It’s precisely because he’s a ‘liberal’ that he can’t do that. Remember Germany and the US are different places. Very different culturally. Germany’s not stuffed to the brim with religious nutbags. And it’s the Right’s call to deal with ‘em.

“Dr Merkel has broken with political tradition and demanded that the German pontiff make “a very clear statement” to reject the observations of Bishop Richard Williamson, who told a Swedish TV program he did not believe gas chambers existed in World War II or that six million Jews were murdered in Nazi concentration camps.

In an unprecedented attack on the leader of the Catholic Church, she rejected the pontiff’s statement last week apologising for Bishop Williamson’s comments, saying she did not believe that the clarification was sufficient.

…

Her comments reflect a growing revolt within the Catholic Church and more particularly within the German hierarchy as religious leaders increasingly express their horror at the Pope’s decision to rescind the excommunication of four ultra-conservative bishops to mend a 20-year schism between religious factions.”

http://www.theage.com.au/world/merkel-attacks-popes-support-of-outcast-bishop-20090204-7xvx.html?page=1

If a conservative like Merkel can display such moral courage then we should expect nothing less from a “liberal” like Obama.

“Seriously Obama should either be Benny Hinn or an Episcopalian. And anyone who believes his schtick is about as blind, arrogant and self-centred as they are.”

I’m not suggesting Saint has a deranged obsession with the new American president but only a week ago he was having fantasies about Obama with boobs:

“Warning: Barack has man boob problem … Error: Barak has no man boobs.” http://dogfightatbankstown.typepad.com/blog/2009/01/vista.html

But seriously, poverty is a serious issue in the United States and Obama should do whatever it takes to ameliorate it, even if that means teaming up with oddball Jesus freaks.

Obama wants to call a truce in the culture war.

Sure sure. First up, kill the kids and set the child killers free. Wonder why they are screaming “Bailout“! Maybe someone should have told this fullsome idiot that if he killed an American he wouldn’t just get English lessons but also a green card.

Not to worry, Obama will tell you how much money you can earn but hey, don’t ask about pay rises you don’t deserve.

Don’t worry you can still all go green like him. Oh yes you can.

Seriously Obama should either be Benny Hinn or an Episcopalian. And anyone who believes his schtick is about as blind, arrogant and self-centred as they are.

People could plug in the taper rate or the benefit increase they’re proposing and then the simulator would tell them how much it would cost and what effect it would have on labour force participation etc.

Where the model relies on contested assumptions (eg work incentive effects) the simulator could allow you to adjust these.

What usually happens in debates over taper rates, EMTRs and other changes to payments and taxes is that people make proposals without having any idea of the costs and consequences.

Without numbers and models, debates over EMTRs are pointless. It’s true that an easy to use simulator would grossly oversimplify things, but it would give people a better sense of the trade offs.

Here’s an example of a simulator which helps people think about the US budget: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/features/budget_hero/

The local issue that we discussed a couple of years ago was the problem of moving off welfare into work, and getting hit with a huge marginal tax rate due to the loss of benefits. The aim would be to adjust (taper) the loss of benefits to make the move into work more worthwhile. Has anything happened on this front?