How Does GOP Fight Obama’s “Populist” Tax Hike Proposals? Attack Crony Capitalism
At Hot Air, Jazz Shaw asks: How does the GOP fight a populist, tax the rich proposal?
I think the answer to the question is easy, but the implementation is hard. The answer, as the headline implies, is to attack crony capitalism.
True free market conservatives should reject corporate welfare as surely as they reject standard welfare. And corporate welfare abounds.
The problem is, that’s how politicians get paid, and thereby get re-elected. But if they’re willing to actually act in the public good (ha!) that’s what they should do.
And they should point out all the instances where Obama has pushed crony capitalism and corporate welfare. His administration is packed to the gills with Wall Street fat cats, and he has certainly done nothing to put the brakes on special deals for favored businesses.
So point that out and put an end to it.
Or don’t. I figure they’ll go with “don’t.”
Agreed. Instead of just point-blank saying, “Raising any tax rates are off the table,” the GOP should be reframing the issue along two lines:
1) The federal government is too big, spends too much, and is so rife with incompetence that raising rates for the sake of creating new entitlements (like free community college) is counter-productive. The GOP should also spend more time discussing how raising taxes for supposedly popular programs only helps to empower and expand the bureaucratic class, so it’s really a matter of political chicanery by Democrats.
2) Our current tax system pits industry against individuals in a way that is unhealthy. I would support a revenue-neutral proposal that sought to raise some personal income and maybe even capital gains taxes provided that they were offset entirely by a lowering of the corporate tax rate to help American business be more competitive, including maybe a one-time credit for repatriating revenue to the U.S from overseas subsidiaries. But the GOP should at the same time be proposing and end to all of the crony capitalism and various tax carve-outs that industry lobbyists have managed to get written into the tax code and the regulatory statutes, and they should also demand a plan to reach a balanced budget before the Chelsea Clinton Mevinsky or Jenna Bush Hager administration is sworn in.
Does anyone else see the incredible irony that a President whose economic record is based solely upon a growing stock market now wants to strangle it for his successor?
JVW (60ca93) — 1/19/2015 @ 4:32 pmYou more or less point out the problem. Congress itself is almost totally populated by cronies. You are suggesting that they not merely bite the hand that feeds them but actually chew it completely off, strip off the meat, and throw the bones in the garbage.
Utopia is a great place I am told.
the perhaps too cynical kishnevi (3719b7) — 1/19/2015 @ 4:47 pmWhy, JVW, one would almost think Obama’s flying by the seat of his pants and has no clue!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 1/19/2015 @ 4:47 pmR.I.P. Dallas Taylor, drummer for Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young)
Icy (578c70) — 1/19/2015 @ 4:55 pmThe federal government is too big, spends too much, and is so rife with incompetence that raising rates for the sake of creating new entitlements (like free community college) is counter-productive. The GOP should also spend more time discussing how raising taxes for supposedly popular programs only helps to empower and expand the bureaucratic class, so it’s really a matter of political chicanery by Democrats.
The question is, how do you convince several generations that their freebies are breaking the bank, when the same bank keeps on bankrolling their freebies and is able to do that because of higher taxes? It’s not just the bureaucratic class that benefits. A segment of the population depends upon successful Democratic chicanery.
Dana (8e74ce) — 1/19/2015 @ 4:57 pmLess cynically, the politicians would respond to massive popular pressure.
kishnevi (a5d1b9) — 1/19/2015 @ 4:59 pmPerhaps the most pragmatic approach is to regear the Tea Party, and prepare to accept help from lefties. You will need it to get the job done. Even they understand what corporate welfare is, with the resultant corruption of the political process.
Dana, make that bipartisan multigenerational chicanery. (Social security and Medicare, I am looking at you.)
kishnevi (a5d1b9) — 1/19/2015 @ 5:03 pmSadly, kishnevi, you are correct. It’s hard to break old habits.
