Novak and O'Beirne: Let them eat 401Ks!

[maha]

I like to watch CNN's "Capital Gang" just to see what new howlers Kate O'Beirne comes up with. She rarely disappoints. This is from yesterday's show transcript:

KATE O'BEIRNE, CAPITAL GANG: Look, the economic news was clearly welcome. The unemployment rate is virtually the same as it was in 1994, when nobody thought we were looking at a Hoover-type recession, but maybe people feel more strongly about an unemployment rate of over 6 percent nowadays. I suspect people feel more strongly about their own capital formation in the stock market, but we'll see if that's the case.

Kate thinks that most people feel more strongly about their own capital formation in the stock market than they do about jobs. Well, in Kate's cushy, overpaid Republican world, that's probably true. I wonder if she really doesn't know about the rest of us?

Al Hunt attempted dialogue, thus:

HUNT: ... Now, I'll tell you something, Kate. You're right, it was 6 percent unemployment in 1994, down 20 percent from the year before, right after the Bill Clinton tax increase.

O'BEIRNE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) talking about Herbert Hoover.

HUNT: Because Bill Clinton was lowering the deficit. It lowered by $100 million. Inflation was down, the stock market was up. If George Bush can replicate that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) performance in the one year after the tax increase, it will be a great success.

O'BEIRNE: Bob, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Democrats' remedy. Every single Democrat running for president wants to raise taxes. That is not going to create jobs.

HUNT: It did in 1994.

O'BEIRNE: Every single one of them.

HUNT: It did in '93 and '94.

When Bill Clinton raised taxes in his first term, Republicans screamed their lungs out that the economy would be ruined. Instead, we had an economic expansion of historic proportions. They still can't bring themselves to admit they were wrong.

And the great Bob "Let's compromise national security to help Bush" Novaks chimed in:

NOVAK: Let me set you correct, Mark, a little bit, because you guys play that class warfare, you're way out of date. Oh, boy, jobs, jobs, jobs, you know, there's a lot of people in this country -- you don't like it -- but the middle class has stocks, they have 401(k)s, and they're very interested in the stock market.

Yes, a lot of working people have money in the stock market through 401Ks and company stock purchase plans. However, that money is not exactly a substitute for a job. Joe Lunchbucket doesn't come home from being laid off and declare, "We don't have to worry about prolonged unemployment! I have a 401K plan!"

Do these people even live in the same time-space continuum as the rest of us?

[Melsky]

1. no

they couldn't be living on the same planet as me.

We are on very hard times, and are considering cashing in part of hubby's retirement account to pay for our expenses like health insurance, etc.

[maha]

2. Cashed mine out awhile back.

I cashed out all my 401K money last year when the socialized psychopath I was working for decided to cut me back to part time so she wouldn't have to pay my entire salary. And now I'm unemployed (long story) and am considering selling my apartment and relocating to a cheaper part of the country. Next -- a cardboard box?

I knew this would happen when Bush was "elected." I knew it.

[radfringe]

3. Do these people even live in the same time-space continuum as the rest of

nope....

Crossfire - October 31, 2003
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0310/31/cf.00.html
From an e-mail at the end of the show:

BEGALA: Anita in Washington, D.C. says: "I was repulsed by our president patting himself on the back yesterday, when he announced the GDP increase. What a joke. I've been out of work since October 2001 with no prospect in sight. I received no tax cuts, can't by anything I want, have lost all of my retirement, can barely pay my mortgage. And I'm not alone."

(CROSSTALK)

(APPLAUSE)

NOVAK: You know what I would tell Anita? I would say, suck it up and stop whining.

[maha]

4. Novak is evil. n/t

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. Novak

is just like all republican's...he doesn't care about anyone but himself. Period. As long as Novak has a job, food on his table and can pay his bills...who gives a shit about the heartland.

I saw the Capital Gang yesterday and THIS remark by Novak made my jaw drop...

>>>>>>>>NOVAK: The pullout gang -- people wanted to pull out of Vietnam and did pull out of Vietnam, to the eternal shame of this country, they're the same people, they'll vote Democratic anyway, won't they?<<<<<<<<

Excuse me??? To the eternal shame of this country? I guess he wishes we were still there fighting a war we should never have been involved in in the first place? Novak needs to visit Rush in Arizona.

[maha]

7. Novak also denied

... it was Nixon who pulled out of Vietnam. Well, strictly speaking, Gerald Ford was President when the last U.S. personnel evacuated Saigon. But it was Nixon's negotiators who agreed to pull out.

So who was responsible for the retreat from Vietnam? The Easter Bunny?

[leesa]

6. What choice do they have but to raise taxes after Bush and his thugs

looted the treasury?? It's always the same story...the Republicans loot the treasury with corporate welfare and throw people out of work and the Dems raise taxes to repair the damage.