT reason I left the Dem party and why I won’t join the Repub party.

Newsflash! Indies dispise BOTH extremes.

Junior Samples

August 26th, 2011
2:54 pm

Ok, Tiberius

How many jobs will Corporate America offer our citizens once there are no regulations?

What regulations are preventing you from hiring more people?

BuyMadeinUSjobs

August 26th, 2011
2:55 pm

What do you think big government is????? If you cut Government spending too much whether it is , the trillions spent for defense, which pays employees who shop at stores creating jobs there, for truckers hauling the stuff, warehouse etc. State workers such as teachers are paid and spend that money at srores, doctor offices etc thereby creating jobs there. Social secuity, medicare, medicaid, housing, all go to doctors, nursing homes hospitals, stores again creating jobs all along the chain with the demand from government spending (our taxes) at its root. Can you afford $80,000 to keep a disabled relative in nursing home or stay home from work to take care of them. 50 million Americans are on food
stamps, they spend them at grocery stores creating jobs, these employees spend at gas stations restaurants,doctors, lawyers who hire employees who create more jobs by spending money. Due to this jobs depression and which could become a world wide full blown depression without government spending to us.. Do you know of any job not supported by government spending at its root???? Most of us and our children/grandchildren will never make millions to save for retirement.. About 40 years ago and since we have been told work hard and get the American dream, where is it???China Those government programs for the lower class/middle class were hard fought for and we will not get them back, if we let them go.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
2:59 pm

“How many jobs will Corporate America offer our citizens once there are no regulations?”

Since no one is advocating “NO” regulations, your question has no relevance.

“What regulations are preventing you from hiring more people?”

Any and all that cost businesses money. That is why there needs to be a top-down review of every one of them by regulators AND business owners.

Jim Crowe

August 26th, 2011
3:00 pm

Reply: Dude, I’m still waiting for your bill to pay for your two “shoot now, pay later” wars.

Exactly. Imagine what better financial footing this country would be on if we hadnt blow hundreds of billions chasing the boogie man in Iraq.

Obama really has two major things working against him.

1. He followed the worst president ever ( and it wasn’t really close )
2. He is black.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
3:01 pm

Hyperbole much, BuyMadeinUSjobs? :roll:

Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)

August 26th, 2011
3:01 pm

Jed: All they have done is argue with President Obama about everything.
———–

Yes, it is unfortunate that your Idiot Messiah is so obstructionist, and insists on a “my way or the highway” approach to spending, taxes, and regulation.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
3:05 pm

“Exactly. Imagine what better financial footing this country would be on if we hadnt blow hundreds of billions chasing the boogie man in Iraq.”

Well considering that the U.S. debt is now at $14.8 trillion and rising, and the cost of both Iraq and Afghanistan have been calculated at just over $1 trillion total, I’d say that our financial footing wouldn’t be much different at all, seeing as we’re taking about a figure that is LESS than the debt grows each year. :roll:

That Black guy

August 26th, 2011
3:11 pm

And I’m sure this EVIL company is thrilled about gov’t regulation enforcement.

Eco-zealous feds target Gibson guitars, antique piano sellers; Updated: Gibson explains, exposes DOJ overreach

Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars…

The question in the first raid seemed to be whether Gibson had been buying illegally harvested hardwoods from protected forests, such as the Madagascar ebony that makes for such lovely fretboards. And if Gibson did knowingly import illegally harvested ebony from Madagascar, that wouldn’t be a negligible offense…

The core issue is Gibson’s purchase of wood for use in guitar fingerboards. The wood is not raw, nor is it finished. Juszkiewicz explains that the wood is purchased from Madagascar when it is “two-thirds of the way” finished. Once purchased, the wood is brought to America, where it is finished by American workers. According to the Obama administration, purchasing unfinished wood is a violation of Madagascarian law…

“So the government’s contention is that because American workers are working on that and finishing it, that it is not a finished product and, therefore, initially Madagascar law – and now I guess they’re contending Indian law – says you can’t remove unfinished product from the market. So in other words, if a person in Madagascar had completed the work on that blank, it would be legal. But the fact that American workers are finishing the work in the United States, makes it illegal, as far as their concerned.”

“The government’s position is, that is the law of the land in Madagascar and they are saying that is the law of the land in India. That is not the case. The fact is, we have affidavits from numerous government officials – and this court case, specifically now, is forMadagascar wood. We have affidavits from virtually every govt official saying that it is legal, that their definition of what is legal is a fingerboard blank and its been exported within every certification that is necessary. So they have the arrogance to interpret Madagascar law differently than the people of Madagascar.”

http://michellemalkin.com/2011/08/26/eco-zealous-feds-target-gibson-guitars-antique-piano-sellers/

I’m sure the AMERICANS that may be effected by this are SOOO glad for this gov’t overreach.

Junior Samples

August 26th, 2011
3:11 pm

Tiberius,

Since you failed to answer the question, allow me to rephrase.

What regulation is preventing Corporate America from hiring new employees?

And, how many people will you hire now that said regulation is no longer costing you additional money?

Be specific. No hyperbole. No generalizations.

Jim Crowe

August 26th, 2011
3:15 pm

Well considering that the U.S. debt is now at $14.8 trillion and rising, and the cost of both Iraq and Afghanistan have been calculated at just over $1 trillion total, I’d say that our financial footing wouldn’t be much different at all, seeing as we’re taking about a figure that is LESS than the debt grows each year. :roll:

Yes and of that 14trillion the overwhelming majority has been accumulated under a republican president.

W and Reagan being the worst offenders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_by_U.S._presidential_terms

Ill await your spin.

EJ

August 26th, 2011
3:25 pm

To all the nay sayers, please submit your info to your representatives….why not?…..then can we all get along???????? Trust me, Life is too short!!!!!!!!!

