Bruce Bartlett on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
That’s not just anybody. Bruce Bartlett called for tax increases on the wealthy. Bruce Bartlett! Bruce Ron-Paul-Staffer Bartlett. Bruce Supply-Side-Author Bartlett. The man wrote one of the first books advocating Reaganomics. Advisor to President Reagan. Senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Treasury official under President Bush I. Worked at the Cato Institute. We’re talking about a major figure in tax reduction efforts in the 80s and 90s, responsible for convincing many to support lower taxes.
But here we are now with the lowest taxes in 60 years. We’ve got lax demand. The supply-side approach clearly failed for the past decade that we’ve had tax cuts. As Mr. Bartlett put it in answer to the question “Are Taxes in the U.S. High or Low?“, “The truth of the matter is that federal taxes in the United States are very low. There is no reason to believe that reducing them further will do anything to raise growth or reduce unemployment.” With tax rates already low and the economy not doing as well as it was under higher rates, there’s no reason to think it’ll do any better with even lower tax rates.
But now he’s gone even further and, like Warren Buffett, Mr. Bartlett called for tax increases on the wealthy. That’s major. That’s fresh facing of reality from one of those who sold us the lower taxes idea in the first place. Even Bruce Bartlett — an architect of Reaganomics — has apparently seen the light. Given enough such calls for rationality, maybe we can get past the “starve the beast” insanity and start doing what needs to be done. All those folks who bought Grover Norquist’s bill of goods can take Mr. Bartlett’s realization as a wake-up call. It’s not too late to get a grip on our situation, fix up our ridiculously low tax rates, rebuild our infrastructure, and get the American economy back in gear.
No I wasn’t in favor of bailing out the banks. I have no choice but to drive on government-funded roads. No, they aren’t. Again, I had no choice.
You could have asked any Pole these same questions in 1980. Does that mean that Poles should have just shut up and accepted socialism?
The average Batlett supporter has the economic knowledge of Sue Benavidez, who thinks that the US had no debt under Bill Clinton.
Hey Kevin — were you in favor of bailing out the banks? Do you drive on public roads? Are you mommy and daddy on medicare? Did you go to public schools?
It’s not only the cream that rises to the top — it’s the scum. We need to clean house — raise taxes on the super rich, share productivity increases with the people who actually do the work and create the value, and move to a four day work week with a living wage. If the top ten percent of the top one percent don’t like it, let’s hang the motherfuckers.
Bruce Bartlett is TRULY Sarah Palin’s DICKLESS and BALLESS BITCH and PUSSY! Palin has SUPERIOR knowledge of economics over this ass-clown in every single way. The only way to boost this economy is with Palinomics! Palinomics PWNS Reaganomics in every single way and it will create record number of jobs and keep taxes low and fair for everybody and everything.
@Palin Power: Seriously, man, get some psychiatric help. Palin wouldn’t know economics if her life depended on it. You have no clue how ignorant you just sounded. LOL!
He is a troll called ecfauxisxtreme- he knows Palin is an idiot- he just trolls to piss people off- missed you on Young Turks- did you get banned? hahahahahahahahaha
That’s why there are so many jobs in America right now, right? Get a clue. Cutting the tax rate for the rich and big corporations has done nothing but HURT America. Here’s a little lesson in economics that maybe even YOU can understand:
If you go to the bank to get a loan, you must have something to show you can re-pay the loan. It’s called Income or Revenue. Since the rich have been getting those tax cuts, the U.S. has NO REVENUE or at least not enough to cover the huge debt we have to China. Under Bill Clinton, the U.S. had NO DEBT. Now, we are being buried in it. And all the while, Big Corporations are boasting of their huge profits – slapping the American people in the face.
Do you really love your country or do you just want to be on the rah rah Tea Party team?