Howard Kurtz of the Daily Beast echoes my sentiments on the cable TV coverage of Hurricane Irene last weekend.
Brian Domitrovic writes in Forbes that we should not be mired in economic malaise today; rather, we should be enjoying a fourth decade of prosperity on the heels of the roaring 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. He points to what caused the decade of decline.
Time magazine says former Vice President Dick Cheney is rewriting a little history in his just-released memoir.
Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, knows a thing or two about making money. And he has a message for the 12 members of Congress who will soon take on the crucial job of rearranging our country’s finances: Stop coddling the super-rich.
Writes Buffett in an op-ed piece for the New York Times:
While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. … These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.
Buffett said he paid just shy of $7 million in federal taxes last year, which he admits was only 17.4 percent of his taxable income – well below the rate of most Americans.
Buffett notes that the IRS has compiled data from the returns of the 400 Americans reporting the largest income since 1992. In 1992, the top 400 had aggregate taxable income of $16.9 billion and paid federal taxes of 29.2 percent on that sum. In 2008, the aggregate income of the highest 400 had soared to $90.9 billion — a staggering $227.4 million on average — but the rate paid had fallen to 21.5 percent.
Buffett also debunks the popular theory (in some political circles, at least) that higher taxes will mean fewer investments and, therefore, fewer jobs.
I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.
The Labor Department reported this morning that employers added 117,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent. The mild improvement may ease investors’ concerns after the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted fell nearly 513 points Thursday, its biggest decline since December 2008.
Bloomberg reports that more than $4.4 trillion has been wiped out from equity market values worldwide since July 26, and all of 2011 stock gains have been erased. The bleak news prompted many analysts to warn that there’s a 50-50 chance the United States will slip into another recession this year.
Nate Silver points out that America has hit a wall. Its long-term growth trend faltered at the end of the last century and has flatlined and then collapsed in this one. It is not as bad as the Great Depression, but it is the next worst thing.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman suggests that to turn this disaster around, a lot of people are going to have to admit, to themselves at least, that they’ve been wrong and need to change their priorities, right away.
The point is that it’s now time — long past time — to get serious about the real crisis the economy faces. The Fed needs to stop making excuses, while the president needs to come up with real job-creation proposals. And if Republicans block those proposals, he needs to make a Harry Truman-style campaign against the do-nothing G.O.P.
Now that Congress has signed off on the debt deal, Daniel Stone looks at the political fallout—from President Barack Obama’s reelection prospects to the Tea Party’s power in the U.S. House.
Profiles in sleaze and courage: The Los Angeles Times opines on the differences between Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, who staged a triumphant return this week, and Oregon Democrat David Wu, who slunk away for home after yet another sex scandal.
The Senate is expected to approve emergency bipartisan legislation later today to allow the government to borrow more. Speechwriter and author Michael Cohen, writing for Politico, laments that the months-long debate for raising the debt ceiling — once a formality — provides a glimpse of the death of effective politics.
What we have seen over the past few weeks is the continuing erosion of the notion that political compromise, the linchpin of our democratic system, is the key to effective legislating and policymaking. Hostage-taking has replaced deal making in Washington with potentially devastating consequences for the political system.
Click here for the entire analysis.
David Brooks of the New York Times writes that the Fannie Mae scandal is the most important political scandal since Watergate. It helped sink the American economy. It has cost taxpayers about $153 billion, so far. It indicts patterns of behavior that are considered normal and respectable in Washington.
Newsweek and the Daily Beast report that the financial disclosure report Rep. Paul Ryan filed with Congress last month and made public this week shows he and his wife, Janna, own stakes in four family companies that lease land in Texas and Oklahoma to the very energy companies that benefit from the tax subsidies in Ryan’s budget plan.
Buzz Bissinger writes that LeBron James does not deserve to be the most hated athlete in America.
Democrats and Republicans are hailing last week’s agreement on $38.5 billion in budget cuts for the rest of the current federal fiscal year as the largest reduction in U.S. history. As this fact checker points out, that’s not really true.
Politico columnist Roger Simon wonders why the U.S. has stumbled into a third war, which is costing millions a day on top of the ongoing price tag in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps President Barack Obama is trying the hit the trifecta, Simon muses, although the author does ask some serious questions.
Who are the rebels? Who is arming them? What is their agenda? What kind of government — democratic, religious fundamentalist, terrorist — will replace Muammar Qadhafi? We do not know. Those parts of Operation Odyssey Dawn — the first military operation named after a stripper, as David Letterman dryly put it — are not specified.
Click here for the full column.
Meanwhile, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill has handed Republicans an issue for her 2012 re-election bid by announcing her family failed to pay taxes on a private airplane parked at a suburban St. Louis airport. Not sure which is more disturbing — that McCaskill “forgot” about paying taxes or that she could immediately cut a $287,000 check to cover the oversight.
Howard Kurtz, writing for Newsweek, says conservative attacks aren’t killing National Public Radio. Rather, it’s the network’s lack of strategy that is doing it in. Click here for the story.
AT&T’s surprise $39-billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA Inc. could lead to more consolidation in the U.S wireless industry, leaving the market with just two dominant providers — and the prospect of higher rates and fewer choices for consumers. Click here for the story.
It seems being loose with the truth is becoming contagious. In its never-ending quest to separate fact from fiction, Politifact offers these nuggets:
• Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, now a commentator on Fox News and a potential Republican presidential candidate for 2012, said earlier this week while hawking his new book that President Barack Obama grew up in Kenya. Check the facts here.
• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, locked in a budget battle with unions and Democratic senators, said the state is broke. Check the facts here.
• Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, no stranger to wild and unsubstantiated comments, said Michelle Obama has 43 people on her staff, compared to just three for Nancy Reagan. Check the facts here.
