The media have always loved a good story, and when one is not available they’ve on occasion throughout the years shown no reluctance to manufacturing one. Thus the ostensible tiff between the CinC and his forward commander, so notably editorialized by that great defender of presidential prerogatives, Nancy Pelosi:
Towards the end of an interview with Charlie Rose that ran late last night, Pelosi took a surprisingly hard shot at General Stanley McChrystal for publicly airing his views on Afghanistan, and called on him to stop.
“Let me say this about about General McChrystal, with all due respect,” Pelosi said, according to a transcript sent my way by a Pelosi aide. “His recommendations to the president should go up the line of command. They shouldn’t be in press conferences.”
To his credit, WaPo journalist Walter Pincus – nobody’s pushover – comes out with a slightly more nuanced view:
Commentators who say Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is pressuring the White House to accept his ideas or else didn’t pay close attention to his remarks last week in London…
Some reports have said McChrystal is pushing for a quick decision. The general said in London, for example, that “time is important” and that he would like the process “to go as quickly as possible.” But when asked directly if there was enough time for debate, he replied, “I don’t think we have the luxury of going so fast we make the wrong decision.” He said that “a healthy public debate, a healthy decision-making process” that results in “resolute execution” by the Afghans, the United States and the coalition, would change “the time horizon.”
Dramatic tension may sell papers, but taking all the general’s comments together, it seems like an uncharacteristic over-reach on Speaker Pelosi’s part to demonize him for making them. What will all that “openness” and “transparency” we were promised back in 2006.
Just kidding about that over-reach bit.
As if you couldn’t tell.
For a characteristic example of the Speaker’s own tendency towards crystal clear thinking, it’s educational to read her kicking around the notion of a value added tax to help pay for health care reform:
Pelosi argued that the VAT would level the playing field between U.S. and foreign manufacturers, the latter of which do not have pension and healthcare costs included in the price of their goods because their governments provide those services, financed by similar taxes.
“They get a tax off of that and they use that money to pay the healthcare for their own workers,” Pelosi said, using the example of auto manufacturers. “So their cars coming into our country don’t have a healthcare component cost.
“Somewhere along the way, a value-added tax plays into this. Of course, we want to take down the healthcare cost, that’s one part of it,” the Speaker added. “But in the scheme of things, I think it’s fair look at a value- added tax as well.”
It seems fairly clear to me that the only thing the speaker truly understands about a VAT is that “T” word there at the end. VAT’s are considered regressive since they tax all goods and services equally regardless of the buyer’s ability to pay. Higher consumers – read “richer people” – may pay more due to their greater consumption levels, but the poor, having less disposable income to begin with, get crimped first.
Democrats – even leading Democrats – typically favor the kind of progressive schemes that more steeply tax higher incomes rather than across the board consumption. But it’s a tax, and it doesn’t sound like Ms. Pelosi is talking about one of those “either/or” type deals. More like a “yes/and”. So it’s got that going for it.
Which, from the Speaker’s point of view, is nice.
From the president’s point of view, having repeatedly promised no tax increases on families earning less than $25ok per year, maybe not so much.
Greetings:
One of the little discussed aspects of the process of Congressional approval of flag and general officers is that Congresspersons can become confused about who “made” the officer. And, of course, all forms of kowtowing are gratefully accepted.
I lived near and worked in San Francisco for about 3 years, and would NEVER have figured the people there to be either so naive or gullible as to keep giving Nancy Pelosi a job extension every two years. Something is truly wrong with a city that can’t get it sorted.
Oh yeah.
I forgot about Gavin Newsome. The Maestro of Socialist Utopia.
They like him too.
Okay. Never mind…
I wish I had a source to link, but I recall hearing that McChrystal’s comments in London were vetted and approved by the White House.
XBrad/
I heard on one of the cable shows–didn’t read–that it was known to have been vetted by Pentagon, (level unk) but unk whether or not WH vetted– As of yesterday, IIRC, haven’t heard anything diff since.
Contrary to her words, our girl Nancy (well not mine actually as I have the great good fortune of not living in ‘that’ part of Coastal California) couldn’t begin to comprehend the respect that is due GEN McChrystal and all of our Soldiers and Marines serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Like Pelosi would understand what the ramifications of a VAT would be in this country. Can you say disaster? Sure you can!
She hasn’t a clue that VAT is passed on down the line to the consumer, so that a $2.00 tube of toothpaste now becomes a $5.00 tube of toothpaste. Yea, the gubbmint gets their cut, but the value increases get passed along to the consumer.
