I am so very pleased that Democrats have quit buying the Right Wing mantra about increased taxes on the rich, and the consequent need to reduce the deficit by cutting entitlements.
For so long it felt like swimming against the tide to demand that we quit accepting the framing, and begin to demand the numbers.
"Okay Mr Boehner. If, as you suggest, we need to cut spending then please identify which spending we need to cut. Which programs, government departments, regulations do we need to sacrifice. Let us see your detailed budget".
There, that will fix them because they do not have an answer to any of those problems.
There is a very simple and easy to grasp point here.
Raising taxes on the rich will stimulate the economy. However much Republicans do not like that simple economic truth it is, nonetheless, true. Let us remember that the tax increases we are talking about are very modest hikes to historically low rates. Not one of them is able to justify a claim that the rises proposed are burdensome, onerous or that they would even notice the loss.
If you choose to increase revenue from sources that are not currently stimulating the economy, and use that fund in areas of high need, lower income, then every dollar will stimulate the economy far beyond it's single dollar worth.
In a recession you need to move money through the economy, not let it accumulate and sit idle.
Honestly, the GOP would hate me. Give me ten minutes in the Oval Office and I could stimulate the economy way beyond the wildest dreams of even Bernie Sanders (love him).
A simple windfall tax, one time, removing the two trillion unspent dollars from American Corporations, then an immediate two trillion spending program on welfare benefits and infrastructure repairs. That is how stimulating the economy works ....
American Corporations: Spend it now, or lose it and we will spend it!
When the GOP are giving you a hard time over entitlements, I have a very simple talking point for you to use in rebuttal:
If you were to give one hundred dollars to a beggar on the street, then by nightfall that money would be back in the hands of the wealthy. Throughout the course of the day it would have created economic activity, many times over, right up through the income and business scales.
Fact is, welfare spending does not "take from the rich", it borrows from them, short term, and improves the lives of us all.