Right Wing Economist Laffer Bashes Greenspan For Calling For End Of Bush Tax Cuts
Last week, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan called for allowing the Bush tax cuts he championed in 2001 to fully expire, as scheduled, at the end of the year. His reversal dealt a blow to Republicans who are calling for an unpaid-for permanent extension of the cuts for the rich, even falsely claiming that they increase government revenues.Unsurprisingly, Greenspan’s comments have irked some right-wing pundits. The strongly discredited economist and former member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board Arthur Laffer criticized Greenspan on the Fox Business network, questioning his patriotism and accusing him of practicing “bad economics.” Media Matters has the transcript:
HOST: Hey, Alan Greenspan says let [all the Bush tax cuts] expire. The former Fed Chairman. Let ‘em all expire.
LAFFER: Good for him. I mean there he goes. Well, I guess he’s out of power. He’s a little old. I don’t think he has any kids. Heck, what does he care? You know, I have six kids. I have eleven grandchildren. You know, I really care about the future of this country and I really don’t want to be taxed into poverty. I really don’t think it’s smart in this day and age, with this type of unemployment, to tax people who work more and to pay people who don’t work more. That just is silly. It’s bad economics.
Actually, Laffer’s recent suggestion to suspend all federal taxes should be called “bad economics,” not Greenspan’s recognition that his suggested policy didn’t work. As Media Matters’ Walid Zafar points out, “No serious economist on the left, center or right actually believes this stuff [Laffer is saying]. It’s quackonomics. It resonates well with the Tea Party crowd, but is without a foundation.”
In the past, Laffer held a different view of Greenspan and his policies. Laffer “supported Alan Greenspan being reappointed [as Fed Chairman] twice” and, in 2004, called Greenspan’s work “exquisite,” saying that he “ha[d] done one of the best jobs on monetary policy ever.” Yet, now that Greenspan is “out of power” and “a little old,” Laffer apparently thinks his economic prowess is gone.
The Wonk Room’s Pat Garofalo asked a prescient question last week: “Greenspan at least seems to be coming around to the notion that the conservative economic philosophy is a big sham that doesn’t work in practice. Will the rest of the GOP ever follow?” Apparently not.
–Charlie Eisenhood
THE ONLY PLAN REPUBLICANS HAVE
TO GROW THE ECONOMY AND CREATE JOBS IS..............
TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH!!!!
TAX CUTS, TAX CUTS, TAX CUTS, THAT'S ALL THEY HAVE! DOES IT TRICKLE DOWN FOR YOU?? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Marco Rubio wants to make the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy permanent----at a cost of nearly 700 billion over the next ten years---with no offset. Rubio recently claimed the tax cuts would pay for themselves.....they won't
Top Senate Republican Jon Kyl insisted that Congress should extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans regardless of their impact on the deficit, even as he and other rethugs have consistently voted NO on unemployment extensions citing deficit concerns....
Republicans pretend to care about the deficit but they don't really. If the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire it would mean a reduction in the deficit by about 4 trillion dollars over the next 10 years and more after that. So prove it GOP, prove you care about the rising debt by allowing the tax cuts to expire without a fight!
26 comments:
Keep putting it right in their face Sue!
Sue,
Just dropping to make sure you haven't lost your edge. And it's pretty clear you haven't. Keep giving 'em hell!
I'm trying Tom, I wanted the font even bigger but it's the biggest they would give me...
I hope I haven't Mycue, things are real quiet this week, maybe we can blame it on summer? Yesterday was one of those screaming mad days, after watching Ed Schultz of course! LOL
thanks for commenting, don't be a stranger!
Well, what Obama's been doing sure isn't working.
Did you see the news about the new LG battery plant it West Michigan? It will provide 300 jobs. President Obama was at the ribbon cutting.
The federal government bribed, er... incentivized LG with $151 million in "stimulus" money, and Michigan suspended taxes and regulations for the company to the tune of around the same amount.
Obama and Michigan are practicing selective Reaganism, only they're doing it with your money.
At least Reagan didn't confiscate from one group and "spread it around" to another.
He simply allowed people and businesses to keep more of their own money. Did he and congress spend too much? YES! But people had jobs.
If you have to suspend your high tax, burdensome regulation policies to stimulate growth, it's a good sign your policies stink.
Not working?
The last January Bush was President we lost 700,000 jobs that month. How many jobs did we lose last January, last month?
Republicans treat the economy like it was a light switch. All of a sudden the rotten economy is Obama's fault.
Chicken shit liars. Own up to bankrupting this country.
Do you think Obama can fix in one year, two years, or even one term as President, the mess Republicans have made over the last 30 years?
"At least Reagan didn't confiscate from one group and "spread it around" to another."
BULLSHIT !
Reagan gave billions to corporations. Who paid for that? The middle and lower earners.
I don't mind a good lie, to gain votes, but just how stupid are you to believe such crap? Republican politicians in Washington don't believe their own lies, they just know it gets dummies like you around the country to support them. SUCKER !
They also want to cut spending a concept that is foreign to the Progressives.
"rethugs have consistently voted NO on unemployment extensions citing deficit concerns...."
and if you took your blinders off and quit lying you would be honest and say that the republicans want to use the "unused" stimulus money.
