Repubs are yelling for tax cuts in the new economic stimulus package that is being offered up by the Obama team but is it the best idea? I would like to quote Paul Krugman, the Nobel economist.
At this point, one must be blunt: the selling of the tax cuts has depended heavily on chicanery. The administration has used accounting trickery to hide the true budget impact of its proposals, and it has used misleading presentations to conceal the extent to which its tax cuts are tilted toward families with very high income.
Tax cuts? Wait! Don’t we still have the Bush tax cuts in place? Thought so. Are Americans spending? NO they are not! So cannot we stop all this bullshit, this tired old mantra of tax cuts being good for the economy? On this Repubs are as full of crap as a well hay fed bull.
There is yet another tired old moth eaten conservative mantra that is being trotted out. Dare I say it…well okay…lower the corporate tax because the US pays one of the highest in the world, if not the highest. Sorry but that is also so much bull dookie.
Why would I say that?
You asked for it. Since corporations in the US get special preferences on taxes and with all their tax incentives that Washington grants, the US collects the fourth lowest corporate taxes in the industrialized world.
You people do realize that tax revenue pays for most of the stuff that the government does in this country right? Bush Tax cuts? The Bush tax cuts contributed, along with underlying economic conditions, to a historic decline in federal tax revenue. In 2000 total federal tax revenue was as high in proportion to the U.S. economy as it had ever been. By 2004 federal tax revenue in proportion to the economy had fallen to its lowest level in almost fifty years.
And that Irene is the truth about your tax cuts.
Oh BTW, please stop using the condum argument it has been removed from the stimulus package—damn guys—try to keep up, okay?
I thought I had left a comment here but for some reason I don’t see it. I think I’ll do a different take on it this time.
According to my first year economic courses, tax cuts (actually, supply side economics) do stimulate the economy but they do not have as dramatic of an effect as traditional demand side economics. You get better bang for your buck through demand side but the drawback there is that if you are not careful, it leads to high inflation.
The way the tax cuts are being used by the republicans, they are no more than corporate welfare. Instead of directly transferring wealth to the corporations, they give them the tax cuts, whip out the federal credit card, and run up a deficit. In the end, who do you think is going to be the ones to pay that bill when it comes due?
I’ve rambled about this earlier if you would like to read what I said. 🙂
Morning Terrant…..and you are right…it is corporate welfare…for the Repubs it almost always is……..they keep trying the trickle down scheme…the problem is it never trickles anywhere beyond the top. Without a decrease in spending, tax cuts will lead to an increase in the budget deficit, which will harm the economy over time. And that brings us to where we are today.