Post Thanksgiving Musings

Not going to work today allowed me to read the Wall Street Journal in a relaxed manner.  I found some interesting tidbits on the state of the Tea Party's mind set,

1st, there was an article on how the Tea Party wants to oust GOP senators who have voted in various ways to keep the government running in a coherent manner.  The South Carolina tea parties are upset that Senator Lindsay Graham voted to confirm President Obama's Supreme Court nominees.  Would they rather the seats were still open because of filibusters and then when the next GOP President tried to fill them, the Democrats filibustered everyone and you would end up with a Supreme Court that had nobody on it?  That is not a functioning government and people want a functioning government.  That is the reason so many Tea Party candidates were defeated, not because they failed to be ideological pure.

2nd, Kimberley Strassel opined that the main problem with the GOP effort was a failure to get out their people to vote.  Since the only reason the House is controlled by the GOP is gerrymandering (nationwide, the Democrat House Candidates got more total votes than the GOP House Candidates), might not the real problem be the comprehensive set of policies that the GOP represent are not reflective of a majority of the country's voters and they need to be brought back towards the middle so that a sufficient number of people decide voting for the GOP is not a mistake and that swings the election?

3rd, some brilliant minds in the GOP Tax staff decided that the way not to raise tax rates is to apply your marginal tax rate to 100% of your income.  That would be the actualization of the exact policy that Romney accused Obama of advocating:  using tax policy to disincentivize working harder for marginal income.  Say the 35% tax rate starts at Gross Income of $300,000.  Below that everyone pays an average rate of say 25%.  Under current tax policy, you pay an average of 25% on the 1st $300,000 and 35% on everything over $300,000.  If this "brilliant" plan went into effect, people who make between $300,000 and $330,000 would have no incentive to earn the last $30,000.  And who would win on this, no one who is not a high income person.  There would be a tax hike on everyone earning any money to the last $ marginal rate and the only winners would be wealthy who do not see their marginal rate increase from 35% to 39% which is what the President wants to do.