You know money that is supposed o stimulate the economy,which we wouldn't even need to be talking about if we weren't lied to about from the beginning.
thanks Tom, good come back. We are fed up to our eyeballs with the lies and deceit coming from the right. Reaganomics was a destroyer of the middleclass, Bush job growth was low wage jobs. The middle class high wage jobs are now overseas. The profits by big corporations skyrocketed already this year, the dow is up, now its time to help middleclass and poor Americans and the party trying to do that is the Democratic party. It will take all of Obamas 8 years plus to turn around the damage by the thugs. If this country doesn't give him a fighting chance then we don't deserve to prosper, we will become a third world nation all in the name of greed and power hungry rightwingers. Just vote back in the thugs who don't give two shits about the people!
you don't cut spending in a recession PLUS cut taxes for the rich! The stimulus has been allocated for projects, the government is handling it lisa, don't you fuckin worry about the stimulus. The problem is you dimwits who cry about the deficit, let the tax cuts expire, bring in much needed revenue to lower the deficit. It won't do a fuckin think to corporations and their hiring abilities. What they want to do is restructure, send jobs overseas, watch their profits soar, layoff high wage earners by the thousands replace them with poverty wage earners to do the work of 2 and 3 people. This is the job front of 2010, don't blame Obama for corporate greed, they are the destroyers of our jobs, not Obama.
Oh yeah they are handling it the confidence out there is overwhelming.
What they are doing is going to pump that stimulus money into the economy before the election to give everyone a false sense of an upswing.
So I guess increasing Healthcare costs and energy taxes is good to do now and increasing the unemployment rolls.
What economics course did you take-Krugman 101?
Tom and Sue (and others like you):
I said nothing about Bush. You guys have Bush on the brain!
I should come up with a name for this condition. Let's see...
How about Shrub-Skulls? Bushanoia?
Anyway, no argument, bush was at his worst when he pushed the progressive agenda:
No child left behind, Patriot act that spawned the horrible bureaucracy known as Heimatlandsicherheit, prescription drug benefit, and an overall bloating our bureaucracy. Result: bigger government, less personal freedom.
Now, Tom Tom, address what I said about Obama and the failed liberal state of Michigan suspending their confiscatory taxes and burdensome regulations to lure LG in.
The fact that they suspended their own policies and did what Reagan would do shows that their economic policies are bankrupt.
SF when will you just face facts, we are in this situation because of Bush, so Bush will always be in the conversation. You hate remembering such a failure from your side but facts are facts.
OK shrub-skulls, I did not exonerate Bush. This started under him. We agree on that!
You should be asking why your progressive heroes pulled a page from Reagan's playbook to get LG to put a plant in Michigan.
If lowering taxes and regulations creates jobs, why not do it everywhere?
Of course you did not say anything about Bush. Notice how Republicans never mention his name. They don't want to be reminded (or have the public reminded) how badly he screwed up America.
You still haven't addressed Obama using Reaganomics in Michigan...
Heckuva job, Tommy!
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/110251-tax-hikes-may-wait
from lisa's link...
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has reiterated her support for raising taxes on individuals and families who earn the most.
“My position is also that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America did nothing to grow the economy during the Bush administration, did not create jobs, did not reduce the deficit,” she said at a recent press conference.
In the Senate, some liberal Democrats such as Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa) would like to see the Bush tax cuts expire for families earning $200,000 a year, or even less.
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) disputed the argument that raising taxes on the wealthy could hurt the economy.
“One of the most robust periods of economic growth was prior to the Bush tax cuts,” he said.
He said large federal deficits, which would be addressed by tax increases, have caused people to lose confidence in the economy.
Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank, said the economic impact of raising taxes on the wealthy is overstated.
He said the spending of high-income people is less affected by moderate shifts in income than is that of middle-income people, who often live “paycheck to paycheck.”
“If lawmakers are concerned about the impact on the economy, they would be better off taking money raised from taxing the wealthy and channeling it in policies that deliver more bang for the buck,” he said.
Some Democratic policy experts cite unemployment aid and infrastructure spending as policies with greater economic impact than keeping taxes low for the wealthy.
thanks for showing us this lisa. Pelosi, Harkin and Dorgan and ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!! So are the majority of the country... go back to the Clinton era!!
we are all going to get tax increases not just the rich. Business,investments.individuals,the AMT. This isn't the Clinton era this is the Progressive era. Wait until we all feel the effects of the trickle down from that.
I went to pay my elect bill today because I was going by there anyway and everyone in there was a minority all trying to pay what they could to catch up. One woman was paying 500.00 on a 2000.00 balance. One guy was paying 100.00 to bring him down to a balance of 700.00 and you don't think cap and trade will affect these people?
I decided to make up some flyers and translate them into Spanish to tell them what their party of compassion is up to that will almost double those prices for them if they get their wet dream of cap and trade and I am gping back there to hand them out.
you are kidding right??
Tax Cuts for the Rich is the only sensible thing for any President to do. As dear departed George Carlin stated 'the real controllers of this country want more and more and they're gonna get it all'.
After all Capital by definition belongs to the Capitalists, Poverty belongs to the Impoverished. Governments Job is to protect the Capitalists and Crush the Poor. Q.E.D.
Alright Gene! You just made the case that Obama is no better than Bush.
Thanks for the assist!
you are kidding right??
No I am not. I pass out flyers all the time. Now I just have somewhere else to pass them out.
Democrats are hypocrites when it comes to paying taxes. The biggest tax evaders ever.
Targeted tax breaks can make sense. States do it all the time to attract new business. Across the board tax cuts and elimination of regulations do nothing but transfer wealth to the upper class and get us in the situation that we were in at the end of the Bush era.
"quackonomics" indeed. Working with Congress to repeal the bush tax cuts should have been an Obama Administration top priority, instead he allows them to slow down the economic recovery!
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