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
3:28 pm

Technically, Jim Crowe, what you’re engaging in is called a deflection. I answered your question, which arguable diminished the hyperbole of your original statement, so therefore you move onto who is responsible without admitting that your initial premise might just have been wrong. Typical of many liberals when caught in a similar situation over at the Children’s Table, aka, the Bookman Blog.

However, to answer your deflection, debt is accumulated by two branches of government, the Executive and the Legislative. The Executive is far less responsible for deficit spending these days as they were during the time before a strong Legislative branch as we have had for more than 50 years now. In short, the Legislative branch reigns supreme in government these days when it comes to spending, as Presidents do not exercise their veto pen very often anymore.

That being said, both parties in Congress are equally to blame for excessive spending, although the edge goes slightly to the Democrat party (roughly 52%-48%) in generating the majority of the debt we have right now.

Any further schooling on the reality of Washington, D.C. you need? Just ask.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
3:32 pm

Answered already, Junior Samples. Your inability to understand my answer does not constitute a failure on my part.

All I know is that a recent study showed that regulatory costs now exceeds the tax burden corporations pay. If the regulatory side and the business side can’t find agreement that those costs should be lowered with reduced regulations that overreach, then we are doomed as a nation.

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
3:37 pm

Every Lib on here questions why more regulation is bad and states that regs keep our food safe and our air clean and ask how the much the lack of regulation costs the USA.

As Tiberius has pointed out multiple times, you guys are either or, the choices to you seem to be over regulate or no regulations. Well, I have a qustion for anyone who wants to answer.

According to modern legend espoused by the Democrat followers, everything was wonderful on earth when Bill Clinton was president. The air was clean and brisk, everyone had a job, the economy was booming, the lion layed down with the lamb and peace and prosperity prevailed. And, he balanced the budget, you say.
Well, if we had enough regulations and regulators back then to give us this nirvana, why do we need thousands of new regs now?

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
3:48 pm

Jim Crowe, I watched a tape last night of Barry, excoriating Bush for raising the debt almost double from 5T to 9T in only 8 years. He said Bush was unpatriotic and the rise was indefenseable.

With the new limit we can be sure that Obama will have increased it from 9T to 16.5T in four years or less. Seems to me he is as unpatriotic as he accused Bush of being. But, then again, I am not a koolaid drinker, just an interested observer.

That Black guy

August 26th, 2011
3:53 pm

Tiberius, I agree with you about the “Children’s Table”. Although I still visit because there are some smart posters over there (you included until you escaped). Plus I like to watch them whine “Jay, he’s touching me” :lol:

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
3:54 pm

“Well, if we had enough regulations and regulators back then to give us this nirvana, why do we need thousands of new regs now?”

Excellent point, Rafe! :D

I Report (-: You Whine )-: Thee Magnificent!!! mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...

August 26th, 2011
3:56 pm

Death of the United States by a thousand cuts, er, tax increases.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
3:56 pm

That black guy, their idea of a serious thought over at The Children’s Table is typing their nonsense while frowning. :D

williebkind

August 26th, 2011
4:03 pm

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
1:06 pm
Whose history did you read? Was it written by a northener, european, southerner, someone in the frontier, just whose history did you read?

MarkV

August 26th, 2011
4:03 pm

Tiberius @2:24 pm: “MarkV, if you are here to make points in an argument by finding a statement made by an opinion columnist and then citing a cherry-picked column by another opinion columnist to win an argument, then you need to get a life.”

Tiberius, if you want to make a point, at least try a little logic. This is Kyle’s blog, and he invites comments to what he has written. He wrote, in essence, that nobody (“not even hard-core Keynesians”) claims there’s a multiplier effect for regulatory costs. I countered that with evidence that he was wrong. Whether I cited “a cherry-picked column by another opinion columnist” is immaterial for making that point. I did not argue that the cited study was non-partisan. And as for you point – that someone “who actually creates jobs,” a euphemism for people whose main interest is profit, would be less- partisan – I hope you are making it with tongue in cheek.

That Black guy

August 26th, 2011
4:06 pm

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
3:56 pm
That black guy, their idea of a serious thought over at The Children’s Table is typing their nonsense while frowning.

Allow me to clairify, I enjoy their NON-political, non-religious topics.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
4:06 pm

“Whose history did you read? Was it written by a northener, european, southerner, someone in the frontier, just whose history did you read?”

I do not limit myself to any one particular point of view, willie, but rather as many as I can find. I then research and make my own conclusions. Your point?

That Black guy

August 26th, 2011
4:08 pm

I guess no one who dresses left wants to answer my question.

U skeered?

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
4:13 pm

Yes, MarkV, it is Kyle’s blog. Thanks for noticing. :roll:

And no, my point about your source being partisan, while my point about assigning proper value to a study done by a college professor who doesn’t create jobs, is valid.

Businessmen create jobs, college professors do not. Therefore, I’ll believe a study on what will or will not create jobs from a businessman more valid than one from a college professor.

After all, we’ve seen what academics have done for job creation in the past 2 1/2 years, haven’t we?

williebkind

August 26th, 2011
4:13 pm

My point is that history is/has been rewritten to fit the agendas of certain special interest groups. For instance take the confederate battle flag, it is depicted a symbol of racism and is now in the history books as such because of politcal agendas that believe the end justifies the means–correct history? Also, Glenn Beck did a good presentation of the black man in the early colonies and they were not subjected to such scrutiny but lived life as freemen. The north promoted slavery and made millions but the south took the rap. How deep do you want to go?

Junior Samples

August 26th, 2011
4:14 pm

Tiberius,
I expected to to walk around the answer, and you were right on queue.
Not able to provide a single regulation that once removed will create jobs is what I anticipated from you.

