Conservatives and plutocrats claim that cutting taxes makes the economy grow. But after 'W' cut taxes, the economy didn't grow. And after Clinton raised taxes on the rich the economy grew a lot. Maybe - just maybe - having a government that is funded and functioning helps the economy grow more than handing over a bunch of cash to the rich does. Go figure.
It's not just me who has noticed... Bruce Bartlett is a conservative who served under President Reagan and the first President Bush. But he's a bit fed up with the nonsense that the plutocrats keep spouting about tax cuts. today, in Fanning the Flames of Class Warfare, Bartlett writes,
I’m still waiting for the growth Republicans promised under George W. Bush after they cut the top federal income tax rate to 35 percent from 39.6 percent, the top rate on qualified dividends to 15 percent from 35 percent and the top rate on capital gains to 15 percent from 20 percent. All of these actions significantly lowered taxes for the rich without raising economic growth at all. Why will more tax cuts for these same people do any good now?
Yesterday I pointed out that the recession recovery under Reagan was the result of government spending and hiring. From The Big Reagan Recovery Was Government Spending And Hiring,
Conservatives like to talk about how well the economy did under Reagan, and how poorly it is doing now. Then they say that government "takes money out of the economy." But the difference in economic growth was that under Reagan the government was spending and hiring, and now it isn't.
Let me conclude with the same words as yesterday:
A government that is run only for 1%er plutocrats will only do things that benefit plutocrats. As the governments of the world are increasingly "captured" by the plutocrats they will increasingly cut back on doing things for regular people. It doesn't matter if this hurts or even kills their economies in the future, 1%ers don't care. Plutocrats want it now, for themselves, and take it now, for themselves, the rest be damned.
And let me add, they'll say what they need to say to get that.
