Had a super busy day and didn’t get around to posting all day, although I did send DougJ a link to this abomination in the hopes he would deal with it:
The most underrated policy option in America—cut public services to cut taxes on the masses: slate.com/blogs/moneybox…
— Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) April 3, 2013
Go fuck yourself. Let’s cut bus service and Medicaid so the people who use them can get a tax cut. PRO-TIP, DOUCHENOZZLE- the people using these services are only paying payroll taxes. What makes this even worse is Yglesias was a huge fan of saving the payroll tax cut. You know what- basic fucking services are more important than a payroll tax cut, but even then, the progressive position would be to expand services to the poor while exempting the lower income earners while expanding the payroll tax beyond the current levels. Poor people don’t need fucking tax cuts. They need our fucking help. There are far more things I could say right now, but I am hammered and hoping DougJ deals with this more fully tomorrow.
At any rate, now that I have that out of my system, I just got back from a very nice dinner. It was my buddy Walt’s 45th birthday on Monday, so I took him out to dinner tonight and we had a great meal and an even better time. Met a lot of nice people, ate a solid meal, had some drinks (ELEVENTY MARTINIS AND GOD BLESS OLIVES STUFFED WITH BLUE CHEESE- IS IT AN APPETIZER, OR IS IT A DRINK? WHO CARES, KEEP THEM COMING TILL I FALL OVER AND THEN BRING THEM TWO AT A TIME), and came home:
When I first got Rosie and she was all snarly and ill behaved and we nicknamed her Snarls Barkley because of all of her resource guarding and issues, Walt used to frequently say I should have her put down because she was damaged goods and could never be saved. I always told him, “Give me some time. I am a firm believer that my sedentary and zen-like lifestyle can rescue this dog and turn her around. She just needs to know she is loved and secure, and she will be fine.” He never believed me, but dogs are just so easy. Don’t be a dick and provide them stability, some hugs, some walks, and some steady meals, and they are some seriously resilient animals.
Now, a couple years later, and Rosie almost date rapes Walt every time he comes over, she loves him so much. I always want to say “HE WANTED TO HAVE YOU PUT DOWN,” but you know what, who cares about shit like that? Walt’s happy, Rosie is happy, and so am I. Tomorrow morning is going to suck, though.
Redshirt
I’m posting anti-pro Commie Liter-webs. Here.
I think Communism might have been right.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Six minutes, impressive!
Redshirt
Was there drinking and driving involved?
gwangung
Classic example of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Suffern ACE
@Redshirt: bah. I’m finding North Korea annoying at the moment. Write me about communism when it’s leaders don’t hog up space on postage stamps and drink the best scotch that the capitalists of France put on the free market.
John Cole
@Redshirt: No. Walt drove and only had three drinks over a five hour period. We are not antisocial dicks who jeopardize the lives of other people so we can have fun. I personally will not drive after watching a beer commercial I am so anti drunk driving. Drunk driving is seriously the most self indulgent assholish thing anyone can do. The ones who infuriate me the most are the professional sports players or people who are worth millions who get popped for DUI’s. I fucking call a cab to haul my drunk ass around, you motherfuckers can’t pay a driver?
Driving drunk is just obscene, selfish, disgusting behavior, and fuck people who do it.
Redshirt
@Suffern ACE: Not Korean communism, but rather Lenin Communism – the “Real” Communism!
Redshirt
@John Cole: Damn right. Especially if a group of friends are going out, a limo makes a lot of sense – both socially and economic. If you’re a rich professional athlete, why not make it mandatory by the team during the season?
RobertDSC-eMac 1.25
Tax cuts don’t build bridges.
Tax cuts don’t fill potholes.
Tax cuts don’t teach kids a goddamned fucking thing in school.
Tax cuts don’t maintain the GPS constellation of satellites.
Tax cuts don’t land probes on Mars.
Go fuck yourself and your “policy option”, Matt Y.
Lolis
Your night sounds awesome. I was stuck at work agonizing about my shitty career prospects and doing research on grad programs. WVU has a good distance master’s I may apply for if it’s not full yet. My good friend did her undergrad there so it would be fun.
Suffern ACE
I say no to blue cheese in martinis. In the olive or not, it’s just going to entice someone to make bacon ranch infused margaritas, I’m sure of it. Or old fashioneds garnished with cheddar.
The prophet Nostradumbass
I see that today on Twitter Yglelsias was also gushing about some new Walgreens store, and how it is going to “save retail”. My only question: Will it have an unlicensed barber’s shop in it?
dance around in your bones
I think olives stuffed with bleu cheese are a drink if they are submerged in vodka.