All talk, no facts.

Regulations are the side effect from businesses behaving badly. I’ll provide an example.

Enron, WorldCom, and a few others are responsible for Sarbanes-Oxley. While it certainly does cost corporations money, it sparked a boom industry in relation to audit and compliance. Hundreds of accounting grads could find work auditing the books of others. Additionally, corporations hired many people specifically to keep them in compliance. In some cases entire departments were added.

So for starters, there’s one example of a single regulation creating jobs. You, on the other hand, have failed to produce one example.

Please feel free to provide even more rhetoric, hyberbole, or whatever talking points you find to support your position. I’m no longer expecting you to provide a single regulation that once removed, will create jobs. You simply don’t have the answer, so you’re off the hook.

Have a great weekend!

MrLiberty

August 26th, 2011
4:16 pm

Did anyone (besides Ron Paul) demand that BUSH come clean as to the cost to our liberties of the Patriot Act, the TSA, the DHS, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, or the oppressive police state he created “for our security?”

Republicans would probably get a lot less crap if they showed some principles for a change and held all presidents to the same standard (not that the democrats are any better – where is the anti-war left these days by the way?). That’s what has always been great about Ron Paul. He has never wavered in his principles or his conviction to speak his mind, regardless of which party is in power.

Ron Paul 2012.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
4:16 pm

That black guy, your 3:11 post was an excellent example of a DOJ gone rogue, as they have done far too often with Holder at the helm.

If you lined up John Mitchell, John Ashcroft and Eric Holder, I’d be hard-pressed to pick out the worst one of that bunch of AG’s.

Darwin

August 26th, 2011
4:18 pm

Maybe some of these are financial regulations that helped cause our current economic mess. Which of course the Repub oppose. Remember when Reagan eliminated many regulations on the Savings & Loan institutions in the 1980s? How did that turn out? Didn’t we taxpayers have to go in and bail them out? So ok, eliminate the regulations. You’ll still have to bail them out and add it to the US debt because they’re too big to fail. We’ve been down that road before. Apparently, we’re going to go down it again, and again, and again…

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
4:21 pm

All very good points, willie (although Beck tended to stretch the positives a bit much IMO).

My point back to the earlier poster who asserted that the GOP has done more for African Americans (he says due to freeing the slaves) than the Democrat party is that his assertion still doesn’t make any sense.

Not that I think pandering to the AA community with programs as we have today is doing much for them, either.

laurie

August 26th, 2011
4:24 pm

WEll said carlosgvv

MrLiberty

August 26th, 2011
4:24 pm

Junior Samples – Sarbanes Oxley is one of the greatest piece of business destroying legislation that was ever enacted. I would use labels like liberal to describe you, but statist is probably better, along with economically ignorant. The jerks who now must infest companies to keep them compliant do not add to the productivity of the business. They take away profits, higher employee salaries, investments, etc. Most of the problems with Enron, WorldCom and others were the direct result of government regulations and regulatory failures. The vast majority of businesses were not screwing anyone, but plenty of great businesses have literally been wiped out by these regulations. Plenty more never went public to avoid SOX, thus depriving them of capital to expand, etc. and plenty of others went back to being private, thus depriving investors of the benefits of their profits.

If you want an example of a regulation whose removal would create jobs, I will give you one. Currently the US taxes all foreign capital derived abroad if it is brought back into the US. Literally trillions of dollars sit offshore (where it has already been taxed once by the country of origin) that could be brought back into this country to create jobs and investment. As far as I know, only Ron Paul has mentioned ending this restrictive law that is keeping this money out of the US. Big surprise, he is the only candidate with any clue on economics.

Junior, go to http://www.mises.org and get a free education in Austrian economics. Virtually every book or piece of literature is available for free download. Do yourself a favor.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
4:27 pm

“Enron, WorldCom, and a few others are responsible for Sarbanes-Oxley. While it certainly does cost corporations money, it sparked a boom industry in relation to audit and compliance. Hundreds of accounting grads could find work auditing the books of others. Additionally, corporations hired many people specifically to keep them in compliance. In some cases entire departments were added.”

Junior Samples, I’m calling BS on the above post. While in RARE occasions someone may have created an extra job to comply, many existing firms simply took up the slack. And all the while those extra compliance jobs that WERE created kept a job that produced something from being created.

Nice try.

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
4:27 pm

BR549
After about 10 seconds of distracted thought I came up with one. How about the reg that makes Viagra, Cialis, etc a Rx drug. Put them over the counter and you significantly increase the amount of each sold creating jobs in manufacturing, marketing,shipping, stocking of these ED drugs plus increasing the amount of other products (condoms, FDS, flowers, wine, fancy underware, creams, lotions, massage oil and thousands of other products) sold and the jobs created by those sales. A definite multiplier effect so much that I think I have ended the recession by removing one stupid regulation. Just think what we could do if we removed 2 or 3. They hold back the economy.

Ayn Rant

August 26th, 2011
4:29 pm

Kyle, every cent the federal government “takes out” of the economy is distributed back into the economy, often to worthy causes. Except for some miniscule foreign aid projects, every cent the government collects and spends goes directly or indirectly into American jobs. The implication that government spending goes into some black hole, never to emerge, is plain wrong.

Dollar for dollar, government spending goes to government employees, employees on government-sponsored projects, and benefits for the elderly, the impaired, and the unemployed. When income received from the government is spent, even more jobs are created or sustained by consumer spending in the private sector.

Government spending creates good jobs faster than private enterprise. Government-sponsored jobs typically offer better pay, job security, and health care and retirements benefits. Some government-sponsored jobs are important to the nation; many are not.

