The Bu*h tax cuts didn't do squat for the economy before, and they ain't doing squat now.

[Zorra]

Why do Ben Nelson and other Dem supporters of extending the cuts keep saying that it will hurt the economy if we don't extend them?

Why, after 10 years of having these cuts in place, is the economy in so much worse shape than when the tax cuts took effect ten years ago?

The wealthiest Americans, who got the overwhelming bulk of benefit from these tax cuts did not invest their extra money into hardly anything that bolstered our economy or that created any significant number of jobs. Ten years on the economy is a wreck and unemployment is about double what it was in the beginning of 2001. Did wealthy Americans invest their extra money overseas, taking jobs away from American workers through outsourcing? Did they buy yachts and country estates, and lots of stock?

After 10 years of having these tax cuts in place, the economy is in the worst shape since the Great Depression. Unemployment is near 10%. If these tax cuts are so wonderful for America, than someone show me the money.

Show me the money. No one can, because it's in hidden offshore accounts, foreign investment, and expensive toys. And they ain't our accounts, investments, or toys. Or jobs.

Conservatives putting the blame on President Obama is the same as pissing down our backs and telling us it's raining. Democrats telling us that extending the Bu*h tax cuts will help the economy is more of the same.

Again, if the tax cuts are helping the economy, show me the money. Show me the evidence that these tax cuts benefit the economy. Show me the bald faced statistics that these tax cuts create jobs for Americans. Show me the evidence that they significantly increased GDP. Show me the evidence that they have decreased our national debt, our trade deficit, our budget deficit.

You can't. No one can. Because the evidence does not exist. Because the Bu*h tax cuts flat out don't do squat except make really rich people a whole lot richer richer.

So WhyTF are some Democratic legislators pushing to extend the tax cuts?

From Wikipedia:

Facing opposition in Congress, Bush held town hall-style public meetings across the U.S. in 2001 to increase public support for his plan for a $1.35 trillion tax cut program—one of the largest tax cuts in U.S. history.<52> Bush argued that unspent government funds should be returned to taxpayers, saying "the surplus is not the government’s money. The surplus is the people’s money."<52> With reports of the threat of recession from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Bush argued that such a tax cut would stimulate the economy and create jobs.<91> Others, including the Treasury Secretary at the time Paul O'Neill, were opposed to some of the tax cuts on the basis that they would contribute to budget deficits and undermine Social Security.<92> By 2003, the economy showed signs of improvement, though job growth remained stagnant.<52>

Under the Bush Administration, real GDP grew at an average annual rate of 2.5%,<93> considerably below the average for business cycles from 1949 to 2000.<94><95> Bush entered office with the Dow Jones Industrial Average at 10,587, and the average peaked in October 2007 at over 14,000. When Bush left office, the average was at 7,949, one of the lowest levels of his presidency.<96> Unemployment originally rose from 4.2% in January 2001 to 6.3% in June 2003, but subsequently dropped to 4.5% as of July 2007.<97> Adjusted for inflation, median household income dropped by $1,175 between 2000 and 2007,<98> while Professor Ken Homa of Georgetown University has noted that "after-tax median household income increased by 2%"<99> The poverty rate increased from 11.3% in 2000 to 12.3% in 2006 after peaking at 12.7% in 2004.<100> By October 2008, due to increases in domestic and foreign spending,<101> the national debt had risen to $11.3 trillion,<102><103> an increase of over 100% from the start of the year 2000 when the debt was $5.6 trillion.<104><105> By the end of Bush's presidency, unemployment climbed to 7.2%.<106> The perception of Bush's effect on the economy is significantly affected by partisanship.<107>
snip--
Many economists and world governments determined that the situation became the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.<116><117> Additional regulation over the housing market would have been beneficial, according to former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.<118> Bush, meanwhile, proposed a financial rescue plan to buy back a large portion of the U.S. mortgage market.<119> Vince Reinhardt, a former Federal Reserve economist now at the American Enterprise Institute, said "it would have helped for the Bush administration to empower the folks at Treasury and the Federal Reserve and the comptroller of the currency and the FDIC to look at these issues more closely", and additionally, that it would have helped "for Congress to have held hearings".<113>

In November 2008, over 500,000 jobs were lost, which marked the largest loss of jobs in the United States in 34 years.<120> The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in the last four months of 2008, 1.9 million jobs were lost.<121> By the end of 2008, the U.S. had lost a total of 2.6 million jobs.<122>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush

Tell me again about the rabbits, Senator Nelson. Tell me about the rabbits.

[zbdent]

1. They've been in place all through this economic crisis ...

why aren't the billionaires bailing out the economy?

[Zorra]

3. Good question, maybe Ben Nelson can answer it for us. nt

[quiet.american]

2. Look, name me a time when Ben Nelson wasn't a f*cking pain in the butt to Democrats.

Senator Goodhair can be relied upon to literally make one see red on every Democratic initiative by being a damn pain-in-the-ass. He pulls this shite almost every single time, so that he can be wooed and cajoled, and so that he gets to hold solo press conferences where he can pretend he's the President.

Ben Nelson siding with Republicans is hardly news. Going back to at least 2004, it would be news if he were talking sense.

Now George Voinovich (retiring R-Ohio) stating that he will join with Democrats to pass Pres. Obama's small biz initiatives *is* news. Let's hope George isn't just talking smack.

[senseandsensibility]

4. So simple so true

Might make a good soundbite if any Dems were interested in that sort of thing.