Tax “Reform” – Here We Go Again

September 30, 2017 By: El Jefe Category: Congress, Sumbitches

Bruce Bartlett, Reagan’s domestic policy advisor wrote a great piece in the Washington Post yesterday which ripped away the veil from Republican tax mythology.  That mythology has been peddled to Americans since Reagan and is dependent on successfully peddling the lie that taking in less money results in revenue going up.  The tax cutting myth is a myth because it’s a lie and has always been a lie.

Low taxes became an article of faith among Republicans started by Ronald Reagan who preached tax cuts as the cure-all for the nation’s ills.  Repubs have never seen a tax cut they didn’t like and live in a world where 2-1=3.  Reagan’s tax cuts probably dampened the recovery after the years of stagflation, the recovery from which was more affected by interest rate reductions made by the Fed.

GWB was also propelled to the WH in 2000 on a tax cutting platform, and his two tax cuts accelerated the downturn of 2007 into the Great Recession that brought our economy to it’s knees.

Once again, the Repubs, now in control of Congress and the WH, have come back to the tax cut trough, peddling their same BS of how cutting taxes makes revenue to up.  They’re also patently dishonest about taxes themselves, continuously lying that the US has the highest taxes in the developed world.  They always point to statutory tax rates which bear no actual resemblance tor effective tax rates actually paid.

Bartlett makes the point that taxes don’t drive business investment.  Tax cuts don’t make revenue go up; they drive revenues down.  It’s simple.  It’s math.  Which Republicans don’t understand.