Walt better hope Rosie never becomes fluent in English.
Happy Birthday, Walt! And Yay for taxis!
mouse tolliver
Also worth noting that most poor people are poor because they’re underpaid at work and overcharged at the hospital. They’re poor because the fucking “job creators” are a bunch of cheapskate assholes and most of our legislators are so crooked they could eat soup with a corkscrew.
Suffern ACE
@The prophet Nostradumbass: lol. The future of retail is a convenience store stocked with stuff Matt wants to buy! I once had that dream too, although the rite aide that carried dewars and cruise missiles on 57th and Broadway soon reverted to form and I was let down again.
Redshift
If I read it right, Yglesias’ post is less stupid than his tweet (which doesn’t mean it’s not stupid.) He doesn’t actually seem to be saying to substitute tax cuts for services, he’s mostly talking about substituting direct payments (that can be used for whatever the recipient wants) in place of government subsidies and vouchers.
No, wait, he leads off with “cut taxes on the masses” (in italics, even.) I guess he does actually think that a tax cut is the same as a direct payment, and that everybody who’s getting any government benefits is paying enough in taxes to pay for them.
Either his whole idea makes absolutely no sense, or it’s completely detached from reality. Is that what “contrarian” means?
Yutsano
@Redshift: It’s real simple. If you say his maths don’t add up, he just tells you you’re doing something wrong and it works because shut up that’s why!
bago
This morning I had to kiss my girlfriend’s boob goodbye. Just got back from the hospital, and apparently the cancer has been excised. So, yay?
dance around in your bones
@bago: Oh, gads. I’d say yay if it has been excised.
{{{hugs}}} to you and your girlfriend.
Gretchen
@bago: @bago: I hope recovery goes well.
Ruckus
@RobertDSC-eMac 1.25:
The best one is that tax cuts only help people who actually can pay taxes, as John said. And then usually the cut is actually such a small percentage that only upper bracket people see any real money. Sure when you are living paycheck to paycheck or worse any help is nice, but how often does someone(like me for example) not even get to use that tax credit? Most of the time.
goblue72
@Yutsano: Matt Y has always been what he is: an Upper East Side prep school kid with no sense of what its actually like to be working poor and who thinks having an Ivy League degree in pontification makes him an expert on everything, without actually having a firm grasp on any technical knowledge.
Which makes him the perfect candidate to be an “economics & business” editor at Slate, the glibertarian blog for those who fancy themselves liberals.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Yglesias needs to stop pussyfooting around and just come out and say it; “Kill the poor.” This slow death by depriving them of services, decent pay, and health care will take ages to eliminate the Poor Problem. Kill ’em now and let the tax cuts begin.
Villago Delenda Est
Yglesias really needs to be taken behind the building and counselled with the business end of a clue by four.
This country was humming along pretty well until five treasonous sacks of shit installed a fucking deserter in the White House who promptly gave tax cuts to all his rich friends, then started two fucking wars and put them all on the Master Card of everyone’s great grand children.
Ms.B
@bago: I had to kiss my own boob goodbye a few years ago when cancer was excised. But reconstruction gave it back to me–not exactly the same, but also not that bad at all. Real/”fake” skin, real boobie qualities, and killer cleavage, what with the bonus, insurance mandated lift for the healthy one.
Big hugs to both of you during recovery and beyond.
Ruckus
@bago:
Being related to a number of humans that have had breast cancer(and some that died from it) I’m going to be of the opinion that no cancer is preferable to boobs. By a large margin.
Good luck to your girlfriend.
And yes, Yea!
Kanamit
You are a national treasure, Mr. Cole.
I think I hate contrarian liberals more than conservatives at this point.
John Cole
@bago: All this time, and I thought you were your girlfriend’s BOOB. Ba-dump-Bump. I’ll be here all night. Or at least another ten mins.
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
This.
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Nice to have such good friends isn’t it?
trollhattan
Roger Ebert’s cancer is back. Sending my thoughts his way, tonight. All I’ve got.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2013/04/a_leave_of_presense.html
H/T SEK at LGM.
Also, too, is Yglesias talking about lowering income taxes on the losers Republicans complain pay no income tax? Because that would be cool.
JoyfulA
OK, I’ve read the article three times now, and I still can’t make any sense of it. It must be time for me to go to bed.
