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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

See, We Told You So

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  July 31st, 2011 at 01:59 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Back in 1994, Rush Limbaugh wrote See I Told You So. From page 88 of the book:

[T]he cure for: a) the budget deficit = more taxes; b) unemployment = more taxes; c) recession = more taxes; d) environmental problems = more taxes; e) illiteracy = more taxes; f) L.A. riots = more taxes. It doesn’t matter what the nature of the problem is.

This week, whether you listened to Rush, Sean, Mark, or even me filling in for Boortz, we’ve been telling you so. This whole farce in Washington is a way to get more tax revenue from you and despite public pronouncements from the Republicans that they were holding the line on tax revenue they were either (A) complicit behind the scenes or (B) going to get played.

We were right.

What we know about the pending deal is that the Democrats and Republicans are agreeing to a Deficit Commission. Despite the media spin — and the spin of some Republican sycophants — the deficit commission, which will be a super committee of the Congress, will have the power to come up with new tax revenue.

And if the Congress rejects the Commission’s demands for new tax revenue, there will be a trigger that cuts both medicare funding and defense funding.

Except, the defense funding cuts will be much more massive than the medicare cuts. And the GOP, in addition to seeing defense cut, would be hacking off seniors right before an election.

In other words, Republican Leaders are asking their members to accept tax increases or massive defense cuts and senior anger right before the election. Oh, and the medicare cuts technically wouldn’t come from beneficiaries, but from providers. Those same providers who’ll just stop taking medicare patients.

It’s not that the GOP got played so much as GOP leaders were collaborating on this. Boehner wanted a grand bargain and now he’s going to get it along with tax increases.

But hey! At least we’ll get a vote on a balanced budget amendment — one without a requirement for a super majority to raise taxes.

UPDATED: for the counter argument on why tax increases will not be practically possible, consider this post by Rich Lowry. I’ve been apprised of the same thing.

Essentially, because present law presumes that the Bush tax cuts will go away and the commission, or super committee, must focus on reducing the deficit, any tax increases the commission offers would appear outrageously large and politically unpopular if they are to have an effect on the deficit.

I’m still mulling this over.

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COMMENTS

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  • http://www.usdebateboard.com usdebateboard

    There is no alternative except for a bona fide anti-tax national candidate (for President) to step into the breach and run an anti-establishment campaign against, among others, the leadership of his or her own party.

    The Tea Party infrastructure is tried and tested and already in place.

    The door is really wide open now.

  • lineholder

    Someone correct me if I’m wrong. My understanding is that both Boehner’s and Reid’s plans had about $1 trillion in cuts. This current grand plan of the day supposedly included around $1 trillion in cuts specified now with a commission to define other cuts later that would equal or exceed the amount of debt ceiling increase.

    But now the commission is being set up to increase taxes?

    Didn’t Moody’s say that they were looking for mechanisms to decrease government spending and that both Boehner’s and Reid’s amounts were too puny? If so, then doesn’t adding this commission’s ability to increase taxes rather than focus on cuts preclude a downgrade?

  • Ausonius

    Primaries ought to be game-changers in 2012.

    Are the replacement Conservative candidates out there?

    And we need an internal revolution in the Republican Party, as has been obvious for too long!

  • runner12

    This new ” deal” is worse than any put on the table, excepting Obama’s non-plan.

    Any, and I mean any, Republican who signs off on this should be primaried. I do not care who they are.

  • kchand

    if these spendaholics just raise taxes & continue to spend 25% of GDP?

  • izoneguy

    Why don’t we tell the democrats to go pound sand?

    Repeal ObamaCare, cut some cabinet level programs…..
    Destroy the EPA and then we will talk…..

    And no new taxes.

    Otherwise – see you in Default City.

  • http://www.usdebateboard.com usdebateboard

    He doesn’t have to defend real conservative legislation to a hostile MSM, and he only needs to peel off a handful of his own party’s Senators to get buttslaps for being a “compromiser.”

    He has no incentive to change anything.

  • izoneguy

    Washington D.C. is showing no signs of stopping the spending binge.

