The rich are getting richer much, much faster.

[giblets]

George Bush did implement initiatives to add to the armed forces:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grow_the_Army

[OzzyKP]

Yea, I wasn't sure if the growth in 09-10 was Obama's doing or the implementation of policy passed under Bush.

[DaShi]

Would that be bad?

Yes.

[Tupac Shakur]

Yes.

No.

[Kuciwalker]

1) You only pay the capital tax when you actually sell

Yes, that's one of the reasons that the measurement of capital income is incoherent.

[Fake Boris]

So you approve of a tax on wealth?

[Dinner]

I read your nonsense, why don't you read mine?

OK, in the interests of fairness and being fully informed I have now read the opinion piece. It wasn't very good. It essentially was a long whine about how the Department of Commerce co-signed loans so small businesses could get lower interest rates to expand and then pointed out that some of those businesses later went bust. Well, yeah, duh. They seem to have cherry picked solar power companies as examples and the main reason, the over riding reason, American built solar panel manufacturers didn't do as well as expected even though sales of solar panels are increasing at double digits every year is because the Chinese government decided to give it's manufacturer's truly massive subsidies. In a just world we would have simply tariffed Chinese solar panels out of the market until they stopped the massive subsidies but as this is an unjust world we just filed a dumping suit against them and years later after we won it (and after most domestic manufacturers of solar panels went bust) slapped them with a 3% punative tariff. 3% is much smaller than the 33% subsidy the WTO found China was giving it's makers so, of course, American manufacturers still can't compete.

Over all, I like the idea of the DoC helping US companies and I wish they'd do more especially by reacting faster to foreign subsidies by protecting the domestic market (and US manufacturers) from such unfair dumping. As it is the government did too little too late. All of that is an aside from the Republican whining that some small single digit percentage of the companies which got discounted loans went bust; they're just cherry picking because the vast, vast majority of the loans were good. What's worse is even the GOP voted for those backed loans to businesses but now they're trying to pretend they were against them before they were for them. It's just a load of nonsense.

[Kuciwalker]

So you approve of a tax on wealth?

No. A tax on wealth would be horrible. What gives you the idea that I'd support it?

If you support a tax on wealth you're saying that you'd prefer someone with high income to spend it immediately on consumption goods - i.e. to commandeer real resources for purely private use, resources that could instead have been provided to the poor - rather than store that wealth in the form of capital goods that are rented out to the poor so that they may be more productive, earn higher incomes and consume more goods and services.

[Straybow]

Double digit sales growth means nothing if the market is too small to allow supply to expand at that rate. Obama tried subsidizing it, preferentially to his supporters, and the businesses generally fared poorly while the fat cat investors got a return on their investment.

[The Mad Monk]

Romney has some pretty off the wall defenders.

Bill Clinton sticks another fork in Obama’s Bain strategy, says Romney had ‘sterling’ business career
Posted by Aaron Blake at 10:13 AM ET, 06/01/2012 TheWashingtonPost

The shelf life of President Obama’s Bain Capital strategy appears to be rapidly shrinking.

Less than two weeks after Newark Mayor Cory Booker caused the Obama campaign plenty of heartburn by calling on it to “stop attacking private equity,” the biggest name in Democratic politics (outside of Obama) has lodged his own torpedo.

Bill Clinton, in an appearance on CNN last night, said that Mitt Romney has a “sterling business career” and that the campaign shouldn’t be about what kind of work Romney did.

“I don’t think we ought to get into the position where we say this is bad work; this is good work,” Clinton said, adding: “There’s no question that, in terms of getting up, going to the office, and basically performing the essential functions of the office, a man who’s been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold.”

Clinton urged the Obama campaign to instead focus on contrasting its vision for the country with Romney’s. His comments came at the tail end of a day in which another Obama surrogate, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D), called Bain a “a perfectly fine company.”

Obama’s campaign has shifted its message from attacking Bain’s handling of certain companies to talking broadly about how being in the private equity business doesn’t prepare one to be president. But Clinton’s comments appear to undermine both arguments.

He’s saying both that Romney’s business career is an asset, and that when it’s combined with his term as governor, there’s little doubt that he’s qualified to be president.

In the end, the result of the Obama campaign’s focus on Bain has been little-to-no traction in the polls and what has become a highlight reel of Democratic heavies praising both Bain and Romney’s business career.

One has to wonder how much longer it will continue.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/bill-clinton-sticks-another-fork-in-obamas-bain-strategy-says-romney-had-sterling-business-career/2012/06/01/gJQAt87r6U_blog.html

Deval Patrick aims for Mitt Romney, hits Obama
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Patrick replaced Romney as governor of Massachusetts in 2007. | AP Photos

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By TIM MAK | 5/31/12 7:47 AM EDT Updated: 6/1/12 8:12 AM EDT
Deval Patrick isn’t much of an attack dog.

And that can’t be making the Obama campaign too happy.

