A couple of friends in London (here for the holidays) have asked “why would you Republicans risk so much damage to prevent 2% of the population from moving from a 35% to a 39.6% marginal tax rate.” Republicans are obviously terrible marketers, but there are three clear considerations as they manage their two points of leverage – the fiscal cliff, and the companion debt ceiling | Read More »
Surprise newsflash: The consensus Democratic frontrunner for president in 2016, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who graciously protected President Obama from blame for security failures at Benghazi in October, and allowed ambitious subordinate Susan Rice to be the administration’s prime source of disinformation, misses key congressional hearings (due to a virus or a concussion or whatever), while the official administration report on State’s failures focuses | Read More »
A month after the election I am still in the “what the **** happened?” mode – beyond denial, anger, and bargaining but not yet through depression to acceptance. Elections are about the candidates, the campaigns, and the policies. The first two of these are about somebody else and in the past – not a personal problem; it is the third that challenges one’s view of | Read More »
Several years ago, along life’s wonderous journey, I had the responsibility for buying stuff – bottles, flour, spices, filling equipment, transportation services, and the like -for a couple of large corporations. In the process I learned some universal truths about negotiation- some obvious; some not – and tried to pass on some of the difficult lessons to my junior purchasing agents. In politics some is | Read More »
Like many of my friends I am still shocked and depressed that the American voters would not be much concerned about our rapidly escalating $16 trillion of federal debt or the President’s ineptitude and deliberate deception about Benghazi. But we’ve got to move on; taking an inventory might be a good, if painful, starting point. Nationally, we’re stuck for four more years with a left | Read More »
The financial and political papers and blogs are full of the question of whether a deal will be found to avoid the “fiscal cliff” at year end. Many commentators miss the point … the real question is about the first half of 2013. Let’s make sure that we are on the same page. Wanting to get through the November 6 election, and being unable to | Read More »
Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus’ luster has diminished a bit from his halcyon days as chair of the Wisconsin Republican Party (capturing virtually everything in a period of a few years), so I invoke his name in reference to the Republican party elders. With 10 days’ reflection, here is the “to do” list: Short Term (week 1) (retrieved from the trash outside RNC Headquarters) | Read More »
“Mankind is facing a crossroad – one road leads to despair and utter hopelessness and the other to total extinction – I sincerely hope you graduates choose the right road” ― Woody Allen, Mere Anarchy I thought about writing about California – top income tax rate raised to 12.3%; sales tax raised to an average of 8.25%; corporate taxes raised $1 billion; Republican registration | Read More »
“Mankind is facing a crossroad – one road leads to despair and utter hopelessness and the other to total extinction – I sincerely hope you graduates choose the right road” ― Woody Allen, Mere Anarchy I thought about writing about California – top income tax rate raised to 12.3%; sales tax raised to an average of 8.25%; corporate taxes raised $1 billion; Republican registration | Read More »
Presidential elections are importantly about policies, but they are also about competence and trust. The shift in this election has occured in large part because the debates have given Mitt Romney an opportunity to demonstrate that he is not the person that hundreds of millions of Democratic dollars tried to paint him to be, but more subliminally the public is seeing the staggering the gap | Read More »
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