  • lineholder

    had also been under the impression that if we got some common sense responsibility from folks in DC rather than just more of politics as usual, it might be averted.

    If they are going with politics as usual in this case, when they know full well what it will cost us…the battle is definitely ON now!!

  • luvnthebigsites

    I think 4 trillion was the number to get us “taken off” the “downgrade” “list”… or something much more substantial. My question is… Where do i send Moody’s investor service their Gadsden flag? If they DO downgrade us after this “compromise” that would make them part of the extremist hobbit Tea party faction… no?

  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    getting rid of a bought and paid for tax subsidy is not a tax hike and by allowing Norquist to define it as such and signing his silly pledge, we have brought this rigidity unto ourselves. In reality, all the deductions should go and rates should come down, but in the interim, I will take getting rid of any of these market distorting tax deductions (and all of them distort markets and are anything but something a believer in free markets should support) and at least bringing equity to the the tax rate regime we have today.

  • lineholder

    and either an increase in taxes OR heavy defense cuts/Medicare cuts out of this deal?

    Dems and establishment Repubs have just dug themselves in so deep there’s no way out. For either side.

  • http://www.usdebateboard.com usdebateboard

    “market distorting tax deductions?”

    Name them.

  • lastgopinillinois

    We have had
    Simpson/Bowles
    The gang of 6/7
    the Biden group
    Dont we all really already know what we need to do by now to decrease the deficit?
    I’m gonna go out on a limb here…….STOP SPENDING
    Doesnt it make common sense to everyone that the worst thing you could do to a weak economy in recession is raise taxes?
    We should cut all spending that the federal govt should not be involved in to begin with and return the money to the treasury for deficit reduction.
    Is there something the politicians dont understand about that?

  • rickdeckard

    I started back in January, but stopped, always finding other things that needed my time. NO MORE. This drive starts now and goes through next year and beyond. I’m done aiding the useful idiots on the right through my own inaction.

    We WILL elect a genuine conservative president next year and give him/her the congress necessary to truly stop this madness.

  • izoneguy

    I say we keep blocking and the 2nd week in August to make Obama really sweat. The world won’t end (OK it might for the dems) if a few checks are late.
    This has been so much fun I think we should do it every 6 months.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    The Obama Democrats are trying to create a ‘new normal’. The old normal had 3% economic growth and 5% unemployment. The new Obama normal has 2% (or less!) growth and 9% unemployment. The old normal was a Federal Government that spent 18-20% of GDP and had $200 billion deficits. The new Obama normal spends almost 25% of GDP, and throws in a Government takeover of healthcare to boot, with costs and mandates on every state, business and individual.

    The critical issue of 2012 will be the question of whether we raise taxes to pay for the Obama/Democrat spending spree, $45 trillion over the next 10 years, or do we cut back on that spending.

    To paraphrase Sen McConnell: We refuse to be the tax-collectors for Obama’s Big Government!

    Just as Cut, Cap and Balance laid out in clear terms what was required to accept a debt ceiling increase, we will need to restate – and hold to – some key principles to get a decent result out of future debates, committees and commissions:
    - There needs to be $10 trillion less spending over the next 10 years than Obama projects. That’s normal and balanced. Every spending cut that Tom Coburn proposed ($7 trillion), the Ryan plan roadmap, and the waste and fraud from GAO reports, needs to be a part of the package.
    - Spending cuts that ‘cut’ a projection in year 9 are meaningless. To have $1.8T in cuts over 10 years means a minimum of $180 billion, or 10% of it, needs to be cut in year 1. With a $3.7 trillion budget can we seriously not find $180 billion to cut? (5% cut)
    - There needs to be repeal, rollback and defunding of Obamacare. That’s normal and balanced.
    - There needs to be a moratorium on tax rate increases, including a refusal to increase tax rates
    - There needs to be no net tax increases in REAL terms, not in CBO terms (which assumes Bush tax cuts and AMT fixes expire, allowing a hidden $4 trillion take hike). That’s normal and balanced. Either make Bush tax cuts permanent and/or reform taxes by reducing rates in exchange for ‘loophole closure’.

