Hmmmm Socialism....

[walldude]

Correct me if I'm wrong about this.

Bill Clinton raised taxes 4% on the top two percent of Americans for his two terms. Because of that tax increase he ended his term with a budget surplus.

Now less than a year into Bush's first term he decides that he's going to use that money to buy the favor of the American people, hence every tax payer in America received a "rebate"(Or whatever you want to call it) check.

Starting to see the picture here? Taxed the rich and redistributed the money to the poor.

Next time some asshole yells about socialism ask them if they took part in Bush's wealth redistribution program.

"Did you cash the check Bush sent you?" "Yes." Congratulations you're a fucking socialist.

[Cleita]

1. It's not socialism when it trickles up.

:sarcasm:

[SPedigrees]

2. I knew Clinton created a surplus and that Bush promptly squandered it and ran up a record deficit.

But I didn't know that Clinton accomplished this by taxing the rich. It doesn't surprise me, but I didn't know it. He started out with a hefty debt load left by Bush Sr.



Bumperstrip I made back in 2004 (above.) Not sure what the national debt was when Bush left office...

[cravermi]

3. I like this bumper sticker

[Q3JR4]

4. I like our socialist programs.

I like being able to go to a library and check a book out without paying up front. I like being able to call the police when I have trouble with the neighbors without paying up front. I like being able to call the fire department when my home catches on fire. I like being able to cheaply send a letter through the mail.

You join the military and the government pays for your food, your clothes, your housing, your health insurance. I don't much like the U.S. military, but that is arguably the most socialist of institutions.

Q3JR4.
If supporting single payer makes me a socialist, then I'm a socialist.

[zbdent]

6. I think that Repugs need to burn their library cards ...

make them buy books at retail prices. No "used bookstores" for them.

[Deja Q]

5. When companies don't pay good workers for good work done that builds their profits,

nobody has money to "trickle up" with.

Then these executives whine and piddle over nobody spending money.

The blind greed and disdain for those who put these people where they are is unconscionable. And sometimes the workers and customers were being blind too.

[obliviously]

7. It would have been great

if Clinton would have applied it to the national debt instead of letting congress spend it!

[upi402]

8. Gawd! Don't ya know neocons just HATE the taste of their own medicine

:rofl:
Nice pretzel logic. I like that!

[hfojvt]

9. the rebates were the idea of Congressional Democrats

and were probably okay as an economic stimulus. All they really did was move the tax cut up by about 9-13 months. The tax cuts created a 10% bracket on the first $6,000 in income. It was 15% before. Thus, most taxpayers, myself included, saved a whopping $300 by that move. Not a bad thing. Actually somewhat progressive. The $300 rebate checks were sent out in May of 2001. or maybe it was June or July. Anyway, taxpayers got them sooner that they would have when filing their taxes in February or March or April of 2002. Getting money sooner provides more of an economic stimulus and we were experiencing a mild recession (which got much worse after 911 and morphed into a jobless recovery.

But there certainly was no 'redistribution to the poor' in the Bush tax cuts, because the bulk of the money went to the top, as top rates were lowered and taxes were cut on capital gains and dividends. The $300 rebate checks were sort of a distraction and also promotion of the Bush tax cuts. They were the shiny nickel tossed to the little people while briefcases full of hundreds were quietly slid under the table to "the haves and the have mores".

see, for example here - http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/81