Posted on 12/18/2001 5:20:33 PM PST by -No Way-
Wealthy Make the world Go 'Round
From the Rush Limbaugh website
My Comments in BLUE
There's so much misunderstood about this 40% tax bracket, that I want to explain just who they are. They are not millionaires. Most of them aren't even close to earning a million dollars a year. I'll bet that stuns you, right? I'll bet you think the 40% bracket is made up of only millionaires, billionaires, and gazillionaires. The emphasis on this stimulus package right now is on more government spending, more unemployment benefits, more federally subsidized health care spending. Yes, even in the midst of a recession and a war, the focus from Tom Daschle is on extending federal spending.
On this issue, I point you to CNBC and National Review economist Larry Kudlow. Larry points out that this war on terrorism is going to cost us a lot more money than we have budgeted, and it's going to cost us more than we think. Wars always do. Where are we going to get that money? (Please, don't say "print more," though that may sound good to you.) The Tom Daschle plan? It isn't going to produce the money.
Kudlow points out that cutting the 40% bracket first, cutting the capital gains rate significantly will cause an inflow of money to the treasury like hasn't been seen in five or six years and it will wipe out all talk of a stimulus package because it won't be needed anymore. And he's right. Simple old supply side works every time it's tried. That's something to consider: the irresponsibility of the Daschle stimulus, given what this war is going to cost.
(Democrat) Dreams of running on Deficit and Recession in '04 & '08
Daschle wants to sit there and talk about how the Bush plan takes us into deficit spending? Good grief! I'll tell you right now, this stimulus bill is not worth the paper that it is printed on anymore, and it ought to be rejected. This is tough, because the White House wants this passed. There was a time I thought that maybe they were playing rope-a-dope. But you don't play rope-a-dope by caving on your tax cut like this. Because all Daschle has to do is say "yes" and you're screwed.
If he says "yes" right then, then you've got to take it or you're the one that looks like the obstructionist, and that's not what Bush wants. But this bill right now in its current form gives away too much and it cannot possibly help spur economic expansion, which is its stated purpose: job creation. This notion that we're going to expand health care benefits and unemployment benefits, that that somehow is going to revive the economy? Give me a freaking break! It just makes no sense. The truth is, Tom Daschle is driving this country deeper and deeper into debt, despite his false claims about concern over creating a deficit.
The truth is that, if we wanted the long-term and explosive economic growth and prosperity, the Washington politicians would be talking about tax rate reductions. This is not a mystery. It's not something we've got to roll the dice on. We did it in the 60s with Kennedy and again with Reagan in the 80s. We know what works, and that we're not going to do it again means somebody doesn't want to do it again. It means Daschle knows it will work and he doesn't want it to - not with a conservative Republican idea as the impetus.
I don't even call this a stimulus package anymore. This is the Daschle Bill, and it needs to be killed right now. The president needs to make his case to the American people. Tell the American people that Tom Daschle put his liberal agenda and party politics ahead of the welfare of this nation. Hold nothing back. Because there's no way to candy coat this. There's no way to talk about "my good friend Tom Daschle and I have a bit of a disagreement on this." That's not what this is.
Dump the New Tone for the True Tone
What we have here is irresponsible, deplorable, partisan political conduct, disguised as somebody who's claiming to want to help people, and specifically, particularly the middle class. This is a time for leaders, not typical party politician hacks like Tom Daschle, who's following in the footsteps of his mentor, former senator George Mitchell. If we're going to win the day on this and seriously help the country, we've got to do what's right and effectively communicate the message to the American people, get them totally behind this stimulus package (with massive corporate and private tax cuts) and then negate the attempt by Daschle to take it over, pure and simple.
People need and want to be educated about this stuff. On Wednesday, I took a call from a listener named Jerry who hailed from up in Milwaukee, and who repeated all the clichéd, liberal pap that's been forced down his gullet by a bunch of know-nothings. I had a good call with him, but he just didn't get it. He actually stated as fact that unemployment benefits put money into the economy! Now, please! As if people on unemployment are going out and buying cars instead of worrying about feeding themselves!
It was just suggested by a liberal member of my support staff at the syndicating network that Jerry probably could use a good night's sleep out there. The way I demolished Jerry's arguments appalled this liberal EIB member, because I shellacked liberalism. We'd already said goodbye to Jerry, but if you find him out there, let him know we wanted to offer him a twin Select Comfort bed. Things will look much clearer to you after you wake up on that bed, Jerry. You'll feel like you work for a big corporation, not like someone who sleeps on a mattress on the floor.
Corporations Pass Higher Taxes on to YOU
Look, you may think you can raise taxes on corporations and stick it to them. You may even be willing to sit on a couch with that measly unemployment check instead of having a job and real income. But I have news for you: corporations recoup those high taxes by passing the costs on to you. They may not get back everything, but they are able to recoup a lot of it, because there are so many stops along the way before a product or a service that the price is jumped up incrementally, and each time it does, corporate taxes are included in there.
Which brings me to a final point I love. I had somebody call this program, for the first time, and say that Tom Daschle is going to starve people. The caller's rational? "Daschle and the liberal Democrats' plan starves widows and orphans and retirees, because the money that they get from their pension plans or their 401(k)s or IRAs has been taxed at the corporate level so they get less money to spend. There shouldn't be a corporate income tax at all because corporations don't pay taxes. Only individuals pay taxes."
Wow, is this a bombshell or what? You only hear that about Republicans and school kids. This is just incredible, and the caller is right. But the real bottom line here is Tom Daschle doesn't care about the effect of a bad economy on anyone but Democratic candidates, who benefit from a bad economy. If Daschle cared about the effect on people, he wouldn't be supporting what he supports. Want proof? Ask Tom Daschle if he'd rather have his Senate salary and pension plan or unemployment check. Just ask him. Obviously he'd have his salary and pension plan. So....
