Posted on 08/30/2005 2:40:22 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The president and his money people are still insisting that his tax cuts are doing wonders for the economy, therefore we should keep them and do away with the estate tax while we're at it.
Because the budget deficit projections have been lowered a bit, the Bushies are hanging their hats on that "good" news, ignoring, of course, the simple fact that the mountain of debt is still setting a national record.
Some day the American taxpayers are going to have to pay the piper, but no one in this administration is willing to even admit that obvious truism. It boggles the mind how so-called conservatives are so willing to spend more than they take in. It flies in the face of what they've stood for throughout American political history.
That leads me to a piece I've been saving that was written for the New York Times by noted economist Robert H. Frank of Cornell University. In it, Frank makes a strong case that the cuts made by Bush and his congressional colleagues are simply misdirected and counterproductive.
The president then argued - and still does - that even though the cuts were disproportionately higher for the wealthy, the wealthy would turn around and invest it in their businesses and hire more workers.
Frank disputed that theory, pointing out that giving more money to owners won't necessarily entice them to hire. What matters in hiring is whether it has the potential to increase a business's profits. If the output of additional workers can be sold for at least enough to cover their salaries, they should be hired; otherwise not. If this criterion is met, Frank wrote, hiring extra workers makes economic sense, no matter how poor a business owner might be.
Conversely, if the criterion is not satisfied, hiring makes no economic sense, even for billionaire owners. Consequently, the after-tax personal incomes of business owners are irrelevant for hiring decisions.
What most economists argue, Frank continued, is that tax cuts make a much bigger difference if they are directed at middle and low-income families. Unlike cuts for the wealthy, which go to people who already have most everything they need, money to average earning families stimulates immediate new spending.
"And their additional spending would have been largely for products made by domestic businesses - which would have led, in turn, to increased employment," he argued.
Plus, grants to cash-starved states and local governments - instead of massive tax cuts - would have prevented layoffs of teachers and police officers and created yet more jobs.
Instead we have an unpopular war on our hands that's consuming more than a billion dollars a week, a national debt approaching $8 trillion, local and state governments cutting services, and enormous problems in everything from health care to education that we can't afford to fix.
That's the gift this administration has given us.
I'm lower-middle class, and even "I" received $1K in 2003, and $1K in 2004 additional due to changes in the tax codes. And I pay the minimum taxes due by law, to the penny, so I know for a FACT that the money coming back to me was a bonus...not money I'd paid in, which promptly went back into the economy in the form of stocks and bonds. ;)
Looks like it's working for my "middle and low-income family." I'm actually looking forward to doing my taxes this year. :)
You know, I was really looking forward to the day that I could move back to Madison, the city that I was born and raised in. I've lived here in Texas for more than 30 years now and from recent things that I have seen coming out of Madison, I think that I'm going to just stand pat. I'd had enough of the tie-dye crowd in the 60's to last me a lifetime.
Another clueless lib who is trying to pass himself off as a jounalist. Just cannot stop trying to denegrate Bush. It would be a real shock to see something from these loons of the left that was intellectually genuine, and honest.
Pipe dream. If they want to bash on Bush, why are they not hitting where he is vulnerable? And he is -- big time!
As if they aren't already beyond the breaking point from the Tax and Spenders?
This proves it...allowing people to keep and spend their own money is actually "misdirected and counterproductive"! I always knew that Government was a much wiser spender than I.
Liberals do not understand human nature or basic principles of logic. Nor do they understand economics, which rests on a foundation of reason and logic and more importantly, human nature.
Articles like this always causes me to wonder: "Are liberals essentially ignorant, or do they willingly discard all reasoned thought and fundamental truth to advance an agenda that is clearly in conflict with reason and truth?"
If the latter, they are engaging in selfish lies, which is the primary basis of evil in my mind.
For cripes almighty, what a leaker.
GDP is fantastic, job growth is through the roof, consumer sentiment returned to pre-Clintoon-recession levels,the deficit is recovering quicker than expected, business investment is better than pre-Clintoon-recession...and all that since the dot-com collapse.
The one thing I have noticed about my Lib friends is that none of them have a basic understanding of economics. Nor do they want one. As one of my friends says when I try to explain an issue - "All those statistics make my head hurt".
And I'm talking about educated people. They all have at least one college degree.
I think we need to spend more time teaching high-schoolers economics and less time teaching them to be sensitive.
Tax revenues have shot up by a quarter of a trillion dollars alone this year. That's more than Clinton's tax HIKES could ever have claimed to produce.
Class warfare B.S. Let's punish the tax payers for being so successful mentality.
That is because these art majors never took a business class in college. Accounting & Economics 101 should be a requirement to graduate from high school. IMO
Then maybe these jerks would have a CLUE as to what makes the laws of supply & demand spin, and the difference between a P&L and a Balance Sheet.
Income has nothing to do with wealth. Income is revenue on the P&L. If expenses = income, the net is zero. Therefore the asset on the balance sheet remains unchanged.
Hypothetical situation: If a family earns 100k a year, spends 40k for their kids college expenses, pays Uncle 30k, and eat food, and the net is zero savings, then is this family RICH?
Dave Zweifel, back to denying reality again.
Tax RATE cuts work, if only to free up money for capitalist entrepreneurs to further invest in new ventures, which in turn INCREASE their total cash flow, with which they have even MORE money to pay into the government coffers. The "wealthy" are paying MORE in total taxes than they were before the tax RATES were cut.
This increased flow of capital passes down to lower wage rates as well. Either by paying the employee more, which is now affordable to the employer (as a result of increased productivity) or hiring additional employees, the multiplier effect spreads. Now individuals are paying taxes on a greater cash flow than ever they had before, while at a lower tax rate, which results in MORE net dollars being collected as tax revenue.
Which do you want, the revenue, or the satisfaction that "nobody gets too much"?
No kidding. Especially since so many people think nothing of the financial damage they are doing to themselves when nonchalantly max out their five credit cards and can't even afford to make minimum monthly payments on them. I've even seen people write mountains of checks when they have nowhere near the money in the bank to cover them - the reasoning being that merely having checks left in their checkbooks is all that is needed. I'm not kidding.
It's such a simple concept. It's amazing that there are so many people who are so stupid that they can't see this.
Why should an American that make money from capital gains, dividends, or interest income have to pay as much in taxes as those wage earning loosers?
never have I read such economic ignorance
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