Thymezone
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
They have some of those new Walgreens out here and they SUCK in every possible way. The old Walgreens is much better.
bago
Boyfriend of other boys? That might work, technically, as we both have a habit of sleeping with ex partners. We talk about it, and no shame, just disease prevention.
mattH
Love ya Cole.Gladyou call Yglesiason his shit.
p.s. gladsomeone expanded your vocab tonight. Touron is sucha good word.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Redshift: You read it wrong. In fairness, you have to read more than just the one post to understand what Yglesias is saying. If you read him regularly, you know that he is perfectly comfortable with the idea of a negative income tax. The more technical term for this is a refundable tax credit.
Yglesias is a big proponent of the Earned Income Tax Credit and of a guaranteed minimum income, both of which are effectively a form of negative income tax. How much tax you pay now is no limit on how much such a tax credit would be worth to you.
I’m going to be charitable and assume that the dozen or so people in this thread that have misrepresented Matt Yglesias’ positions on these things just aren’t familiar enough with him to understand his arguments and also expect all of someone’s thinking to be clear in every single blog post they make. I wouldn’t want to think that ya’ll have read much of what he has to say and are deliberately libeling him.
dance around in your bones
@John Cole: JC, have another blue cheese-stuffed olive soaked in spirits.
Then go to bed with Lily and Rosie and Tunch in yr armpits. I don’t know, that just seemed like an…..ill-advised comment for someone whose girlfriend just lost her boob.
Having lost a few friends to breast cancer and all.
tattoo after double mastectomy
suzanne
@bago: It’s just a boob. Hugs to you and your lady.
@Thymezone: Old Walgreens is horrifyingly overpriced. I never go there, even though there’s one on the corner.
Mnemosyne
I should be getting ready for bed, but I sprawled out to show G the video of Lucy and Keaton decided to come up and lay on my butt, so I’m trapped.
It’s not so bad now that he’s not clawing my feet anymore.
Redshift
@JoyfulA:
No, it just means you’re normal.
Radio One
I haven’t read Matt Yglesias in a long time, but in that Slate article he seems to have really left the reservation. Considering Republicans Governors and state legislators are still slashing programs for poor and working class people all over the country. And that “cutting taxes on the masses” would involve cutting payroll taxes, which will never ever happen again as long as conservatives control the House and pretty much the Senate as well.
YellowJournalism
Ahem.
Now it’s a party!
LosGatosCA
Could be a typo by Matt Y and this was supposed to post on April 1.
He does make a lot of typos and he rarely seems this dense.
Perhaps he hired the ghost writers that Zjuan Williams employed?
PeakVT
Walt drove and only had three drinks over a five hour period.
Wait, whose birthday was it again?
Also, fuck upper east side glibertarians with a rusty chain saw.
Redshift
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): If that’s what he meant, he only needed one word that’s commonly used for that concept, “refundable,” to make it clear. “Tax cuts for the masses” alone doesn’t mean that. I shouldn’t have to read him regularly to know that Humpty-Dumpty-like, “tax cuts” means what he wants it to mean.
While I’m in favor of refundable tax cuts or a “negative income tax” for some purposes (and direct payments seem to have worked as an anti-poverty measure in Brazil), he’s still being disingenuous by only talking about tax cuts and distancing himself from the tax increases on the wealthy that are only wanted by the straw-man liberals that he rejects.
In short, if that’s what he meant, I didn’t read it wrong, he wrote it wrong.
Bubba Dave
Eh, I read the article as “this is an argument that conservatives would make if they were serious about anything but cutting taxes on the rich. But they’re not. But that’s a shame, because this argument would be way more defensible than the ones they do make.”
I really don’t understand all the Yglesias hate in these parts. He’s got his hobby horses, but he’s on the right side about deficit reduction, about national defense, and about a lot of urban issues. A MSM in which MattY was the farthest left pole of mainstream discourse would be significantly better than the current clustercluck, even for those of us who have to look to starboard to see him.
Batocchio
At best, Yglesias expressed himself poorly It sure seems like this is the old, there-is-only-one-limited-pot-of-money-for-all-the-things-liberals-like argument. If Yglesias wants to hand out money, he can, but it’s not an either-or proposition; there’s no need to slash public services. Investing in the Commons is almost always more efficient and benefits everybody (especially when it comes to universal health care vs. the “free” market).
Plus, want to give ordinary people more money? Raise the minimum wage. Create jobs programs that give a living wage. Raise the standard deduction on income tax. In the meantime, cap CEO pay, institute a far more progressive tax system, institute a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street – and invest the proceeds in infrastructure, education, the Commons, etc.
