Tom Toles for August 09, 2010

http://tinyurl.com/2g56neo

Bush? Bush? Who is that, I think he was maybe President years and years ago, but the Conservatives have told me, over and over again, that there is no need to talk about him any more, I mean that was so long ago that nothing he did has any effect on what is happening now.

Obama really has a problem here with the Bush tax cuts. It sounds great to demogogue and say we will end the Bush tax cuts for the rich but when Obama made analysis he made a starting discovery. Over half of the Bush tax cuts went to the middle class. Some figures show 60%. So what can Obama do?

My guess is he will let the tax cuts for the rich- over 250,000 or 350,00/year expire and keep those for the middle class. But then 60% of the savings aimed at balancing the budget and cutting the deficit will disappear. He really has a problem here.

Libertarian1, no problem for Obama here. If we understand that tax breaks for the majority in the $250,000 and below will actually stimulate the economy instead of just help the stock market we can see that the break WILL actually pay for itself. It is the folks who have very little who spend the majority of their income, it is those who have the most who hoard their income. Disregarding yachts and third homes ofcourse.

^^ check out the cover of the latest “bloomberg businessweek”…

The tax cuts wouldn’t pass the sniff test when passed. They really helped to preserve the economy and budget surpluses?

Cut back on spending

“these tax cuts are temporary, and will not effect our nations abilities to use funds to help our citizens”.W-bush

Then the FED borrowed one trillion to run royal oil wars. costofwar.org

Sell them as ‘temporary’, then spin/sell them as ” the largest tax increase in U-knighted states history!!” as they end.

If the ‘tax cuts” end-they revert to Sir reagans “tax cut”-rates. Many are counting on voters to have a 15 min memory of tax rates.

“Time wounds all heels” John Lennon

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/aug/04/distorting-democratic-plans-bush-tax-cuts/

Just like the Reagan “tax cuts” the Bush cuts helped the low and middle income tax payers very little. It did help those who made millions. Even if it had been across the board, as some claim they were, what good would $56 in a year be to the average person? That is a little over $1 a week. It was good enough for Reagan to buy the vote of one person,but not mine.

Thanks, jade.

All of this has me craving large shrimp… . I might need to make a stop by the E-mart on the way home.

Must have forgotten to “de-vein” the thing.

harley:

How ‘bout a whiff of this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/opinion/01stockman.html

Regressives have no spines.

“MIddle Class”(median) average income is around $53,000 - the Bush tax cuts went to those earning over $250,000 single, $500,000 joint–that ain’t hardly “middle class”.

It’s the PERCENTAGE of income taxed, not the DOLLARS PAID that make the difference, especially for those on lower incomes who may pay less actual dollars, but much more as a percentage of income.

Buffet, Gates and others have pointed out the reductions in taxes the Bush regulations MANDATED THEY TAKE, those were only for the rich as well.

We only have two economic theories; one Dem, one Rep. The Dem theory is to give poor and middle class (to some extent) more money to spend so as to stimulate the market. The Rep theory is to give more money to the rich and the middle class (to some extent) to invest and thus stimulate the market. Do you see a trend here? Neither work and both cost our children money. Both theories are based on brilliant work by economists decades ago that never envisioned the extent of influence by a global market. Most of the money spent by the poor is on imported products and most of the money invested by the wealthy goes to outsourced factories and mills. It’s the elephant in the room that both parties see and will not deal with. Both parties hope that some day American innovation will rescue us while ever day innovation is stolen or outsourced to foreign companies. Some hope that green energy will save us and if we double our tax funded investment we may narrow the enormous gap that already exists with China let alone the world. Half of you reading this will side with the D’s and the other half will side with the R’s while all of you will think I am crazy. Until we as a country recognize that we must rebuild our manufacturing base at whatever price we will continue to decline.

Conservatives are wrong again, Conservatives have been screaming that Government should give (thru tax cuts and credits) to business as only business can create jobs, but the truth is that (as it should be) the first concern of business is make a profit and not doing things to reduce unemployment.

The Los Angeles Times ran story about how, despite recording strong profits and accumulating billions in cash, corpations and companies are not increasing their hiring, instead they are spending on new equipment and taking other steps, such as getting more work out of their current labor force, to increase their productivity. In the past, when coming out of a recession, business spent on both equipment and increase manpower, but now they are spending mostly on equipment, and some are even laying more people off to cut costs.

This is why it is so important for Government to get involved or the recession will turn into a depression.

Thank you Mr.Doody for explaining the real issue! I’ve been screaming about this since d_legendary1’s days!

Tax cuts do nothing to stimulate the economy! If anything you’re killing and privatizing Government.

How does getting an additional $100-300 dollars a year constitute as disposable income? You buy something at Wal-Mart, and then what? Its not helping Joe Six-Pack keep a job here in the U.S.

Instead you’re helping Communist China and a few Trans-National Corporations prosper.

just cut all non-essential spending reduce congress and senate pay to $50,000 per year no expense account no government cars and get rid of the entitlement programs and if you are on food stamps or welfare for every $100 per month you receive you have to do 10 hours per month community service in your city

Very nicely put, mrdoody.

BTW, those guys in Arizona escaped from a PRIVATE prison under contract to the state. Other states have had similar problems with “private prisons”- so those tax dollars go to fund both “private profit” AND escaped prisoners?

Mr. Trout, You are correct. I just read a comment saying Obama had let the inmates escape…. BROTHER!!!

Is that one of those toxic Gulf shrimp?

No lowering taxes ever! Taxes should get lower and lower forever! Taxes bad!