May 8, 2008 12:27

Newt Gingrich's bold plan to save the Republican Party by overhauling the Census Bureau

I'm a little late to this (it came out on Tuesday), but I just read Newt Gingrich's "Plea to Republicans: It's Time for Real Change to Avoid Real Disaster." It starts with a cogent analysis of just how bad things look for Republicans in this fall's Congressional elections. "The Republican brand has been so badly damaged that if Republicans try to run an anti-Obama, anti- Reverend Wright, or (if Senator Clinton wins), anti-Clinton campaign, they are simply going to fail," he writes.

Then Gingrich offers up "nine acts of real change" to boost the GOP before November. Now Gingrich, whatever you think of his ideology, personal life, or political tactics, is undeniably one of the great idea men of modern American politics. But maybe he's, uh, tired or something.

Most of the list consists of retreads (declare a summer gas tax holiday! bash unions! bash liberal judges!). And then there are the two original suggestions:

5. Overhaul the census and cut its budget radically. ...
6. Implement a space-based, GPS-style air traffic control system. ...

WTF?!?!?! (As this is a mainstream media blog, I should point out that the F stands for Foolishness. Or maybe Fiddledeedaddle.) I'm not much for predicting elections, and I will definitely be among the first to congratulate Gingrich if census reform and space-based air traffic control put the GOP over the top in November. But somehow or other, I just don't think this is going to do it.

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May 8, 2008 8:07

Six things I'm sure of about capital gains taxes

A certain Flip has declared that my post from last week about the Congressional Budget Office and capital gains taxes contained the "Worst Argument of the Day." I'm totally honored, except that I didn't actually make the argument for which he condemns me, which was that the decline in tax revenue from 2000 to 2004 was proof that capital gains tax cuts don't increase revenue. (This would indeed have been a really stupid argument, given that the capital gains tax rate was cut in 2003.) I have argued that the decline in real capital gains tax receipts between the business cycle peak of 2000 and the likely peak of 2007 was perhaps an indication that the tax cut hadn't paid its way. But that was a different blog post (and it wasn't a stupid argument).

I guess I could just declare Flip's post to be a case of the "Worst Reading Comprehension of the Day" and leave it at that. But this capital gains thing keeps nagging at me. There are a few things I feel confident saying about capital gains tax rates and government revenues:

(THE REST AFTER THE BREAK)

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