Voices or Choices
https://voicesorchoices.com/

"This has hues of a banana republic"
https://voicesorchoices.com/viewtopic.php?f=107&t=11845		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  sooz06 [ 11/02/12 8:38 am ]
Post subject:  "This has hues of a banana republic"
Disgusting! ~ but I gotta admit that I love when the current crop of GOP/TPers are publicly outed as the creeps and cheats they are ~ if you're interested, you can find the report that sent the GOP/TPers into a tizzy at the "live link" I copied at the end of this op ~ there are other "live links" to more/corroborating info accessible via the end link ~ Sooz

'This has hues of a banana republic'
By Steve Benen - Thu Nov 1, 2012 2:32 PM EDT

In mid-September, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service published a detailed report, documenting the fact that reducing taxes on the wealthy does not, in fact, generate economic growth. Instead, the CRS found, the trickle-down model appears to be "associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top."

The report was no small development. After all, as David Leonhardt noted when it was published, the CRS analysis undermines a "defining economic policy" of modern Republican thought. Indeed, the entire Romney/Ryan economic plan is predicated on the assumption that supply-side theory works, and here was the CRS saying it doesn't.

As of today, the CRS report is no more.

Quote:
The Congressional Research Service has withdrawn an economic report that found no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth after Senate Republicans -- including the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell -- raised a litany of concerns with the paper's findings and wording.

The decision, made in late September against the advice of the agency's economic team leadership, drew almost no notice at the time.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has referenced the CRS report, told the Times, "This has hues of a banana republic. They didn't like a report, and instead of rebutting it, they had them take it down."

This is more important than may even be apparent at first blush.

For those unfamiliar with the Congressional Research Service, this is effectively Congress' own think tank. It's non-partisan, and it's generally counted on to provide lawmakers with the most reliable and accurate information available.

Critical to the work CRS researchers and scholars do is the understanding that their scholarship is free of partisan influence -- they provide accurate reports and leave it to policymakers to act as they see fit.

But in this case, the CRS presented Republicans with inconvenient truths. A spokesperson for Mitch McConnell said the officials at the research service "decided, on their own, to pull the study pending further review." While that may be true, the question then becomes how much pressure the CRS officials were under to make this decision "on their own."

And what is it that Republicans didn't like about the CRS analysis? McConnell aides offered a series of complaints, including the report's use of the phrase "Bush tax cuts."

Apparently, in Republicans' minds, to say "Bush tax cuts" is to use an inappropriate "tone."

But putting all of that aside, we simply cannot have a functioning federal system in which neutral, independent offices are ignored, pressured, and/or censored when Republicans don't like what they have to say. We've now seen this recently with the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Congressional Budget Office, and democratic norms dictate that GOP officials cut this out.

Really, just stop it. If objective truths bother you, don't blame the messenger, blame your bogus assumptions.

For what it's worth, the CRS pulled the report from its website, but Senate Democrats have liberated it, republishing the analysis on their own site.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/01/14859366-this-has-hues-of-a-banana-republic?lite
Author:  oskar576 [ 11/02/12 8:42 am ]
Post subject:  Re: "This has hues of a banana republic"
For those unfamiliar with the Congressional Research Service, this is effectively Congress' own think tank. It's non-partisan, and it's generally counted on to provide lawmakers with the most reliable and accurate information available.

BS
Author:  Sidartha [ 11/02/12 10:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: "This has hues of a banana republic"
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has referenced the CRS report, told the Times, "This has hues of a banana republic. They didn't like a report, and instead of rebutting it, they had them take it down."

Here in Canada - the Harper CONservative government is removing any reference to the Auditor General's report that declared the government has been lying to the public and parliament about the cost of the F35 program. The CONservatives believe that all they have to do is erase it and it no longer presents a problem. They have done the same to practically everything, from most of Canada's environment protection laws to labor laws and tax laws.