Stupid Congress critter crap…..
Someone needs to pull her aside and explain simple economics to her. Anytime the cost of a product is increased, those costs get passed along to the consumer.
God, I get so frikken’ tired of leftists and their inability to comprehend simple economics…..
Read somewhere that Pelosi only understood the T in VAT, and that was all she needed to know. Would LOL but cannot as it isn’t fracking funny.
Well the good citizens of San Francisco, my older sister among them, keep sending Pelosi back to Congress; and the Democrats have made her Speaker of the House.
At a recent family gathering, my sister, perhaps a glass or two of wine the worse for wear, rather bitterly observed to my spouse that “He thinks he’s smarter than I am”. Old sibling rivalries never die; but then again she was the one who voted for Pelosi. I rest my case.
MikeM – No argument here. Made me laugh out loud. Tx.
Thanks for the chuckle, MikeM. Maybe it’s the aura over the city that does it…
One wishes that Pelosi would slow down her perpetual ego trip long enough to read up on possible legislation before she bloviates about it. As I understand it, a VAT is truly pernicious because it taxes products over and over at every stage of their manufacture. That’s how the tube of toothpaste goes from $2.00 to $5.00. And that’s before state and federal taxes are added. The cap and trade legislation will produce something similar in results, inserting energy taxes all along the way in the manufacture of products and the producing of energy.
I’m outraged that the Democrats could even conceive of adding a VAT on top of the Cap and Trade legislation. They really will beggar the economy and its citizens if they are allowed to do so.
And they’ll be so damn smug about it too.
Marianne
P. S. If any of you courteous and kindly folks feel that I’m misinterpreting the VAT and the Cap/and/Trade, please feel free to enlighten me. If I’m wrong, I’d like to know.
My only experience with VAT came from living in Germany for ~2 years. Everything there had VAT, but there was a form you could fill out and take to some office on base that would give you a refund. It only made sense to do it for large purchases, but I recall getting several hundred Euros back from purchases at Ikea and elsewhere during my stay there. Enough for me to know that something like this would be bad for all concerned were it to be enacted in our country.
MajHarvey, the base I’m moving to in England has a VAT refund office for us non-EU types as well, only large-ticket items. It seems to be a SOFA item, since here in Italy where all economic development is crushed under the weight of the state, there is no VAT refund office on base (although reportedly one at the airport).
ZANE, MajHarvey/
The VAT is sold to the public as “simple” in that for the consumer end purchaser everything ends in round numbers–as opposed to sales taxes–one of the reasons it’s sold to the public in lieu of the sales tax. They like that. A lot. Trust me. And govts love it because it is largely hidden and acts like a giant vacuum cleaner sucking up revenue unnoticed in huge amounts.
If the VAT is allowed we’ll have the worst of all worlds–a sales tax, a VAT AND an income tax. Unbelievable. And the drag on the economy will be unbelievable too.
VX
As Lex pointed out it is the bottom ladder rung that carries all the weight. Everyone else in business will simply pass along the VAT to their next “customer”. Kind of like the increase in minimum wage. My last BHO supporter was a fervent supporter of increased min wage to “something a man could raise a family on”. Great idea I said, now go to BK and Wendy’s and MacLand and Applebee’s and get a menu, then 9 months after the wage hike we’ll review. Well dude, did the prices go up? Yes, did the businesses absorb that min wage increase? Nope. Will they with a VAT? Nope. It definitely crimps consumerism. My business decision to close my UK manufacturing and R&D facility was based on taxes. Told that to their economic development board in Poole when I closed up shop and let 8 people go. Shocked they were.
““They get a tax off of that and they use that money to pay the healthcare for their own workers,” Pelosi said, using the example of auto manufacturers. “So their cars coming into our country don’t have a healthcare component cost.”
Because taxes aren’t a component of healthcare cost. Obviously.
Marianne,
The speaker is indeed arrogant. Pelosi and her ilk are the reason Hell exists. It is a difficult thing to separate the act from the person. The sin of Lucifer was pride, the deadliest of all sins. The difference is that she has yet time to change. For Lucifer the consequenses of uttering “non serviam” was eternal, for her there is still a chance.Pardon my preaching.
Best to you and your hubs,
Dust
Marianne,
P.S. Should I get down Houston way, I’d love to take you both to dinner.