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Patrick: Bain isn’t the issueThursday is the day when the president’s camp is hitting rival Mitt Romney with a full-on assault on his record as Massachusetts governor, complete with a State House press conference starring top Obama political advisor David Axelrod.

So who better to get the party started than Patrick, the current Massachusetts governor, immediate successor to Romney, and someone who is very close to Obama and some of his top campaign aides.

But he could have been a character witness for the defense.

Hitting the Thursday morning TV news shows, Patrick barely managed a few yips at Romney - and was more at home cuddling up to Bain Capital and the Republican nominee.

Patrick’s performance shows the always-dicey role that surrogates play in a campaign. If they’re on message, they can be a potent way to add another credible voice to pound home the campaign’s message. If they’re off-key, as Patrick was Thursday, it gives the opponent a way to point out that even the candidate’s own friends don’t buy into the attack and seriously blunts its effectiveness.

Democratic rising-star and Newark Mayor Cory Booker is a recent example of a surrogate appearance gone wrong - he criticized the Obama campaign’s targeting of Bain as “nauseating” and said it was a “distraction from the real issues.”

In fact, the RNC was quick to highlight the similarities between Booker and Patrick, as RNC Deputy Communications Director Timothy Miller on Thursday morning tweeted after Patrick’s TV appearances, “Hostage tape imminent” - a reference to Booker’s walk-back of his Bain Capital comments through a YouTube video.

Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday, Patrick called Bain “a perfectly fine company.”

“They have a role in the private economy, and I’ve got a lot of friends there … on both sides of the aisle,” Patrick added. “I think the Bain strategy has been distorted in some of the public discussions.”

“I think the issue isn’t about Bain. I think it’s about whether he’s accomplished in either his public or private life the kinds of things he wants to accomplish for the United States,” the Massachusetts governor said.

“It’s never been about Bain,” Patrick emphasized during another Thursday appearance, on CNN’s “Starting Point.”

Afterward, the Romney campaign couldn’t resist a dig.

“It’s clear the Obama campaign has no message and no vision when their surrogates continue to repudiate the Obama campaign’s attacks on free enterprise,” said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul. “We appreciate all of the Obama surrogates who have praised Mitt Romney’s record.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76905.html

Newark Mayor Cory Booker slams Obama campaign attack on Romney’s work for Bain Capital
By Greg Miller, The Washington Post Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, a close ally of President Obama in the upcoming election, slammed the president’s campaign Sunday for ads attacking Mitt Romney’s work for the private-equity firm Bain Capital.

Booker, who noted that many of his constituents are investors in or employees of New York-based financial firms, said it was wrong for the Obama campaign to portray the expected Republican nominee as someone who pursued profits by slashing jobs while serving as Bain’s chief executive.

“If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, they’ve done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses,” Booker said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And this, to me, I’m very uncomfortable with.”

The mayor later released a YouTube video in which he tried to clarify his comments and emphasize his support for the president.

Booker’s remarks earlier Sunday were aimed at a television advertisement introduced by the Obama campaign last week that sharply criticized Romney’s record at Bain — a line of attack seen as central in an election whose outcome is expected to be shaped by voters’ economic concerns.

The advertisement intersperses somber interviews with former steelworkers at a plant once owned by Bain and upbeat footage of Romney on the campaign trail. One of the workers calls Romney a “job destroyer.”

Booker’s criticism of the advertisement could help Romney’s campaign as it seeks to fend off attacks related to his record at a firm that held investments in a variety of industries.

“I have to just say, from a very personal level, I’m not about to sit here and indict private equity,” Booker said. “I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people are investing in companies like Bain Capital.”

But Booker also took aim at reports that Romney supporters had planned to make advertisements reviving Obama’s connection to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a controversial minister in Chicago.

“This kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides,” Booker said. “It’s nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity. Stop attacking Jeremiah Wright.”

Romney criticized the Wright ad before it was introduced.

Booker’s criticism of the Obama ad may deliver a particular sting because of his close ties to Obama and prominent role in the campaign.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/newark-mayor-cory-booker-slams-obama-campaign-attack-on-romneys-work-for-bain-capital/2012/05/20/gIQAPVJudU_story.html

[DaShi]

So?

[Dinner]

I think his point was that Clinton likes bankers who give him money for his charitable work.

[Straybow]

First quarter growth figure downgraded from 2.2% to 1.9%, barely over recession threshold. Every quarter since Obama was inaugurated has been reported high and adjusted back down after the headline has fulfilled its purpose. Jobless figures for May revised upwards, all but one month of Obama's jobless figures initially underreported. That, of course ignores the adjustment of employment percentages based on shrinking the total number of jobs available by 1.4 million since Obama took office.

I just love this jobless recovery.

[giblets]

How is 1.9% "barely over recession threshold"? Wouldn't the "recession threshold" be 0% ?

[The Mad Monk]

How is 1.9% "barely over recession threshold"? Wouldn't the "recession threshold" be 0% ?

Just a guess, maybe it has to do with population growth? If the population grows and the economy doesn't, in relative terms the economy actually shrinks.