Not a CEO? NO $$ FOR YOU!
It is practically carved in stone among conservatives and the GOP that the more money the rich and corporations make, the better off everyone else will be. This is called alternately “Reaganomics”, “Supply Side Economics”, “Trickle Down Economics” or, as Bush Sr., the far more intelligent of the Bush presidents, put it: “Voodoo Economics”. The most recent nickname for this is “Uncertainty” as in, “Everything is so uncertain, we have to make sure businesses feel secure enough to hire by lowering their taxes.”
The concept is that corporations will take their profits and hire more workers and reinvest in the United States. Sounds good. We have 30 years worth of empirical data to check that against but let’s skip all that because there will complaints about bias and liberal lies, etc.
Let’s just focus on the last three years. In 2008, the economy imploded. It doesn’t matter who caused it for the purposes of this thought exercise. It happened and millions of people lost their jobs and savings. Three years later, the stock markets are up, corporations are reporting record profits (profits, mind you, not just revenue) and CEOs are getting paid more than they did just 2 years ago, some of them vastly more.
The New York Times reports:
In the fourth quarter, profits at American businesses were up an astounding 29.2 percent, the fastest growth in more than 60 years. Collectively, American corporations logged profits at an annual rate of $1.678 trillion.
The article goes on to specify:
The median pay for top executives at 200 major companies was $9.6 million last year. That was a 12 percent increase over 2009
Good for them! By now, if the GOP is to be believed, we should be seeing all kinds of job production, reinvestments and awesome golden rivers of happiness for all. After all, in red states all over the country they’re lowering taxes on these very same businesses so obviously the boom times are back if they can afford to do THAT!
Except they’re not.
What many of these executives aren’t doing, however, is hiring. Unemployment, although down from its peak, stood at 8.8 percent in March. And few economists predict the jobless rate will drop substantially anytime soon.
Wait. WHUUUUT?! How can that possibly be? We just spent months fighting over lower taxes for these people because they needed to be reassured that they wouldn’t be put out of business by a few extra percent on their taxes. $1.678 trillion (that’s with a “T”) is a whole hell of a lot of profit. Are we supposed to believe that corporations are still too shaky to hire?
Is ANYONE stupid enough to still believe that giving them more of OUR money is going to magically make them hire back all the people they fired? They’re raking it in hand over fist. Where’s the incentive to give back to the communities they’re bleeding dry? They won’t even pay the taxes they owe and we’re expecting them to reinvest out of the goodness of their corporate hearts?
Question? How do you get half the popualtion of a country to vote for economic suicide?
Answer: Convince them the rich are on their side.
Read about the crime spree here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/business/10comp.html?_r=2
Where’s the trickle down? It’s called a paycheck.
What i don’t get is if trickle down really worked then where was the amazing job growth under Bush 2? How is it that Clinton made some 22-23 million jobs with a higher tax rate on the wealthiest and Bush only some 3 million?
The problem here is you’re using facts and making sense – “head in the sand” Republicans simply don’t understand such things.
DO people really still believe anything in Washington happens immediately?! Clinton’s early job growth came on the coattails of Bush 41, and Bush 43s numbers were a result of eight years of Clinton.
AJ Gum, I read your replies, and at first was going to ask if you really believe the drahk you put down for other people to read.
However, unless you’re a billionaire, the chances are very, very high that you’re just being paid by one to recycle the same ordure that other tools of the obscenely wealthy spouted so convincingly to the poor and uneducated mass of conflicted and confused individuals who subsequently became the Tea Party.
Gum, you sound like one of the guys in the pictures holding signs like, “Keep your govermint hands of my Medicar!” Or my personal favorite, “I may be too dum to kno what two do with a gun, but the Consitusion says I kin hav won!”
But, to be fair, I honestly do believe that the 90% tax rate back in the ’50s and ’60s was a little steep. Just because it encouraged reinvestment instead of hoarding all that money, helped build one of the best infrastructures in the world, funded libraries (I know, that’s a strange word for you, have someone look it up in a dictionary and explain it to you) and hospitals and colleges and public schools and performing arts and–well, that’s all beside the point. I believe we should only tax the rapaciously wealthy 82% of their income, with no shelters, loopholes, or estate tax. In that scenario, of course, there’s no need for an estate or an inheritance tax, since the person inheriting the money immediately goes into the higher tax bracket. . .
And that’s progressive–it’s not the 90% tax, it’s giving the rich a little more of their American dream while not STRANGLING ALL THE POOR PEOPLE BY TRYING TO MAKE THEM SUPPORT THE RAPACIOUSLY RICH.
