Thom Hartmann has just as good answers to the problems we are facing today. We don't need David Frum to provide us with ideas for our movement.

Bill Still also has amazingly well-researched, common sense solutions, but since he isn't backed by some corporate approved think tank we never hear of him on the news.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D22TlYA8F2E

Howard Dean also had good ideas about the costs of health care, but of course since he isn't corporate backed his ideas weren't taken seriously in the mainstream media. We need to start thinking for ourselves and choosing who we want to listen to regardless of who the current batch of talking heads are on the mainstream channels provided to us.

Just what does it take to be a republican huckster/spokesperson?

while i commend frum for not sucking at the tea baggers knobs, he is still david frum.

thus--frum's whole list of to-dos can be summed up in two words: tax cuts.

the payroll tax holiday is good. but i imagine that is tossed in the mix as a bargaining chip, a way to assure that the bush tax cuts don't expire. and how have those bush tax cuts worked out so far? how have uncle miltie's economic theories panned out?

the payroll tax holiday is a good idea, don't fuck it up by making the deal with the devil.

...David From happens to disapprove of Obama's center-right approach doesn't make him any less of a wingnut.

Let's go down the line with his not so thinly veiled assumptions and the real consequences, OK?

1) Extending the Bush tax cuts for 5 years: Right, so that the upcoming Repub President/Congress after Obama can go ahead and make them permanent, and that the increased defict caused by such action can be more easily used by the GOTP/Blue Dog coalition to finish the job of annihialting Social Securoty, Medicare, Medicaid, and the rest of the "social welfare" state to feed the corporate cow with..well, only the Fortune 500/Military-Industrial-Complex tits.

2) A "payroll tax holiday" for 1-1/2 years: See Point 1)...and will that be a ruse for removing corporate indexing/withholding of payroll taxes after that period, or, even getting rid of the employee contribution altogether??

3) Repealing the "tax increases" of the Obama/Baucus Big Insura Bailout/Forced Mandate (aka "health care reform"): What "tax increases" exactly?? I'm sure this must be Frumiium for cutting all those subsidies down that would make the forced private mandate go down easier, and just leaving crappy, totally worthless, and completely ineffective health care access to the majority?? Or...simply just repeal everything and go back to HSA's, and bartering chickens for essential health care.

4) Expansionary monetary policy?? Yeah, right...probably meaning crafting the newest form of derivatives and other such junk designed to squeeze more money for Wall Street at the expense of working people.

Of course, what Frum doesn't say is that all of this will mostly be paid for by savaging the last pennies of what average Americans get through wage cuts, loss of overtime, speed up, loss of fundamental benefits, and, most of all, the kind of deregulation that gave us Enron, Deepwater Horizon, and the Massey Coal Mine explosion.

Don't be fooled by the seemingly "progressive" patina...this is still classic From wingnuttery.

If you really want genuine reform, don't go right...go LEFT. That's where the real ideas and solutions are.

Anthony

I've been reading Frumforum.com lately and have been pleasantly surprised by many of the opinions there.

Frum seems to have changed his views a lot since he was pushed out of the American Enterprise Institute. Not being on the Koch brothers' payroll appears to have freed his mind somewhat.

...here;s just a few that I have thought of on the fly:

1) Tax holiday, smax holiday....just remove the cap on eligible income for the payroll tax; and make the tax more progressive for both employers AND workers. I like Robert Reich's idea of exempting the first $20,000 of wages from the PT altogether..but I'd prefer a more pregressive tax model to sustain the idea of getting out what you put in.

2) Repeal not only the Bush tax cuts, but ALL of the tax cuts passed since the Carter/Reagan era. We need to get back to the basic philpsophy that those with the ability to pay MUST pay..and that money earned from playing the casino that is our capitalist system should be taxed at a slightly higher rate than money earned from an honest day's work.

3) $50 billion?? Chicken feed. Let's go for a REAL stimulus package (say, $3-5 TRILLION AT LEAST) containing genuine efforts to fix our crumbling infrastructure, adequately fund education from pre-school to college, and create sustainable jobs at livable wages and decent benefits.

