David Gregory Invokes Walter Mondale To Push For Higher Taxes - With Help From Alan Greenspan
As NewsBusters has been reporting, the media have been on a full-court press in recent days supporting the President's push to raise taxes.
Doing his part was NBC's David Gregory who trotted out the words of former Vice President Walter Mondale on Sunday's "Meet the Press" to really drive home the point, and then got a huge assist from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan (video follows with transcript and commentary):
DAVID GREGORY, HOST: Walter Mondale wrote a piece this week in The Washington Post. I'll put a portion of it on the screen. It has to do with the tax debate. He says this: "We will not be able to control our budget deficits without raising taxes. ... President Obama's speech Wednesday lived up to that moment, and now Democrats and Republicans in Congress must take a similar stand. ... I told the truth," he writes, "in 1984 ... in my acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. `The budget will be squeezed. Taxes will go up. ... It must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did.' I lost the election, but I won the debate. Reagan ended up increasing taxes in 1984, 1985, 1986, and 1987 to mend the budget and tax systems." Do taxes have to go up if we're going to get real about the debt?
Although it's been a common exercise in recent years for liberals to talk about all the times Reagan supposedly raised taxes, the reality is that when he took office in 1981, the top bracket was 70 percent - 50 percent for earned income. When he left office in 1989, that bracket was 28 percent.
The point of Reagan's tax reform was to simplify the tax code by reducing the number of brackets along with their percentages while cutting deductions and loopholes. Some of the latter indeed raised taxes, but the combination of all Reagan's reforms acted to significantly bring down the nation's tax burden.
Unfortunately, nobody on Gregory's panel brought this up:
SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): No. And with all due respect to Mr. Mondale, that argument isn't going to go over any better this year than it did in 1984. Americans understand that...
MR. GREGORY: But Reagan did it, is his point.
SEN. LEE: ...you can't raise taxes, particularly in an economy like this one, without hurting jobs, without hitting economic growth. And we desperately need those things. Whether you're in favor of bolstering national security on the one hand, or shoring up entitlements on the other hand, you need the revenue that can fund those programs. But we can't have that when we hurt the economy by raising taxes.
MR. GREGORY: Dr. Greenspan, is that accurate? You, you've been--you're a veteran of many budget wars. Is it realistic to say that taxes can't, can't be raised if we're going to get serious about the deficit?
Given Greenspan's answer - which is guaranteed to be headline news as well as ammunition for the Left for some time - one has to wonder if Gregory knew what was coming:
ALAN GREENSPAN, FORMER FEDERAL RESERVE BANK CHAIRMAN: Well, it's--the, the data shows something very interesting about endeavoring to curtail budget problems of the type that we have. The IMF, a number of well-known academics have all observed that if you have a disproportionate part of your budget cuts from tax increases, it won't work. And indeed, the economic impact of cutting back on spending is rather modest, and the IMF is saying to the point of possibly being insignificant. But having said that, I think this crisis is so imminent and so difficult that I think we have to allow the so-called Bush tax cuts all to expire. That is a very big number. But having put the rates back to where they were in the Clinton administration, I would argue that everything else should be either cutting spending or taking out the subsidies which are in the tax expenditures.
MR. GREGORY: So you say let them expire for everybody.
DR. GREENSPAN: Everybody.
MR. GREGORY: Go back to Clinton-era rates.
DR. GREENSPAN: Yes. And I think that what we have to become aware of is that if we allow taxes to fill in the holes here, we are going to find that we're getting ever closer to the type of economies that exist in Europe, which are very heavily laden and not rapidly growing the way our, ours can. I must say, I am feeling far more optimistic about resolving this issue now than I was several months ago. And the fact that people are saying--putting on the table that this issue requires a major cut in entitlement spending in order to resolve this issue is the issue that has got to be confronted. We're going to do it realistically. I hope sooner rather than later.
Somewhat strange answer if you really analyze it.
