Finally, a Good Hitler Analogy!

In November, 1942 the Soviet army launched a counteroffensive against the German troops besieging Stalingrad that threatened to completely encircle German forces and thus cut them off from resupply. General Paulus, commander of the 6th German Army and other Axis forces, begged Hitler to allow him to breakout with a tactical retreat that would save the Army. However, having publicly committed himself to the goal of taking Stalingrad, Hitler refused, insisting that resupply by air and National Socialist ardor would be sufficient to win the day.

It wasn't. In short order the 6th Army began to starve and run out of ammunition. Paulos and 110,000 Germans surrendered on February 2nd. Only about 6,000 ever returned to Germany alive. It was the greatest German military catastrophe at that point in WWII, and marked a turning point in the war from which the Germans never recovered.

The House Republicans have essentially repeated the same mistake Hitler made at Stalingrad. They are so focused upon an ideological ideal--"No new taxes!"--that they are incapable of understanding that goals must be served by means. But in pursuit of their stated goal, the GOP has adopted means that are counterproductive to it.

Had Hitler allowed Paulus to withdraw, then the 6th Army would have survived largely intact and lived to fight another day, but dead soldiers cannot accomplish anything. In much the same way, by their fanatical refusal to sign on to any tax increase now, the House Republicans have guaranteed an even larger tax increase later. Their chosen means directly contradict their stated goal. This is clearly madness.

Joe Scarborough is an Idiot

I actually kind of like Joe Scarborough. I think that he is a member of that dying breed of honest and reasonable conservatives.

Nonetheless, he suffers from another problem. Let's face it, the guy just isn't very bright. Or perhaps he just never learned how to research, assess, and report information accurately and fairly. It is a useful skill set for someone who offers opinions for a living, but this is the world in which we live.

My first hint of this problem appeared in a particularly witless Politico article that I commented on here in which Scarborough bemoaned the growth in spending by comparing dollar outlays in 1980 against 2010 without taking into consideration the corresponding overall increase in the size of the economy and population over 30 years.

The second sign of trouble was Scarborough's uniformed rant against Nate Silver's claim that there were strong odds that President Obama would be re-elected. We know how that turned out.

To his credit, after the election, Scarborough apologized.

In his latest Politico article he repeats the GOP mantra that we don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. Well, how much taxes are we collecting as a percentage of the economy compared to other times in our history? Scarborough doesn't fudge this number. He just ignores it entirely. I don't think he is intentionally misleading us. I have come to the conclusion that he is just not aware of such things. He is limited to political sloganeering and gut feeling.

In 2010, tax collection as a percentage of GDP was just under 15%. This is the lowest level since 1950 and considerably lower than the post-WII average of just under 18%. Consider the following chart.

 

This clearly shows two things: First, the current high deficits are caused by BOTH higher spending and lower revenue. Second, the budget surpluses of the late 1990s were achieved by, again, a combination of lower spending AND higher revenue.

This data is publicly available and not hard to find.

Fox News Implosion

You know, it just doesn't get any better than this. Watching Anne Coulter and Sean Hannity duke it out over how to salvage an unwinnable situation is about the most entertaining political spectacle I have witnessed since I don't know when. It even surpasses the Kark-Rove-No-We-Didn't-Lose-Ohio meltdown on Fox News election night.

The odd thing about this clip is that Anne Coulter--now I am speaking only in relative terms here--is the reasonable one. Hannity, in comparison, is so hamstrung by his ideological blinders that he cannot grasp Coulter's unassailable logic: if they fight, they'll lose and EVERYONE'S taxes go up. How is that a victory for the GOP? Hannity cannot seem to grasp this simple point.