    Whatever debt ceiling ‘deal’ is cooked up and voted on, this is not the end, this is just the beginning of the campaign to rollback Big Government. Step one on that road is to refuse to be the tax-collectors for Obama’s Big Government.

  • caboose

    until 2012 to get rid of Boehner and McConnell as leaders of the party. Actually, I should have said capitulators and two face traitors instead of Leaders. All calls should demand these sickening B@$tards to immediately resign. Also don,t forget the anti-American, UnAmerican socialist Communist aka Demon-C-Rats to resign. After all our effort to convince Boehner and McConnell to listen to the Majority of the American people, and the other so called conservatives, they have all let us down. I think it is so long America. One last try would be to march on washington and demand that the entire Government be abandoned and start all over again. This Government does not work period.

  • Bill S

    Really, now? If taxes go up, it’s not a tax hike?

    Put away the crack pipe.

  • lineholder

    But average Americans are hurting badly right now. People are weary to the bone of politics as usual coming out of Washington, DC. That’s why the levels of distrust for government in general are so high and there is so much pessimism.

    And if the status quo politicians think they can make this deal and everything will just blow over, our economy will recover, and citizens will be hunky-dory, peach-keen, fine-and-dandy with this extraordinarily high level of irresponsibility, then they are badly, badly misjudging the mood that the general public is in right now.

  • rpopp23

    Fox is reporting that a deal is “within reach”. Several others are saying it is close, but not there yet. Do you think that some of these things everyone is upset about on this site might be part of the reason there is no deal yet? Because ABC says something, will it happen? Their track record is hardly pristine. I think this site loses a little credibility by complaining about what the leadership has done before they have done it. Let’s see what the deal is before we get carried away.

  • 6eorge Jetson

    I don’t know. I’ve lost count.

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    53 per cent of those who bothered to vote in 2008 voted for the Marxist candidate for president and elected progressive/socialist majorities in the House and Senate.

    In 2010, only about 41 per cent of eligible voters bothered to vote.

    Now, in 2011, still over half of the Republican Party local precinct committeeman slots remain vacant without conservatives standing in line to fill them.

    According to the Faith and Freedom Coalition, half of church-going Americans are not even registered to vote (and I know that only half of those who are registered to vote bother to vote in the general elections): http://ffcoalition.com/2011/06/23/july-3rd-is-citizenship-sunday-register-to-vote/ (F&FC is a sponsor of the Redstate Gathering and I hope they will give a talk about this project to the attendees.)

    Boehner’s in his 10th or 11th term in the House. Mitch McConnell’s entire career has been government and running to be an “elected public servant.” I believe nothing will change for the better until more conservatives, including Redstaters, actually get involved in party politics where they live, so they can vote for better Party officers at the local, county, state and RNC levels and they can be in the best position to help the best conservative candidates win the all-important, traditionally-very-low-turnout primary elections. Simply put, not enough conservative Republicans have ever attended even one local Party committee meeting. We’ve got plenty of conservatives in the bleachers of politics, but not enough down on the turf where the real ball game gets played. And that’s at your local, monthly committee meeting. Ever been to one?

    As James Carville, if he was a conservative, might put it, “It’s the spending, stupid.” And, “It’s the elections, stupid.” We simply must, as Rush Limbaugh said last week, win more elections. But we’ve got to make sure that we elect Constitutional conservatives. And to do that, we have to make sure that they win the primary elections. Obviously.

    Oh, and guess what? The “establishment Republicans” are just fine with you not showing up. Indeed, they’ll never breathe a word about any of this to you. Why should they? It’s not their job to educate you about basic American civics and how party politics works. That’s your job. It’s not their fault you don’t show up. It’s your fault.

    And I’m guilty as charged. I didn’t get involved inside the Party until 2007. I did it the old-fashioned way. I picked up the phone and kept calling until I finally got a county party functionary to tell me where I needed to go to become a precinct committeeman. I got appointed to a vacancy — hell, there about 240 slots in my legislative district (here we meet on a legislative district basis) and only abut 65 slots filled. My precinct had 8 slots and only 4 filled. My county had only 31.8 per cent of the slots filled. Now we’re up to almost 50 per cent. My precinct now has all 8 slots filled.. We now have 130 slots filled in my legislative district. Now I’m an elected precinct committeeman with full voting rights and also a state committeeman with full rights to cast votes for the state chairman, the RNC delegates and our state delegates to the presidential nominating convention. That increase in conservative precinct committeemen has translated in the election of more conservatives to elected public office in my state (Arizona) and to the party officer ranks.

