And Now to Get a Little Political

So yeah I usually don't talk about politics because it's so so so divisive and leads to arguments and people getting pissed off. But things have gotten so dumb that I have to lay out what I think about it, whether you, hypothetical reader, cares or not. Plus school is done for awhile so ample writing time!

Tax cuts: So the whole hoopla now is about how the Republicans won't do shit until the tax cuts are extended to everyone, not just households that earn $250,000 or less. This is annoying 1. because that this is such a childish way to handle this but I guess politically savvy at the same time which is bonkers if you think about it and 2. because the tax cut extension itself is really dumb. I'm not really sure what sort of political gain the Republicans get from extending them to the richest portion of the country. Obviously they fund them a lot but it doesn't seem like Joe Voter would be all that upset about rich people getting their taxes raised.

I understand the arguments for tax cuts. They stimulate consumer spending. The top earners don't deserve to be taxed more just because they earn their money.The problem with this first one is that I'm not entirely sure that these tax cuts are stimulating spending any more. They've been in place since the early days of the Bush administration and I wouldn't really say spending has gone up since the early 2000s besides from inflation. It's entire possible consumer spending has improved as a result but I find it unlikely that the effect is still there. You'd love for that extra money Americans don't have to pay to go back into the economy but it doesn't seem to be happening. The tax cuts haven't stopped the recession. We need some way to pay for the spending and to lower the deficit. It doesn't seem like anyone is willing to cut any of the spending we have so taxes are really the only way to do this.

The fact that the wealthiest Americans have earned their money is true. I'm don't make over $250,000 a year so I don't really know how much of it they need but it seems like the money they would lose from taxes wouldn't be missed as much as the same amount from a household that brings in, say $100,000 a year. It would be easy enough. And the main thing with letting the tax cuts expire is that taxes weren't even that bad under Clinton. I certainly wouldn't say that the nation was suffering economically in the late '90s when taxes were higher. And the tax rate now is half of what it was for most of the last century. I don't understand where all the uproar about the government wanting too much and intervening too much in our lives comes from. We have to make sacrifices with the economy in the shitter and it doesn't seem like anyone wants to do that.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: I think this whole debate will be seen as regrettable in ten years by most, not that most people don't feel that way now. It's been shown that the soldiers by and large don't really care if another soldier is gay as long as they are competent. That was the whole point of that survey. And really, how likely is it that a gay guy is going to try to come on to a fellow soldier? Is this really a great concern? Is male soldiers raping female soldier a giant problem? This of course isn't going to happen. People are just afraid of gay people for whatever reason and want to exclude them. Is this really a time to be selective in who we pick to serve in war? If we're committed to fighting these wars (which I question whether we should actually be doing but whatever) it doesn't make sense to turn away able bodied people who are willing to do it. Being gay doesn't affect your ability to fight. They keep raising the maximum age to be in the military but it seems like a lot of that could go to allowing gays to serve. The bill to repeal it is only being rejected along party lines. I don;t know if this is just so Republicans can get their tax cut extension or if they really believe that this is right but I don't see any non-political or prejudicial reason for the policy to still exist. For as far as we've come as a nation, we still have some really dumb ideas on how to do things and DADT is one of the prime examples of this.

I could probably talk more about other things if prompted but these are the two most egregious ideas. Yay for economics coming in handy for the tax cut thing.