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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAl Franken blows Republican economic policy all to
Hell!!!
Senator Al Franken, speaking to AFL-CIO on Monday, points out the glaringly contradictory schools of thought that define the Republican economic theory:
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Franken goes on:
“But there is no evidence that that works. In 1993, when we had something called the Deficit Reduction Package, President Clinton said, ‘let’s raise the top two levels’ [a 2% tax increase for the top earning 1% of Americans]. Every Republican voted against it, every single one. It passed by one vote in the House and one vote in the Senate. Every Republican, well not every Republican, but every Republican who said anything said this will cause a recession.”
After taking a jab at Newt Gingrich, who said this would be the “Democrat recession”, Franken continues:
“It worked. We had the longest period of uninterrupted expansion of our economy in our history when we increased the marginal rate on the people at the top. So it worked. And not only that, but it turned a record deficit into a record surplus, which he took from one Bush, a record deficit, and turned it over to the next Bush, a record surplus.”
And then it gets interesting:
“Five days after George W. Bush became president, Alan Greenspan testified to the Senate Budget Committee, and said ‘we are in danger of paying off our national debt too fast. We have a projected $5 trillion surplus going into the next ten years and we very well may pay off the debt too fast, the federal government is in danger of having too much money.’ He said, what would happen as a result of that is, we will have to take our excess money and invest it into private equities and that could disrupt the market.”
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http://progressivetoo.com/2011/07/14/sen-al-franken-shreds-the-republican-economic-theory/
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The Magistrate
(96,043 posts)
BootinUp
(50,846 posts)Go Git Em AL!!
Here's my favorite part from the article:
“Every time you cut taxes, you increase revenues. And every time you cut taxes, you decrease revenues. That’s fun to hear. And then Bush of course came in and said, ‘we’re in danger of having too much money, and it’s your money so let’s cut taxes, because it’s your money. And we’re running a surplus, let’s cut taxes’.
So we cut taxes because we had “too much money”, because the economy was good. But what did Bush do when the economy soured?
“Then as soon as we started losing jobs and we’re in a recession, Bush said, ‘well we’re in a recession, we need to cut taxes because the economy’s bad.’ So in addition to ‘every time you cut taxes you increase revenue’ and ‘every time you cut taxes you decrease revenue’, there was also, ‘every time the economy’s doing well you have to cut taxes’, and ‘every time the economy is doing bad you have to cut taxes.’”
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)Either he was a moron or thought most of the rest of us were...
opihimoimoi
(52,426 posts)Al is one of my faves
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)please forget about that other Minnesotan that makes us look like nutters. Thanks in advance.
silverweb
(16,410 posts)[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]You tell it, Senator Franken!
I love this man. He's a liberal's liberal, he's a truth teller, and he's fearless.
Everything he says is thoroughly researched and he doesn't hold back. I have yet to see anyone disprove any argument he has ever made.
burrowowl
(18,494 posts)saras
(6,670 posts)I suspect that what Greenspan considers "disruption" the rest of us would consider "sensible regulation".
Sirveri
(4,517 posts)God forbids we have too much money. Why we might have to spend it putting people to work doing things that are actually USEFUL!
Bolo Boffin
(23,872 posts)Communist revolution by Wall Street. Picking winners and losers.
So Bush 43 made damn sure that could never happen.
hootinholler
(26,451 posts)They could simply destroy that money and shrink the total number of dollars, but there's no profit in that.
Until the Fed becomes non-profit this sort of problem will continue.
exboyfil
(18,336 posts)Lets face it. Joe Biden is no heir apparent to Obama (frankly I think he is a drag on the ticket). How about finding a nice ambassadorship for the current V.P. and put Franken on the ticket. This would position Franken for a run at the top job in 2016. I am not sure he has enough exposure as a Senator.
Bandit
(21,475 posts)Somehow the truth has to get out there...
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)That's where the rubber meets the road, where the Republicans manage to poison public discourse by endless repetitions of their big lies. That, in short, is how money rules.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)He and Bernie Sanders are the best - principled and honest.
mistertrickster
(7,062 posts)
JustAnotherGen
(37,503 posts)Has a way of explaining things where we can all understand the precise crux of the issue. Fabulous overview of how it happened! Gosh darn it - I like him!
Stuart G
(38,726 posts)
Quantess
(27,630 posts)Mnpaul
(3,655 posts)We were even on track to continue to run surpluses when the baby boomers retired.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/2001/20010125/default.htm
guss
(249 posts)Greenspan used the threat of having too much of a surplus as a result the excess money would be invested into private equities.
Wow what a visionary! as soon as they could get a war going they used any surplus we had and more! to Privatize the military, made homeland security, privatize that, Privatized most of FEMA. whatever they could privatize they would do it without surplus. Social security, 401 k, Medicare, post office. Repulicans threatened what will happen if the country is doing great. then do the evil through a fog of war.
wakemewhenitsover
(1,595 posts)Love the paragraph about being a Sputnik kid, too.
