Every night on the news all you hear GOPers saying "tax 'increases' are off the table."

[JohnWxy]

Obama apparently thinks he's going to accomplish something without getting revenue increases.

I keep listening to the fucking Corporate Lobbyists saying Tax 'increases' are 'off the table'. The corporate Lobbyists want to keep the tax cuts that helped create the Trickle Down Disaster that lead to this Deficit situation. Obama apparently doesn't want to offend the creeps who are doing everything they can to sabotage the recovery to the disaster they created.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/06/01/obama_house_gop_talk_budget_at_frosty_meeting_110059.html">Obama, House GOP Talk Budget at 'Frosty' Meeting


Christ! Do we ever need a Democrat to run for president in 2012. What about Alan Grayson. He's available!

[wtbymark]

1. There's news on American television?

Where? I haven't seen any in over 25 years.

[Scuba]

2. +1

[John_Adams]

3. I don't hear too many on either side advocating for tax increases.

The economy is just not strong enough to handle it.

[wtmusic]

4. Right here - raise taxes now

The economy is plenty strong enough to handle a return to 1970s tax code, when corporations and millionaires-billionaires paid their share.

Welcome to DU - enjoy your stay

:hi:

[John_Adams]

6. Huh...? I thought there were mega-loopholes back in the 70s.

[Doctor_J]

10. In the 70s the corporations paid 35% of the IRS intake

They now pay 7%. So whatever loopholes were there in the 70's have obviously gotten worse.

[JohnWxy]

5. austerity in a depression is more trickle down stupidity. No it's not stupidity the Corp. Lobbyists

know what they are doing. they are sabotaging the recovery to the disaster they created.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Energy-prices-held-back-apf-4054982359.html?x=0
.
..

The government's revised estimate for gross domestic product -- the economy's total output of goods and services -- showed consumer spending growing at an annual rate of just 2.2 percent. That's sharply down from an initial estimate of 2.7 percent.

Consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity, had grown at a much faster 4 percent rate in the October-December period.

The GDP revision showed that the government sector is dragging on growth. Government spending fell at an annual rate of 5.1 percent. Federal and state and local governments have cut spending to battle budget deficits.

Economists expect government spending to remain weak. They note that Congress will likely slash spending to try to shrink $1 trillion-plus budget deficits.
(MORE)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

government spending is what is called for in a depression. This concern for the deficit is just a cover to kill the recovery so they can say (as they are now) that Obama and the Dems can't handle the economy.... not when everything they try to do is being undermined by the Red State Brigade.

[John_Adams]

7. Are you suggesting that borrowing more money from China is the path to recovery?

[JohnWxy]

8. I'm not suggesting. I am saying that short term to get out of this Trickle Down "prosperity" we need

deficit spending. This is recognized by all economists whose knowledge is grounded in empirical research and not ideology.

I am not suggesting, I am saying that the Corporate Lobbyists who are professing concern for the deficit - in the last administration said: "Deficits don't matter" ( when Democrats were complaining about Bush deficits) who wiped out a surplus and blew the deficit up with tax cuts while prosecuting a war in Iraq are only trying to kill the recovery from the TRICKLE DOWN DISASTER they created. You can address the long term deficit issues but that does NOT mean you should avoid deficit spending in the current fiscal year to climb out of this REPUBLICAN DYSTOPIA.

We need public sector stimulus or we will see job growth slow and the recovery stall. This of course, is the real objective of the Corporate Lobbyist Party to kill the recovery so they can campaign saying Obama doesn't know how to run the economy. This from the people who took 50 years of economic growth and climbing average incomes and increasing average personal wealth.. and in eight years created a massive deficit, and the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression. Which would have become the Great Depression II were it not for the TARP and the stimulus (downsized as it was thanks to Republican opposition).


a report on Trickle Down Prosperity:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/01/AR2010010101196.html">the Aughts the Lost Decade for Economy and American Workers

For most of the past 70 years, the U.S. economy has grown at a steady clip, generating perpetually higher incomes and wealth for American households. But since 2000, the story is starkly different.

~~
~~

It was, according to a wide range of data, a lost decade for American workers. The decade began in a moment of triumphalism — there was a current of thought among economists in 1999 that recessions were a thing of the past. By the end, there were two, bookends to a debt-driven expansion that was neither robust nor sustainable.

There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.

Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 -- and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009. The Aughts were the first decade of falling median incomes since figures were first compiled in the 1960s. (more)

Deal with the long term spending issues to reduce the deficit, but the Corporate Lobbyists, by killing the recovery (so they can say Obama can't handle the economy) does not help with the deficit it only makes matters worse. You have to have a healthy, growing economy to gain tax revenues to pay down the deficit.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Energy-prices-held-back-apf-4054982359.html?x=0">Economists lower economic growth projections: energy prices and Government sector dragging down growth"

High gasoline prices, government budget cuts and weaker-than-expected consumer spending caused the economy to grow only weakly in the first three months of the year.
~~
~~
The GDP revision showed that the government sector is dragging on growth. Government spending fell at an annual rate of 5.1 percent. Federal and state and local governments have cut spending to battle budget deficits.

I don't expect you to agree with this and don't care if you don't (I am not interested in religious debates only empirically based knowledge). But for readers who are interested in rational, pragmatic economic policies here are some informative links:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=579646">What is needed: Common Sense not Austerity - Joseph Stiglitz

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x564432">300 economists, civic leaders warn "Don't kill growth and jobs in the name of austerity."

http://ourfuture.org/files/documents/don't-kill-growth-and-jobs.pdf">the letter from 'the 300' - Don't Kill Jobs - to Pres. Obama

http://dontkilljobs.org/">Don't Kill Job Growth - a good website on practical economic policies for economic growth and strength


... oh, and we do NOT need the Bush tax cuts that helped create the Trickle Down Disaster we are trying to dig out of.

[Doctor_J]

9. Apparently it wasn't strong enough to hangle the ridiculous tax cuts for the hyper-rich

Even a teabagger could probably grasp the correlation between 30 years of revenue slashing and 30 years of economic disaster. the only break in the slide was when Clinton managed to push through a small hike on the upper 5%. As soon as Smirk undid that, the slide became a plummet.

[Lasher]

11. Isn't that a shame what happened to the economy when Clinton raised taxes?

Thank God Almighty we were saved by the GWB tax cuts that ushered in a wave of prosperity.

[FiveGoodMen]

12. That's why it was utterly unforgivable to let Bush have his tax breaks for the rich

They were set to expire (that helped sell it) but now any attempt to LET them expire will be spun as an increase.

Anyone who didn't see that coming from day one is far too stupid to live, let alone be elected to office.