General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Biting political analysis of the McCain funeral from Jeet Heer: [View all]paleotn
(17,911 posts)but my good sense tells me a sizable portion of Bernie's voters didn't vote at all in the general. Enough to swing it to Dumpster? Probably not, but who knows? We must remember that the outside propaganda that affected so many voters was not a general election phenomenon only and wasn't just directed at the middle or right of the political spectrum.
As for taxes, Obama couldn't rescind the Bush tax cuts at the stroke of a pen. Tax rates did increase on incomes > $400K per year via the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, a compromise between Obama and the Dems with the Reps, while keeping the Bush rates for everyone else. While I agree the Bush tax cuts should never have been passed, significantly raising taxes, thus dampening economic activity, in the midst of the worst economic crises since the Great Depression would have been...lets say, more than counterproductive. Once our economy began to stabilize, we could then start to think about returning tax rates to Clinton levels. Did they rise enough, fast enough? Hard to say, but by the current economic boom they should have returned to Clinton levels or higher on higher incomes. You have Congress, particularly the Reps to blame for that, not Obama.
I agree with your first statement. There's nothing like a good perp walk or two to put the fear of god in Wall Street types. They need to be regularly humbled and well controlled lest they become pit bosses at a casino verses efficient allocators of capital.