Thom Hartmann: I Have a Bush Administration to Sell You!

[thomhartmann]

So, Romney doesn't think it's unfair at all that he pays a lower tax rate than a bus driver. In fact - he goes a step further and says that it's better for everyone if the Paris Hilton class pays a lower tax rate than the working class. Romney says him and Paris Hilton paying a lower tax rate is the best way to put Americans back to work. This is the same sort of scam that the extremely wealthy have been perpetrating on working people for centuries. And to compound the hustle, now Romney and his rich buddies are claiming that if we tax them at the same rate a surgeon pays, at 35 percent like everybody else instead of the 15 percent "capital gains" rate paid for by banksters like Romney and heiresses like Paris Hilton, then the economy will suffer. But history - and facts - prove this point wrong.

The sub-20% capital gains tax rate has only been around in the last decade thanks to the Bush tax cuts. And if anyone thinks the last ten years of economic policy have been good for the economy and job creation - then I have a used Bush administration to sell them. On the other hand - back in the 90's - when capital gains taxes were nearly double what they are today - the economy DID boom. Just like the economy boomed in the 1950's, 60's, and 70's at an unprecedented rate - while the capital gains tax rate went above 30% and even as high as 40%. So Mitt Romney's assertion that a low tax rate on the Paris Hilton class - which he belongs to - creates economic growth just isn't true. That facts simply don't add up. In fact - it's just the opposite - low capital gains taxes lead to economic ruin, wealth inequality, and a vanishing middle class

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