Whoa! Ben Stein slams McCain's, Republican tax policies!

[wyldwolf]

...the unhappy fact is that it’s necessary to raise my taxes and the taxes of all upper-income Americans. (I do wish, however, that “upper income” started just a dollar above me.)

The sad truth of the last two two-term Republican presidents is that their economic premise, the key part of their economic game plan, simply has not done what it’s supposed to do...

Mr. McCain wants to extend many of President Bush’s income tax cuts and to reduce taxes on corporations. But the facts of life are that we have a large budget deficit, even though some other nations have even larger deficits as percentages of gross domestic product. We have to pay interest on it. As a people and a nation, we owe this money in large part to foreigners — and that can have political implications. The facts of life are that federal spending is almost all untouchable: the military, Social Security, Medicare, interest on the debt, pensions. The discretionary part is tiny.

Every category of federal spending is likely to grow. This means that if we don’t raise taxes, if we keep doing what we’re doing, the immense deficits and debt will not go away — and will probably grow.

The question is simply this: Do we want to step up to the plate like responsible people — I hate to say this, but the last responsible people who actually did this were named Bill and Bob (Clinton and Rubin) — and shoulder our responsibilities? Or do we just kick the can down the road a bit and leave the mess for our children and their children?

And if we do raise taxes, should people who are barely getting by pay them or should people who are getting by very nicely pay them?

I don’t like taxing rich people or anyone I like. But our government — run by the people we elected — needs the revenue. Do we pay it or do we make our children pay it? Dwight D. Eisenhower — and Bill Clinton — knew the answer: You behave responsibly and balance the budget except in rare circumstances.

Somehow, Republicans (and I am a Republican) have forgotten this basic lesson of adulthood. Maybe Senator McCain is grown up enough to remind us of the real urgency of personal and national responsibility. Or maybe not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/business/10every.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper&oref=login&oref=slogin

[MadMaddie]

1. Ben Stein you never know which side of the fence he is on.

[Pyrzqxgl]

6. There's never been much doubt that he's a Republican & like most of them

HE'S WRONG! (er make that "all of them")

[Faygo Kid]

8. Oh yes you do. He is an irredeemable asshole. Irredeemable.

He is garbage, pure and simple, and no amount of sugar coating will change that.

[C_U_L8R]

9. generally that means

he's got a fencepost up his bum

[MichiganVote]

2. Tax the wealthy damn it! They have the revenue our systems need.

[Hugin]

3. Whoa!

Dude.

[dionysus]

4. holy cow...

[Johonny]

5. if he understood economics at all

his opinion might matter.

[izquierdista]

7. Economic game plan

There is a reason that the Republican's game plan has not done what it was advertised to do: FALSE ADVERTISING

[seasat]

10. I wish you hadn't mentioned it was by Ben Stein before I read the article.

Every time I read something by him I hear his annoying nasally voice in my head.

This part really shows his Republican character when he says, "I don’t like taxing rich people or anyone I like." So Ben only likes rich people? I guess I can forget him having a beer with me.

He forgets an important fact about Reagan's tax policy that would have really made his point. After the failure of the supply side theory Reagan raised taxes and government revenues increased as expected. They raised SS taxes to preserve social security. They raised government fees in a stealth tax increase. They let the lower capital gains rate expire. But what should really blow Republican's minds is that Reagan raised corporate taxes. They cut out several loopholes that raised the effective corporate rate from about 15% to about 25%. The effective corporate tax rates under Reagan were higher than under Clinton or Junior. Yet somehow, we had increased tax revenues and good economic growth despite going against the supply side magic dust.

[ellenfl]

11. who is this guy and what has he done with ben stein? eom

[vixengrl]

12. I don't care for Ben Stein--but on ecomomics, he is educated.

The simple fact with taxation is that like the words of some some long-ago thug, the government has to knock over the rich like Willie Sutton knocked over banks--because that's where the money is. And poor folks are too likely to become broke folks and even homeless folks if they are squeezed for a dollar more--and that even goes for the middle class. And their poverty would inflict a burden on our system--it's simple and so obvious even Stein can't ignore it.

We have to tend to the least of these, our brothers like the New Testament said--even atheists like myself should get that scripture. The strain of having a beggar class, a thorough-going dependent class, is more than any ecomomy should try to bear--a real deficit. It's a deficit of empathy, and a deficit of giving a damn. It's a drain on their loved ones with a little cash who try to save them. It's a strain on municipalities to figure out what to do with them. Whereas empowering them, and paying people fair wages and holding out a safety net--yields rewards in people rebounding and recovering.

Maybe Liberals were always on to something?

[Fly by night]

13. I don't know much about "ecomomics", but I say: Tax the rich. Or eat them.

[jazzjunkysue]

14. Too little too late. Where was the screaming 8-6-4 years ago?

This pisses me off no end. THe so-called "Conservatives" made their money off the B* crime syndicate, and NOW they're going to start lecturing US that WE have been irresponsible.

This should have been going on daily, in all the so-called conservative rags and right-wing TV/radio for the last 8 years.

They own 80% of the media and have been totally AWOL on these matters. Now that the deficit is historic, now that it looks like Obama is going to replace many of the plundered regulations, now they'll go back to making money more or less honestly.

Wonderful. Just. Friggin'. Wonderful.