4) Also...let's fill in the cracks for those who simply cannot get jobs right now with far more generous social welfare benefits (extending access to TANF, even to those just above the poverty line who are currently unemployed) or a direct jobs program like CCC or WPA; or better yet, consolidate them all into a guaranteed income program that would supplement worker pay to get people back on their feet.

5) Tackle the gross and obscene amount of debt (through both credit and the increasing dagger of student loans) that are killing working-class folk though "taxation" rates of 25-30% or more. Some debts can be forgiven outright; others can be reduced significantly.

How do you pay for all this?? Easy: by reducing the military budget by at least 60%, by ending needless and profligate "corporate welfare", and by simply letting the Feds regulate businesses the right way rather than simply looking the other way.

That'll do for starters....I don't think that David Frum will be promoting this on his pages...but any genuine progressive/liberal/lefty SHOULD be beating the Democrats with this program EVERY DAMN DAY. If they're not able to see the advantage of this..well, let 'em rot in hell with the rest of the DLC/GOTP rubes.

Anthony

This economic disaster should be analyzed like it is a dead body. A corpse with a bullet in its head, foot prints and finger prints everywhere. Even the gun is laying next to the body.

Yet we can't seem to figure out who the perpertrator(s) are, how they did it, or what their motives were. The possibility of an arrest or indictment seems more remote than a winning lottery ticket.

This economic disaster started in 2000 when Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, while addressing the Senate Banking Committee, answered the question why he was raising interest rates (i.e. pulling money out of the economy) when inflation was low, investment was robust, employment was low, prosperity was abundant. His answer was the code words "labor pressures".

Labor pressures meant that people (labor) were being paid too much. Unemployment was too low (<5%) and there was less leverage employers had in controlling their unions. Good employees were finding pay raises when they changed jobs.

2001 Pres. G.W.Bush ...3 months later the recession began.

The end of the 2001 Recession really never ended as paychecks began to shrink for many. Pay raises rarely exceeded 3%, while real-world inflation was pushing 10% or more, depending on your income. The economy did recover, but mostly tepid.

Then we get the Enron "energy crisis" and California's massive ripoff..guess what. We had a recession in California and it spread to the rest of the country...ooops! (California's Gov. Davis identifies and prosecutes, but is recalled and Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes gov. Thanks Mr. Issa (R-Asshole)

Then we got the fun part....War.
2001 Afghanistan came, then faded. But the real bonanza was Iraq. Pffft goes the budget surplus, change the tax structure and...(drum roll please) Defits in the Trillions. (i.e. gotta pay those debts, tighten the belt..no more social programs). This was no accident of war.

2003 Invasion Iraq.
This created some some economic vitality. One of which was the demand for building materials: Plywood, lumber, steel, concrete, electrical materials, plumbing, etc. The demand for the materials to build the U.S. military's new air base and marine outposts and army base and new embassy, and new runways and new waste treatment facilities, and new ports...all came from the USA. It was all paid for by the USA.

Billions of tons of materials were purchased by the DoD and sent to Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and other locations where US soldiers, airmen and marines were now stationed.

Those material purchases emptied existing stockpiles of materials, used mostly by domestic construction firms. As a result, the costs for those materials rose tremendously during the years 2003-2005 as construction in Iraq was underway. That meant that domestic builders had to pay more for their materials and charge more or their homes and buildings over the next few years; causing inflation in real estate and construction projects....

Because there was inflation of 25% or more in some building materials, new home prices rose considerably year-over-year. A savvy investor can see a good leveraged investment when homes are appreciating more than other investments. A lot... A LOT...of money went into purchasing investment homes with the sole purpose of "flipping" them and making a profit. This caused homes to inflate in value unnaturally. Homes were built without any tenants, but sold for profits within a few months. That is inflation. Banks, flush with assets, were openly pushing flimsy mortgages.