James E. Powell
Why is it that all the supposed Big Brains come up with the most ridiculous policy ideas? Why is it that only a dumbass like me ever proposes that we raise taxes on those who earn high incomes or have great wealth and increase public services so that the whole country becomes a better place in which to live, work, and play?
Yutsano
@James E. Powell: Because Matt Y is obvs a Very Serious Person, which you can tell by his Very Serious Ideas. How do we know they are Very Serious? Because he thought of them, of course.
boss bitch
I’ll go read the article but Yglesias has been using “underrated” in his tweets all this week and I’m wondering if he’s not just being snarky. He said Thomas Freidman was the most “underrated” pundit. I mean, that has to be a joke right?
boss bitch
Okay, I agree with @redshift on what Yglesias was trying to say. I have to laugh though because no way in hell Republicans would go for direct payments. The party hates “handouts” and to give people an actual check would drive them mad. Even if they do go for it I’m pretty sure the amounts would fall way short.
NEXT.
boss bitch
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
“Libeling”? A bit much don’t you think?
Also, NO ONE should have to go back through a writer’s archives to understand what he means in ONE post. Come on.
Another Halocene Human
The poors’ nickels and dimes (don’t forget sales taxes, Cole!) purchase more for them collectively in services than they could ever provide for themselves individually. (Galtian ubermensch says: obviously, they aren’t miserable enough and need to be humiliated more to incentivize er, uh, not competing with US, now I’m not advocating violence, but maybe they could shuffle off this … place to … another place.)
By that logic, as the rich benefit more from wars, why not stop all wars and provide a tax cut to job creators.
Funny how they never want a cutback to mechanized global aggression services.
Another Halocene Human
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Matty is still in la-la land. The EIC is a big fucking mess and anyone who deals with the working poor a lot knows it’s just a payday for grifters, loan sharks, used car shills, and other assorted scum.
RAISE THE FUCKING MINIMUM WAGE and stop disinvesting in every fucking thing.
Decent housing costs so much to build like right off the bat. In the 50s there was a good match between builders and households. Today they build for this mythical army of Bobos and poor people have to live in shitty run down dwellings that take way, wayyyyy too much of their income.
Tax the rich, maybe less specuvesting and malinvestment (yeah, I can speak the Austrians’ language) will be going on with less bored and jaded cash looking for a quick high sloshing around our financial system.
OmerosPeanut
Rosie, you’re going to give Max a run for his money if you keep acting cute like that.
Common Sense
All dog lovers should watch this. It’s streaming on Netflix:
http://www.beyondthemythmovie.com/
matt
He’s just saying that if conservatives weren’t a sick death cult they’d propose that.
Jay in Oregon
@trollhattan:
He’s not the only one; Scottish author Iain Banks announced that he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has, at most, a year to live.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/03/iain-banks-gall-bladder-cancer
So FUCK CANCER, and best wishes to @bago and the GF on a successful recovery.
rikyrah
you know you had me at
Go Fuck Yourself.
smooches, Cole.
Smooches.
lojasmo
@bago:
Here’s hoping she does well, both from a physical/cancer perspective and from a self-image perspective.
I’ve seen great pictures of breast cancer survivors getting tattooed, pretty cool images.
lojasmo
@Redshift:
Matty Y. Cannot fail. He can only be failed.
Tractarian
Calm down, John.
Yglesias suggested cutting taxes on everyone, so one could assume he meant cut (or eliminate) the payroll tax.
He didn’t mean slash marginal tax rates; that would have the effect of mainly benefitting high earners, which is exactly the position (the GOP position) he was, in part, railing against.
You need to cool your guns, keep your powder dry, choose your battles… and other cliches.
danielx
Because cutting taxes solves all problems, including obesity, bad breath and thinning hair. It’s no wonder the idea is so popular with congressional Republicans.
ranchandsyrup
I imagine Matty Y’s position was honed over thermomixed bechamel at the McSudermans’. In a just world he would get mugged every time he goes over there.
Patricia Kayden
@Villago Delenda Est: Preach!! Clinton left a surplus. Shrub left a tax-break-for the richy rich and two unfunded-wars deficit. Why are people acting as if the current deficit just popped up out of the blue?
Ohio Mom
@bago: Yes, yea!
Make sure your girlfriend eats lots of protein, it’s key to knitting the body back together. The rule of thumb is, half-gram of protein for every pound you weigh (so if you weigh 100 lbs, you have to eat 50 grams of protein a day). There are lists all over the internet of how much protein is in various foods, plus it’s on the labels of every prepared food.