Little Piggies

Commentary By Ron Beasley

  Jim Cramer and all of the other clowns at CNBC have a great deal of blame for the economic crisis we find ourselves in .  They were enthusiastic cheerleaders for for the greed and mismanagement of the last several years that resulted in this financial meltdown.  John Stewart's classic take down shows them at their cheer leading best.

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But the little piggies at CNBC refuse to accept responsibility and squeal like the little piggies they are at the thought of having to pay more taxes to help clean the mess up.  Here's poor Jim Cramer:

As someone who can expect a real shock when I get an Obama-shredded paycheck the moment his plus-$250,000 tax levy kicks in, I can't be thrilled. Only the brain-dead like to take a pay cut for doing the same job. I probably won't get paid for my work until July, with my current salary going to fund an immense expansion of the federal budget ordered by the man I voted for.

I was recently informed by Rush Limbaugh that I am on the president's "enemies list" for speaking out against what I consider to be the most wealth-destroying budget in history. But I genuinely wouldn't mind the increase if the country weren't staring the second Great Depression in the face. I have supported the vast majority of Obama's initiatives. Back when I donated to candidates, I supported those who favored higher taxes for those who make the most money because we can most afford it.

But for heaven's sake, not now! This is the moment when the president needed to tell us, "America, I have an agenda that I wanted badly to put through, but not here, not now, when tax increases might send us over a cliff of fear and dread. We need everyone, especially the wealthy, to start companies, put people to work and get this economy back on track.

That's right, if two percent of the population has to pay and addition 3% in taxes the economy will never recover.  Sorry Jim - nobody out side that two percent is listening and the vast majority do have a problem with the two percent, like you, have to pay a little more to fix it. 

In the same WAPO piece Robert D. Reischauer comes closer to getting it right:

Is "afflicting the comfortable," as John Kenneth Galbraith liked to quip, fair, economically sensible and practical? In this case, yes! Unlike average Americans, those on the income ladder's top rungs have enjoyed very healthy income gains over the past decade. And, even more than those lower down, they have profited handsomely from lowered effective tax rates. To make the education, health and environmental investments that our society and economy need for the long run, why shouldn't those who have reaped most from society's past investments bear most of the burden of seeding tomorrow's opportunities?

Some fear that increased taxes on the top 5 percent will wreak economic havoc -- crimping entrepreneurial spirits and stanching charitable giving. But the overwhelming body of economic evidence suggests these effects are small.

True, seeking offsets by eliminating outdated and ineffective government programs would be preferable, but that's a slower, more politically difficult row to hoe. As the administration seeks more savings on the spending side to fully fund the president's priorities, returning tax rates on the fortunate to near those of the boom-time 1990s is a practical first step.

Update

John Cole asks the question:

Can anyone give me any reason why Jim Cramer is asked for advice on anything, let alone given a broad forum to savage the attempts to fix the mess he helped to create?

Comments

[Colleen Chambers]

Fixing this mess means all of us are going to have to take a hit - not just the folks at the top - everybody. It's freaking scary, it's important to find as much humor as you can too http://beema.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/beemanews_09mar09/