One of these days, the GOP will run out of excuses for tax cuts for the rich (not that I’m holding my breath), but until then, I guess that we simply have to shoot them down one by one until logic prevails.
The latest line of crap is that if we cut taxes on the rich, they will not invest in the small businesses that fuel job growth.
If you are one who believes in facts, the evidence is plain to see and very recent. During the Bush II years, taxes were at unusually low rates for the wealthy, and the job creation percentage was the lowest of any post war president – about three million jobs were created before the crisis. Clinton created 22 million jobs, even with the "job killing" tax rates in effect. Bush I and Reagan created 18.5 million jobs - in 12 years. If low taxes are the key to job creation, why didn’t we create a lot of jobs under Bush?
A businessman makes the decision to hire based on one thing and one thing only – will he make a bigger profit with the new hire. His personal tax rate has virtually nothing to do with that decision. If anything, retaining more money after taxes would make the wealthy businessman invest less in the company and more in himself.
Small businesses do create jobs - in a California study from 1994-2004, they created 14% increases while large businesses increased only 7.5%. True. However, you must also consider job destruction. Small businesses destructed 12.6% of jobs, while large businesses destructed 5.8%. The net increase was 1.4% from small businesses, 1.7% for large businesses. Small business jobs are also lower quality jobs. Pay and benefits are lower than at larger firms.
One point that seems to be rarely made is that all percentiles of the population – from poor to rich – increased their income more under Democrats than Republicans. Under Dems, incomes increased from 2.1% (top 20 percent) to 2.6% for the lowest 20%. Under Republicans, the top 20% increased their income by 1.9% and the lowest 20% increased by .4%. Yes, the rich get richer under Democrats than under Republicans. And the poor get poorer under the Republicans.
Name one period when low tax rates created jobs without blowing a hole in the deficit. Trick question – the GOP fiscal philosophy has never worked (and they love to run up the deficit). The most telling figures are the increase in Debt/GDP ratio. Reagan increased it from 32.5% to 53.1%, Bush I increased it from 53.1% to 66.1%. Clinton lowered it from 66.1% to 56.4%, and Bush II increased it from 56.4% to 83.4%. Except for a blip of +0.2% in the Nixon/Ford years, every other president has lowered the Debt/GDP ratio.
Do Facts Matter? The GOP ran up the vast majority% of the deficit proving their philosophy is bankrupt – and now so are we. We have shown them the path to surpluses – tax the rich just a little.
All that would be accomplished by giving the rich more tax cuts is to blow up the deficit some more – and put some smiles on faces that are already smiling very expensive smiles...