On the one hand, Greenspan cited the IMF claim that "if you have a disproportionate part of your budget cuts from tax increases, it won't work." He's also concerned that "if we allow taxes to fill in the holes here, we are going to find that we're getting ever closer to the type of economies that exist in Europe, which are very heavily laden and not rapidly growing the way our, ours can."
Regardless of both those valid points, Greenspan still would like to see the Bush tax cuts expire.
What will likely get lost in the media replays of this statement is that what is most fueling his optimism about resolving our deficits is "the fact that people are saying--putting on the table that this issue requires a major cut in entitlement spending in order to resolve this issue is the issue that has got to be confronted."
I doubt that will get much play from the tax hike-crazed media.
Stay tuned.
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Comments
The Media Have Hit the Bottom of the Barrel
Submitted by Comrade Jim on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 10:45pm.
If they have to drag out Walter Mondale to make their case.
Better to remember Roosevelt's Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau's assessment of the consequences of government spending sprees:
“We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. . . . We have never made good on our promises. . . . I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. . . . And an enormous debt to boot!”
Best case scenario.
Submitted by big.league.slider on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 10:52pm.
I sure hope the MSM dolts keep pressing Obama to be more like Mondale, and campaign on tax hikes. While Reagan "only" won 49 of 50 states against Mondale in '84, if Obama runs on a platform of tax hikes in 2012 it could be a historic 50-0 smack-down (or 57-0 in Obama's America).
The best strategy for any candidate running against Obama is to keep repeating the mantra, "We're not willing to pay for your debts". That's a message that will resonate with the young and their parents/grandparents alike.
Gregory knows very little
Submitted by NotFondOfLibs on Sun, 04/17/2011 - 11:19pm.
Why should we be surprised that a village nitwit like David Gregory has to rely on the comments of a loser like Walter Mondale? Raising taxes and spending like crazy is all these people know. Gregory is no journalist when push comes to shove. Expect nothing else from him.
I'm gonna keep mentioning
Submitted by Slyrr on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 12:05am.
I'm gonna keep mentioning this every time a media libutard tries it. Every time they sneer and demand higher taxes to foot the bill for their failed president's disastrous policies, I would like to raise the question.
If the libutard demorat media hate their money so much, why don't they lead by example and surrender all their money to their beloved king, Obama?
Why won't the wealthy liberal media show 'the rich' what good little Obama slaves ought to do and give away every penny of their money? Then they can go live in mud huts and wigwams like good little liberals and eat grass, tree bark and dirt like their queen Obama desires.
But nooooooo. They want everyone ELSE to give up their money, while they (the liberal media) keep accepting blood money from Obama's campaign war chest after he takes over private companies and conscripts their media figureheads and make them his puppet apologists.
So Matthews and every other Obama media slave will keep vomiting nonsense about how Obama gives him thrills in his pants, and bragging that 'it's now his job to make Obama look good' while their hopey-changey lackwit keeps ruining the economy with his wrong-headed policies, his small-minded hate speech and his cowardly 'it's all Bush's fault' waffling.
Obama wanted mobs with pitchforks and torches. In 2012 he'll get more than he bargained for.
I saw the first two minutes of "Meet the Press"
Submitted by Texndoc on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 12:11am.
And wondered how anybody could sit through the remaining 58 minutes of this liberal orgy.
Greenspan has been wrong ....coming and going
Submitted by Paarl on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 7:09am.
and wrong again now that he is gone. Also I would not dismiss the effect his wife has on his thinking...you ..she could say to poor ol' Alan :
"advocate for higher taxes Alan or you get any more" ;>) She seems the type...Angrier Mitchell....
Ayn Rand must be doing backspins in her grave and ol' greenspan might get whacked by a 2x4
handled by the ghost of Milton Friedman !!!!
Paarl of Rhodesia
In the late 70's, early 80's
Submitted by amyshulk on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 8:39am.
