RedState's Morning Briefing for Monday, April 6, 2009

April 6, 6:27 AMRight Side Politics ExaminerDan Spencer

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Morning Briefing for MONDAY,  April 6, 2009

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1. Repeat After Me: Tax Increases Are A Bad Idea

When the economy goes in the tank, ideas long ago put in the crapper get pulled back out. HINT: They’re still bad ideas.

I have no problem using taxes as a way to get rid of certain, discrete negative externalities, but anything beyond that is asking for trouble. So it is more than a little bizarre to find out that there are Florida Republicans behind a $1 per pack increase in cigarette taxes. Cigarettes are nasty things, but if you are trying–as these Florida Republicans are–to raise revenues via cigarette taxes, then you are bound to be disappointed in a big way.

The policy failures inherent in this approach are bad enough. The political failure is that we have Republicans acting like Democrats. I thought that the past two election cycles were sufficient to show that when Republicans run as Democrats, they lose. Evidently not.

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2. Liberals Laugh at Tax Flight Threat

Let’s See if They’re Still Laughing on Election Day

New York state - under the leadership of Governor David Paterson - is getting ready to dramatically raise taxes on those earning greater than $250K. And faced with the threat that people earning this kind of money might move themselves or their businesses to lower-tax jurisdictions, liberals seem completely unconcerned. Indeed - if you take Rush Limbaugh as symbolic of the rest of these high-earners, they seem positively giddy. Jon Stewart takes the same tack as lots of compassionate liberals; he implies that Limbaugh is a homophobic, drug-addict with a taste for murder, and that New York is better off without him.

Governor Paterson is also eager for Rush Limbaugh to get out of town:

Rush Limbaugh is fed up with taxes in New York and with Gov. David A. Paterson in particular. The radio talk-show host denounced the so-called millionaires’ tax in the new state budget and then announced on the air this week that he would be packing up and leaving town…

“If I knew that would be the result,” he said after a speech Thursday morning in Midtown, “I would’ve thought about the taxes earlier.”

Hee hee! That Paterson is a card!

Let’s see if he laughs as hard when top-earners and small businesses start leaving the state. Because while Limbaugh makes a nice punching bag, this isn’t about one person; it’s about the hundreds of thousands of ‘wealthy’ people who face the same decision Limbaugh has made.

As Paterson himself argued just a few weeks ago - when he opposed higher income taxes - raising taxes will drive out jobs. Paterson himself said that 140,000 people leave the state every year, due to New York’s anti-competitive tax structure - which will get worse under his budget plan. It seems that fans of higher income taxes have to test the theory though; some are even trying to argue that raising taxes creates more wealthy people (as if the economy today is the same as it was in 2003).

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3. Beijing, Teheran, Building Bridges to Latin America

Our Enemies Offer Economic Help, While Obama Pays off Unions

I frequently complain about Barack Obama not paying enough attention to Latin America. The region affects our security directly, yet the Obama administration gives little sign of recognizing the efforts of China, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and others to build alliances against our interests. Two recent articles help illustrate the dangers. The first deals with Iran’s ongoing efforts to strengthen supporters in Latin America’s large Arab population.

The second addresses China’s recent deal with Argentina to give its products preference over those of the U.S. in Latin America.

The common theme in the outreach efforts of Iran and China is a willingness to use tighter trade ties to build closer political ties. Whether the deals center on Iranian oil or Chinese currency, both countries recognize the strategic value of cultivating closer ties with nations in our own hemisphere. In some cases the commercial deals are followed up by military exchanges. Then there are where the reasons for a partnership are unclear. Iran and Venezuela for example, are both significant oil-producing nations; they certainly aren’t discussing an oil deal. What could be at the heart of their deepening relationship?

And where is Barack Obama? He’s focused on making sure that America’s labor unions are appeased - by putting a chill on NAFTA, on a Free Trade Area of the Americas, and any other deal that would bring closer commercial ties with the region’s developing countries. If the U.S. fails to offer strong commercial ties, our trading partners can look elsewhere.

If Obama continues to keep Latin America at arms length, he will find it increasingly filled with unfriendly regimes. It’s only a matter of time before someone starts a war using weapons and money derived from Teheran, Moscow, or Beijing. Or before some act of terrorism is traced back to the mullah-caudillo alliance.

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4. Online Left Blames Talk Right and Conservatives For Recent Shooting

Kos Polls: How Many People Are Going To Die Due To Talk Radio?

This weekend, three Pittsburgh police officers were gunned down in cold blood by a disturbed gunman during an hours long standoff in what is an otherwise quiet suburb. You probably wouldn’t normally think that’s a source for clever one liners, but then, you aren’t a DailyKos kid are you?

Here is the portion of the news story that Kos and Kompany are using as an excuse for their loathsome behavior:

Police Chief Nate Harper said the motive for the shooting isn’t clear, but friends said the gunman recently had been upset about losing his job and feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.

Nevermind that the story goes on to elaborate on numerous incidents highlighting the shooter’s instability. Kos and his Komrades find this to be sufficient grounds for suggesting that conservatives like to kill cops.

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5. Iowa court decision may affect 2012 GOP primary

Politico says, ‘Hee-Haw!’

