Smartest Man in the Room

Bruce: Further evidence that Barack Obama IS the smartest man in the room.


IF YOU READ ONLY ONE THING - Charles Krauthammer, "Swindle of the year: How

Obama snookered the GOP into a second stimulus": "Barack Obama won the great

tax-cut showdown of 2010 - and House Democrats don't have a clue that he

did. In the deal struck this week, the president negotiated the biggest

stimulus in American history, larger than his $814 billion 2009 stimulus

package. It will pump a trillion borrowed Chinese dollars into the U.S.

economy over the next two years - which just happen to be the two years of

the run-up to the next presidential election. This is a defeat? If Obama had

asked for a second stimulus directly, he would have been laughed out of

town. ... And yet, despite a very weak post-election hand, Obama got the

Republicans to offer to increase spending and cut taxes by $990 billion over

two years. ...--"While getting Republicans to boost his own reelection

chances, he gets them to make a mockery of their newfound, second-chance,

post-Bush, Tea-Party, this-time-we're-serious persona of debt-averse fiscal

responsibility. And he gets all this in return for ... a mere two-year

postponement of a mere 4.6-point increase in marginal tax rates for upper

incomes. ... Obama's public exasperation with ... infantile leftism is ...

politically adept. It is his way back to at least the appearance of centrist

moderation. The only way he will get a second look from the independents who

elected him in 2008 - and abandoned the Democrats in 2010 - is by changing

the prevailing (and correct) perception that he is a man of the left. ...

The remaining question is whether [Democrats] are just stupid enough to not

understand - and therefore vote down - the swindle of the year just pulled

off by their own president."

Richard O. Schwab

830 Congress Ave.

Glendale, Ohio 45246

H.513-771-4397

M.513-470-4599



Richard O. Schwab

830 Congress Ave.

Glendale, Ohio 45246

H.513-771-4397

M.513-470-4599

Ice And Fire Update - NYTimes.com

Ice And Fire Update - NYTimes.com: "2.MWaHa
Moultrie, Ga
December 7th, 2010
4:02 pm'yet the reality is that heterodoxy has worked much better in practice.'

No it hasn't! Because . . . well . . . my preconceived notions of what must be correct say so! You liberals and your reality, how dare you contradict what I've been brainwashed to believe with facts. You must hate America."

A Big Idea - Timothy Egan - NYTimes.com

A Big Idea - Timothy Egan - NYTimes.com: "Obama’s achievements — saving the auto industry, fixing much of the runaway financial sector, passing a health care law that, once fully understood, will be seen as historic — are not insignificant. They are monumental, even."

Richard Back From Northern Michigan

I returned home from Northern Michigan to discover my "Chatroom" response to the Nov. 17 Glendale "wastewater treatment plant" question appeared in this past Wednesday's paper.


I wonder if I'll kick up another dust storm of reactions in next week's paper?



In addition, Mary Lewis sent me the following link regarding the "upper income tax cuts."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1210/Progressives_pressure_Obama_on_upperincome_tax_cuts.html





http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1210/Progressives_pressure_Obama_on_upperincome_tax_cuts.html Watch short ad on here - Interesting!

Richard O. Schwab

830 Congress Ave.

Glendale, Ohio 45246

H.513-771-4397

M.513-470-4599

More Brooks on Tax Reform -- It's Good, So Read it!

A Tax Reform Vision - NYTimes.com: "If Obama moved vigorously on this sort of tax reform, starting at the State of the Union, he would vindicate my description of him, which would be nice. He would also change the tone in Washington. The health care reform debate was polarized, but the tax reform debate is not. Almost everybody agrees on the basic outlines. The current system is so rotten everybody could get something they want out of reforming it."

A Tax Reform Vision - NYTimes.com

A Tax Reform Vision - NYTimes.com: "I have a vision.

Sometime over the next couple of weeks, President Obama issues a statement that reads: “Over the past several months, Republicans and Democrats have been fighting over what to do with the Bush tax cuts. I have my own views, but it’s not worth having a big fight over a tax code we all hate. Therefore, I’m suspending this debate. We will extend the Bush rates for everybody for one year, along with unemployment benefits. But during that year we will enact a comprehensive tax reform plan."

Krugman: Dems -- Must Strike Out on Own Without the Wimp in the White House

Freezing Out Hope - NYTimes.com: "So what are Democrats to do? The answer, increasingly, seems to be that they’ll have to strike out on their own. In particular, Democrats in Congress still have the ability to put their opponents on the spot — as they did on Thursday when they forced a vote on extending middle-class tax cuts, putting Republicans in the awkward position of voting against the middle class to safeguard tax cuts for the rich.
It would be much easier, of course, for Democrats to draw a line if Mr. Obama would do his part. But all indications are that the party will have to look elsewhere for the leadership it needs."

Krugman: Obama, You're a Wimp

Freezing Out Hope - NYTimes.com: "Mr. Obama’s pay ploy might, just might, have been justified if he had used the announcement of a freeze as an occasion to take a strong stand against Republican demands — to declare that at a time when deficits are an important issue, tax breaks for the wealthiest aren’t acceptable.
But he didn’t. Instead, he apparently intended the pay freeze announcement as a peace gesture to Republicans the day before a bipartisan summit. At that meeting, Mr. Obama, who has faced two years of complete scorched-earth opposition, declared that he had failed to reach out sufficiently to his implacable enemies. He did not, as far as anyone knows, wear a sign on his back saying “Kick me,” although he might as well have."

Freezing Out Hope - NYTimes.com

Freezing Out Hope - NYTimes.com: "So freezing federal pay is cynical deficit-reduction theater. It’s a (literally) cheap trick that only sounds impressive to people who don’t know anything about budget realities. The actual savings, about $5 billion over two years, are chump change given the scale of the deficit."