Where do we go from here? We're going down sugar


For your review I have included the names of US Senators who vote against the debt deal today.  Not surprisingly, the biggest names in the fiscal conservative Republican circles (Demint, Coburn, Lee, Paul) voted no as did some of the most liberal Democrats (Harkin, Sanders, Merkley), and the political CYA’s (Nelson, Hatch, Chambliss).  Just another case that the political spectrum is cylindrical not linear.
Ayotte, Chambliss, Coats, Coburn, DeMint, Gillibrand, Graham Grassley, Harkin, Hatch, Heller, Inhofe, Johnson (R-WI) Lautenberg, Lee, Merkley, Moran, Nelson (D-NE), Paul, Rubio, Sanders, Sessions, Shelby, Toomey, and Vitter.
President Obama has 15 months to regain the initiative if he plans on winning a second term.  Perhaps Obama should pull a page from Ali’s playbook and do a little rope-a-dope and draw in the opponent(s), those in the race and those sitting on the fence, yes, I mean you Governor Perry.  Please enter the race and start up the Bachmann-Perry race to the bottom to get the SoCon vote.
Don’t you love how politicians are so desperate for a tag line or motto for the latest pledge, program, or gimmick?  The latest House Republican gimmick: Cut, Cap, and Balance was simple enough for the caucus to remember: Cut spending, Cap spending as percentage of GDP, and get a Balanced budget Amendment.   Well, allow me to respond with my own, it came to me this morning: Shit, Shave, and Shower: politicians are full of SHIT, we need to SHAVE a few heads in D.C., and don’t piss on me and tell me it’s a rain SHOWER.  Lifetime incumbents need to go, blind faith ideologues need not apply, stick an apple in the mouth of the pork loving technocrats, and those that serve their PAC and special interest masters don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
Tax reform is the latest myth to be bandied about in Washington.  Why is it a myth?  Simply because reform includes flattening the marginal tax rates to something closer to 25% and eliminating many of the tax breaks, loopholes, and subsidies.  But what if you are General Electric and your effective tax rate is less than 5% because you can take advantage of recognizing revenue off shore, R&D tax credits, depreciation expense right downs, etc?  Same goes for Pharmaceutical giants Johnson and Johnson, Merck, and Pfizer as well as high tech companies such as HP and Apple.  They all lose under the tax reform game.  Retailers, domestic entities, low tech, and firms with limited capital investment will encourage a flatter tax because they can’t take advantage of the loopholes.  Let the special interest vs special interest cage match begin.

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