Many jobs created by government spending are not self-sustaining because those jobs create no added value beyond the cost of the job. Jobs created by successful private enterprise are self-sustaining because those jobs create products and services that are worth more than cost of the jobs. So, private enterprise jobs are preferable to government sponsored jobs, but many needs of modern civilization cannot be addressed by private enterprise.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
4:31 pm

“So ok, eliminate the regulations. You’ll still have to bail them out and add it to the US debt because they’re too big to fail.”

Really, Darwin? Why?

Do you have kids? If they misbehave do you let them continue to do what they did to get into trouble? Of course not. A responsible parent wouldn’t.

So why do we keep bailing out the people who misbehave in the financial / manufacturing industries?

What lesson is being learned, Darwin?

Jefferson

August 26th, 2011
4:34 pm

Why the fear? What does this say about you?

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
4:36 pm

“Kyle, every cent the federal government “takes out” of the economy is distributed back into the economy”

Your entire post just failed, Ayn Rant.

If the government actually took only that which it needed, your point might be valid. Our government goes into deficit spending within 6 months of operations each and every year. So we’re borrowing that money, with no plan with which to pay it back.

That is a net loss strategy, Ayn.

MrLiberty

August 26th, 2011
4:39 pm

And for those who haven’t figured it out already, jobs that are created by either government mandate, government legislation, regulatory requirement, etc. are UNSUSTAINABLE. If they are not the result of market forces, they will not be sustained by the market. When a business hires someone freely to do a task it is because they believe the task they will be doing and the contributions they will be making will add to the bottom line. When they hire someone to comply with regulations they act in response to fear – plain and simple. They do not want to be penalized by the government so they pay protection money in the form of a jobs program that creates paper.

When one looks at jobs created by a government regulation one only sees the jobs. One does not see the jobs that cannot be created elsewhere because those salaries are now gone doing taks that do not add to profitability, the betterment of society, or anything else positive that business delivers. Further, if one is naive enough to actually believe that these regulations are about keeping people safe and secure the deception is complete.

Regulations like SOX and others are typically embraced by big corporations as their protection payoff to the govenrment. While this sounds counterintuitive, know that the Interstate Commerce Commision was proposed by the big railroads to destroy their smaller competitors. It worked like a charm. Complying with regulations is very expensive. It is not a big deal for the big corporations, but may kill a smaller competitor or hinder their ability to grow and better compete with the big guys. Much of the money given in campaign contributions comes from companies who promote regulations to keep their competitors hurting. Government sells the lies beautifully because that’s what they do.

Don’t be a sucker. Government is not here to protect you. It is here to protect their friends. Ending government regulations and empowering marketplace regulation by the consumer should be the goal of everyone wanting to rein in the horrendous behavior of big business.

BuyMadeinUSjobs

August 26th, 2011
4:42 pm

Tiber, Haven’t you heard it takes words to paint the picture:::now where has the wealth gone in the last 20 years;;///to the have’s not the have’-nots . They pay 15% on dividends and less than that on some of the paper they are shuffling. You pay 30% or so on you ordinary income plus payroll taxes of about 10%. property taxes, sales tax, excise tax, gas tax, state, city taxes etc. Man It is not easy to keep up with these $8.00 an hou service jobs. The Have’s stole our retirement savings, why shouldn’t they help pay for social security???

Don’t you think we have to be like Robin Hood and get the money where it is. THE NEW YORK FINANCIALWaLL StreeT, and corporations, who do not hire here. What about some transaction taxes on all that commodity speculation that runs our food and gas prices up, the hedge fund mangers, stock trades CDO trades, excessive CEO’s Bonuses. Don’t you think they need to help pay for social secuity????

Junior Samples

August 26th, 2011
4:47 pm

Mr Liberty…
Thanks you for agreeing that regulations are needed. You stated that SOX 404 was created because of “direct result of government regulations and regulatory failures”.

You are correct. At the time the regulations were not sufficient enough, and Enron (et al.) took advantage. What was legal then, isn’t now. Outside of the obvious (Enron, WorldCom, etc) which businesses closed their doors due to SOX 404? This regulation is only pointed at publicly traded companies. If it was no longer economically feasible due to regulations, they simply took themselves off the exchange. Customers still came in to buy stuff, employees made and sold them goods and services.

Actually, and yes this might be hyperbolic (Tiber), but SOX 404 could be a considered a litmus test for those who think they’re good enough to be on the exchange.

Ayn Rant

August 26th, 2011
4:47 pm

Tiberius …

Deficit spending creates jobs just as well as spending collected revenue. The federal deficit, which is 10% of our GDP provides a commensurate number of jobs and consumer spending. Hacking away at the deficit may be necessary, but it will surely kill jobs and reduce consumer demand.

Lil Bushie Bailout (Revised Upward)

August 26th, 2011
4:47 pm

Jed: All they have done is argue with President Obama about everything.
_________________________________________________________

Yes, it is unfortunate that the idiot Tea Party and Contards are so obstructionist, and insists on a “my way or the highway” approach to spending, taxes, and regulation.

Fixed that for you, buddy!

MrLiberty

August 26th, 2011
4:49 pm

Tiberius – Plenty of people advocate the complete elimination of government, so stop with the ignorant generalities.

http://eng.anarchopedia.org/Anarcho-capitalism

Government is just people, but it is also people with a monopoly on the use of force. If you eliminate government you do not have to eliminate rules, or protection of property, or rights, or life, or liberty. You just eliminate the force in society that has been shown time and time again to be the greatest threat to all of those. Free association among people has been going on quite successfully for millions of years, while in the 20th century alone, governments murdered over 200 million of their own citizens.

Murray Rothbard was probably the greatest advocate for the elimination of government in recent times. He authored dozens of books that have sold millions of copies and his arguments are sound and certainly not based on a belief in an out of control or rule-less society as one generally regards the term anarchy.

