CarlBentham's Blog

CarlBentham recommended Reserving the Right to Lie by Deep Brain Diarist

2009-09-10T18:30:17Z

CarlBentham recommended Suffering the Wilsonettte Syndrome by DonDi

2009-09-10T18:57:43Z

CarlBentham recommended Deconstructing the partisan headlines of Politico.com- September 10th by CarlBentham

2009-09-10T19:39:20Z

CarlBentham Commented on Memo to MSNBC: Learn from FoxNews to save health care reform by CarlBentham

2009-08-04T20:13:57Z

P.S. I think tip #1 is very actionable. Tune into Hannity or O'Reilly and see how much more attractive (and poorly informed) their guests are. I can't believe this isn't a major issue to Fox critics. I am sure this is a huge part of their ratings success.

CarlBentham Commented on Memo to MSNBC: Learn from FoxNews to save health care reform by CarlBentham

2009-08-04T20:10:58Z

If I were philosopher-king, I'd turn all news programs into 'actual national and international news'. But 'politics as information' can't compete with 'politics as entertainment'. Alas, better logic doesn't mean a better argument, at least when it comes to politics (sadly).

So I say let's be realists and dream of an MSNBC that is a full-fledged propaganda outfit like Fox.

CarlBentham Commented on Memo to MSNBC: Learn from FoxNews to save health care reform by CarlBentham

2009-08-04T20:04:10Z

Sorry 'bout that- I originally had this scheduled to be posted tomorrow, but I posted it early- I fixed the error.

CarlBentham recommended Bonner Responds: Forged Letters Were Sent By "Temporary Employee" by Zachary Roth

2009-07-31T18:05:15Z

CarlBentham recommended Right-Wing Thugs Disrupt Health Care Town Halls by eades

2009-08-03T17:13:29Z

CarlBentham recommended Taking a cue from Sarah Palin, all Republicans quit by William K. Wolfrum

2009-08-03T17:10:18Z

CarlBentham recommended Should Single Payer Advocates Abandon Their Quest? by Fred Moolten

2009-08-02T19:22:55Z

CarlBentham recommended Memo to MSNBC: Learn from FoxNews to save health care reform by CarlBentham

2009-08-04T17:14:18Z

CarlBentham recommended Writing Well on TPM by Fred Moolten

2009-07-26T16:36:17Z

CarlBentham Commented on Need Talking Points to Refute Health Care Reform Misinformation by ohnocindymaxparsingthru

2009-07-20T17:47:40Z

I just wish Democrats could settle on a theme and stick with it. It's far better to have one or two accessible themes rather than a host of plausible talking points. I think the best option is 'choice', that everyone will be able to keep their coverage, and if they move to the public option it will be because they choose to.

CarlBentham Commented on Today in Ridiculous Republican Amendments by CarlBentham

2009-07-15T20:37:35Z

You think it's not 'fairness' when the rich pay higher tax rates. I think its not 'fairness' when people born into poverty are practically guaranteed to die in poverty. It's not fair when you have a 10% chance of getting a college education if you were born into a poor family, and an 80% chance if you were born into a rich family. It's not fair that poor people die earlier and can't afford health insurance to detect diseases like cancer early. How can you ignore all of the tragedies that come from the unfairness of being born into poverty, all to preserve 'fairness' in the tax bracket?

CarlBentham Commented on Dems should shun Republican amendments by CarlBentham

2009-07-15T20:20:05Z

I'm not sure about that one. I'm pretty sure they're going to try to get it through the Senate with zero Republican support. In that case, I think it would be easier to get nearly all democrats to oppose all Republican amendments as a matter of principle, rather than agreeing to a particular policy idea. I suppose you could make an exception for Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins.

CarlBentham Commented on America: Are We Really that Exceptional? by Wattree

2009-07-15T18:36:24Z

I don't understand the concept of 'we as a nation' at all. I didn't invent baseball. I didn't create Social Security. I didn't write the Constitution, win an Olympic event, or invent the airplane. That was all done by other people who happened to live in my country, and we share a similar cultural environment. I didn't create any of this. So we'd be fooling ourselves if we're more than a little bit proud of things our countrymen have done. It's all a relic of our tribal brains.

Conversely, why should I feel shame that my government has, for example, continually exploited the developing world or provoked a war with Iraq? Why should a young German person feel guilty about the atrocities of the Nazi era? Why should we criticize him for it? I think any group identity, unless its of all humanity, is completely meaningless.

CarlBentham Commented on Capitol Hill Cowards by Jon Taplin

2009-07-15T17:58:40Z

Well, if the top 20% of the bracket only paid 20% of the nation's taxes, every millionaire and billionaire included, their tax rate would be a fraction of everyone else's, and the deficit would triple or quadruple or something like that. No one is proposing that. Maybe you mean that everyone should pay the same tax rate, or something to that effect.

The problem with that is this: it doesn't make sense to aim for the simplest possible tax policy. Conceptual simplicity isn't the goal of tax policy, and its not a value in and of itself. The goal of tax policy is to produce the highest possible good.

Imagine a line, where all the way over to the right is no taxes at all, and all the way over to the left is 100% taxation- state ownership of everything. Too far to the right and critical government programs can't be paid for. Highways crumble, crime runs unchecked, people die. Too far to the left and there is no incentive for success because the government is taking most of your money anyway. The economy stagnates, innovation suffers, and so, too, do people.

The idea is to find the sweet spot on that line, weighing the importance of government programs and the importance of capitalist incentives. What most experts think is that we can continue to move to the left and fund important programs like health care without producing a significant detriment to capitalist incentives.

CarlBentham Commented on Three Cheers for the House Health Care Bill by Nathan Newman

2009-07-15T17:16:36Z

I agree- Obama has always been better at conveying an image of someone with a vision, floating above the fray, so I think inevitability will allow him to preserve that image and avoid having to wrestle with the Senate.

CarlBentham Commented on Capitol Hill Cowards by Jon Taplin

2009-07-15T17:04:52Z

I think one of the main problems is a single statistic that has been wildly misunderstood and distorted. That would be "the top X% of earners pay Y% of all taxes." First of all, I think arguing against a new tax should be based on how it's going to affect the people its taxing versus how it's going to affect the general population. The fact that the wealthy pay a high percentage of all tax revenue isn't a problem in itself- it's an intuitive irregularity.

But anyway, the reason the wealthy pay such a disproportionately high percentage of total federal tax revenue is because they have such a disproportionately high percentage of the country's money. Their share is so high because middle and lower class growth has stagnated while the highest few percent have thrived.