It is painfully obvious that conservatives and liberals think with completely different sides of their brains! Or more succinctly, one uses it’s brain to think, while the other prefers to let others do their thinking for them. They simply go with the flow because the conservative ‘siren song’ of lower taxes just sounds so pleasant and soothing to the ear!
The current U.S. debt to GDP ratio is considerably less than what it was after WWII. (120 percent)
So it behooves us to reflect back to what ‘sensible politicians’ did between 1945 and 1975, three decades of exceptional growth, expanding employment, reduced deficits and massive investment in infrastructure all across America.
It was our awful, terrible government that put Americans back to work building the Interstate highway system, parks, courthouses, bridges, schools and universities.
All this growth, under both Democratic and Republican leadership, while our national debt kept steadily declining for three straight decades until Reagan’s “voodoo economics” sent the debt soaring back up again!
You know what else? America did all this while the top tax rates were between 70-91 percent! Guess that blows a BIG HOLE in the conservative argument that high taxes kills economic growth!
You need look no further than the hardship across Europe for further evidence of the folly of drastically reducing government spending during a recession. LUNACY!
This is not rocket science. It’s simply basic economics.
There is no ‘free lunch.’ America didn’t become the envy of the world because of millionaires, but because sensible politicians made smart decisions!
Rod Livdahl
Mesa
truth posted at 2:42 pm on Thu, Mar 7, 2013.
Between 2008 and 2011, 26 major American corporations paid no net federal income taxes despite bringing in billions in profits, according to a new report (PDF) from the nonprofit research group Citizens for Tax Justice. CTJ calculates that if the companies had paid the full 35 percent corporate tax rate, they would have put more than $78 billion into government coffers.
Gov. Jam Brewer says low taxes and a educated work force are luring jobs. And, in GM-s, incentive. The Arizona Commerce is putting up $1.3 million, Chandler will pay up to $ 1.13 million and the State will provide tax credit up to $14 thousand for every job created. ARE YOU KIDDING THIS FOR 1000 JOBS.
THE FAR RIGHT, TEA PARTY DO NOT KNOW POODLE-HOLES FROM LOOP- HOLES.
DonMey posted at 4:02 pm on Thu, Mar 7, 2013.
Our debt is over 100% of our GDP. It is currently projected to hit 20 T when Obama finally leaves office, which would put us over the 120% mark without some miraculous growth in our GDP.
DemocraticDad posted at 8:25 pm on Thu, Mar 7, 2013.
As usual Rod, you hit the nail on the head! Those who disagree with you on this letter are saying that they disagree with history.
chatmandu002 posted at 10:48 pm on Thu, Mar 7, 2013.
Rod,
What you forgot to include in your reasoning was the "great society" welfare and entitlement programs hoisted upon us by President Johnson and the Democratic Party.
Bluepoet posted at 8:18 am on Fri, Mar 8, 2013.
Rod also forgot to note that our economic growth included tariffs, exports, a couple of more "limited" wars, and increasingly more greedy scandals involving these so-called pragmatic polititicans. The Great Society was only the carrot on the stick, for the emerging middle class, the hope of emulating the rich, while slamming the door on upward mobility...and also the birth of the HMO, thanks to, I believe Tricky Nixon...
DonMey posted at 9:43 am on Fri, Mar 8, 2013.
DemocratDad - So the entire economic history of the US for those several decades is contained in this one page letter? Please.
Arizona Willie posted at 10:04 am on Fri, Mar 8, 2013.
DonMey, your last word was " Please. "
Yes, you and your fellow Republicans should be begging for forgiveness for the damage your party has done to this country over the last 30 some years since Reagan.
Since Reagan the Republican Party went from fiscal responsibility to being the party of BORROW AND SPEND and to hell with the bills -- we'll just refuse to pay them.
Since Reagan the Republican Party has gotten tax cut after tax cut for the wealthy with the promise of " trickle down economics " and claiming " tax cuts for the wealthy will create more jobs " and, in fact, " trickle down " does not work. " trickle down " is what happens when a dog visits a tree and that is what has been happening to the middle class over the last 30 years.
