Everyone from President Obama to Jason Furman, the principal deputy director of the White House National Economic Council, to the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank to Politico’s Jim VandeHei, agree that the so-called Buffett Rule is a gimmick that has almost no bearing on the budget deficit. And for good reason. The Treasury Department confirms that the tax would raise at most $5 billion a year—or less than 0.5 percent of the $1.2 trillion fiscal 2012 budget deficit and, over the next decade, 0.1 percent of the $45.43 trillion the federal government will spend (for more, see here). By one estimate, the “Buffett Rule” would cover 17 days of the president’s next decade of deficits. So it’s not, in any sense, a serious or meaningful proposal. And yet it has, as the New York Times reports, become a “centerpiece” of the Obama re-election campaign.
So there you have it. The Obama presidency has reached the point where a policy that virtually everyone (including the president) concedes is a gimmick is now a centerpiece of Obama’s campaign.
There are many ways to measure the intellectual exhaustion of the Obama presidency. This isn’t a bad place to start.
It's a good way to measure the fact that Obama never had any brains at all, and the Dim party been pouring their sawdust on the ground, til they ain't got any left either. n nThis is Malignant Narcissism – destroy anything that others might enjoy or use to thrive with.
This pooch is completely at a loss. Why tax buffets? I mean, is this some kind of restaurant lobby thing? Some of my happiest memories as a kid were our family outings to the Flower Ave Chinese Garden's special buffet all-you-could eat special. You had the chow mein if you wanted, and the egg rolls, and the egg drop and wanton soup. The sweet and sour. mmmm mmmmm So, what gives? We are going to tax these people because we weren't sitting down with fancy shmancy place settings? Bizarre. Obama is sooo stooopid. n nWhat?
Intellectual exhaustion after one term, that is reason enough to elect someone else.
I would hazard a guess that his intellectual exhaustion kicked in long before his political career even began. His intellectual command, such as it is, is no more sophisticated than a high school sophomore.
I disagree. He is about on the same level as your typical professor in the school of education.