There is a lot to be said for the power of the individual over the power of government.

Junior Samples

August 26th, 2011
4:50 pm

Rafe,

Sorry your distraction led you to Viagra. I’ll leave that alone…

MarkV

August 26th, 2011
4:50 pm

Tiberius @ 4:13 pm: “Businessmen create jobs, college professors do not. Therefore, I’ll believe a study on what will or will not create jobs from a businessman more valid than one from a college professor.”

As any such generalization, this statement is — let’s be very generous — silly.

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
4:52 pm

Buymade
Have you never read the Constitution? Are you like Obama and just want to make the rules as we go. So we hunt down and take all that money the Wallstreets have and spend it, where do we go next?

There is no Robin Hood Amendment in the US Constitution. We have the tax laws our reps have given us, but even if they wanted to take all the rich had, it is unconstitutional.

How bout I make up a rule that the 48% of Americans that pay no federal income tax have to pay 10% of all their income regardless of the size of their family or their EITC, or anything else. Sounds fair to me.

MrLiberty

August 26th, 2011
4:54 pm

And Tiberius, it will take more time than you have to ever try and explain basic austrian economics to these folks. If they cannot get past the idea that taking from someone to give to someone else is wrong, they are lost. If they cannot see that government has nothing, makes nothing, and can only have something to spend if they take from someone else and that is morally wrong, they are lost.

If any of them wish to go to http://www.mises.org and read all of the free material from this very scholarly institution, they would come away with a great understanding of why government spending is the root of our problems and not the solution. But I am not sure they wish to understand exactly why our economy has failed and why the answers coming from government and clowns like Bernanke will not ever help the situation we are in.

MrLiberty

August 26th, 2011
4:54 pm

But you are certainly to be commended for your efforts in trying to educate them.

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
4:54 pm

Junior
OK by me, but do not continue to make that false claim that no one can name a deleterious regulation. There are thousands that hold back our economy and Obummer wants to add thousands more.

Lil Bushie Bailout (Revised Upward)

August 26th, 2011
4:55 pm

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
11:37 am
“The only question I have about this is: What took so long?”

TESTIFY!
_________________________________________________________

Obama doesn’t have to come clean. Follow Bushie’s famous words:

“I’m the commander — see, I don’t need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being president.” –as quoted in Bob Woodward’s Bush at War

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
4:57 pm

Ah, the wealth-envy card being played. Only took 4 pages.

We don’t need more money coming in, we need less money going out!

I am not deflecting any blame that irresponsible actions on Wall Street weren’t part of the problem, but Main Street and government enabled them to act that way. Individuals who wanted these people to “Grow my money. I don’t know how you do it and I don’t want to know, just grow it” without any homework being done. The stock market being used not for it’s intended purpose of long-term investment but for Vegas-style short-term gains. Government enabling people who should never buy a home, then backing their loans and selling them as investment opportunities once Glass-Steagal was removed.

It is EVERYONE’S fault that played that game, and NO ONE has a corner on the responsibility market.

I don’t want ANY taxes on capital gains. That money has already been taxed once when it was earned. Why should the government get a second bite at that apple? Because it can? Great excuse! And government has no business in deciding what a private company’s CEO earns. None.

Take your wealth envy elsewhere.

Lil Bushie Bailout (Revised Upward)

August 26th, 2011
5:01 pm

How bout I make up a rule that the 48% of Americans that pay no federal income tax have to pay 10% of all their income regardless of the size of their family or their EITC, or anything else. Sounds fair to me.

___________________________________________________________________

“You work three jobs? … Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that.” –Bushie to a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
5:02 pm

“Hacking away at the deficit may be necessary, but it will surely kill jobs and reduce consumer demand.”

Actually, it IS necessary, not may be. And yes, it will kill some jobs, but if we’ve gotten to the point where the amount of government jobs we eliminate is so significant that it threatens to put our economy into a tailspin, then we’ve lost sight of any original intent of the Founding Fathers.

Not all government is good or bad. We’ve just gone way too far in thinking that government is and should be the answer to all our troubles.

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
5:04 pm

Ann Rant
You are so wrong when you allege that all Gov spending is returned to the economy. Besides foreign aid that you mentioned, just consider these few things. Much of what Gov buys ends up in the landfills, we could have less landfills if not for government. Examples, FEMA Trailers, bottle of emergency water supplies, other emergeny supplies overstocked, asphalt torn up and replaced due to not meeting government standards, excess equipment, trillions of pages of used paper, etc.

We also have left trillions of dollars of defense assets overseas when we pull out of countries willy nilly. We spend billions on earthquake aid in Haiti and Japan, etc.

The government is the most inefficient purchaser and managers in the world. The people can spend their own money better and create more jobs if the government would leave their resources alone.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
5:09 pm

“Tiberius – Plenty of people advocate the complete elimination of government, so stop with the ignorant generalities.”

Mr. Liberty, I hope this was said with a smile, because even I won’t go so far as to advocate no government at all, and I’m one of the original individualists! :D

I believe in our Constitution as written, and that a limited government is needed to protect some people from those who would try to take someone’s life, liberty or property through the use of force or fraud.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
5:11 pm

“As any such generalization, this statement is — let’s be very generous — silly.”

Then by all means, MarkV, make the case that a professor in a university setting is responsible for, and knows how to create more jobs than just about every business person on the planet.

Please.

Go ahead.

Don’t let me stop you.

Junior Samples

August 26th, 2011
5:12 pm

No problem Rafe,

Pretty sure I was addressing Tiber, but whatever.
Gotta admit your example is lame. A prescription drug? There’s an industry that certainly needs help.

