The Economy: Can We Talk About the Real Issues?
The Mitt and his fellow travelers have repeatedly characterized the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as a “failure.” The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business conducted a poll of 44 leading economists. 80% of these professionals agreed that the ARRA lowered the U.S. unemployment rate.
IGM – Impact of Recovery Act
So according to a moderately large group of professionals, The Mitt is lying. Again.
Then there is The Mitt’s claim that a tax cut will stimulate the economy, to such an extent that any revenue loss from the tax cut will be more than offset by increased revenue from the stimulated economy. It turns out none of the economists polled believe it.
IGM – Impact of Tax Cut
You probably didn’t need a doctorate in economics to recognize this. It might have been true when the maximum tax rate was over 90%, but not at current marginal rates.
The Mitt hasn’t disclosed much about his economic plans, and even less that makes sense. His idea that we can increase defense spending and further cut taxes, and make up the deficit by closing loopholes is laughable. But his claim that a tax cut will increase revenue, the premise of economist Art Laffer, has been disproven many times. Most recently by former President George Bush.
The economy is stagnant and unemployment remains high for two reasons. First, the housing market is still in the tank. Second, the failure to spend enough money to reboot the economy, a result of Republican obstruction, especially in the U.S. House. And the second cause, carrying with it lower and stagnant income, has aggravated the first problem, since there is reduced demand for housing.
But The Mitt won’t talk about those real issues. Instead, he is trying to focus the election on ideas that are rejected by the majority of economists. WC suspects he knows it. But we already know The Mitt and the truth are sometimes strangers.
IMO, no republican politician or supporter wants to participate in a serious discussion about the economy. They’re too busy peddling trickle down economics, claiming that businesses aren’t hiring because there are too many government regulations, creating budgets that won’t do what they claim they will, and wasting time and money on repeated attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The study you cite in this post is proof positive that when republicans claim that tax cuts promote economic growth, they’re lying. If tax cuts could reduce unemployment and promote economic growth, the evidence should have been visible during the last administration. President Bush created only @ 1 million jobs in eight years. Paul Ryan is supposed to be the republicans go-to guy on economics, and even though he has an under graduate degree in economics, there’s little evidence of it. His budget is a republican wish list with the main goal of destroying and/or weakening the social safety net. Ayn Rand has taken the hearts and minds of republican politicians and their supporters. Republicans have adamantly refused to even consider passing The American Jobs Act, which the CBO says would reduce the unemployment rate. The republicans’ game all along has been to act as obstructionists, watch the economy flounder, and blame the president for their failure to act. It’s all politics, all of the time for them, and they couldn’t care less about Americans who are struggling in this recession. It’s my belief that you can’t have a serious discussion about anything when you’re having to deal with politicians who value ideology more than facts. That republicans think that Romney is the one who can turn the economy around with more tax cuts, fewer regulations, and more subsidies to companies that don’t need them is the very definition of stupidity.
majiir
July 29, 2012 at 8:44 am