It wasn't until the inflation of the homes surpassed the affordability of the buyers that the market peaked and then began to fall. With fewer good jobs, fewer qualifed for the overpriced properties and the prices fell even more. As 5 & 7 year loan maturities began to expire, the banks played tough-guy and foreclosures began to rise. With a loss on their hands, they quickly dispose and take the write off, creating the unintended result of cavitating an already weak housing market even more.

Now we can assert that the banks caused the economic crisis, but that would be like blaming the loss of the world series on a single player who caused an error. The banks aided and abetted and their actions exacerbated the economic disaster, but they alone were not to blame.

Before the housing crisis really hit full steam, we had witness to one of the most under-reported rip offs in the world...the oil crisis of 2007-8.

When G.W. Bush took office in Jan, 2001 the price of oil was $24 per barrel. The week before 9/11 a barrel went for $24.90. By the end of 2001, it had fallen to $16. per barrel because of the fall off in airline travel and the continuing recession. I remember paying $.99 per gallon of gas during that period.

2002 saw the price rise back to $28,
2003 saw between $26 and $32;
2004 was between $27 and $46;
2005 was between $35 and $60;
2006 was between $55 and $71;
2007 was between $48 and $90;
2008 started out at $92 per barrel and peaked at $137 in July where it fell to a low of $35.99 on the last week in December. Today it trades around $75 per barrel.
(http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler....)

The Great Recession began in December 2007.

When gas prices doubled in 2007, the recession was now in full downward fall. Shipping costs doubled, UPS, FedEx all raised rates; airlines raised rates, consumers had less disposable income, maritime shipping costs exploded.

Does anyone remember how the energy crisis caused the food shortages? It was caused by two major factors: 1) conversion from food source agriculture to bio-energy sources. Less food=higher prices
and 2) maritime shipping costs exploded, causing extraordinarly expensive shippings costs for food and other agriculture products. Food literally rotted on the docks. People starved to death.

Folks the energy rip off with oil prices was the leading cause of this economic calamity. The bankers may have been driving the getaway vehicle, but the oil tycoons pulled the trigger.

That's the answer you think we need? Tax cuts?

A. The only reason Frum is proposing a payroll tax holiday is to drive a stake into the heart of Social Security and Medicare - it's the Grover Norquist "Starve the Beast" redux. It's much easier to kill the programs if the Republicans can scream about how they are bankrupt.

B. Tax cuts don't matter if you have no income because you have no job.

Three words for you: New New Deal

Follow the FDR playbook: Reform the banks (the recently passed bill is next to worthless - break up too big to fail, reinstate Glass-Steagel, regulate derivatives), Raise income taxes on the wealthy (at least to Clinton levels - better, add another margin on top, and get rid of long-term capital gains tax breaks), Invest in infrastructure.

The engine of our economy has always been small business. Make it easier to start companies - best step in this regard is health insurance.

The job situation is the number one issue that's driving the electorate. Frum is right about that. But he isn't suggesting the Republicans actually do anything about it in the short term any more than the Democrats have done anything about it. Jiggering the taxation tables doesn't put people back to work. None of the policies adopted or advocated in the halls of power has put people back to work. And now, many of the jobs they might have returned to had there been any real jobs programs are gone forever. Many of those who are now unemployed, and many of those who will lose their jobs in the next few years will never be employed again. We've been going through as serious an economic restructuring as this nation has ever faced.

The problem for the plutocrats and oligarchs who own the government and most of the wealth of the country is that American workers' wages are still too high. They have to be brought down to "global" levels. Until they are, there will be no jobs recovery.

So that's why we are having this extraordinarily extended period of astonishingly high unemployment. Despite reports that incomes are increasing, if you control for the multi-millions in earnings at the top, American wages are continuing to decline, and for many people, the decline has been steep and fast. Wage cuts of 10%, 15%, 25% are common enough to be routine. 50% income drop is not uncommon. But even so, American wages are still too high by "global" standards.

Thus, no hiring. There will be no hiring to speak of until wages fall sufficiently.

Obama talks a lot about giving American companies a "level playing field," and a big part of that gift is lower worker wages.

They aren't low enough yet.