    And how did all this happen? By conservatives like me showing up at a meeting and asking, “How do I become a voting member of the Republican Party?”

    Thank you.

    ColdWarrior

  • kyconservative

    I’m 41 years old and I’ve known my whole life that Republicans are stupid. This just, yet again, verifies what I know.

  • Carol Tarasewicz

    Mark Levin was abused all over NRO etc this week, I did not see much about Rush except here yesterday.
    Erick I started listening to your show online from nine to ten pm. I listen to Mark Levin from six to nine, then yours. I enjoy it.
    Brown was the only R to vote today for the Reid “bill.” He’s going to lose that seat next year. He won it with national support becuase everyone wanted that “Kennedy” seat to go to an R, but he is a RINO. I’m sorry he’s mine. Rubio is an example for all of us. We should be happy there are Marco’s and others like him, we need more.

  • tippycanoe

    I am looking to Redstate for a conservative tried-and-true viewpoint. I want information, marching orders and inspiration, not utter contempt for the very people on our side that we need to persuade to hold the line and bitter sarcasm. Redstate is coming across frayed, harried, at times arrogant, and slightly delusional. It’s difficult to fight on two fronts. Let’s be more like Rand Paul talking to Don Lemon or Marco Rubio during his speech. “Be respectful” especially to you own side!

  • kyconservative

    Why spend time going to committee meetings, organize, register and vote when it’s all a lost cause anyway. Hopefully, there will be a country somewhere where we can flee once the ship goes down and America mired in massive civil unrest.

  • johnt

    & pretend once again that he is a man. The media will pronounce him and the Dems as the greatest thing since primeval man discovered wild grain. The Repubs, no matter what, will continue to be the scum of the Earth, a not-Christian murderer the same as 1400 years of islamic war and terror,, a civil rights battle will commence on behalf of men marrying their pets, and Normal People won’t be able to afford bread or gasoline. Progressives will be happy for ten minutes.
    Degeneration, some work hard for it.

  • SoFiMil

    .

  • fpete13527

    …..but if checks dont go out there will be two people, and two people only, that are responsible for it:

    1. Obama – because he has to order the stops – instead of temporary stopping funding to something else. There is more than enough to fund checks that need to go out.

    2. Boehner – because he didnt allow a vote that would have forced Obama to fund certain things first while this needed fight played out

  • luvnthebigsites

    .

  • izoneguy

    I would rather hurt a little than be destroyed.
    Obama & the dems could care less about average Americans.

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    Your example will inspire others to follow suit. I hope you will post Diaries at Redstate about what the “state of the Party” is in your locale in terms of how many conservatives are in the Party, how many vacancies exist, etc.

    Thank you again.

    ColdWarrior

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    CW

  • SoFiMil

    in Chicago.

  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    They are simply government pickimg winners and losers:
    Ethanol, mortgage interest, state and local taxes, muni bonds, cap gains/dividends, etc. Every single deduction has a market distorting effect and they all need to go (with corresponding lowering of rates across the board).

  • acat

    Clearly, DotD is seeing things when he (or, I suppose, she) says that a private citizen who hasn’t ever been in public office – Grover, that is – “did this to us”.

    Mew

  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    If not, then it is not a tax hike. Getting rid of a lobbyist paid for deduction that should never have existed in the first place isn’t a tax hike, it is getting rid of a benefit that should never have existed in the first place.

  • izoneguy
  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    Of what is or is not a tax hike for our party, which is a problem. Yes, our elected officials voted these marketndistortions into place, but the reason they cannot get rid of them now is because of their pledge to Grover.

  • lineholder

    Here’s what I see in this. Dems are wanting to get rid of a few tax cuts anyway, such as the Alternative Minimum Tax, “death tax”, and Bush tax rates. Well, this commission gives them a sure-fire way to succeed in doing that. And if Repubs don’t agree, then defense/Medicare get hit.