Dana (8e74ce) — 1/19/2015 @ 5:05 pmFight? What fight? How about a mud-wrestling contest between Romney and Bush by proxy.
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/01/19/sure-sounds-like-ted-cruz-is-running-for-president/
DNF (df0496) — 1/19/2015 @ 5:09 pmPatterico – I have never really seen a good definition of “crony capitalism” and I suspect it means different things to different people. A while back I had a heated debate with Hoagie that it exists at the local, state and national level. Absent blatant calculation errors, in many ways I see people appealing their local property tax assessments the same way as a Fortune 500 company lobbying for a special tax break to be inserted into a piece of legislation.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/19/2015 @ 5:12 pm6. “Let the dead bury their dead.”
DNF (df0496) — 1/19/2015 @ 5:12 pmDaley, possibly the way to tell the difference is to see if the decision makers regularly have dinner with the peoplr seeking a favorable decision from them. IOW, do they run in the same social set.
kishnevi (a5d1b9) — 1/19/2015 @ 5:25 pmPlus, property tax appeals have more of a formal structure open to public view, and usually conflict of interest rules.
Plus, tax appeals are decided one by one, individually. Lobbyists seem to try to operate out of public view, and often write legislation that superficially helps more than themselves even when it does not.
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as “bad luck.”
Walter Cronanty (f48cd5) — 1/19/2015 @ 5:44 pmRobert Heinlein.
“Lobbyists seem to try to operate out of public view, and often write legislation that superficially helps more than themselves even when it does not.”
kishnevi – I think it’s naive to think that using lobbyists and buying dinner are the only ways corporations influence legislation. Just as on the local level influential members of the community are known to village trustees or board members as being able to deliver votes if you don’t like the property tax example use zoning variances or something similar. The point is the principle is the same, using influence (or what many people claim is influence) to gain benefit from government.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/19/2015 @ 5:46 pm==Plus, property tax appeals have more of a formal structure open to public view, and usually conflict of interest rules. Plus, tax appeals are decided one by one, individually. ==
hahahaha kishnevi–
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-01-24/news/ct-met-michael-madigan-0124-20100122_1_madigan-getzendanner-tax-work-property-tax
elissa (a21bd1) — 1/19/2015 @ 5:49 pmElissa, that is Chicago…of course it is corrupt. But yiu have there is a politician using his political standung to make money for himself. The converse of crony capitalism, although of course just as corrupt.
kishnevi (3719b7) — 1/19/2015 @ 6:17 pmSeriously, that example can of course happen anywhere. And the more money involved, the greater the likelihood.
But if you stretch it too far, then all politics is crony capitalism. I was just suggesting a rule of thumb.
(The above also applies to Daley’s comment at 14)
==But if you stretch it too far, then all politics is crony capitalism.==
Yes. Now you have it. All politics is crony capitalism.
I think the following is a pretty good definition of crony capitalism:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/crony-capitalism.html#ixzz3PKC6S9Vy
elissa (a21bd1) — 1/19/2015 @ 6:30 pmcrony capitalism-team rinos chamber of commerce.
mg (31009b) — 1/19/2015 @ 6:36 pmElissa that is certainly a definition I could live with.
But a caution…the last great period of crony capitalism in our country, the “Gilded Age”, led to the triumph of of Progressivism.
kishnevi (a5d1b9) — 1/19/2015 @ 6:51 pmI find so much of Leftist claptrap so full of holes that it could not support itself with scaffolding. But on ths point, which they miss so often because they are chasing populist BS, both conservatives and liberals would find common ground. And this is a topic whose cleaning up would reap major benefits.
But, like immigration, you have the two sides both supporting bad policy for their own bad reasons. [sigh] Prez Jeb Bush, Madame Prez Hill, Speaker Boehner, who among you would challenge this..???
NeoCon_1 (324e03) — 1/19/2015 @ 6:51 pmExactly. Make him actually follow through on his threats – give him a budget, let him veto it. Tax increases my shiny patoot.
mojo (5c8ea5) — 1/19/2015 @ 6:55 pmI disagree.