According to the Votemaster, the recent decision by the Iowa Supreme Court striking down a state law which defines marriage as the legal union between one man and one woman, “immensely complicates” the 2012 race for the GOP…

For social conservatives like Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) it is a twofer: they can campaign for the Iowa caucuses by railing against (1) gay marriage and (2) activist judges. Iowa’s Republicans are deeply conservative and by moving the hot-button social issues to the front burner, Palin and Huckabee benefit from this. Mitt Romney is currently against gay marriage, but Iowa Republicans can never be sure what position he will take a week later in New Hampshire.

If Palin and Huckabee finish first and second in Iowa, in whichever order, whoever finishes fourth will have a hard time recovering in New Hampshire. If the #3 finisher is a relative moderate, such as Romney or Gov. John Huntsman (R-UT), he could still have a good shot at winning the New Hampshire primary. While winning Iowa is no guarantee of getting the nomination (just ask Mike Huckabee), it certainly is a good start. As a consequence, the likelihood of the Republicans nominating a highly conservative, deeply religious candidate has been greatly increased by the Iowa court decision.

While it’s still a bit early to be counting votes (straw or otherwise) in Iowa, the action by that state’s Supremes should indeed make the race more interesting. Look for Mitt Romney to be talking up his opposition to gay marriage in the coming months.

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6. Obama: standing between bankers and pitchforks? *Really*?

Permit me to be the first to call the President’s bluff.

This Politico story has been making the rounds - see here and here and here and shoot, Memeorandum in general - and it’s mostly because of the passage below, in response over attempts to explain salary bonuses:

But President Barack Obama wasn’t in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation and offered a blunt reminder of the public’s reaction to such explanations. “Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that.”

“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

Really?

Oh, I know that Americans are “outraged” over this issue: Gallup told us so, after all. Gallup also told us that there’s no consensus on how to get that money back, not to mention the fact that the Democratic Congress got almost a low a grade on how they handled this as AIG did. Which is fair, because it’s because of the Democrats - and President Obama - that those bonuses were distributed in the first place. Still, you can look at that and at Rasmussen and conclude that the American people want the money given back. Fine.

But here’s the thing about the ‘pitchforks:’ they’re not being waved around because of the AIG bonuses. We’ve already established that the Democrats’ pet faux-populists tried their level best to gin up some faux-populism over this issue, and they failed. Miserably. Oh, sure, you got the usual death threats from the Angry Left… but there is an actual populist movement growing out there, and they are a lot more vocal about out-of-control government spending than they are about corporate bonuses. This was actually brought up at the time by the actual populists themselves, but it was unaccountably not covered. Just like the entire Tea Party movement in general, really. You know, the one that’s scheduled its next big series of demonstrations for Income Tax Day… which should tell you everything that you would need to know about the real focus of the actually-expressed outrage of the American people right now.

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7. American President thinks ‘Austrian’ is a language

Can you say Dohbama? I knew you could.

President Barack Obama made a world-class gaffe in front of the entire planet’s press during his news conference in Strasbourg, France. He said he didn’t know what a particular word would be in “Austrian.”

There is no such language as “Austrian.” Isn’t there someone on the White House staff, a director of Protocol or something, whose job it is to make sure the leader of the free world knows these things? Or did no one say anything because they assumed that it was reasonably common knowledge?

You probably recall the howls from the drive-by media and the leftosphere when Fox News’ Carl Cameron said that he was told “by folks” - folks without names, apparently - that Sarah Palin didn’t know that Africa was a continent. The press and “progressive” bloggers had a field day with it, even though it was only a rumor and had never been confirmed by anyone willing to put their name behind it.

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8. McCain to Amnesty Backers: You’re On Your Own

They didn’t scratch his back . . . um . . . back

Liberals had a lot of fun last year picking on John McCain for having a short temper. It’s poetic justice that he seems to hold a grudge:

John McCain sounds angry and frustrated that, despite the risks he took in pushing immigration reform, Hispanic voters flocked to Democrat Barack Obama in last year’s presidential contest. McCain’s raw emotions burst forth recently as he heatedly told Hispanic business leaders that they should now look to Obama, not him, to take the lead on immigration…

“He was angry,” one source said. “He was over the top. In some cases, he rolled his eyes a lot. There were portions of the meeting where he was just staring at the ceiling, and he wasn’t even listening to us. We came out of the meeting really upset.”

McCain’s message was obvious, the source continued: Aftertwo bucking his party on immigration, he had no sympathy for Hispanics who are dissatisfied with President Obama’s pace on the issue. “He threw out [the words] ‘You people — you people made your choice. You made your choice during the election,’ ” the source said. “It was almost as if [he was saying] ‘You’re cut off!’ We felt very uncomfortable when we walked away from the meeting because of that.”

McCain is already catching some flak for the behavior alleged in this account. Go to the link to read his press secretary’s denial that he did or said anything inappropriate. Note too that McCain’s temper (complete with such frightening displays as eye-rolling and looking at the ceiling) seems to have upset just two participants in the meeting.

In a broader sense though, this is nothing more than just desserts, right? McCain upset most conservatives with his pursuit of immigration reform. He certainly devoted more political capital to the goal than Barack Obama - whom many latinos fear is giving nothing more than lip service to the cause. Now that Obama has all the levers of power, the hispanic community can hold him accountable. And whatever effort he makes, it’ll likely be with no Republican help to speak of.

After all, he won.

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