Press Batters Gibbs Over Blaming GOP For No Tax Cuts

RCP video. This administration and Dem Congress are so incredibly irresponsible.

They leave town without even passing a budget, their prime responsibility, and won't even introduce a bill to avert the largest tax increase in American history.

In a rathole of a recession.

They've come home to campaign--that they're fighting for you. After ducking townhall meetings this summer recess.

We're All Tea Partiers Now

More.

e21 Reaction: Congress Delays Spending Decisions. Again.

In what has become a routine move over the last decade, Congress once again failed to complete the year’s appropriations bills by the September 30 deadline, and instead had to enact yet another continuing resolution (CR) in order to prevent a government shut down. As the summer dragged on – and amid increasing public ire over government spending – few reasonably expected Congress to complete work on the spending bills before the election. However, instead of enacting a brief extension in spending in order to continue diligently working to pass the bills as quickly as possible, the latest CR funds the government until December 3, giving law makers a pass on increasing spending until after the November 2 election, and time to go home and campaign.

e21 Reaction: Goolsbee and "Objective Economists"

The turnover at the White House economic team is already in progression. The chair of the CEA has passed from Christina Romer to Austan Goolsbee. So it was no surprise to see him outline the Administration’s plan on tax cuts (extend them for all but the top tax brackets) using an innovative white board strategy. At one point in his presentation, Goolsbee says “If you ask objective economists and analysts around the country about what is effective, you will find that every one agrees that these giant tax cuts, for very high income people, are the least effective thing that we can do to get the economy growing.” While a reasonable case for the Democrat plan on tax cuts can definitely be made, to argue that no objective economist or analyst in the country supports extending all tax cuts paints a grossly misleading picture.

Echoes of the Great Depression Phil Gramm, WSJ (chart added above) Most striking about these comparisons is their similarity to the U.S. experience in the Great Depression.