In the late 70's, early 80's the ponzi scheme was showing so credit was loosened to keep the revolt at bay. It worked for 30 years. The poorest among us got more and paid less/nothing, the richest pay the most in real dollars, and the middle class gets squeezed. Now the ponzi scheme is showing again, but this time there IS a revolt.
The band aids and "fixes" didn't hold. Congress insured that. Do they all have arrested development, unable to see the consequences of their actions???
Ronald Reagan
Now wonder the elite thought
Submitted by amyshulk on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 8:49am.
Now wonder the elite thought Alan Greenspan was so smart - he baffles 'em with bs, noting both sides and somehow making a connection between them to reach his conclusion. He made NO sense!!! He also undercut the lefts' argument that if they turn off the gov't. spigot, the economy will collapse.
Ronald Reagan
And Mondale's raising taxes
Submitted by Beukeboom on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 12:05pm.
And Mondale's raising taxes mantra was one of the things that caused his embarrassing defeat for the Presidency.
Mondale hasn't changed at all, and nether has the talking points
Submitted by CobraMan on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 3:43pm.
Mondale hasn't changed at all. Nether has his arguments, apparently. Just look at some of the excerpts of his first VP debate with Dole WAY back in 1976:
On Health care: "One of the key problems would be to try to finally get a health insurance program to deal with the health crisis in America." A health care crisis in America. Sound familiar?
On Housing: "We have to do something about housing. We're in a housing depression." Falling home sales, sound familiar?
On Education: "We need to continue to - to build support, as the budget permits, for education." Not enough spending for education. Sound familiar?
On Taxes: "They know what Governor Carter is talking about, He's talking about the loopholes that favor Americans, usually earning above $50 thousand a year." People making over an x amount of money aren't paying their fair share. Sound familiar?
On Partisanship: "Americans are not interested in partisan debating points." Let's all just get along. Sound familiar?
On deficit spending: "Now we recognize that you have to be prudent, that you have to live within a budget, that you have to deal with the resources that are at hand. There's no dispute on that. The question is how will those resources be used? And we believe that we need a government that works, that's efficient, but we also think that we need a government that cares." The deficits are bad and something must be done about it, BUT cutting spending means that you don't care. Sound familiar?
Oh, and let's not forget who's top BLAME for those deficits: "Just last year, under this administration, we had a deficit larger than all of the deficits created in the eight years of the Democratic administration, and under this Republican party higher deficits than in the previous one hundred and ninety two years of this government's history." The Republicans are to blame for runaway deficits, even though the Democrats had control of Congress and actually voted for the "record deficits" in the budgets. Sound familiar?
On domestic policy in general: "We've cared too little for people in this country that have gotten sick and can't afford decent health care. We've cared too little for the thousands and thousands of American families that cannot get or afford decent housing. This administration has fought time and time again to cut back support for our senior citizens. They have no energy policy. They have no environmental policy. Those things must change." Republicans are eliminating housing, harming the elderly, destroying the environment, refusing to address the high energy cost problem, and, above all avoiding "change'" Sound familiar?
And his plan for addressing these problems and bringing about that "change": "We wanna see money spent to help problems that people really face in their lives." The cure for all that ails America: spend more money. Sound familiar?
Liberals, making the same claims year after year, decade after decade. The Republicans are ignoring the sick and injured, destroying the environment, placating the rich (who still don't pay a fair share in taxes), ignoring the plight of the elderly and the poor, exasperating unemployment, eliminating housing, and underfunding education, which are the same claims that Biden made during the 2008 Presidential race, and the same claims that the liberals are using today in perpetration for 2012. According to the liberals, nothing has changed in America in over 38 years: NOTHING AT ALL!
I suggest you read the entire debate and note the similarities between then and now. It's almost an exact list of the talking points for the current debates. The ONLY difference is which party is actually in control of the White House.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Well no wonder I feel like I
Submitted by amyshulk on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 4:57pm.
Well no wonder I feel like I have deja vu all the time!!! Remind me again - who ran congress for the past 40 years - the Pres. is just a figurehead, those congresscritters really run the show!!!
Ronald Reagan