The proposals are not there to help the middle class, and they will not do a damn thing to increase taxes on the rich. Their most significant effect will be to lessen opportunities for upward mobility, and the tax will fall heaviest on people of modest means who cash their sole capital item (a house, startup stock, a small business) after a long time and/or hard work.
Warren Buffet doesn’t need to sell stock to be rich. Dividends, interest, rents, royalties, etc — all taxed as ordinary income — are where he gets his funds. Cap gains he takes to balance cap losses or when he has offsetting gifts to his foundations.
This is an attack on middle-class winners to fund more government workers.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/19/2015 @ 7:17 pmAlso, how do you assign this cap gains tax to mutual funds since it is now indexed to income?
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/19/2015 @ 7:18 pmEven if it’s hard to arrive at a precise definition, there are specific examples of it that anyone who claims to oppose crony capitalism would be opposed to, and if they’re not opposed they can’t be taken seriously. It’s kind of like “I know it when I see it”.
Gerald A (d65c67) — 1/19/2015 @ 7:24 pmPredicting tomorrow’s income from today’s fortunes is becoming more precarious by the day.
The ECB this week announces the death of the Finance Industry beginning with pensions.
DNF (df0496) — 1/19/2015 @ 7:45 pmCrony capitalism is the neologism for graft. Tax breaks are mild. Kelo-type condemnations for private development are the classic at the municipal level. Government contracts are the run-of-the-mill at all levels. The defense industry is “it” 100%. At its purest, it’s things like mandating ethanol in car fuel or outlawing incandescent lightbulbs to make people buy the corkscrews.
nk (dbc370) — 1/19/2015 @ 7:50 pm26. It’s also the insurance companies jumping in bed with ObamaCare, writing regs and insuring that their risks are underwritten by the taxpayers. It’s the government picking winners and losers, like Solyndra and other “green” projects sucking in tax dollars and delivering little or nothing in return.
Walter Cronanty (f48cd5) — 1/19/2015 @ 8:07 pmAnd we still don’t know why lesbians are fat.
nk (dbc370) — 1/19/2015 @ 8:16 pmit hurts to find out
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 1/19/2015 @ 8:20 pmyou are insufficiently
down with the whole thing
27.
kishnevi (3719b7) — 1/19/2015 @ 8:34 pmOr Medicare Part D, which was structured in such a way as to benefit primarily the pharmaceutical companies.
What ought be the working definition of crony capitalism here?
I’m hostile to the concept, but find it hard to define with precision.
Beldar (fa637a) — 1/19/2015 @ 8:42 pmLet me add this:
A useful definition ought clearly exclude my sending $5 to my state representative’s re-election campaign, or to a PAC who contributes to his campaign, even though the issue that’s motivating me to send her the $5 is closely tied to my personal economic or business interests.
I think that still leaves a lot of territory for a useful definition. But I’ve yet to read or hear one — at least, not one that sings to me, or that any hypothetical well-intentioned American high school graduate and voter ought be able to summarize in a short paragraph.
Beldar (fa637a) — 1/19/2015 @ 8:46 pm(Through an editing omission I’ve conferred bi-genderality upon my state rep. Mea culpa, mea culpa maxima.)
Beldar (fa637a) — 1/19/2015 @ 8:47 pmA law that works to the pecuniary interest of a favored few.
nk (dbc370) — 1/19/2015 @ 8:54 pmI’m told the 4th edition of Strunk & White has changed the rule about the masculine gender being the default. The daughter is getting one in the next few days and I’ll see what the new rule is.
nk (dbc370) — 1/19/2015 @ 8:56 pm“I’m hostile to the concept, but find it hard to define with precision.”
