Tax Cuts Work

[edhopper]

I see the new PM in Britain is promising more tax cuts to "grow the economy". Of course that is a canard.

The reason conservatives have been pushing tax cuts since Reagan and Thatcher, and the reason they continue to do so, even though decades of data show the biggest impact is out of control deficits, is that they aren't really done for economic growth.

The reason they keep cutting taxes is to make their oligarch overlords richer and richer, And in that they have been wildly successful. The true purpose of tax cut have worked quite well for their intended beneficiaries.

[yankee87]

1. Only 40 years

Let’s not jump to conclusions. It’s only been 40 years since the Raygun tax cuts. These cuts will start working any day now. We just need patience. What a joke.

[empedocles]

2. We need these charts in our November capaign attack ads.

[empedocles]

3. With a clear correlation to republicon presidential terms

[Martin Eden]

4. Another reason: DEFICITS are essential to the long term goal of "small government" conservatives

Grover Norquist famously stated the goal to shrink government to a size that can be drowned in a bathtub.

That of course means dismantling FDR's New Deal and LBJ's Great Society. The problem is the politicians financed by the oligarchs are unlikely to win elections by promising to destroy popular (and essential) programs like Social Security and Medicare. Instead, they promote tax cuts as an engine of economic growth, giving middle class voters a small (sometimes temporary) tax cut while the wealthiest individuals and corporations get the lions share of the windfall.

When this inevitably results in huge budget deficits, it's tempting to think the self-proclaimed "fiscal conservative" Republicans are idiots for believing "tickle down" actually works. After 40 years of Reaganomics it's time we realized that huge deficits are a feature, not a bug, of an intentional strategy to dismantle government programs that help the vast majority of Americans but are hated by the wealthy elite.

The "fiscal conservatives" who played a large part in creating the huge deficits will point to the fiscal "crisis" and play the role of responsible adult by urging that "reforms" are needed for "entitlements" that have gotten out of control. These "entitlements" are of course the earned benefits working Americans have already paid for with deductions from our paychecks our entire working lives. When Democrats propose reversing the tax cuts which have widened the huge chasm between the uber-rich and everyone else, Republicans scream "class warfare" and "Socialism!"

The fact is the rich have been waging and winning class warfare ever since a second-rate actor campaigned on "Let's make America great again" and conned millions of blue collar voters into embracing what his primary opponent (GHW Bush) termed voodoo economics.

We've been stuck with it ever since, and will continue to be as long as the Republican Party can filibuster legislation that would change it.

[BSdetect]

5. When are the trump tax cuts for the rich being replealed?