Why Tea Partiers Would Not Like Ike

[BridgeTheGap]

The 1950s might look like the golden years to some Tea Partiers. It was back before the Kennedys, the Clintons, and Obama ruined this great country, always looking to tax the rich, ignoring the guiding principles of capitalism. That view of the world ignores the actual history, argues author Toby Barlow in the Huffington Post.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, president from 1953 until 1961, passed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, a massive public works project that today would be the equivalent of $197 billion, reports Barlow. Obama’s $50 billion infrastructure proposal clocks in at a fraction of the price. And the Federal Aid Highway Act wasn’t paid for by some grand Republican—or Tea Party—plan that all at once lowered taxes and the deficit; it was paid for by a lot of new taxes. The richest among the U.S. population during the tenure of that celebrated Army general were taxed a staggering 91 percent, compared to today’s 35 percent, and Barlow writes,

They still golfed, drove around in shiny automobiles, and ate caviar in fancy dining cars, but they paid a lot more back to society. Instead of fleeing en masse to Cuba they stayed in Connecticut and sent their kids to boarding schools and private colleges. America rewarded them by becoming a stronger nation, allowing the wealthy in turn to become even wealthier. America rocked.

We have been trained to believe that taxation is the worst ill that can strike a society, and yet for decades our nation prospered while asking those who profited from our strength to give significantly more. Ike understood this and protected our nation's prosperity.

http://www.utne.com/politics/Why-Tea-Partiers-Would-Not-Like-Ike-Eisenhower.aspx?utm_content=09.08.10+Politics&utm_campaign=Emerging+Ideas-Every+Day&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email

[Martin Eden]

1. Even Reagan would be too far left for today's teabaggers

When I debate in open political forums and suggest the goalposts have been moving steadily to the right, the RWers respond as if I've been living on a different planet -- but the fact is they are ignorant of this one.

K&R

[awoke_in_2003]

6. you have been living on a different planet than them...

your planet includes reality- theirs doesn't

[bulloney]

9. I've told my RW friends that Bill Clinton is the most Republican president we've had since Hoover.

Throw that line out and watch heads explode. But it's true. Look at what passed under Clinton, and in most cases, his administration was instrumental in these policies passing:

NAFTA
GATT/WTO
Welfare Reform
Banking Deregulation

These are core issues for Republicans. Name me a Republican president that passed this many pro-Republican policies of this magnitude.

If Republicans really believe their ideology, they would be holding Clinton in high esteem instead of treating him like he's Satan's bastard red-headed stepchild. Converseley, Reagan would hardly be held in such iconic status, given his record on deficit spending, expansion of government, propensity for war among other things.

[Demeter]

2. Ike Would Tell the Tea Baggers Where to Get Off

and he'd probably clap them in irons after.

[truedelphi]

3. A lot of Tea Baggers don't remember Ike cuz they hadn't been born yet

They are in their late teens and twenties, and they don't often make it to the rallies as they have school or part time jobs.

They don't understand what the Real Republican Party once was.

They have no comprehension of how Social Security works -they don't know you pay into the Social Security Funds. They think it is a freebie.

Their elders are too busy telling them to fear the Muslim populations and to be afraid of AFDC recipients.

And ironically, even though they are living five to a household, they are scared silly that the tax cuts won't be put in place for the Uber Rich.

[DoctorK]

8. what is

"Social Security Funds"?

SSI is, and always has been, a wealth transfer from the younger/working, to the wealthiest cohort in the country - the elderly (income, how the Census measures pvoerty, shouldn't be confused with wealth).

The Federal government has always taken whatever was left between the taxes collected under the auspices of SSI and what was paid out and spent it on other things.

The Supreme Court has already ruled that we have no 'property rights' with respect to our SSI 'contributions'. It is simply taxes, and the Congress can change the taxes and the payout criteria at their whim.

SSI was never a savings program. It was a way to buy votes of one cohort by taxing another (and providing the taxed a politicians' promise - with all the prospects that entails).

Now SSI taxes are taking in less than the program spends. I frankly don't trust the predictions that millions will be put back to work (and thereby paying the payroll taxes that fund it), returning it to 'the black' before demographics swamp it again in a few more years.

Our country needs more savings, or we'll have a poorer future. It's really that simple.

[mysuzuki2]

10. You are confused

there is no "ssi tax". Ssi is paid for 100% from general tax revenues. The SOCIAL SECURITY programs are paid for from the SOCIAL SECURITY tax. From the beginning in the 1930s, excess Social Security tax has been by law invested in US government savings bonds i.e. lent to the government just as you lend the government your money when you buy a savings bond. The time is coming soon when the government will have to begin paying back these loans in the form of benefits in excess of SS tax received. I don't see how they can avoid doing so without completely losing any financial credibility they have.

[Hawkowl]

4. I'd trade Obama for Ike

In a heartbeat.

[DoctorK]

7. fan of Operation Ajax?

Ike cribbed Hitler's autobahn, and saddled us with an incredible inefficient transportation network that has us neck deep in the Middle East to this day trying to 'stabilize' the flow of oil to keep this network viable.
Instead of higher efficiency, and higher speed, rail moving Americans and goods across this enormous country we have the Nazi's ideal - for a country the size of Oregon.

Thanks for at least getting a cease fire in the Korean War, Ike!

[Bluenorthwest]

5. On taxes, society, poverty and wealth,...

I love this piece by JK Rowling called 'The Single Mother's Manifesto'. It is filled with UK specifics, but the general message is a strong one.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7096786.ece