America For Purchase

Republicans cheer the declining tax rate for Americas’ wealthiest as Middle America and the poor pay the price for their decade’s long greed.  This is one of the greatest con jobs on Americans today. From the late 1930s through the 1970s, the top marginal tax rates were around 90%.  During this period America saw its strongest middle class ever, with real income steadily growing along with the number of jobs. Families had one bread winner who could support their families, own a home, have quality transportation and affordable health care and even take family vacations each year all the while putting money into family savings accounts. There were no economic meltdowns or Wall Street bubble bursts. Life was relatively good for Americans.Then along came Ronald Reagan, the father of ‘trickle-down’ economics. Reagan slashed the top marginal tax rates for America’s wealthy to around 20%. He promised the tax cuts would spur an “orgy” of investment and rocket the economy to new levels of production and prosperity. Instead, his supply side economics did the exact opposite and began America’s deficit problems and financial decline.

Next comes George H W Bush, who cut that tax rate even further to 15%.  What followed were the first of many burst bubbles, financial meltdowns and hardships for the middle class.

Bill Clinton stopped the bleeding of America families for a while as he reversed Reagan’s and George H.W. Bush’s tax cuts for the rich, raising the top rate to 31% to 37% and then to 39%, and lowering them for the middle class. Clinton’s efforts produced the longest sustained economic expansion in American history and this helped to leave a budget surplus of $1.5 trillion over a 10 year period.

George W Bush decimated the tax rate for the rich exponentially and the budget surplus!

Where is the ‘trickle down’ financial windfall for hardworking, taxpaying Americans?  It was a ruse, a con game, of, for and by America’s Republican leaders to reward Wall Street, big oil, too-big-to-fail banks, health insurance companies and war profiteers.

The 3 decades of Republican tax cuts for the top 1% of American under Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W Bush allowed their tax rates being cut from around 90% to under 20%!  Then America witnessed the greatest economic recession rivaling that of the Great Depression.

The low marginal tax rate for the rich has NEVER resulted in good, stable economic conditions for the rest of America. “Entrepreneurship” is always what claims to lie at the heart of tax cuts for the rich, but what actually results is market bubbles and then economic hardship for the rest of the country.

At one time in history, fair tax cuts were intended to allow people to keep more of their own money and have more to invest and spend, to create jobs and stimulate the economy.  This is no longer the case as tax cuts have been so minuscule for Middle America, they do not even come close to their intended purpose.  Capitalism has been perverted by corporate greed and Republican economic mismanagement. Economics 101 has been redefined.

George W Bush said “Yes. Tax cuts allow people to keep more of their own money therefore they have more to invest and spend into the economy and more money to start business and create jobs therefore also helping to stimulate the economy.” And then Americans witnessed the largest economic crash since the ‘Great Depression’.

The truth about tax cuts can be seen from history.  Large income tax cuts are followed by a bubble and then an economic crash.  High income taxes and tax increases on America’s wealthy correlate with economic growth.

Americans should never forget that during the Presidency of George W Bush, Republicans spent more money on pork barrel projects in US history and they created the worst economic disaster in modern times. All Republican spending was passed on to future generations, none were paid for.  In fact, George W Bush never vetoed a single Republican spending bill.

President Obama wants to increase the tax rate for America’s wealthy, which is one effort to help pay for health care reform for Middle and Poor Americans, yet Republicans are pushing back in an effort to protect their rich friends, putting America’s economy more at risk as they continue to put politics over people. History is clear on the Republicans approach.

When Americans hear Republicans talk about being ‘fiscally conservative’, they better look out for another Republican con job.

Filed under: Republicans