Friday, October 29, 2010

Voters may be dumb, but they are smarter than Taegan Goddard

On his Political Wire, Goddard says:

A Bloomberg National Poll finds that by a two-to-one margin, likely voters in the midterm elections think taxes have gone up, the economy has shrunk, and the billions lent to banks as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program won't be recovered.

The facts: The Obama administration cut taxes for middle-class Americans, has overseen an economy that has grown for the past four quarters and expects to make a profit on the hundreds of billions of dollars spent to rescue Wall Street banks.


Umm, Taegs old pal, the economy HAS shrunk! real GDP peaked in the 4th quarter of 2007 and we have not yet reached that level. Now the economy is not still shrinking, but that's a different story.

While I'm at it, taxes HAVE gone up. Our deficit has exploded and (repeat after me cheese lovers) DEFICITS ARE FUTURE TAXES!

Finally, while banks are paying back TARP money with interest, taxpayers are losing billions on the TARP funds that were used to bail out GM.

I would score this one for the voters!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

real GDP peaked in the 4th quarter of 2007 and we have not yet reached that level. Now the economy is not still shrinking, but that's a different story.

I didn't realize Obama was sworn in on Halloween of 2007.

While I'm at it, taxes HAVE gone up. Our deficit has exploded and (repeat after me cheese lovers) DEFICITS ARE FUTURE TAXES!

In that case, taxes have been "going up" for at least 30 years, with a strong upward trend since 2000. But we all know that's not the level of analysis for the vast majority of voters. The objective fact is that federal income rates taxes have been lowered during the last 2 years.

Finally, while banks are paying back TARP money with interest, taxpayers are losing billions on the TARP funds that were used to bail out GM.

Since when is GM a wall street bank?

That's some pretty weak sauce, Angus.

John Thacker said...

The objective fact is that federal income rates taxes have been lowered during the last 2 years.

If you're going to get all technical, surely you mean that there were new phased-out tax credits, both refundable and not, not that "federal income rates" were lowered? Making Work Pay, Homebuyer Credit, EITC, home improvement energy efficient, new vehicle credit, transportation subsidy, etc. All here.

None of them are "rate cuts," even Making Work Pay which comes closest (but phases out and is refundable, etc.)

John Thacker said...

In that case, taxes have been "going up" for at least 30 years, with a strong upward trend since 2000.

You may have noticed that neither Angus nor Mungowitz was a big fan of the spending policies of the Bush Administration. Unfortunately, voters chose the candidate of Same, the candidate most likely to continue GWB's spending policies.

I certainly didn't want W's third term, but that's what we got, only more so.

Matt Gilliland said...

"I certainly didn't want W's third term, but that's what we got, only more so."

Hear, hear. / +1