GOP War on Voting

Graphic courtesy of newscorpse.com. Here's a link to the story:

http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=5335

Krugman, Laffer on Real Time with Bill Maher

Paul Krugman and Arthur Laffer (of the trickle-down/supply-side economics school) on Real Time with Bill Maher. Paul is great as usual! This segment starts at 16:00 minutes in...

[NOTE: I rechecked the link and it's been removed as of 05 31 12. Sorry! Might be elsewhere on YouTube]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWW49wXzs84

How National Belt-Tightening Goes Awry

How National Belt-Tightening Goes Awry --

Robert Shiller writing in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/business/economy/how-national-belt-tightening-goes-awry-economic-view.html

"Consider our current thinking about taxes and government spending. We seem caught up in a “family belt-tightening” metaphor, in which the nation is a family that has outspent its income and is trying to get back in control. The family must cut profligate spending, save and pay down debts. It’s a powerful thought, of course, because we know that mismanagement of household finances can lead to a family’s ruin.

But perhaps the most important lesson conveyed by the great economist John Maynard Keynes is that this metaphor, when applied to the national economy, is fundamentally misleading: what is smart for the family is not smart for society as a whole. This idea, sometimes known as the paradox of thrift, is that when we all tighten our belts at once, the economy is so weakened that we end up failing to save more, and instead are all worse off. When that happens, some collective action — government stimulus — is needed."

How Chief Justice John Roberts orchestrated the Citizens United decision.

How Chief Justice John Roberts orchestrated the Citizens United decision:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/21/120521fa_fact_toobin?currentPage=all

Barack Obama has lowest spending record of any recent president

Barack Obama has lowest spending record of any recent president -- PolitiFact analysis:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/may/23/facebook-posts/viral-facebook-post-says-barack-obama-has-lowest-s/

Table from the site:

What Republicans Really think about Bain Capital

Enjoyed this from Think Progress:

Here are the top 10 comments about Bain from Romney’s Republican rivals:

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/05/22/488113/10-things-mitt-romneys-republican-primary-opponents-said-about-bain/

From the site:

1. “The idea that you’ve got private equity companies that come in and take companies apart so they can make profits and have people lose their jobs, that’s not what the Republican Party’s about.” — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/12/12]
2. “The Bain model is to go in at a very low price, borrow an immense amount of money, pay Bain an immense amount of money and leave. I’ll let you decide if that’s really good capitalism. I think that’s exploitation.” — Newt Gingrich [New York Times, 1/17/12]
3. “Instead of trying to work with them to try to find a way to keep the jobs and to get them back on their feet, it’s all about how much money can we make, how quick can we make it, and then get out of town and find the next carcass to feed upon” — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]
4. “We find it pretty hard to justify rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company, leaving behind 1,700 families without a job.” — Newt Gingrich [Globe and Mail, 1/9/12]
5. “Now, I have no doubt Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips — whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out because his company, Bain Capital, of all the jobs that they killed” — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/9/12]
6) “He claims he created 100,000 jobs. The Washington Post, two days ago, reported in their fact check column that he gets three Pinocchios. Now, a Pinocchio is what you get from The Post if you’re not telling the truth.” — Newt Gingrich [1/13/12, NBC News]
7. “There is something inherently wrong when getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business, and I happen to think that’s indefensible” — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]
8. “If Governor Romney would like to give back all the money he’s earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years, then I would be glad to then listen to him” — Newt Gingrich [Mediaite, 12/14/11]
9. “If you’re a victim of Bain Capital’s downsizing, it’s the ultimate insult for Mitt Romney to come to South Carolina and tell you he feels your pain, because he caused it.” — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/8/12]
10. “They’re vultures that sitting out there on the tree limb waiting for the company to get sick and then they swoop in, they eat the carcass. They leave with that and they leave the skeleton” — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]

David Stockman Talks about Romney Job Creation

David Stockman on Fox Business News re Romney's job creation claims:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu4-6o44d6M
 

"I don't think that Mitt Romney can legitimately say that he learned anything about how to create jobs in the LBO business. The LBO business is about how to strip cash out of old, long-in-the-tooth companies and how to make short-term profits…All the jobs that he talks about came from Staples. That was a very early venture stage deal. That, you know they got out of long before it got to its current size."