Sorry I am not going to take Pledge to America seriously until I see the red pencil come out and identify specific cuts to programs. I have some ideas that might ruffle feathers in both directions.
As far as the Laffer Curve working with Bush’s tax cuts and even lower marginal rates will be even better, go back and take a look at the evidence. Look at unemployment under Clinton and then Bush. Sorry I need something more to hang my hat on. We start a $1T+ war with Iraq without a funding source, and we wonder why our budget is in the toilet. At 70% I am pretty darn sure we are the other side of the curve. At current rates I am not convinced (especially with the evidence of the higher rates under Clinton). What appears to have happened with the Bush cuts was an early but unsustainable increase in the revenue stream. I really don’t see ill effects from when Clinton increased the top tax rate from 31% to nearly 40%. We had a strong period of economic growth, had our federal deficit down, etc.
The Republicans have become a one trick pony (tax cuts). I am sorry to say this given that I do have conservative leanings, but come up with a list of recommended specific cuts with reasons.
Granted I can’t vote for the other guys either, but I guess I will sit at home this November.
When times are good you don’t run deficits so that when times are bad, you have some flexibility.
>>We had a strong period of economic growth, had our federal deficit down,<<
I owned a computer store during that “economic growth” people like to trot out. We, in the industry” knew darn well what a dangerous bubble that was. Anyone with marketing skills who started a web site could get millions in funding because of the erroneous belief that “it was time” for the internet to “take over” as the marketplace was pervasive in the sphere of the investors.
We knew it was too early, the public just was not as confident, and the technology was not refined enough. The Christmas season of 1999 was going to be the zenith. I, and many others in the industry, knew it was totally unreal and a movie set façade. We could see a crash coming.
In November of 1999 I sold my Computer store fully expecting the crash. The next March the business and the internet business that went with it were worth less then a quarter of what I sold it for. The “economic growth” under Clinton was mostly because of a false economy built on the Internet Bubble that was years too early.
Your post never mentioned that even though government revenue went up significantly because of the tax cuts, government spending went up even faster. You wrote that the Clinton tax increase was OK but you ignore the recession his policies caused in 1999-2000. I believe that out of control government spending is what got us where we are now; not tax cuts and not the war. Granted, fighting wars is expensive but the DoD is only about 20% of the federal budget. What about the other 80%? BTW, the deficit was steadily declining for a few years until the ‘Rats took over congress in 2006 and started spending like crazy. It does not matter what the feds can raise in revenue unless spending is brought under control. The federal government is easily capable of running a deficit even if they took 100% of GDP every year. As far as sitting at home in November goes, I think that too many people did that in 2008 and it is partly why we have Barky for a President now.
So you’re advocating raising the marginal tax rates while we’re on the brink of a depression. That’s brilliant./s