The GOP support extending the Bush tax cuts but blocked a measure to extend unemployment benefits today. Alan Grayson (D-FL) suggests the hundred billion dollars a year providing millionaires with an average $84,000/yr in tax savings could be used better to provide jobs.
Consider the Bush tax cuts failed to create jobs or stimulate the economy. Consider unemployment benefits do stimulate the economy, paying a positive return on tax investment.
“Do the math: we have 14 million people in this country who are unemployed, and we have 13 percent unemployment in my district,” he said. “Here’s an idea: let’s take that hundred billion dollars and give three million Americans a job. Let’s give three million Americans a working wage, an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work, and that will revive our economy.”
Thank you for this. Finally, the facts are coming out regarding the tax fairness and economic equity
@den,
from 1940 through 2008 the Rs controlled the White House for 36 years, the Ds for 33.
Yet under Ds 65% of new jobs were created.
GDP growth since 1960, in five-year periods, shows the worst two were 2000 through 2010 (mostly GWBush years) and that the four Carter years produced more real growth thanthe decade of the 80s, the Reagan-GHWBush years. The best growth was 1960-65 (JFK/LBJ) followed by 1996-2000 (Clinton).
Since 1980, IRS Statistics of Income data show, the average income of the bottom 90%, adjusted for inflation has grown $303 – and since the average in 2008 was $3000 less than in 2000 the vast majority has done poorly.
At the top however incomes exploded. The top hundredth of one percent (about 30,000 people) saw incomes soared by $21m per family (roughly 14,500 families) to $27m each on average.
A single working making $26,000 (the median wage in 2007) paid 21.6% of his income in federal income and payroll taxes. The top 400 taxpayers paid just 16.6% — while making $345 million for the year and $26,000 every 40 minutes.
If lower tax rates create jobs where are the jobs? Every 34th worker who earned waged in 2008 earned nothing in 2009 — 4.5 million people with no work. The median wage (half make more, half less) was smaller in 2009 than in 2008, payroll records show.
Candidate Bush said (and I interviewed the campaign about this in Oct. 2000) his tax cuts would make us better off than in 2000. They said that even after I noted that the stock market bubble had collapsed six months earlier and the economy was in decline. Well, turns out we made $2.7 trillion LESS during the 8 Bush years than if we had just stayed at 2000 income levels. See my column in this at tax.com
http://tax.com/taxcom/taxblog.nsf/Permalink/CHAS-89LPZ9?OpenDocument
Global data from the CIA, OECD and others shows the US is rapidly falling behind the rest of the modern world. In Ineret we have gone from first to 15th. Americans pay 38 times per unit of speed what the Japanese pay and overall at least four times what the French pay because in France they have competition, not American style monopolies. Monopolies destroy jobs compared to competition.
Our health care system is rated 37th, behind Portugal and Costa Rica (France is #1) despite our spending 42% of all global health care spending. By some measures we rank behind Cuba!
Government policies create and destroy jobs. When government policies like private health insurance promote inefficient health care, for example, it creates insurance jobs pushing needless paperwork, but destroys overall wealth. In my book FREE LUNCH I show how your tax dollars were literally stolen by a man who became a billionaire — and how he got a law passed exempting him from the laws against a form of theft called self-dealing.
So den, if those Bush tax breaks allow business to hire more workers, after twelve years, where are the jobs that offset the tax breaks.
Other than in India and China and Guatamala. I have to respectfully disagree there. It’s simply not true, even though it’s been pounded into our heads that it does.
It’s a big fat lie.
Grayson is one of the richest men in Congress with extensive business experience. The failure of tax credits to create jobs is well documented so why continue them?
Tax revenue correctly invested is proven to have a more stimulative effect on the economy. Investing in infrastructure supports business, small business in particular. Tax dollars can earn a positive return or a negative return and tax cuts to the wealthy are a net loser to the rest of us.
Now I listened to him, he does not have a clue as to what it is to give a person a job. Best is to give both of his divided classes, the middle and rich, a tax break, then the government will have less money to give away. Don’t worry they will just print, the rest.
The Government don’t create jobs. Producers do. Lets blame everything on the last President after two years of the new term. Next, by the time government funnels the tax dollars through the government there is no money let for jobs, other than government jobs. They are the non producers.