A RW LTTE in the Toledo Blade caught my attention today.

[bulloney]

Stop tax disputes and cut spending

The posturing by congressional leaders over tax cuts for the rich makes one think they are under the direction of Hollywood publicists ("Tax cut best he could get, Obama says; Ongoing fight vowed," Dec. 8). If they divert attention from the problem to the rich, they can put off their responsibilities indefinitely.

Ignored is the recent history of tax cuts. Economist Thomas Sowell recently reported that when the top income tax rates were cut in the Coolidge, Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush administrations, tax revenues increased. The economy grew and unemployment fell.

Congress should quit arguing over taxes. Punishing the rich and successful doesn't help the economy or employ one person. Congress should get to work on the real problem: spending.

Political posturing at this time is cowardly and disgraceful. Congress and the President should demonstrate integrity and set their priorities on the issues they were elected to solve.

XX XXX
Ohio

About those tax cuts. Maybe there was a short-term "dead cat bounce" in the economy that followed the cuts. But after the Coolidge tax cuts, didn't we have that crazy little thing called the Great Depression? The Kennedy tax cuts were followed by LBJ's "Great Society" policies which included, among other things, the creation of Medicare. Who's to say what enhanced the economy more during that time? We had recessions during Reagan and Bush I. And, where is the robust growth in the economy that should imminently follow the tax cuts from Bush II, as the LTTE writer and Thomas Sowell seem to conveniently ignore?

[rfranklin]

1. Tax Cuts Do Not Work....They Create Financial Crashes

Why the Obama tax deal with Republicans is insane

Cross posted from Real Economics.

The central premise of U.S. economic policy since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 has been that the people in the private sector who know how to invest – the rich – do a much better job allocating society’s financial resources than the federal government. In fact, Reagan told us in his first inaugural address, “government is the problem."

In order to get as much of society’s financial resources into the hands of the rich - the people in the private sector who supposedly would do a better job investing it - Reagan, the Republican Party, and American conservatives in general developed a simple-minded faith in tax cuts, especially in reducing taxes on the highest incomes.

What are the results of this thirty year experiment low taxes? The Reagan / Republican / conservative theory DOES NOT WORK. For the first time in American history, we now have a generation that has less education and worse economic prospects than their parents did thirty years ago.

In all the hub-bub and brou-hah-hah of the tax debate the past few days, weeks, and months, hardly anyone has put forward the clear and unambiguous information that

TAX

CUTS

DO

NOT

WORK.

In fact, there have been three grand multi-year national experiments with Republican / Conservative tax cutting over the past century. And all three experiments resulted in the average American becoming poorer, the real (industraal) economy in tatters, and spectacular financial crashes.

-more-

http://www.correntewire.com/why_obama_tax_deal_republicans_insane

[orwell]

2. There is no correlation between...

..tax cuts or tax increases and economic growth.

I've combed the data to try and find it. It isn't there.

Economic recession/growth is the result of too many factors to pin it on only one or two. If it was that easy there would be many more stock market millionaires.

Nobody likes to pay taxes. I would also like to eat all the foods I like, eliminate exercise, and stay thin.

I would also like a pony...

[EC]

3. Yeah, I read that column by Sowell and wrote an answer in my

paper - the column basically said that the rich will break the law and hide their money instead of paying taxes...so we should cut taxes so we DON'T FORCE THE RICH TO BREAK THE LAW...why should we give them tax breaks instead of opening investigations and arresting them?