Tell me, Gum, how is it fair to tax the poor to support the wealthy? Is that what you call an equitable deal? Michelle Bachmann thinks it is–and so do a lot of her rich friends and colleagues. She’s complaining right now about how those lazy, insufferable poor just aren’t paying enough to give her and her rich backers even more tax breaks.
Or maybe you’re just not a student of history. Maybe you were never taught about the government of the early 1900s, how it was taken over by the Republicans, who proceeded to give all their rich friends tax breaks. They were so successful at helping out their rich friends that they caused the Great Depression, and now they’re doing their best to prove that wasn’t just a fluke, that they can do it again!
Do the world a favor, Gum–take a look at your paycheck, then take a look at the salary of the CEO who runs your company. Figure out what he’s making an hour, if he comes in 5 days a week for eight hours a day, 50 weeks a year. And then tell me that the trickle down you’re feeling isn’t warm, isn’t yellow, and that the CEO of your company isn’t standing on your shoulders and laughing at you and your incredible gullibility.
God help us all.
Henry D. Rinehart
Wow, AJ really is delusional. Totally drunk the Kool Aid there. Convenient too, Bush did all the work and Clinton got all the reward. And Clinton was the reason Bush Jr. was such an idiot… er I mean inherited a mess… of a budget surplus. Seriously AJ just smack the stupid out yourself.
Republicans constantly scream, “YOU CAN’T RAISE ANYMORE TAXES ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!!!” They are lucky the American people are too dumb to realize that lowering taxes for the rich means the growing deficit will now be more on the backs of the poor.
Income tax rates for millionaires and billionaires should be 70%. (It was higher back in the 30s when this country started to become great.) Anyone that makes 40K or less (teachers, etc) should hardly be taxed at all. They already have a hard time affording half decent insurance and health care.
Taxes should be higher on PEOPLE WHO CAN AFFORD IT.
John McCain, do you really need a yacht, or thousand dollar shower curtains and five houses?!?!?
PLEASE, explain to me why anyone should have to pay more simply because they make more? Isn’t that punishing the American Dream? How about sending all the illegals back from whence they came instead of letting them suck undeserved millions from America’s coffers? How about actually checking on people’s real need before granting welfare to healthy people? Trust me, the wealthy Left do not pay 70% in taxes and would fight tooth-and-nail not to. Politicians of both stripes don’t pay anywhere near their rightful share of taxes because their wealth allows for “tax-breaks” and they don’t pay insurance premiums (so why care that Obamacare is a monumental rip-off?). Why is it that people who yell “tax the rich” think it’s only Republicans who have money? Incredible.
High taxes on the rich are what actually stimulate the economy because the rich will work very hard to avoid high taxes. If they invest money into businesses, it is a business expense, so isn’t taxed as income but their net worth is still increased by the expense, and you get more jobs for the investment. You must get rid of the free trade for high taxed to stimulate the economy though because they just move their operations to another country and ship the goods here to sell free of tax.
If they have low taxes, they don’t avoid paying them as much, and just sit on their money more.
Proof positive that the teabaggers and repukes are just plain liars. But wait, they actually believe this garbage, just look at Ryan’s budget proposal, cut the top rate by a third, 35% to 25%. Unbelievable! The President suggests raising the top rate to 39% and the head idiots of the GOP cry class warfare.
I know right? My favorite line in the President’s speech from last week was this:
“Some will argue we shouldn’t even consider raising taxes, even if only on the wealthiest Americans. It’s just an article of faith for them. I say that at a time when the tax burden on the wealthy is at its lowest level in half a century, the most fortunate among us can afford to pay a little more. I don’t need another tax cut. Warren Buffett doesn’t need another tax cut. Not if we have to pay for it by making seniors pay more for Medicare. Or by cutting kids from Head Start. Or by taking away college scholarships that I wouldn’t be here without. That some of you wouldn’t be here without. And I believe that most wealthy Americans would agree with me. They want to give back to the country that’s done so much for them. Washington just hasn’t asked them to.”
I especially love where he says that he doesnt need another tax cut and neither does warren buffet. Obama could actually benefit from it too, he only reported $1.3million on his taxes last year, and thats with his presidential salary. He reported $5.1million in 2009
Amen, my Filthy friend!
We’ve been seeing this Reaganomics bullshit for over a decade and things have gotten worse and worse as time went on. It boggles my mind that these idiots can’t see the writing on the wall.
I suspect Reaganomics has become the new GOP religion, because their Gods (the CEOs) keep raining blessings down on them and their campaigns… Of course, like most religions, they keep believing and preaching about it no matter how much evidence comes to the surface about what a crock it is.