2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumJonathan Chait: Paul Ryan's Most Shameless Lie Ever
[url]http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/02/paul-ryans-most-shameless-lie-ever.html[/url]
Shamelessness is the primary feature of Paul Ryans public persona (the secondary feature being a woundedness he displays when his shamelessness is pointed out). Yet it is possible that nothing in Ryans long and distinguished career in the field of shamelessness has ever exceeded his comments in yesterdays New York Times on the Obama budget. Ryans complaint is that Obamas economic policies have exacerbated the gap between the rich and the poor. The Obamanomics that were practicing now have exacerbated inequality, he claims. Theyve exacerbated stagnation. Theyre made things worse. The wealthy are doing really well. Theyre practicing trickle down economics now.
What gives Ryans comments a veneer of plausibility is that income inequality has increased continuously, punctuated by a few short reversals, for more than three decades. Economists have extensively studied and debated the cause of rising inequality for years, clustering about multiple theories: the decline of labor unions, technological change, the growth of finance, and so on. None of the theories blame Obamas economic policies.
(SNIP)
What can be proven beyond a doubt is that, even if underlying economic trends have increased inequality, Obamas economic policies have reduced it sharply. The stimulus included tax cuts for low-wage workers, and the Affordable Care Act was financed in part by higher taxes on the rich. Back when conservatives were lambasting Obama for stealing hard-earned money from the rich and handing it out to the unworthy poor, rather than pretending to worry about inequality, they were happy to make this perfectly clear.
SunSeeker
(51,601 posts)The way these lies are structured shows the shameless cynicism of the GOP. They know know they're conning the people. Thats the only way they can get elected.
pansypoo53219
(20,986 posts)because god dammit. tinkle down is still werking.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)But then, he writes this:
pretty much watering down/giving the Pompus One an out.
Chait very easily could have written:
And, he could have added a short paragraph about what is known about tax policy ... high(er) taxation of businesses (and their owners) incentives/promotes those being taxed to invest profits back into the company, either in the form of increased employee wages or capital purchases, both of which either raise wages directly or create jobs (that have the effect of raising wages), rather than surrender the money to the Tax-man.
And for a cherry, he could have added a pretty chart depicting that point ... any grade school level book on tax policy would have several.