Why are you supposed to put up with more unemployment checks? Why are you supposed to look at that as some sort of a benefit? Why are you supposed to look and thank Washington for bestowing upon you more unemployment checks when you'd rather have a job? Make them live on what they propose! Make them live the guidelines they want to make everybody else live under, and let's see how long it lasts. These libs are a bunch of phony-baloney, plastic-banana, good-time rock 'n' rollers. It seems to me that anybody would rather have a job with chances for advancement and opportunity than the dead-end street of an unemployment check.
Exploding Liberal Economic Myths
From the Rush Limbaugh website
My friends, you must read and listen to what I have to say here on the topic of economics education. Not only that, but you must then call your friends, or e-mail them, or print out these pages and send them to them. Why? Because economics education is so woefully inept in this nation, that people just don't understand how money is made and how wealth is created. Too many Americans are imprisoned in liberal clichés.
They think you can legislate price. They don't know the lessons of history because they haven't been taught. They think that things like price controls sound like a good idea, as if they didn't fail on a colossal scale in the USSR. Think about whatever you produce in your job, for example, and imagine a price control of five cents on it to give you some idea. If that's not enough, then sign up at the junior college for an economics course.
Listen to this stimulating and much-needed economics lecture I gave at the opening monologue of Hour 2. Then listen to the calls I took from various listeners. A couple of them were walking, talking fountains of liberal clichés. One thought unemployment benefits put money into the economy, as if people on unemployment are going out and buying cars instead of worrying about feeding themselves! And they say I'm out of touch!
Other callers were out of work, and said they wanted the Bush tax cuts for corporations, because that will get them a job. Right on! I mean, Daschle wants people out of work so the rich get screwed. But the rich won't get screwed! You're just supposed to sit there and take an unemployment check and have no control over your life so Tom Daschle can screw the rich? Let him try to live on the few pennies the government gives him!
How is this compassion? It's like the people who define compassion as giving the homeless a shopping cart! "Here, stinky! I love you!" That's compassion? Isn't getting them off the street compassion? This is the same as saying, "Hey, here's an extra two months of unemployment." It seems to me anyone would rather have a job to go to, and a chance for advancement, than to be sitting on a couch waiting for some bureaucrat to give you scraps! Is that really a price you want to pay so Tom Daschle can tell you he screwed the rich?
I'm really passionate about this, because I'm sick of hearing those who would give shopping carts to the homeless defined as the essence of compassion. Human beings don't want shopping carts when they're homeless. They want a home. Similarly, when they're out of work, they don't want a tiny check - a check that's subject to the whims of politicians - delivered to their door. They want jobs. Who gives them those jobs? It's companies, folks, and they're not all out to screw you.
That and many other liberal myths, blown to pieces by the Daisy Cutter of Truth - right here.
Go, Rush!
As it is they really don't feel how much they are being ripped.
I could go for a flat tax - It would be built-in fairness - everyone would be taxed at the same rate and it would probably reduce the size of the IRS by 80%!
While many people seem to think it should be possible to have a simplified tax code while keeping the graduated tax scales and inheritance taxes, what they fail to realize is that those things necessarily lead to complications and things like the gift tax on >$10,000 gifts. Were it not for such restrictions, those in higher income brackets would be easily able to shift their wealth to trusted people in lower brackets, thus avoiding the higher taxes. Likewise, it would be much easier for people to give away large estates before their death so as to avoid estate taxes (which may wealthy people avoid using different loopholes anyway).
If everyone is taxed the same, the government will net the same income tax revenue no matter who passes money to whom. Thus, much of the need for many of the restrictive financial codes would vanish. Of course, that's probably why the flat tax will never be allowed to come to fruition: the government wants those restrictions for other reasons.
I read the above to really mean "the politician wants those restrictions for the wielding of political power"... How close am I?
Not only would the IRS be reduced in size, but there would be a significant reduction in other non-productive employment as well. I guess it would have a short term negative effect in employment in the legal and accounting fields, but the long term effect would be to help release the noose around the neck of proprietors that actually produce things. Complicated tax laws do nothing but help employ people. Perhaps the ultimate jobs program gone amok!
I'm not sure that there is a real problem here. Suppose you have two houses, both the same size and age and built on similar sized lots. One is in the inner city and one in a relatively high class suburban area. Would you charge the same price for each? Of course not. You'd sell each house for the highest price you could get. Don't get me wrong; I'm not necessarily a fan of huge corporations, but I would think that they should have the same pricing freedom that the rest of us enjoy. Just a thought.
Source: Rush Limbaugh Website <---- Click Here
Have you ever tried to get on the show? Serious question as I've never tried it myself. I'm not anxious to get on the radio with him or anyone else for the most part. I do know he screens as he should to avoid any bazaar "off the wall" stuff. Anybody in their right mind would screen calls on a live radio show. People say the darndest things sometimes.
Be real. He's talking about my tax rate in 2000 and 2002. 2001 was not so good. Tax rate populism is a loser. No poor person ever hired me for anything of any substance. When I was making more money I spent much of it on services that I don't employ now but hope to employ again.
Pretty close. At times a few months ago, this became clear: Democrats don't want to raise taxes just as a means of cutting the deficit--raising taxes is an end in itself.
Dirty little secret: big businesses and the upper-elites love Democrats and higher taxes, because they know that their rivals will be hurt more by such taxes than they themselves are.
Thanks for your response, by the way.
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