I was going to include this in my earlier post, but it made more structural sense to limit that to GOP appearances on one show. And this would've been slightly off-topic anyway.
GOP Rep. Mike Pence was interviewed by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, where he was unable to resolve his party's position on extending unemployment benefits with extending Bush's tax cuts for the rich. UI benefits must be paid for, but there's always plenty of money for tax cuts for the rich. Instead, he decided to shovel bullshit. Tax cuts pay for themselves.
A few points here. First, Kennedy's tax cuts weren't supply-side cuts, like Pence is defending, but demand-side cuts. Second, Reagan's tax cuts increased revenue so damned much that he was forced to increase taxes to pay for them. And third... Well, this:
So we tried it your way, Mike. I didn't work. We tried it again. It didn't work. We tried it yet again and it still didn't work. Readers might be reminded of this:
You've heard of the Bullmoose Party -- meet the Bullwinkle Party.
GOP Rep. Mike Pence was interviewed by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, where he was unable to resolve his party's position on extending unemployment benefits with extending Bush's tax cuts for the rich. UI benefits must be paid for, but there's always plenty of money for tax cuts for the rich. Instead, he decided to shovel bullshit. Tax cuts pay for themselves.
Huffington Post:
"The reality is that as you study -- when President Kennedy cut marginal tax rates, when Ronald Reagan cut marginal tax rates, when President Bush imposed those tax cuts, they actually generated economic growth, they expand the economy, they expand tax revenue," Pence said. "The point is we've got to get this economy moving again and we can't go back to the tax-and-spend policies of the Democrats or the tax-cut-and-spend policies of the prior administration."
A few points here. First, Kennedy's tax cuts weren't supply-side cuts, like Pence is defending, but demand-side cuts. Second, Reagan's tax cuts increased revenue so damned much that he was forced to increase taxes to pay for them. And third... Well, this:
Currency Thoughts:
For the forty years from 1961 to 2000, the president was from the Democratic Party half of the time and from the Republican Party for the rest. Each side had four presidents in those 40 years. During the administrations of the four Democrats, real GDP expanded 4.1% per annum, 1.2 percentage points faster than the average growth during Republican administrations of 2.9% per annum. Growth over the 7.5 years that George W. Bush has been president has averaged just 2.3% per annum.
The Democrat administrations achieved the three fastest rates of growth and four of the top five on that ranking. Real GDP advanced at an annualized rate of 5.2% during the Kennedy years, 5.1% during the Johnson years, and 3.6% when the Clinton administration was in power. GDP rose 3.5% per annum in the Reagan years despite a severe recession in 1981-2. Growth averaged a respectable 3.2% per annum when the Carter administration governed — and yes, some people no doubt were better off in 1980 than 1976 — and the Nixon years experienced growth of 3.0% per annum. In none of these presidential periods was growth substantially less than the 3.4% average pace for the whole second half of the 20th century.
So we tried it your way, Mike. I didn't work. We tried it again. It didn't work. We tried it yet again and it still didn't work. Readers might be reminded of this:
Bullwinkle: Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of a hat.
Rocky: Again?? That trick never works.
Bullwinkle: This time for sure. Presto! [reaches in, pulls up a lion's head]
Lion: ROARRRR!!
Bullwinkle: Musta got the wrong hat!
You've heard of the Bullmoose Party -- meet the Bullwinkle Party.