Beldar – What I’m hostile to is the phrase getting thrown around so often without distinction. Everybody has the right to petition his/her/its government.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/19/2015 @ 9:11 pmDefining “crony capitalism” is tough, largely because it isn’t what has classically been defined as “capitalism”:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capitalism
Walter Cronanty (f48cd5) — 1/19/2015 @ 9:18 pmWith “crony capitalism” [as opposed to plain corruption] you have the “cronies” of elected or appointed officials who influence the policies of the government through their influence with the officials so as to benefit themselves. They can do this in many ways, but largely through “helpfully” utilizing their expertise to write laws/regulations which seemingly are meant to benefit public directly or indirectly, but which also, or only, benefit the cronies.
This isn’t “competition in a free market.” It’s cronies using their political influence to get the government to thwart “competition in a free market.”
Thus, it’s hard for me to define the phrase.
Everybody has the right to ask the President to nuke Chicago, Detroit and Venezuela, too. He should not do it unless it’s in the best interest of the entire country and not because radioactivity decontamination contractors bundled $100 million for his campaign.
nk (dbc370) — 1/19/2015 @ 9:19 pmWhen the cultural baseline is that government has the answers, all other arguments are moot. Obama will soon be the victim of a freely elected Congress. Nevermind, that was weeks ago.
Ag80 (eb6ffa) — 1/19/2015 @ 9:22 pmnk, nk, nk, I am begging you to watch this short comedy sketch from a show called Little Britain. It answers the fat lesbian question.
Gazzer (c44509) — 1/19/2015 @ 9:45 pmhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxotY8QK37Q
Well, it doesn’t, but it was funny. Is that really Rosie?
nk (dbc370) — 1/19/2015 @ 9:54 pmA couple of suggestions from Instapundit.
Hollywood tax breaks
Tax the income above bureaucrat salary that administration and Congressional staffers get when they go to work at firms they used to regulate. 50% sounds about right. On gross income. He calls it “revolving door taxes.”
Mike K (90dfdc) — 1/19/2015 @ 10:22 pmHow about we TAX the UNPRODUCTIVE SLIME. Government employees should make far less than those wou PRODUCE TAX REVENUE. Government workers produce NOTHING in revenue. DOUBLE THEIR TAXES, and elminate their benefits.
Gus (7cc192) — 1/19/2015 @ 10:37 pmnk, that’s why I like that clip. Rosie is an idiot but I have to give her credit for agreeing to appear.
Gazzer (c44509) — 1/19/2015 @ 10:47 pmHere’s the thing: “Crony capitalism” is a Tea Party wonk issue, and only TEAs will respond to the charge. The folks in the center will say “Hunh? What?” and at best think you are attacking capitalism.
It isn’t a good line of attack as it only appeals to people on YOUR side already. Romney tried it in 2012 and *crickets*.
Instead claim that capital gains taxes will impact the middle class:
* If they pick a great stock ($20000 in Amazon stock in 2002 would be $1 million today)
* If they want to sell their house they bought in 1982
* If their employer wants to expand his business by selling shares.
* If they are working for a start-up.
Ask how mutual funds will be taxed, since their capital gains are not easily allocated to individuals. Will some average tax be imposed on everyone? Most middle-class people have mutual funds.
Ask them how going after people who are creating jobs is a good idea. And if this “free JC for everyone” will do a damn thing except employ union teachers. Bet you $100 against a jelly donut that it won’t be good for trade schools.
But “crony capitalism” is a loser. McCain lost with it. Romney lost with it. What people care about is jobs. Argue that this is yet another Obama job-killer and you’ll get traction.
Make the Democrats argue that it won’t hurt the middle class instead of talk about how they are helping the middle class.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/19/2015 @ 11:13 pmdaleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/19/2015 @ 5:12 pm
Of course the problem is that the assessment is pretty subjective to begin with, AND it’s not at all based on ability to pay, especially with personal homes.
The amount of tax is very clear, but how much is owed is not, unless you use a Proposition 13 California-type system based on the price when it was bought.
