Draw your own conclusions. This is just a vignette, but unlike what most of us live, this is real
A business transaction put the two of us together... A staunch Republican and I, on the day the default had passed. I was a little hesitant to bring it up, but curiosity won, nevertheless...
I began in a round about way, describing how "corporate' had manipulated our financial security this past year...
I told of how the bonus program had been set with unobtainable limits last winter, and when summer came, in protest, we low-balled our estimates, and to our surprise, they were taken without a whimper.... We did well the third quarter, and were able to smuggle some over to do well two thirds of the fourth quarter...
So the first quarter this year (2011) we get a decent shot again, when the projections rolled out.... All hopeful we were, we came in the next day, gung ho.. to get this message... NO WAIT, WE MISCALCULATED... HERE ARE THE NEW TARGETS. They were set impossibly high.....
Now, correlate the time frame of this story with the argument over the eliminating the Bush Tax Cuts and see how corporate America is hurting those of us who do "the living and dying in this town."
When everyone assumed the Bush Tax Cuts were going away, ... (and it looked so obvious last summer that they would.. Democratic House, Democratic Senate, Democratic President) ... no one gave a damn how much money we made... At the time, silly me, I chalked it up to care and concern on our behalf... We'd struggled for so long, being on good terms in our company, I thought they'd decided to give us a break.
It took the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts to make the real motives clear......
... When taxes are low, there is a real incentive to screw ones workers over... Then tax rates go high, there is real incentive to bury that money back into one's business... If I'm a corporation, is it better to invest my extra dollars into the Federal Treasury via taxes, or put it into my own people which has a hidden benefit, they may stay longer and I gain efficiency from their experience?
Obviously the latter course is preferable....
But if my options are to put as much money as I can into a fund that is making 20%, clearing 80% to 90% on that gain, then I have great incentive not to pay out a single dollar in bonus or other employee incentives, (really, where else they going to go? Unemployment is at 10%; they feel lucky to have a job)
So America's middle class is hostage to the Bush Tax Cuts... I've just told you why.
The American middle class was at it's healthiest during the Jimmy Carter years. With Reagan , it slowly began to be whittled back. It had regrowth under Bill Clinton's term, and returned to it's collapse again under George W. Bush. There is direct correlation between the well being of the American Middle Class, and the marginal tax rate on high incomes and capital gains......
It makes sense. Some of you are married. If your partner, (say for a future divorce, lol), began bleeding off money from your partnership into another account, naturally, you would be worse off.... "Gee, I don't have as much money as I used to..."
That is what Bush Tax Cuts do. The beauty of America is that we, the people, are wed to the wealth of this nation. We need jobs, and we need money coming into our accounts on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, and we need our benefactors, those paying us, to remain healthy in order to do so....
The Bush Tax Cuts, are like an untrustworthy accountant... On paper, it looks great... Money coming in, Money paid out... all is fine... until... you look at the details...
Examination of the data seems to indicate that employment losses among parent firms occurred simultaneously with gains in foreign subsidiaries, thereby giving the impression that jobs are being shifted abroad. Employment among U.S. parent companies fell during the early 1980s, but increased in the 1992-2000 period, from 17.5 million to 23.9 million. From 2000 to 2003, however, employment among U.S. parent companies fell by 12% to 21.1 .....
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When taxes are higher, money is reinvested back into America. When taxes are too low, there simply is no incentive to invest here anymore.
This breaks the myth perpetuated by Ronald Reagans supply liners, the Chicago School of Economics, and yesterday by genius boy Eric Cantor himself... The myth that low taxes create jobs.
They never have. They always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always...... do the exact opposite.
Always have, Always will...
The simplest way to cut unemployment, to grow jobs, to put America back to work, to improve the economy, is... to remove the Bush Tax Cut off America's table...
Our economic problems started when they started. They will end, ... when they end....
Oh, and I never did finish my story with the die-hard Republican I was force to deal with that day.....
He, looks me in the eye and with sincere earnest says.... " What we need .. are more taxes. I'd be happy to pay a little more, for some solid security....."
At that point, I knew we were going to win the war.....