Tax Cuts for the wealthy HAVE NOT created more jobs -- unless you count the jobs created when the wealthy took the extra money and opened factories in China and India.
The Republican Party - Grand Old Prevaricators
sockratties posted at 4:09 pm on Fri, Mar 8, 2013.
Rod… you might also consider other factors which you omit from your assessment. Supply, demand and competition have entered the picture now. We are no longer the only game in town.
After WWII we were the only major industrial nation that was still intact with factories operating at a high level. While European countries were in a state of repair we could export everything we could manufacture including autos, fuel, factory parts, steel, aircraft and food. We also had a building boom to accommodate returning soldiers and sailors who were starting families (the current baby boomers), returning to college and finding jobs in manufacturing and construction.
While the top tax rate may have been higher, personal tax burdens were actually low. Remember that you used to be able to deduct all interest, donations, medical expenses (including aspirin and Band-Aids), education expenses, medical insurance premiums and some earnings on savings. With the exception of mortgage interest all those deductions have gone away for the average wage earner increasing the relative tax burden dramatically.
Cerulean posted at 6:35 pm on Fri, Mar 8, 2013.
"TEA PARTY DO NOT KNOW POODLE-HOLES FROM LOOP- HOLES." [smile]
onerebel posted at 8:45 pm on Fri, Mar 8, 2013.
Funny how the Liberals like to point fingers at the Republican's for out of control spending while at the same time THEY have the GOD of out of control spending in the White House. At his current rate he will have racked up more debt then ALL the Republican and Democrat Presidents combined. What a shining example of fiscal responsibility. Rod you talk about the problem in Europe being the reducing government spending? Are you kidding? Take a good look folks at what happens when you create a nanny state. Greece for an example, half the people get a check in one way or another from the government. How can taxpayers continue to carry that burden? That's why Germany has to keep bailing them out. Remember what happens when you let Rats take over your house!
The last four letters in American; I can. The last four letters in Republican; I can. The last four letters in Democrats; rats. [beam]
sockratties posted at 10:34 am on Sun, Mar 10, 2013.
1Reb... keep in mind that the two largest political parties in the German parliamentary coallition are the Christian Democrats (Chancellor Merkel) and the Social Democrats. Funny how a government run by Democrats is able to keep bailing Greece out. Perhaps silly little spelling tricks doesn't mean very much after all.
onerebel posted at 3:12 pm on Sun, Mar 10, 2013.
Funny you should mention the play on words sockratties. The way German's named their parties seamed for the most part revolve around the word Democratic, notice the IC at the end. Examples, The Christian Democratic Union,The center-left Social Democratic Party, The Free Democratic Party, as well as a few others. The Parliament of Germany, the Bundestag, has a multi-party system, with the major parties, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), with its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). The ideology of the Social Democratic Party is (social democracy). The Christian Democratic Union and The Christian Social Unions ideology is ( Christian Democracy with both social Conservatism and Liberal Conservatism). The term "liberal conservatism" has been used in quite a different sense, more like a Libertarian. The term is used to refer to ideologies that combine the advocacy of laissez-faire economic principles, such as respect for contracts, defense of private property and free markets, with the belief such as natural inequality, the importance of religion and the value of traditional morality. How ironic that many German's that belong to a Democratic party are actually Conservative's, wouldn't you say? [wink]
VofReason posted at 12:43 pm on Mon, Mar 11, 2013.
This is excellent logic. So under these assumptions, we should have the Government spend even more money so that our economy can become much stronger. We can just rachet up the taxes on wealthy people (of course wealthy will become everyone with any income at some point). Then we can get almost everyone to work for the government so they all have jobs that pay a "fair" wage. Strange though that even the economic commision that President Obama put together told him this was economic sucide and he needed to reduce government spending. Thankfully, Rod and others here, were able to see through it all.
VofReason posted at 12:45 pm on Mon, Mar 11, 2013.
Clearly Rod's intellect is being wasted in these pages. Someone should drum up support and get him to run for an elected office and build this great logic into the platform.