    Historically speaking, it has been small businesses who have brought us out of a recession. Small business owners are reeling from what’s going on with Obamacare implementation. Let them know that they are going to be facing additional tax increases, and we’ll be seeing our unemployment rate increase. They won’t have a choice.

  • izoneguy

    Obama and all of his “plans”.

  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    That cutting spending has just as much of negative impact on immediate growth as a tax hike does right?

  • Aaron Gardner

    Seriously, the veil didn’t just slip, you ripped it off, threw it on the ground and did an Irish jig on it.

    You aren’t even an entertaining hack anymore.

  • Aaron Gardner

    Donkey.

  • lineholder

    if we want to see this nation have a chance to recover, we need for the economy to be at least somewhat stable at the end of 2012.

    I guess I’m looking at that fine line where what’s been done on loss of business, loss of jobs, and higher unemployment rates won’t be easily undone.

  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    Subsidies I take it. I do not support an increase in marginal rates and would like to see all rates come down following the elimination of deductions. What I don’t support are all the market distorting deductions in the tax code, as I (unlike youmit seems) actually believe the market is better at allocating resources than government through the tax code.

  • acat

    Period. End of discussion.

    A rose by any other name would smell about the same, and an increase in revenue to D.C. will hurt just about as badly.

    Now, I’m still open to exploring something like a “floor” rate for the income tax, that is, everyone who files a 1040 must pay 1%, but .. I see that as an honest, spreading the burden kind of a thing.

    Mew

  • izoneguy

    Obama is President….

    2012 will be a very bad year at least until Nov…..

  • Aaron Gardner

    And then act as if this isn’t market distorting.

    You are a hack and your shtick has just about run it’s course here Donkey.

  • lineholder

    this admin would love to leave whoever comes next in a position where the damage that has been done won’t be easily undone. But if things get bad enough, izoneguy, citizens could become more vulnerable to supporting some of the things that the left would just love to get up and running, like an old-fashioned WPA, just for the sake of having a job.

  • lineholder

    and citizens would be just desperate enough to buy into it.

  • izoneguy

    Obama already blew a Trillion on that and we know where that money went.
    Americans may be desperate but they are not that stupid (OK the ones on the left are).

    GDP Report Shatters Illusion of Jobless, Productivity-Packed Recovery

  • fpete13527

    …..the blame game is not of value.

    My underlying communiocation is that in order to engage in the fight that will save small business, and the country overall, we wont win it unless there is a brutal battle right now.

    Allowing to be stopped by Obama/Dems shameless threats/actions/narrative are what ultimately may make it worse for both the small business and everyone else.

    I fully agree that empowering the small businesses, at all costs, is critical.

    I don’t believe anything that this new ____ sandwich will do that.

  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    That you choose to live in a high tax state, but I shouldn’t have to subsidize you living there by paying more federal taxes than you do. Does someone in say NY get less protection from our military than I do! Then why should I pay more in federal taxes than you. As for capital gains, they are a form of income and taxing them at a lower rate skews spending decisions while doing very little to help our economy anymore.

  • lineholder

    Given Obama’s focus on mfg. in recent months, it’s occurred to me that the admin may have come up with a way to present a more modern-day WPA using mfg. as it vehicle for implementation. Still, it would entail greater dependency on government and more government spending, and it would completely distort our current supply-and-demand economic system because the government would have to include mandates of some sort to keep this WPA up and running.

    I think if they believed they could pull it off, regardless of the long-term consequences, they’d give it a shot. I’d rather not give them a chance to put our economy or our people in that kind of position.

    It’s too bad that Repub leadership can’t seem to get out of this mindset of playing politics as usual, because we really do have an amazing opportunity here to get our nation back on the right track.

  • jj98

    And maybe the Fairness Doctrine and a new “assault weapons” ban.

  • gekster

    Or do you just play an economics major on the net.

  • rightwingmom52

    Are you involved your local/state party?

    As for being respectful, that’s a two-way street. I’ve certainly shown more respect for my representatives than they’ve shown me or their good friends across the aisle.

