Representative Weiner (D-NY) on estate taxes (here):

WEINER: You aren’t paying anything in that case because you’ll be dead.

Which while heartless, actually seems logical at quick glance.

In critical thinking however, one must always think about context.  To use a very basic example, take numbers.  If I say, 1.8 trillion dolloars spent on federal government in one year.  Seems meaningful, but it’s really meaningless without additional information.

For instance -

1.8 trillion dollars spent on federal government in 2010.  We got off cheap.

1.8 trillion dollars spent on federal government in 1950.  Well… we probably would’ve collapsed by now.

& lastly, for Mr. Weiner and the government in general, they as using the tax code to incentivize certain behaviors.  Tax breaks for small businesses, helps spark business creation.  Tax breaks for home ownership, helps home sales. 

So if you work your whole life, make a decent amount of money yearly, but live furgally, and retire after 30 years with 10 million dollars, this tax is an incentive.

Just not sure what kind of society you want to build when the incentive is blow all your money before you die instead of leaving it to your family

Not that I expect much out of press unwilling to engage in critical thought on even the smallest of issues, but this tax debate and almost every press outlet’s discussion of it refuses to acknowledge even basic points in a logical way.

Fact – the real discussion is about extending the tax cuts passed in 2001 & 2003 during the Bush Administration (here); I.E. maintaining the status quo. 

The press?  [all emphasis added]

The AP reports  (here) :

WASHINGTON (AP) — The tax deal struck by President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans essentially gives Americans a pay raise.

WSJ (here):

Tax-cut optimism fueled a rise in short-term U.S. Treasury yields…

Kansas City Star (here):

This week’s tax-cut compromise would contribute almost $1 trillion to the nation’s federal budget deficit over the next two years and add sharply to the mounting national debt…

CNN (here):

News of a high-cost tax-cut deal between President Obama and the Republicans…

DesMoines Register (here):

Forget federal deficit: Tax cuts all around!

& these are just five examples in a long line of examples.  I could honestly publish ten more articles today alone about “tax-cut” idiocy, but won’t (maybe two more though).

Truth is, it’s frustrating to see professional writers who are unable to use language in any way consistent with reality, which I don’t think is asking too much.   

I’m certainly not asking for all writers to agree with me (that in itself might freak me out a little).  It’s their right, at the discretion of their employers, to write what they wish.  So they can and should write articles against the compromise or the extension of the tax cut policy in general if that’s what they believe.

I’ll still argue they’re wrong of course due solely to the economics of the situation, but here I’m wondering why we can’t at least expect the press to use terms like “cut” only when a true “cut” actually exists.

The logic is beyond simple – there are no tax cut proposals on the table.  None.   This is not about cutting anyone’s taxes.

Secondarily, this cannot increase the debt at all.  As logic dictates by not giving money to the government which they do not now have nor have they requested, you have in effect done absolutely nothing.

Makes me want to rob them, turn around later and give only half their stuff back…  When they looked frustrated and confused and finally asked with anger, “Where’s the rest?”

I’m simply reply, “It would cost me way too much to give you everything” and calmly walk away.

A DA Post earlier this week (here) wondered if the level of rhetoric during the tax debate, like calling for pitchforked mobs or referring to the GOP as terrorists, seems a little odd now that we have President Obama’s compromise which includes continuing the same tax basis for all.

The President has even argued in that no so distant past (2009) that raising taxes during a recession was bad policy, but apparently he is now against the policy he was sort of for, but then again against….

Speaking on Monday he explains what really, really, might, sort of be true, depending upon whether he’s for it or against it… (whole thing here):

…A few minutes later, Chuck Todd of NBC News asked the president what he had to say to fellow Democrats. That prompted a different analogy – that he was trying to prevent harm to the American people, who were essentially being held hostage in the tax debate.

Quick side bar – I wonder how the voters who just sent this group of legislators to Washington DC feel about being associated with hostage takers?  Meh, probably nothing.  Continuing:

“I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers, unless the hostage gets harmed,” Mr. Obama said. “Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy.”