Fine. Allow Viagra and other “perfomance enhacing” drugs to be sold OTC and we’ll all sit back and watch the economy grow…

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
5:12 pm

Lil Bushie

Well three jobs huh, that was in good times my friend. I don’t think any of us would be lucky enough to find three jobs today. She is probably unemployed in this Obama economy.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
5:16 pm

Little Bushie Bailout, the Children’s Table is next door at Jay Bookman’s place.

Some of us are trying to have a semi-serious conversation here.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
5:17 pm

Gotta go out and get the canines some food.

They’re staring at me with some pretty determined looks (as in, I’m looking like a pork chop), so I’d better go.

Maybe later. Enjoyed it, folks.

Junior Samples

August 26th, 2011
5:19 pm

Mr Lib.
You say potato, I say potato
You say Austrian, I say Keynesian

Let’s call the whole thing off.

You’re new handle is Dyno, ’cause you like to label everything.

BuyMadeinUSjobs

August 26th, 2011
5:25 pm

Mr. Liberty,, The corporations foreign capital that was brought back in 2003/2005 was not used to create jobs here but to fire workers and hire more overseas and pay big CEO bonuses. Why shouldn’t they pay taxes to help pay for the Navy to keep the sea lanes open????? , They need to get all that foreign made stuff here to sell to us without tariffs, thats the capital/profit they want to bring back without us getting any tax, what about a pay-off to our workers?? Corporations pay what a $1.00 to make a pair of shoes in China and you pay $50.00 for the shoes and that gives them a $49.00 profit to call profit/capital They are probably getting a little worried about a world depression and banks going broke,, but why should we care if it is confiscated by another government unless there are guarantees; it will be used to create permanent jobs here..

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
5:27 pm

Junior

Actually make Viagra OTC punishes the drug companies. They pay big bucks to the politicians to keep them regulated so they can charge more and increase profits. You got to get gov out of picking winners and losers.

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
5:29 pm

Buymade

You need some serious economic training my friend. $49 profit?

That Black guy

August 26th, 2011
5:34 pm

BuyMadeinUSjobs
“The corporations foreign capital that was brought back in 2003/2005 was not used to create jobs here but to fire workers and hire more overseas and pay big CEO
bonuses.”

can you prove that with actual numbers? Maybe a linkeepoo?

they look like this: http://oversight.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1276&Itemid=29

MarkV

August 26th, 2011
5:34 pm

Tiberius @ 5:11 pm: “Then by all means, MarkV, make the case that a professor in a university setting is responsible for, and knows how to create more jobs than just about every business person on the planet.”

OK. Let’s start with your being dishonest. Let’s look at your original assertion:
Tiberius @ 4:13 pm: “Businessmen create jobs, college professors do not. Therefore, I’ll believe a study on what will or will not create jobs from a businessman more valid than one from a college professor.”

Where has that new part, “that a professor in a university setting IS RESPONSIBLE FOR,” come from? (My emphasis).

I will not make a generalization like you have done, but it is quite likely that many professors in a university setting know much more about job creation than “just about every business person on the planet.” The reason is that those professors study the particular field as a major part of their occupation, while an ordinary businessperson is concerned mainly with running his/her business rather than with the complexity of the overall jobs market. It would be like saying that a professor studying and researching the optimization of a car engine knows less about the function of those engines than a businessperson manufacturing one.

Yappy Little Tea Cup Poodle ~ AKA "Fuzzball"

August 26th, 2011
5:37 pm

“Little Bushie Bailout, the Children’s Table is next door at Jay Bookman’s place.”

Plenty of room there since you vacated the seat at the head of the table.

That Black guy

August 26th, 2011
5:42 pm

Tiberius, your little cyber stalker has followed you over. Better watch yourself, he may be boiling the water for the rabbit as we speak.

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
5:52 pm

“The reason is that those professors study the particular field as a major part of their occupation, while an ordinary businessperson is concerned mainly with running his/her business rather than with the complexity of the overall jobs market.”

Or maybe we can just summarize things and say that those who can, do; those who can’t. teach.

Again, how’d all that book-learning do with the administration these past 2 1/2 years?

Tiberius

August 26th, 2011
5:53 pm

That black guy, I’m a cyber-stalker magnet! :D

(they HATE it when they get their clocks cleaned by facts and logic)

MarkV

August 26th, 2011
6:01 pm

Tiberius @5:52 pm: “Or maybe we can just summarize things and say that those who can, do; those who can’t. teach.”

Translation: I cannot think of an argument.

“Again, how’d all that book-learning do with the administration these past 2 1/2 years?”

According to Tiberius, book-learning was not used before the past 2 ½ years by other administrations. And apparently book-learning is useless. Shall we go further to book-burning?

[...] asks Obama to disclose costly regulationsReutersWashington Post (blog) -USA Today (blog) -Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)all 23 news [...]

Michael H. Smith

August 26th, 2011
6:20 pm

Spot on, Rafe.

Ayn Rant

August 26th, 2011
6:21 pm

Rafe Hollister . . .

All the government waste you cite (paper, trash, discarded weapons) was created by people working at jobs. Eliminating that waste will eliminate those jobs.

However, we could eliminate the waste and create new jobs for useful products. How? By stimulating the economy enough to create sufficient consumer demand to attract investment of capital, or by federal borrowing and spending on less wasteful projects.

Our economy has an imbalance between jobs and capital: there’s too much capital and too little consumer demand to provide investment opportunities. We need ways to convert some of the excess capital into consumer spending power. The federal government can do that by borrowing capital to distribute to consumers, not a great idea, or by confiscating (taxing) excess income and capital gains from financial instruments such as hedge funds and derivatives, which are gambling ventures that do not create American jobs.