God help us all if the Tea Party makes any kind of gains. It'll be a freakin' nightmare.
Author:  Dee [ 11/02/12 11:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: "This has hues of a banana republic"
One of the major TP people here (Donald Trump) got slapped down the other day by someone who has always been a fan of Donald and he has always felt well of her. Since her message to him on air a few days ago, he's not been seen nor heard from in the news. Barbara Walters told him to stop embarrassing himself. www.washingtonpost.com
Author:  jabra2 [ 11/02/12 4:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: "This has hues of a banana republic"
Quote:
Instead, the CRS found, the trickle-down model appears to be "associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top."


Correct.
You socialist tree huggers don't understand that for trickle down to work, the rich need first to accumulate so much money that they lose oversight how much money they actually have.
Kinda like you over-stuff your pockets with a couple a grands. Some bills undoubtedly will fall out and there you have it - trickle down in action.
Author:  Sidartha [ 11/02/12 6:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: "This has hues of a banana republic"
The first example of "trickle down" was demonstrated in Ancient Rome.

They didn't have sewers back then and people would just dump their foul waste in a series of above-ground interconnected ditches. With the rains, the sewage would trickle down the hills into the valleys. Since the rich lived at the tops of the hills and the poor lived at the bottom, it's easy to determine who benefited from the trickle down theory of the day.
Author:  sooz06 [ 12/13/12 6:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: "This has hues of a banana republic"
I love when karma kicks ass ~ :b ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating info in the original ~ Sooz

CRS re-publishes unpublished truths
By Steve Benen - Thu Dec 13, 2012 2:54 PM EST

In mid-September, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service published a detailed report, documenting what many already knew: giving tax breaks to the rich helps concentrate wealth at the top, but it does not boost the economy. Republican lawmakers, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), had the report killed.

A fascinating controversy followed, culminating in the facts making a comeback today (thanks to Mike Yarvitz for the tip).

Quote:
On Thursday, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service republished an analysis that found no clear relationship between marginal high-end tax cuts and economic growth. [...]

The new version (PDF) stands by the larger conclusion: "This analysis finds no conclusive evidence, however, to substantiate a clear relationship between the 65-year reduction in the top statutory tax rates and economic growth. Analysis of such data conducted for this report suggests the reduction in the top tax rates has had little association with saving, investment, or productivity growth. It is reasonable to assume that a tax rate change limited to a small group of taxpayers at the top of the income distribution would have a negligible effect on economic growth."

Good for the CRS. It's safe to assume McConnell's office will throw another fit -- the notion that cutting taxes on the rich necessarily boosts economic growth is a bedrock tenant of contemporary conservative thought -- but free inquiry and intellectual integrity demand that accurate government reports see the light of day, regardless of political ideology.

To reiterate a point from earlier in the month, it's important to understand that the Congressional Research Service, generally recognized as Congress' own think tank, has a well-deserved reputation for non-partisanship. The CRS is counted on to provide lawmakers with the most reliable and accurate information available, and the notion that partisan lawmakers can pressure, censor, and possibly even intimidate independent researchers is simply unacceptable.

In other words, we just can't have public offices' scholarship being stifled because Republicans find reality politically inconvenient. Our system of government isn't supposed to work this way.

Republicans have adopted trickle-down, supply-side economics as the foundation for their entire worldview. The Congressional Research Service used reliable, objective information to report what most mainstream economists widely accepted -- if the goal is boosting economic growth, giving people who are already rich a tax break doesn't do anything except make the gap between rich and poor more dramatic.

But as is the case too often on the right, it's easier to bury reality than deal with it.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/12/13/15888329-crs-re-publishes-unpublished-truths?lite
Author:  oskar576 [ 12/13/12 6:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: "This has hues of a banana republic"
The Republicans need to have a meal at Fuk Yoo's Socialist Deli.
Page 1 of 1 All times are UTC - 6 hours
© Voices or Choices.
All rights reserved.