With all due respect, I think people should be questioning the wisdom of a sitting President who seems to be so insecure about a recent decision, that he feels the need to use inflamatory rhetoric in order to distance himself.

Though seen through this light, the Democrats’ prior inflamatory statements probably fits into the overall strategy for re-election.  When the President can “trumpet” the tax deal, while other top Democrats talk about the inevitable “screwing” without the deal, then you can see a basic strategy to take credit for the deal most Americans agree with, while simultaneously distancing himself from the deal his backers don’t like (poll info here).

But the best part of the President’s discussion on this issue has to be this:

“I don’t think there’s a single Democrat out there, who if they looked at where we started when I came into office and look at where we are now, would say that somehow we have not moved in the direction that I promised,” he said. “Take a tally. Look at what I promised during the campaign. There’s not a single thing that I’ve said that I would do that I have not either done or tried to do. And if I haven’t gotten it done yet, I’m still trying to do it.”

Which for those playing the home game means, “I know I haven’t done everything I said, but my intentions are in a good place.”

Just like the world’s worst surgeon saying something like, “I know I keep killing patients, but honestly I’m trying desperately not to”, the President is telling us directly, all that matters are his intentions.

If only it were that easy.

MasterCard made a decision to stop taking credit card transactions for donations to Wikileaks and hackers struck back (here):

The website of MasterCard has been hacked and partially paralysed in apparent revenge for the international credit card’s decision to cease taking donations to WikiLeaks….

Though not very inventive nor innovative, they used an old and mostly discarded technique by anyone claiming the title “hacker” known as DOS (Denial of Service) – continued:

…A group of online activists calling themselves Anonymous appear to have orchestrated a DDOS (“distributed denial of service”) attack on the site, bringing its service at www.mastercard.com to a halt for many users….

& if that weren’t enough to prove a bunch of third graders have too much computer time on their hands, they decided to name their playground bullying an “operation”:

…”Operation: Payback” is the latest salvo in the increasingly febrile technological war over WikiLeaks. MasterCard announced on Monday that it would no longer process donations to the whistleblowing site, claiming it was engaged in illegal activity….

Irregardless, the truth is oppression by government or oppression by mob rule, is still oppression and by covertly attacking private business to try and punish specific policies or to try and force a change in policies is little better than taking your money forcefully at gunpoint.

In the current political landscape which is America, with admissions from Senator Dodd for not reading the financial regulation he helped author (here), or Senator Baacus admitting he hadn’t read the health care reform bill he helped craft (here), you would be hard pressed to find a situation in which any politician seemingly cares about going overboard with their rhetoric, but the tax debate seemed to spark rhetoric like that only seen during war time.

Senator Menendez thinks things are sooooo bad, he calls the dealing with the GOP similar to dealing with terrorists (here):

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on Friday compared the tax-cut fight with Republicans to negotiating with terrorists…

& not to be outdone, Senator McCaskill thinks pitchforks and violence are needed (continued):

…while Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri suggested Americans might need to “take up pitchforks” if Congress renews tax breaks for the wealthy….

& let’s not forget, Senator Brown… who thinks paying people to stay home is the beginning of job growth (here):

….extending unemployment benefits that creates economic activity that creates jobs, not giving a millionaire an extra ten or twenty or $30,000 in tax cuts that they likely won’t spend,” Brown said….

No worries that Sen. Sherrod et al are wrong on the facts (here):

After the dividend tax rate came down, average dividends among the top 1% surged to $52,814 in 2004 and $83,072 by 2007. Reported dividends of the top 1% in 2007 were twice as large as the previous peak in 2000….

&

Average capital gains among the top 1% rose from $145,433 in 2002 (in 2008 dollars) to a record $427,930 in 2007….

But it does make one wonder where you go from there with their party leader has made a deal with terrorists & those deserving of pitchforks? (here):

Their moms must be sooooo proud.....

Whole thing here, LeBron James returns to his former home stadium as a player on the opposing team to tight security, boos, obsenities, not-so-clever chants.  His response:

Short video of Author Brad Thor discussing Wikileaks most recent release of US classified documents where he asks, “Why are we so reluctant to kill people who need killing?”