Hillbilly D

August 26th, 2011
6:42 pm

Regarding the EPA, it’s the only thing President Nixon got right. In 1969 the Cuyahoga river actually caught fire. But I’m sure that the companies resonsible for that would stop what they were doing on their accord, right?

How many remember back in the late 50’s, early 60’s when Atlanta dumped their sewage into the South River? It was covered in soap suds and you could smell the thing a good while before you ever got to it, going down Bouldercrest Road.

Not all regulations are bad.

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
6:43 pm

Ann
The better way to get that capital flowing is to eliminate taxes on the corporations holding it. Lower corporate tax rate to zero, increase depreciation allowances, do not tax inventory, eliminate capital gains tax. When they create all these new jobs the government can salivate over all their new found income, plus more corporations will move to the US and create even more jobs.
I think this is what they call a growing economy, what you advocate is a zero sum game, just get their money cause we need it and they are the ones with the money. Grow the economy and create more money!

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
6:50 pm

Micha
Glad you are aboard to stymie the liberal swarm. All 26% of those who approve of Obummers handling of the economy showed up here today.

Now that you are here to protect, serve, and defend truth, justice, and the American way, I think I will do my environmental duty and get me a piece of one of those methane producing animals.

MarkV

August 26th, 2011
6:50 pm

It is not just some isolated cases like Cuyahoga river or South River. Free market is the most viable economic system ever devised, but government regulations are absolutely necessary to curb the excesses. The government in a democratic society has not been instituted just for the benefit of the profit makers, but for the benefit of all people.

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
6:51 pm

Can’t type too hungry that should be directed to Michaell H Smith, great American.

Rafe Hollister

August 26th, 2011
6:52 pm

can’t punctuate either; out of here.

Michael H. Smith

August 26th, 2011
6:53 pm

“too little consumer demand”?

Nah, just too few consumers with money to relieve the pent-up demand.

Logical way to change this picture is (the private sector) to start making things in this country again that not only we will buy but that others around the world are willing to buy from us. This was covered by Professor Peter Morici in a OP ED he wrote for the AJC. Lowering the corporate tax rates to compete with other countries and reviewing&eliminating counter productive regulations in order to compete with other countries is a good staring point that shouldn’t require a great deal of government borrowing&spending to accomplish. The rest mostly deals with trade, trade arguments & currency pegs.

What we certainly don’t need at this late date with trillions of dollars in debt&millions of jobs lost, is another failed stimulus that touts GUB’MENT projects&programs – what part of “porkulus one” wasn’t a BIG GUB’MENT non-job producing failure already?

Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!

August 26th, 2011
7:01 pm

“Translation: I cannot think of an argument.”

MarkV, your inability to accept any prevous answers does not constitute a failure on my part.

And the book-LEARNing / BURNing hyperbole? Proof positive you you haven’t a clue about me, what I believe or virtually anything else.

Book learning is fine, as far as it goes. But too many of those people who lived in academia and didn’t ever practice their chosen profession in the real world have done nothing to cover themselves in glory as regards our economy these past few years. But if you believe so, again, make your case.

As you failed so miserably to do earlier.

Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!

August 26th, 2011
7:20 pm

Michael, I’m fine with regulatory reform, but I’m not buying into the corporate tax cut idea, unless it is part of flattening the overall tax rates in addition to eliminating subsidies and loopholes.

Tax rates can come down later once our deficit starts dropping significantly.

marko

August 26th, 2011
7:21 pm

Cut taxes, deregulate and everything will turn out great.. Remember Kyle, that was the song Ronnie was singing the night you proposed to your wife. Must give you a warm fussy glow all over.
It’s been years since Wall Street hit us up for 700 billion. A couple of years since BP pumped millions of gallons of oil into the gulf. Heck no coal miners have been crushed to death in ages. Months are ages when it comes to a Republican’s attention span.
I have no idea where you come up with the numbers you throw around. Most seem to be pulled kicking and screaming from places the sun doesn’t shine.
Just out of curiosity, have you ever considered how much money we could save by simply closing the prisons. We have millions of people locked up. It’s one area where America still holds a commanding lead over the rest of the world. I estimate that we could save 111.8 billion dollars [ just a silly number I read somewhere] by closing the prisons. To a man. those guys are sincerely sorry for what they did. They all promised that they would be good boys from now on. The police realized that they wouldn’t be needed anymore. They’ve all decided to be hedge fund managers. .I’m telling you happy days are here again.

Michael H. Smith

August 26th, 2011
7:36 pm

Tiberius – Your lightning rod of hate! – Do you buy into the idea that in Ireland the corporate tax rate is 12% while here in the U.S. it is 35%? Well that is exactly how things stand and it is worse compared to other countries that have even lower corporate tax rates.

Nah, if we don’t cut our corporate tax rates we might as well tell business just go somewhere else we don’t want you and your business here in the good old USA.

Buy it or not, for a 23% or better tax rate advantage business will say: We’ll gladly take our business anywhere but your good old USA and will happily remain there with 23% more profit in our pockets.

But for what it is worth apart form corporate taxes, though, not preclusive of them: I personally oppose taxing business period, support ending ALL not just the few subsidies&loopholes you’d probably like to end but END ALL subsidies&loopholes including the one you’d like to keep and I support a flat tax to replace the current progressive-regressive marxist-socialist tax system we have.

MarkV

August 26th, 2011
7:55 pm

Tiberius – Your lightning rod of hate! @7:01 pm : “As you failed so miserably to do earlier.”

Oh no! Another one with strong powers of self- deception.

“And the book-LEARNing / BURNing hyperbole? Proof positive you you haven’t a clue about me, what I believe or virtually anything else.”

