kiaa: (Default)
[personal profile] kiaa posting in [community profile] talkpolitics
"What better way to celebrate Jesus’s birth than the rich taking FROM the poor? Glory!" ~ Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian, on Twitter



So here's a compilation of illuminating facts and pertinent observations about recent events...

1929: Republican Calvin Coolidge cuts taxes radically. Stock market crashes a year later, Great Depression begins, lasts over a decade.

1981: Republican Reaganomics. Saint Ronnie cuts corporate taxes in his famous "Trickle Down" tax plan. Massive income inequality is the result, hardest hit are black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Unemployment peaks at 10.7%. Reagan finally signs two tax increases. Economy stabilizes.

2001-2008: Republican Bush tax cuts. Dubbya attempts to channel Saint Ronnie. He figures where Ronnie went wrong was that he just didn't push "Trickle Down" deep enough. Passes two unfunded tax cuts during a period of two wars, NONE of which was factored into the budget. Great Recession of 2008-2009 begins in late summer 2008. Obama sworn in January 2009. Republicans blame recession on Obama.

2017: Republicans attempt Trickle Down once more. What could go wrong?

National debt stands at $20T. Your share is $63k.
Tax bill adds $1T to debt - allegedly (he's mistaken. It actually adds $1.45T).
Raising your share by $3,150.
For a family of four, $12,600.
Tax bill "saves" a family of four $1,600 per year.
So any real savings begin in year 8, the year the personal income tax cuts expire.

Tax cut bill kills ObamaCare mandate. The moment Trump signs it, 13M Americans lose their healthcare.
No provision for CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program. The healthcare of 8,9M children still being ignored as the top 1% are promised 83% of the $1.45T tax cuts.

"I was the first and only GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid." ~ Donald Trump, May 7th 2015.

"We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and deficit. Medicaid and Medicare are the big drivers of debt, so we spend more time on the healthcare entitlements, because that's really where the problem lies, fiscally speaking." ~ Paul Ryan, December 6th 2017

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the only reason the Republican tax cut bill is polling so badly is because the Democrats have been badmouthing it.

From beginning to end, the length of time Republican committees spent investigating Benghazi: 3 years, 2 months. Cost: over $7M.
Amount of time Republicans have spent investigating Trump-Russia: Less than 1 year. But they now say they've "wasted enough time already," and plan to end the House investigation soon.

But back to taxes.

"This tax bill represents everything that's wrong with Trump and his Republican enablers (and the oligarchs behind them) - unbridled greed, utter disdain for the rest of America, and a cynical assumption they can get away with anything by repeatedly lying through their teeth." ~ Robert Reich, economist, on Twitter.

(no subject)

Date: 23/12/17 20:03 (UTC)
johnny9fingers: (Default)
From: [personal profile] johnny9fingers
I don't know why they wouldn't. But they may possibly ascribe the latter debt shareaddition as something dependent upon a few years of derivative mis-selling. As pointed out the economic "correction" started under W, BTW, and with the fall of the odd bank or two.

Blaming the single right person(s) is probably difficult. But the repealing of Glass-Stegall under WJC may have had an effect here. As usual, it's complicated. Obama has his sins, certainly; but blaming him for authorising borrowing after the financial crash is a bit odd given he kept the US free of the worst sort of economic crisis that hit some other nations in difficulties caused by the same events - events whose genesis was in the US.

(no subject)

Date: 24/12/17 05:53 (UTC)
garote: (Default)
From: [personal profile] garote
Seriously. Dismissing the man’s entire legacy as “pretty speeches” in order to lump him in with the extreme fiscal irresponsibility bookending him just sounds to me like juvenile contrarianism.

(no subject)

Date: 24/12/17 06:10 (UTC)
oportet: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oportet
I'm fine with not blaming the single person. I'm also fine with blaming the single person. Let's pick one and stick with it. Let's give a shit about the debt, or not. Let's hold a President responsible, or not.

Don't hold them to different standards because one is cool and one is an asshole.

(no subject)

Date: 24/12/17 06:40 (UTC)
garote: (Default)
From: [personal profile] garote
It’s not that he’s cool (which he is), it’s that he made way less of a mess than the guys before or after him.

I’m not happy seeing the debt or deficit go up, no matter who does it, but doing it to avoid a total economic meltdown is something that I can at least find plausible.

Doing it for _no_reason_at_all_, like Bush Jr and Trump ... there’s nothing to offset the fury.

(no subject)

Date: 24/12/17 06:47 (UTC)
oportet: (Default)
From: [personal profile] oportet
Everything good under Trump is because Obama - everything bad under Trump is because Trump.

Everything good under Obama is because Obama - everything bad under Obama is because W.


Step back - under any other circumstances - wouldn't that seem ridiculous?

If we had a Republican, or an asshole, or an asshole Republican for the last 8 years - would you still write off ten trillion dollars as smart, or necessary, or unavoidable - or all of the above?

Most folks don't get romanticized like this till the worms are done with 'em.

(no subject)

Date: 24/12/17 06:48 (UTC)
garote: (Default)
From: [personal profile] garote
That shadow you’re punching at sure is taking a beating! Good job!

(no subject)

Date: 24/12/17 13:04 (UTC)
johnny9fingers: (Default)
From: [personal profile] johnny9fingers
If we had a Republican, or an asshole, or an asshole Republican for the last 8 years - would you still write off ten trillion dollars as smart, or necessary, or unavoidable - or all of the above?

If he'd done the same things for the same reasons, or probably if he had done the same things for different reasons even, with the same outcome... yes. But we have to go back to Nixon for a Republican with that much economic and civic sense, and he was pretty damn dodgy in other ways too, as we know. But WJC failed in that regard too, though he and the voters didn't know it as the economy was behaving differently during his tenure and it took a few years more to unravel properly.

Gods, I can't believe I'm praising Tricky Dicky with faint damns.

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