  • Fla Mom

    Nothing will make our true economic condition more clear so real solutions can be accepted.

    As someone’s tag line says, “…the status quo is a road to economic ruin.”

    Fla Mom

  • Aaron Gardner

    Because it just isn’t right that you should be allowed to keep more money than me just because you make more.

    You are a progressive idiot.

    Good day fool

  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    We will never be able to reform the tax code because even under Coburn’s plan some people (those who claimed the most breaks) would see their rates go up even if most people saw a drop (for instance, GE is likely going to see it’s rate go up under any corporate tax reform)

  • rightwingmom52

    and I am willing to take a hit and share the hurt, but it’s frightening to realize that 30+ years of saving for retirement may be flushed down the toilet in a matter of days. We’ve weathered the ups and downs of the market before, but I’m fearful we haven’t seen anything like what’s coming for years, but on a more personal level, I’m not sure what we can do about it.

  • runner12

    including the Fox morning shows. One panelist on Fox said that the cuts to defense on the trigger option could be up to 50%.

    Also, if I had a dollar for everytime that someone on RS scooped the other media when it comes to the goings-on in Washington, I could donate the money to Congress and significantly pay down the debt.

    RS has sources that are almost always accurate and I will add that this scenario has played out exactly as predicted by EE.

  • rightwingmom52

    staying a step or two ahead of the GOP leadership. It’s sure not too difficult for EE and others here to do the same.

  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    Let me make this really simple for you:

    Assume you and I make the same income. Assume i live in Texas (low taxes) and you live in Chicago, IL (very high taxes). Since our federal benefits are essentially the same, why should I subsidize your federal taxes by paying a higher bill (holding all else equal). That is the rub, we have set up a system where those that choose to live in higher tax areas pay lower federal tax rates (effective) than those in lower tax states.

  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    what I am saying is that people at the same income level should be paying the same tax rate. I would love to have a flat tax, but this argument still applies, people making the same amount should be paying the same in taxes.

  • Aaron Gardner

    And under your own logic in this same thread, you aren’t paying higher taxes unless your rate is higher than my rate.

  • carolina

    It seems the 75 progressive dems in the House are saying they will not support this deal.
    Unbelievable. I’m beginning to think that nothing will get done. They are going to end up adding an amendment to the military construction Bill to raise the ceiling. Nothing else will get done.
    They can’t get enough votes for ANY proposal.
    It is not the first time. Plenty of Bills have failed to come out of conference. This ‘conference’ (negotiation) seems to be failing.

  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    Facts not in evidence? We know marginal rates and tax rates in Texas/Chicago, that is all we need. And you totally twisted my words, what I said was that it isn’t a tax increase if we get rid of deductions so long as your marginal rate doesn’t go up (obviously your effective rate will rise). In this case, and it was a Very simple economic argument, texans subsidize chicagoans.

  • bk

    Democratic position: We don’t care what happens to the country as long as we get more power and more money when all is said and done. If there is default / shutdown / downgrade / depression / recession / WHATEVER we couldn’t care less – it’ll get blamed on the GOP so that’s even better.

    Republican position: We don’t want them to blame us, so we’ll agree to whatever the final deal is before August 2nd.

    With these as the starting positions, the end game was set all along. The rest is just posturing and preening.

  • Aaron Gardner

    I will let you dangle while you try to figure out the multiple assumptions you made.

  • izoneguy

    Job training blah, blah, blah….

    ATI students hunt for answers, as state moves to close schools

    When Communist China offers a better deal for manufacturers than the US then
    nothing short of a complete overall of the Federal system will do. (Or become communist I guess?)

  • izoneguy

    Work like hell to get rid of Obama & the democrats so we can grow & thrive again.

  • acat

    How does calling a thing what it is prevent it from happening?

    People called Clinton’s tax hike a tax hike, and it happened.
    People called Obama’s tax hike (Obamacare) a tax hike .. and it happened.

    Clearly, your logic is flawed.

    I didn’t say we can’t reform or even raise. I said be honest about it.

    If it’s a tax hike, don’t wuss out and use pretty langauge, say “We are raising taxes on X, here is why, here is the expected result”.