I do not care to have a clue about you. I go strictly by what you write.

marxo

August 26th, 2011
7:57 pm

I use to wonder why Kyle allowed certain comments made on his blog. Then I read his reasoning, understood most of it, even accepted it. You have only become more correct by greater degree Kyle, as they do only make the rest of us appear all the more intelligent. Comrade Lenin’s point is well taken: “Useful Idiots”

[...] NewsThe Huddle: Boehner challenges ObamaPoliticoABC News (blog) -Washington Post (blog) -Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)all 28 news [...]

MrLiberty

August 26th, 2011
10:25 pm

Actually Tiberius, once you realize that when you give government even an inch, they will take a mile, the appeal of anarchocapitalism becomes clearly obvious. I was not joking at all. There are likely hundreds of thousands of individuals in this country who would relish the prospect of eliminating formal government structure in favor of the self-regulating free market. There is even a great bumper sticker that you might find appealing one day – “I was a Minarchist until I ran out of excuses.”

It is a big step to come to the conclusion that we need a government that is actually controlled by the constitution, etc. but at a certain point you must take that final step and realize that governments won’t let a piece of paper stand in their way and that the problem fundamentally lies with giving any group of people the power over you and some sort of legitimized monopoly on force over everyone. For surely that is all that government is. No jokes here. No reason to kid about something as evil as government.

But that doesn’t stop me from arguing the point that a constitutionally limited government – if we could at least achieve that – would be far superior to the runaway fascism and socialism we have today.

And Junior Samples, it really doesn’t make a sound argument to twist my words to meet your needs. If you actually bothered to investigate the role the federal reserve (a government agency, despite what they call themselves), federal regulatory policies, easy credit, 401(k) rules, government created inflation, and other money destroying and corruption enabling policies had in enabling and encouraging the Enron and Worldcom scams, you would see that it was certainly not the unencumbered free market that was responsible.

I did not come up with the label Austrian nor Keynesian. They are schools of economic thought. The Austrians correctly predicted the Great Depression and have fully explained the business cycle and the role of easy credit and money/interest rate manipulation plays in them, while the Keynesians have been oblivious and generally promote the policies that cause or worsen these events. I suggest that you go to http://www.mises.org and read some sound economic teachings. I think that it would open your eyes tremendously to the fallacies the government economists espouse. I am not sure what the tomayto/tomahto reference is to. The two schools of thought are as different as night and day and if you don’t know that you need to do some serious reading.

MrLiberty

August 26th, 2011
10:35 pm

Junior Samples – if you want a good example of Keynesian thought, Ayn Rant does a great job of leading one down the fallacy of Keynes’ illogic. The stimulus we have been trying for the past 3 years (well, technically since about 1913) has all been about supposedly interjecting government capital into the market to get it going. The unfortunate delusion is that capital is homogenous while it most certainly is not. Capital that comes from savings is real, and represents an asset that will be available for future spending once the product produced by investment is available, while the capital that comes from government spending is simply taken from the productive sector, created out of thin air, and has no bearing on the availability of future assets for spending on the product produced.

A bit too complicated to describe in a short blog – certainly given the wonderful texts that have been written on the subject. Again, go to http://www.mises.org and search for “austrian business cycle” and do some reading.

Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!

August 26th, 2011
11:32 pm

Sorry, Micheal, but it’s not our tax rate that is hemorrhaging jobs, it’s our labor rate.

We have a deficit problem right now in addition to our recession. Lowering tax rates are questionable by themselves as an economic stimulator. We have to get our deficit spending under control, and putting more stress on the budget by cutting revenues is not the way to go right now.

Get rid of all loopholes and subsidies, flatten the rates and make it revenue neutral. relax regulatory requirements that cost an arm and a leg for businesses to build new infrastructure.

Or if you want to, just pass the FairTax and be done with corporate taxes altogether.

But the fiscally responsible way to balance the budget while still lowering rates somewhat is to get rid of tax breaks. All of them. The government should never be picking winners and losers in the business world.

Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!

August 26th, 2011
11:37 pm

OK, then, Mr. Liberty. You are officially a very scary person. ;)

Look, I don’t like government at all, but even I realize that it is a necessary evil. And while I would love to see the day when there is no government, I am also a realist and know that it will never happen in the United States of America. Not in my lifetime, nor in 50 lifetimes.

Therefore, the realist in me does what I can to minimize the effect of government in my daily life, and in others.

And frankly, the problem with people on both extremes of this issue is that they are just setting themselves up for a lifetime of frustration and false hopes. I do not prefer to waste my life that way.

MrLiberty

August 27th, 2011
8:48 am

Tiberius – You will come around eventually. Sorry you feel that someone who respects the individual more than government is very scary. I find it a very scary thought that so many cannot fathom a stateless society. What hope do we have at reducing anything if we cannot get people to put more faith in the cooperative efforts of individuals than they put in the coercive force of government?

Lee

August 27th, 2011
12:25 pm

The Obama EPA has been engaging in a literal war against coal fired electricity generation. Ga Power has already announced retirements of four or five generating units because it wasn’t cost effective to put all the environmental controls on those units. Generating units, I might add, that would have run for another 30 years or so. The replacement units will cost hundreds of millions added to the rate base that you and I pay for each month.

You think this economy went into a tailspin when gasoline hit $4.50/gal, just wait until electricity doubles or triples. Meanwhile, China, Taiwan, Mexico and other nations are chugging along with no environmental controls.

No, I’m not advocating no environmental controls, but there is a cost/benefit analysis that must be conducted on these regulations. It’s time to put a little common sense in charge of the EPA.

Zack

August 28th, 2011
7:52 am

Dang, Kyle.

Keynes and Bastiat in the same AJC article? This place is getting a little too highbrow for me. If you’re not careful, you might actually force people to think a little.

[...] appears that letter Speaker John Boehner sent to the White House last week foreshadowed part of the House GOP’s [...]