Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. Founded by Mark Kleiman (1951-2019)
“Severely kidding”
Obama on Romney’s “extreme makeover.”
Obama schools the (quasi) human Etch-a-Sketch:
He proudly promised that his new tax cut, on top of the Bush tax cut, would include the top 1%. You wouldn’t know this listening to the new, latest version of Mitt Romney. He’s trying to go through an extreme makeover. After more than a year in which he called himself “severely conservative,†Mitt Romney is trying to convince you that he was severely kidding.
When he’s asked about the cost of his tax plan, he just pretends it doesn’t exist. What $5 trillion tax cut? I don’t know anything about a $5 trillion tax cut. Pay no attention to the $5 trillion tax cut on my website!
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The EconomistAgainst Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA HomepageCurriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
5 thoughts on ““Severely kidding””
Obama does exploit his position here - Obama is not making any proposal he has to back up.
By not making any new suggestions, he’s able to sit back and criticize Romney’s various proposals.
Might be nice to avoid the pointless snide comments ‘quasi’. Romney is fully human, exhibiting bog standard human failings.
False. He has proposed extending the Bush tax cuts except for incomes over $250k. I don’t see how much more specific you can get. It’s Romney who has never put an actual proposal on the table, leading to Harold Pollack’s remark that “vaporware is easyto debug.”
I don’t doubt Romney has human DNA. I would rate his failings, especially in emphathy and the capacity to experience shame, well outside the usual error bands. But your mileage may vary.
I am counting the Obama proposals as ‘status quo’ for the most part. There is also the generic hum about reforming tax code around (ugh, now I need to look for links to back me up.)
As for Romney’s failing’s in empathy; I work in the software industry. 1/3rds of the engineers are probably Aspergers Syndrome folks. For example, I would never vote for me as President, Mayor, or dog catcher.
If only Obama’s proposals were “status quo”. Which is to say they are, but huge chattering flocks of well-funded evildoers are publically pretending that even the slightest increase in upper-bracket tax rates it a radical revision.
I wonder if Obama was originally afraid of finding himself on the wrong side of the Reagan legacy in the debates. Remember what happened to the last serious and somber man who accused someone like Romney of endorsing voodoo economics? Immediate primary loss to a straight-C student / actor. Americans do not seem to like it when someone says to them “can’t you hear that what he is saying makes no mathematical sense? Did you all fail out of high school math? What is wrong with you people?” Obama is in the unenviable position of having to be the adult presence in an American election. That cannot be easy.
Obama does exploit his position here - Obama is not making any proposal he has to back up.
By not making any new suggestions, he’s able to sit back and criticize Romney’s various proposals.
Might be nice to avoid the pointless snide comments ‘quasi’. Romney is fully human, exhibiting bog standard human failings.
False. He has proposed extending the Bush tax cuts except for incomes over $250k. I don’t see how much more specific you can get. It’s Romney who has never put an actual proposal on the table, leading to Harold Pollack’s remark that “vaporware is easyto debug.”
I don’t doubt Romney has human DNA. I would rate his failings, especially in emphathy and the capacity to experience shame, well outside the usual error bands. But your mileage may vary.
I am counting the Obama proposals as ‘status quo’ for the most part. There is also the generic hum about reforming tax code around (ugh, now I need to look for links to back me up.)
As for Romney’s failing’s in empathy; I work in the software industry. 1/3rds of the engineers are probably Aspergers Syndrome folks. For example, I would never vote for me as President, Mayor, or dog catcher.
If only Obama’s proposals were “status quo”. Which is to say they are, but huge chattering flocks of well-funded evildoers are publically pretending that even the slightest increase in upper-bracket tax rates it a radical revision.
I wonder if Obama was originally afraid of finding himself on the wrong side of the Reagan legacy in the debates. Remember what happened to the last serious and somber man who accused someone like Romney of endorsing voodoo economics? Immediate primary loss to a straight-C student / actor. Americans do not seem to like it when someone says to them “can’t you hear that what he is saying makes no mathematical sense? Did you all fail out of high school math? What is wrong with you people?” Obama is in the unenviable position of having to be the adult presence in an American election. That cannot be easy.