    Mew

  • boballab

    A. His/her mouth is moving.

    Do not trust anything that comes from a progressive.

  • rickdeckard

    My bad for thinking I had more important things to do the first Tuesday of each month.

    My experience was that the meetings were about local party business and not all that exciting. I don’t even recall any DC matters being discussed. If that’s where it starts, so be it. The plan is to replace each and every weasel quisling, and as many jabobin lefties as possible.

    Thanks for the encouragement, CW.

  • rickdeckard

    ColdWarrior, noted the caps now, and jacobin. Jabobin sounds like some obscure Star Wars reference to the Hut clan.

  • kowalski

    The rules for a Kowalski are rooted in notion that you as the poster have the prerogative to extend a thought or post a tangent to your own thought or to continue to develop the thought, or finish the thought because you didn’t realize something when you wrote it, by “replying to yourself.” So this is perfectly fine.

    Fact is that it’s just a nod to the way most people think and it’s a bit of an easement for the ironclad enforcement of the “Post” button. The best use of a Kowalsk as I’ve said several times in the past, and I would award Kowalski Emmys for, are second thoughts that are actually much better than the originals, but this one still passes the basic test. It’s not spamming, there’s a difference.

  • kowalski

    ;)

  • kowalski

    I have to trace the development of the Kowalski to one of Meatloaf’s classic songs, at least partially. Here in cyberspace we say things that are often incomplete thoughts but we can neither edit nor delete them after they’re posted. And yet there’s something terribly unsatisfying about them, that we would have amended in the fullness of time.

    I encourage people not to rely too much on it, and try to think through and edit before they post, but sometimes that’s not always how it works out. Luckily nobody is getting graded here. It’s always reminded me of this song, for better or for worse.

    How many of us have had second thoughts about important things we’ve said? Just about all of us.

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

  • Carner_York

    Whatever the final deal, it will be a bad deal for the American people. Of this I am convinced. But there is some sunshine in this whole episode and that will be watching Obama do a national address in which he claims responsibility for the deal, for saving the nation. Honestly, folks, all we can rely on is him making himself look even more of a liar to the American people…………..and he will.

  • rickdeckard

    Sometimes I thought the kowalski was a qualification placed on an idea. Other times it seemed to be a correction.

    It’s a tool for improved clarity.

    I’m sure we’ve all wanted a two minute edit utility, or something like it, after seeing one of our earth-shattering profundities post live. I know I have.

  • Jack_Savage

    That when withdrawing from a heroin addiction, the immediate negative impact on the body includes tremors, vomiting and delusions? So I say stay on heroin. Yep. That’s right. Good plan for the future.

  • kowalski

    It should make the totality of what you said clearer even if it expands the thought into a domain you hadn’t originally referenced. More complete, even in a different aspect. It’s OK to admit you don’t think about everything the same way the first time. Most of us don’t and never will. I personally find it impossible, as hard as I’ve tried. Don’t know exactly why but I suspect it has a lot to do with my neuroanatomy. My entire life has been made more difficult because I have a “gift” that compels me to see both sides almost at the same time. It’s beautiful, it’s also horrible.

  • clintonformccain

    Man, you guys are so down in the dumps. How do you think Dick Durbin feels. He apparently took to the Senate floor today and said that this debt deal marked the death of Kenesian economics. And you know how much that means to a moonbat like Durbin…

  • clintonformccain

    The moonbats at Talking Points Memo are asking whether their readers think they would have been better with Hillary as President. Now, for lefty Obamabots, that is seriously down in the dumps.

  • http://www.skiloveland.com skicougar

    I would begin drinking heavily, because I sure don’t want to be sober and/or notpassed out when this deal starts hitting the airwaves; but I think I probably shouldn’t as I’m going to need to be working to pay for the inflation this is going to bring and do my best to keep my job as more are going to disappear.

    And we got another 18 months of this, minimum.

