David Axelrod's Comments Today on FOX News

[krazen1211]

Certainly the middle class has not grown during the Obama administration. So presumably he is referring to the shrinking middle class and increased poverty generated since January 2009.

[krazen1211]

Try since September 2008, remembering that Obama took office mid-meltdown, assuming the American people are capable of long-term memory any more (not a safe assumption, I know).

One wonders then why the electorate would vote to continue on the road taken from September 2008 to November 2012.

[krazen1211]

Try since September 2008, remembering that Obama took office mid-meltdown, assuming the American people are capable of long-term memory any more (not a safe assumption, I know).

One wonders then why the electorate would vote to continue on the road taken from September 2008 to November 2012.

One wonders then why the electorate would vote to continue the road taking from January 2001 to November 2004 for that matter?

Presumably they supported paying lower tax and/or killing jihadist arabs in the middle east.

[krazen1211]

Try since September 2008, remembering that Obama took office mid-meltdown, assuming the American people are capable of long-term memory any more (not a safe assumption, I know).

One wonders then why the electorate would vote to continue on the road taken from September 2008 to November 2012.

Because that road was one full of as tolerable decisions as could have been made under the circumstances, except for those decisions which were made by a radicalized Congress and acquiesced to by an at those points politically weak President, and those decisions which were watered-down versions of ones that would have been better. The bad decisions that caused the bad situation were those taken before the collapse, although it doesn't surprise me that you're unaware of that since you've never exhibited a more than casual familiarity with how cause and effect works.

When the middle class is shrinking, create a dubious if/then conditional hypothetical alternative reality and pretend the middle class is not shrinking on paper.

The road we are on of course has led to increased wealth for the wealthy since 2009. Shrug.

[krazen1211]

And there's a thing. Ever occurred to you that had taxation been left at Clinton rates that the US would have, fiscally, been much better prepared to ride out the 'Crash of 2008' and the Great Recession? I mean come on if the best the US economy can yield in terms of jobs following trillions of $ in tax cuts is the fewest of any president this side of Herbert Hoover, then WOW, just WOW

Of course, I'd say the challenges facing developed economies this day and age are immense given that capitalism is increasingly global, which is why my priority would be to reduce business taxation

Setting aside the dubious hindsight/foresight problems with this as of 2004, why on earth would whatever idea you seem to be positing override one's desire to pay lower tax?

Certainly if there was greater tax revenue there is greater sums of money to give away to certain favored constituencies. But that doesn't seem to matter to many people.

[krazen1211]

Setting aside the dubious hindsight/foresight problems with this as of 2004, why on earth would whatever idea you seem to be positing override one's desire to pay lower tax?

But why cut taxes, at a time, when the federal government is living within its means? It makes no sense to me, certainly not with a Republican president who was committed to expanding it

Indeed, its Bush 43 policies and the economic downturns which continue to drive the deficit, adding to the gross federal debt. Obama's counter-cyclical measure - the ARRA - cost a conservative $800bn by comparison, with the increase in the federal debt post-2009 more the consequence of the Great Recession than his response to it. And "austerity" was no road out of that one

FTR, I've never cast a vote on the promise of tax cuts in my life. Its not something that can be bought

The Medicaid and Medicare programs were passed when the government was living within its means and directly caused the government to no longer live within its means. Both have added hundreds of billions of dollars of deficit spending over the past 50 years. The phenomenon suggested here is certainly not new to American politics.