Sharpen Your Tax Cut Argument

Looking though some old bookmarks, a blog and a post title. Tax Breaks will not Stimulate the Economy(also Nationalize the Banks NOW). There has to be some reason I saved the blog? The post links to a Democracy Now transcript. I must have been sleep book marking? may-be? It was a long time ago. I was juusst aah kid? Young and stupid? I am still trying to understand that thinking so again I am sucked in.

David Cay Johnston is the guest. I had some comments on his book Free Lunch. Good Book. I am willing to listen to him with some very large concerns about where his true ideology is. The whole interview is there. No out of context crap go listen to the whole thing.

DCJ:"They need to focus on those things that will increase demand. We’ve had twenty-eight years of supply-side economics. The data is eminently clear: it was an experiment, a radical idea, that did not work, in general. A few successes, but overall it was an utter failure that put us in this mess."

Could the expanding size of government be the problem? FDR?

DCJ:"One is, you and I are allowed to save, if we have a 401(k) plan, up to $22,000 a year without paying taxes; if we don’t have one, up to six, if you’re an older American. But executives, movie stars, athletes are allowed to save unlimited amounts of money. Hedge fund managers, unlimited amounts of money, without paying taxes. We should end those deferrals. It will bring in hundreds of billions of dollars.
Secondly, the Cayman Islands and other little parasitic operations like it are causing enormous damage to the state of our government’s finances. In 1990, about ten percent of corporate profits were taken in tax havens like the Cayman Islands. Today, it’s roughly one-quarter of all corporate profits. The only purpose served by these operations is to reduce the financial viability of the United States of America government."

DCJ:"Well, the congressman was exactly right: spending—tax cuts have not worked. The Bush tax cuts, all of them were financed with borrowed money. And where did we end up at the end of the Bush administration?"

Bush Administration made mistakes. IT WAS NOT the tax cuts.

DCJ:She’s moving to France. She’s not fully into the French system yet. She went to her neighborhood clinic, because under their system you do have to go to the neighborhood clinic. They saw her in a matter of minutes. They quickly determined that all she had was a cyst. They treated her. And she was out the door after paying a hundred-euro fee. She would have paid no fee whatsoever if she had been fully in their system."

If there was a problem how long would it have taken? And was this a private doctor? Okay the part I was waiting for.

DCJ:"One of the major reasons that we are in so much trouble in this country is that what Reaganism has brought us is spending without taxing, spending that money in ways that are totally unproductive and counterproductive and impose huge costs on the future. And this huge national debt, which is going to get worse with the stimulus, no question, and put us in danger down the road of a big inflation—but what the national debt does, what “borrow and spend” does, is it takes taxes from people who work—because that’s about 85 percent of all income tax money, from people who work—and it transfers it to capital, people who own the national debt."

85%!? what? Who are these people that work. OH he doesn't mean so called working class he means people that pay income taxes. That is not the people at bottom.

DCJ:"And who owns the national debt? Banks, insurance companies—oh, those are businesses we’re having to bail out—the thugs in China who shoot independent union organizers, and some older wealthy Americans. It’s a redistribution scheme to take money from working people and redistribute it to capital through the tax system. I’m curious, by the way, why the Republicans don’t see this, since they oppose redistribution down. You would think they should be out there actively opposing redistribution up. And a few of them have been."

I have to think about this. Why not not borrow money? If you redistribute down you have to take more out of the private sector. UP your putting it in? Okay the good part?

DCJ:"it’s ridiculous to think that business tax cuts will result in hiring people. I happen to also be the chairman of the board of a little company that I formed with one of my sons. We hire people. We hire people because we have more business. We don’t hire people to get a tax cut. That’s just the most bizarre thing I’ve ever heard. Business decisions are made on the basis of demand. We need to be spending this money to increase demand."

I might get it. It is a fine line. If your company has more money (from tax cuts) can you generate more business?

Does the company get more money from a hundred dollar tax cut or someone spending a hundred dollars on their products. Tax, you have a hundred more dollars? Spending, a hundred minus your cost, just the profit? Oh minus the tax.

And again what happens when the stimulus money is gone? Does the demand disappear with straight stimulus? Does the demand disappear generated by what the company did with a tax cut?

These thing can sharpen your arguments and belief. I am more in the tax cut camp than ever.

AMY GOODMAN: The former mayor, Giuliani, has said that that $18 billion in bonuses will be very important for New York tax revenue.

It's nice to have people agree with you. I had to. I don't know the tax code the comments on loop hole 382 of the tax code? Seems very odd. If so Fix it. Flat tax?
There is a lot in the interview I didn't get into (and don't care about) but I got what I wanted. And i didn't mention the site that started this.

Maybe I should. Know thy Enemy and all. ratboys_anvil_2 There.