  • clintonformccain

    Ha. Gotta love this starry-eyed moonbat left standing on the alter by her beloved savior:

    “I wanted to love the President, I really did.
    In 2008 I really thought, for the first time in my life, I didn?t have to choose between the ?lesser of two evils?. I felt I had a champion, and I was thrilled to put my money and my time in support of this wonderful candidate. I understood that he was not a ?liberal lion, ala Ted Kennedy? but I also thought he was one of us.
    This is the saddest day I can remember in a long time. I despair for the country I love.”

    ————

    Personally, 9/11 was the saddest day I can remember in long time….

  • rickdeckard

    You get the credit for the kowalski then?

    I’ve often wondered as I’ve watched the term shift from title line to user name and back again.

  • tippycanoe

    We have been sold down the river many times, and I believe there is a purging still necessary. I am just seeing some immovable objects in the TPC that are being effective. What a difference from last year anyway. Pelosi in exile. Rubio. Anyway, I guess this is as good a time as any to be harried and for some nail biting.

  • luvnthebigsites

    There have been some gains, agreed. But we are now watching a 2 step backward (slow) train wreck. If your bored pop over to the Corner (NRO) and watch Rich Lowery twist himself into a pretzel trying to explain this disaster. (Now there is a “shovel ready” job).

  • Carner_York

    Clintonformcacain – I appreciate your honesty in admitting you voted for Obama but you’re on this site so I assume you are fairly politically aware. How were you suckered by Obama? Most of all, how in the world did you think he was one of us? Not picking on you. Just curious.

  • clintonformccain

    I didn’t vote for Obama. I would have voted for Charles Manson if he were running against Barack Obama.

    That was a quote from an Obamabot.

  • clintonformccain

    From Roll Call:

    “Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said early reports of the new deal appeared to be ?a sugar-coated Satan sandwich.? The Missouri Democrat said the CBC hadn?t yet made a formal declaration that the group would oppose it, ?but this is a shady bill.?

    ————-

    If the Congressional Black Caucus calls it “shady”, that’s good enough for me. I’m probably gonna like it.

  • kowalski

    You can use the name in the title or the body text or not, as you see fit, but if you do use the name, please try to do it in a post that adheres to the basic rationale as expressed above. It’s certainly not to help me achieve any kind of higher indexing or anything else for myself – other people started using it like that and my reaction was: “Well, you can’t stop them, so be flattered.” In other words, no “royalties” accrue to me, it doesn’t necessarily make *me* agree with your posts, and the best I can hope for is that people use it according to the guidelines and have a little fun while talking about serious subjects. :)

  • kowalski

    I would like to request, though, that if you do use the label, do it exclusively here, on Redstate. The reason is that I have never – in my entire history of political blogging – used my own name anywhere else but here (except briefly over at the Minority Report, a “sister” of Redstate).

    In that sense, I’d like to keep it “exclusive to Redstate” — subject, of course, to the wishes of the Directors. As long as they’ll have me, in other words.

    Beyond that, I’ll just paraphrase one of my favorite small-business audiophile loudspeaker craftsmen/proprietors when he says: “Listen to really good music on your Human Speakers” and say: “Try to make all your Kowalskis the best they can be. If you must reply to yourself, at least have some respect for yourself and your audience.”

    Over and out.

  • Bill S

    See above…acat explains it as well as anyone.

  • tippycanoe

    After being sucker punched by the President a few minutes ago I say be shrill from this point forth. Darn tooting we’re going to raise taxes, he says, on my back.. Reid says revenues always on the table. The president laying out his shopping list having been handed the credit card back from the suicide bombers. Now all the perpetrators are on a plane to their bomb shelters. I sorta felt a little sorry for Boehner there for a while. Not any more. He sold us down the river. He knows it to. Thanks to Redstate for screaming at us. Not that I was buying all this stuff, I was just very happy to see Tea Party Cells everywhere unite to shut this down, albeit for a moment. Stay loud people. We need our own version of THE ONE. Forget about this present cast of characters (Obama fodder). Let’s cut Rubio’s six years short, or give him a little time off to save the country. Now on to write my congressman (R) to ask why he didn’t do what I asked him too!

  • Tbone

    an abortion.

  • Common_Cents

    However, I do expect elected officials to have a fiduciary responsibility for America. That statement is a joke and we are not holding them accountable.