My response to the opinion piece:
@editor - The mantra of tax cut theology started by Mr. Reagan goes like this: Anything wrong with the economy can be fixed by tax cuts. That would be the best solution, the next best solution and of course the solution of last resort.
Tax Cuts are simply the redistribution of the nation's wealth upward. Look up the stats on the income gap. Do the math with regard to the proportion of tax relief going to the citzenry. Who gets the most benefit from tax cuts? More importantly, what are the costs, both in money, and in quality of life? Who actually bears the costs?
Tax Cuts don't now nor have they ever paid for themselves.
It is simply stupid to say that taxes are the reason for ..... anything.
Removing the tax burden from the wealthy defunds the government so that, guess who, needs to step in to provide services for a healthy profit. Individual freedom at that point will be pretty much what you can afford. No money, no freedom.
This is not a serious argument Mr. Editor. It's a stupid one... Any semblance of fiscal sanity has disappeared from the conservative's arguments on this. There is no sanity left and no room for any type of economic recovery with these simplistic, theological arguments in place.
From Think Progress:
David Stockman, who led the all-important Office of Management and Budget under Reagan and was a chief architect of his fiscal policy, criticized today’s GOP for misreading Reagan’s legacy by adopting a “theology” of tax cuts. Stockman has spoken out before, but took perhaps his strongest stance yet against his own party today, saying “I’ll never forgive the Bush administration” for “destroying the last vestige of fiscal responsibility that we had in the Republican Party.” He also broke with Republican orthodoxy on a number of key issues:
– We need “a higher tax burden on the upper income.”
– “After 1985, the Republican Party adopted the idea that tax cuts can solve the whole problem, and that therefore in the future,deficits didn’t matter and tax cuts would be the solution of first, second, and third resort.”
– The 2001 Bush tax cut “was totally not needed.”
– On claims that Reagan proved tax cuts lead to higher government revenues: “Reagan proved nothing of the kind and yet that became the mantra and it just led the Republican Party away from its traditional sound money, fiscal restraint.”
– Former Vice President Cheney “should have known better” than claim the Bush tax cuts would pay for themselves.
– “I’ll never forgive the Bush administration and Paulson for basically destroying the last vestige of fiscal responsibility that we had in the Republican Party. After that, I don’t know how we ever make the tough choices.”
It's a pretty sad day for me to be quoting Reagan Republicans to rebut this type of fiscal lunacy from the radical right.
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