It used to be that only certain law firms could get the property tax reduced very successfully, but more have learned how to do this, and fees (a percentage of the reduced propety tax) have declined, according to a newspaper article.
New York State Assembly Speaker was getting some money (only recently revealed) from a law firm owned by a childhood friend of his, presumably for referring people who wrote to him. That was not his major law firm connection – that was a law firm that specialized in torts.
Sammy Finkelman (e806a6) — 1/20/2015 @ 12:46 amYou are ooking at crony capitalism any time you start counting jobs individually and give that as a reason for supporting legislation, saying X number of jobs will be created or preserved, but it is not limited to that.
Sammy Finkelman (e806a6) — 1/20/2015 @ 12:50 amWalter Cronanty (f48cd5) — 1/19/2015 @ 5:44 pm
Robert Heinlein:
It’s not so easy to regress, especially a great deal. That requires a lot of things.
What happens is it stops improving.
I don’t know that Cuba is much poorer, overall, than it was in 1959.
Sammy Finkelman (e806a6) — 1/20/2015 @ 12:56 amSammy Finkelman : In 1959, Cuba was one of the top countries in the area financially and was a major sugar exporter. Recently, Cuba has become a sugar importer. The old joke “What happens if the Saraha Desert goes communist? Nothing for forty years, then they import sand!” was no joke!
Michael M. Keohane (4a46ad) — 1/20/2015 @ 3:53 am49-Michael M. Keohane-
mg (31009b) — 1/20/2015 @ 4:22 amlmao
34. You’re good. And an example:
Creating $2.5. Billion in assets on reserve for paper worth 20 cents on the dollar and paying 0.25% indefinitely such that TBTF banks, e.g. Wells Fargo, realize profits of hundreds of millions per annum.
DNF (4e152b) — 1/20/2015 @ 4:38 am45. Oh, and the Repugnants lost being for “crony capitalism”.
You are most welcome.
DNF (4e152b) — 1/20/2015 @ 4:42 amI think the tea-baggers should take the blame…
mg (31009b) — 1/20/2015 @ 5:05 amhttp://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2015/01/20/government-created-the-housing-bubble-and-financial-crisis–and-could-be-doing-so-again-n1945225
Attended afternoon showing of “American Sniper” yesterday. Well worth the time.
DNF (4e152b) — 1/20/2015 @ 5:09 amThe result of cronyism is easily documented:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-19/spot-trend-richest-1-are-about-own-over-half-global-wealth
DNF (4e152b) — 1/20/2015 @ 5:24 amAs to the cause here is a prime suspect:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass–Steagall_Legislation
DNF (4e152b) — 1/20/2015 @ 5:35 amHand-in-glove public financing of private fortunes wherein the donor class and political class subsist in orgiastic excess.
DNF (4e152b) — 1/20/2015 @ 5:42 am53. And the solution to corrupt plutocracy remains what it has always been.
DNF (4e152b) — 1/20/2015 @ 5:55 amKevin M @45 – Since many more middle class families own stocks and mutual funds than 20 years ago, your point has merit. I see the results of mutual funds broken down on 1099’s into ordinary and capital gain amounts if the fund holds a security long enough.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/20/2015 @ 8:50 amBut there it is buried on page 9 of the leaked document: “The President’s plan will roll back expanded tax cuts for 529 education savings plans that were enacted in 2001 for new contributions…” Note that this is right before they also announce the repeal of Coverdell Education Savings Accounts (Coverdell ESAs), another similar move against the same middle class savings targets.
… I have to ask … Did Malia have trouble getting accepted to the college she wanted and are Sasha’s grades even worse ?
This is to get those filthy middle class folks out of the elite schools.
Neo (d1c681) — 1/20/2015 @ 9:51 amLet them eat community college.
TFG is your enemy. Let’s give him everything he demands and perhaps the MFM will not call for our heads.
DNF (dddc46) — 1/20/2015 @ 10:16 am