President Bush and many Republicans have been telling us how great the economy is since they enacted tax cuts for the wealthy and gave big business carte blanche. Now the housing market is falling apart, the stock market is tumbling, loan sharks disguised as “payday lenders” are legally robbing poor people who don’t know any better, and oil prices (and profits) are at record highs, as is the national deficit.
But they have a plan to fix all of that – More tax cuts!
From Yahoo! News: “By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer – WASHINGTON – The Bush administration, faced with a deteriorating economy and a big jump in unemployment, said Friday it was considering an economic stimulus package that might include tax cuts to ward off a recession…”
Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.”
Are more tax cuts for the wealthy really the way to help our nation, all Americans, and our crumbling economy?
Yes, the deficit is getting smaller. Still a deficit, and still far from the Budget Surplus we had under Clinton, yes, but smaller. The national debt already run up by Bush’s policies (and Republican backing) however, remains absurdly high.
We can cut the deficit by cutting funding for education and health care, by cutting funds designated to help the the mentally and physically challenged, by cutting (or vetoing) health care for children, and of course for helping the poor and needy. But I don’t think that doing so, while giving multi-million dollar tax cuts to wealthy individuals is the way that a Moral Nation should be cutting its deficits.
Great answers, Crabby, Iceman and Ty (and others). Laissez faire (no government regulation of corporations)is the direct cause of things like:
> Our crumbling infrastructure
> Ken Lay, Enron and Arthur Anderson
> Predatory lending
> Use of foreign sweatshops
> Exporting jobs and supporting illegal immigration to replace Americans’ jobs (yours and mine) with cheap labor
> Insurance companies scamming billions and “sheltering” it overseas
> Hundreds-million dollar “bonuses” even for failed executives who destroy corporations and, more importantly, the lives of employees and their families
I agree – government that is TOO big is not good for the people, and the same can be said for corporations.
Allowing corporations to control the government, dictate our laws (including tax laws) and set the foreign and economic policies of our nation will not hurt the wealthy, but will reduce the middle class to slavery and ultimately destroy our nation.
#1 by dottie on June 22, 2010 - 6:37 am
Tax the really rich…..like Paris Hilton rich
#2 by a bush family member on June 24, 2010 - 12:07 am
Greenspan also suggested tax cuts to help homeowners.
The budget deficit is the lowest in 5 years. The tax cuts have been stimulating the economy, which has increased tax revenue
#3 by oilymassagevictim on June 24, 2010 - 1:02 pm
Tax cuts DO help the economy indirectly by increasing the amount of money with which people have to use throughout the economy. However, this doesn’t work with corporate taxes. Cutting corporate taxes is good, but it doesn’t allow average consumers more spending power –and THAT would help the economy greatly. Even cutting corporate taxes in half may not make enough of a difference to offset the amount of inflation happening. As the dollar goes down, cutting corporate taxes may actually make things worse by enhancing the consolidation of wealth. If corporations could get this money shifting downwards to allow consumer spending power to increase, the corporate tax cuts would be awesome. However, that takes a long time.
#4 by guy_from_there on June 24, 2010 - 2:12 pm
Sir, I need to redefine Einstein definition of insanity : Is it electing the same looser over and over again, expecting different results…
This guy got elected for 2nd period.. and you wonder how come he keep cutting taxes? People told him Great job.. keep it coming Bush/
#5 by Gemini Jen who loves all! on June 27, 2010 - 9:06 am
What is wrong with them? They have no compassion whatsoever for any of the peoples sufferings. NO MORE corporate welfare! I think they will continue to do this until they own all the homes and we are just renters, and until we can no longer afford transportation at all, this will keep us controlled very well if we have no where to live and can’t afford to travel even 20 miles. I don’t think we will survive even 1 more year of this administration. They will leave this country so broken it may be broken beyond repair.
#6 by crabby_blindguy3 on June 30, 2010 - 1:21 am
Well said. And not even the Bushbots can figure lettig a few people put even more money into their offshore accounts is going to help the economy.
If Bush wants to help Americans (HA) he could start by pulling out of Iraq and cutting the massive deficit he’s saddled us with. Take maybe 10% of that and use it to start repaaring our roads, bridges, andother infrastructure. Taht would create a lot of reasnoably good jobs and put money into the economy that would be in OUR economy, not whatever country is his friend de jour.
And slap some stiff regulations on te housing market. I’m no fan of regulation–but this kind of abuse is WHY you need oversight and standards.
#7 by iceman on July 2, 2010 - 4:59 am
like any other ISM , Capitalism has flaws and problems too.
But it hasn’t had a major failure since it’s constantly monitored and manipulated by Federal Reserve.
How ever there is a growing danger that is being neglected.
The gap between Poor+Middle class(Majority) and Rich(1%)
is widening at a rapid rate.
More Tax cuts to the wealthy speeds up this rate. And pushes Majority Middle Class lower and closer to the poor.
If this trend continues, it lowers the spending power of the majority , and eventually brings it to a halt. That will cause devaluation of currency. And ……………….. ??
My Best Regards.
#8 by TyH on July 3, 2010 - 9:42 pm
No it’s not, but the current administration wants to cut the government size down until they can ‘drown it in a bathtub’ … If you free the invisible hand of the market to do whatever it wants it’s going to deck you