Democratic politics from the center
Archive for May, 2010
A new dawn for black republicans?
May 9th
Jennifer Steinhauer wrote an article in the New York Times (I should really get more sources!) last week titled: Black Hopefuls Picks This Year in G.O.P Races. According to the article, this year marks the largest surge in African Americans candidates since reconstruction. Some of these candidates site President Obama’s election as the driving force behind the surge, which is quite odd considering that the republican party has moved further to the right since the elections.
I personally believe that most of these candidates will have a hard time getting elected this year. They are not going to appeal to the republican base, which today consists of the tea party. No matter how hard they spin the situation they will still be black candidates trying to gain support from a movement whose message harbors racist undertones. Also, any kind of affiliation with the tea party will turn-off black voters most of whom already have a negative perception of the G.O.P . So these black republican candidates — in most cases — are not going to be able to gain support from either the base or their own community. This severely reduces their chances of building a coalition and getting past the primaries.
Dan Mitchell needs to develop his criticism of the Greek debt crisis
May 3rd
Dan Mitchell is a fellow at the CATO institute where he focuses on tax policy. He is a fervent proponent of tax havens and low tax initiatives. I found one of his recent posts on the front page of Digg.com (here) where he criticized a Times article regarding the Greek debt crisis:
A quick look at the budget numbers reveals that tax revenues have remained relatively constant in recent years, consuming nearly 40 percent of GDP.
Mitchell doesn’t provide any data to back-up his analysis, but nevertheless he is wrong. A quick look at the Greek GDP shows that it has grown at a rate of over 35% since 2005. This means that tax revenue has lagged behind GDP growth by a significant margin. Where has all the money gone? I’m not taking a stand on the issue at this point. I’m just trying to “clear out” the clutter. I’d love to hear Mitchell’s response
Thoughts on the Goldman Sachs hearings
May 2nd
The Senate’s permanent subcommittee on investigation questioned a group of Goldman Sachs executives including the firm’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein this week. Sadly, the outcome was quite predictable. The committee’s members chose grandstanding as opposed to an educated discourse. Goldman’s executives didn’t appear to be very cooperative, but the committee’s aggressive posture gave them no incentives to do so. Blankfein tried to defend his company’s actions, but it was clear that him and chairman Carl Levin had a fundamental disagreement over the subject of ethical behavior. This fundamental difference will frame the debate over who should be blamed for the financial crisis. More >