Historically, has cutting taxes ever helped the economy?

[Poiuyt]

It didn't work for Bush, it didn't work for Hoover. When Reagan cut taxes his first year, he saw that it wasn't working so he raised taxes the rest of the time he was in office. There must have been some time in US history where this has worked or else how could conservatives keep calling for lower taxes?

[Kaleva]

1. I think that people believe that if they say it enough times, its just gotta be true!

The tax rate for the lowest bracket quadrupled during the Great Depression and WWII.

[muntrv]

2. Al Franken, I think, asked "Where are the jobs from the Bush tax cuts?"

[gateley]

4. EVERY Democrat needs to say that whenever a microphone is shoved in his face. nt

[elocs]

5. Exactly, yet people still buy that lame-ass and false reasoning: that tax cuts create jobs.

When have they ever created jobs? I would love to see the proof that it works.

I have a good friend who bleeds Republican who once told me with absolute belief that tax cuts were needed for the rich because they needed them to create jobs. This is the kind of crap that millions of working class Americans who have very little believe and embrace. The wealthy are so grateful for such stupidity.

[sakabatou]

3. Not that I can't think of.

[JI7]

6. not when they are targeted for the wealthy who can already afford whatever crap they want

it can work in things like sales tax where those without much money might be more likely to buy something because any savings can help them.

[demosincebirth]

7. It's always been a myth with traction. People hear it enough times and many beleive it. nt

[TreasonousBastard]

8. few jobs if any from tax cuts, and ABSOLUTELY NONE...

from cutting taxes on trust fund babies or hedge fund magnates who woould hire a driver and gardener no matter what taxes they pay.

[Chan790]

9. No.

Tax cuts encourage hoarding behavior, which is never helpful. Economies are driven by expenditures, the very behavior that is good for an individual (saving) is absolutely catastrophic for the economy as a whole when many individuals do it on a large scale.

Tax increases discourage hoarding and encourage expenditures which are deductible such as home improvement, home ownership and charitable donations for individuals; infrastructure and R&D for industry--all of which are stimulative. It also encourages hiring as wages paid out reduce the taxable profits of a business or individual.

This is why the Obama tax policy is flat-out wrong, he aims to both cut taxes and to fund those tax increases by closing "loopholes" made primarily of those deductible expenditures. The end result is that it's bleeding the economy out both ends. The Ryan plan likewise is also wrong as it looks to actually increase debt to finance deeper tax cuts which will encourage hoarding at the same time it actually works to depress expenditures. Ryan's a twit who thinks massive-scale saving is a good thing.

[moondust]

10. I *vaguely* recollect hearing that

years ago after WWII when companies were expanding to meet the demands of a growing middle class, the government tried to help them with some tax breaks. It made some sense back then as a company could use the tax breaks to expand and upgrade their facilities (capital improvements), thus creating jobs to do the work and then more jobs to staff the new facilities. Of course at that time those facilities were all in the U.S. and employed Americans.

Something like that *might* be an acceptable investment for taxpayers today if it went to a company that was absolutely determined (or forced by the nature of their business) to stay in the U.S. and hire Americans, but those are getting harder and harder to find since globalization.

Of course Republicans simply don't want to pay taxes so they'll say anything if they think it will help their agenda. I heard Boner or somebody try to use the "help the people we want to invest in our economy" bullshit just today.

[FreakinDJ]

11. For short time during the Kenndy administration

but then 10 yeaqrs later inflation started to run away

[customerserviceguy]

12. One element of the Reagan tax cuts

was the targeted jobs tax credit, which I do believe had a positive effect on the economy.

We have a lot of people who have been out of work for a year or more, and are considered damaged goods by many employers. If the tax cuts that we've had (and are still being proposed) were directed in this fashion, rather than scattergunned through the economy, it might help us out of this recession/depression.

[Jim Warren]

13. Taxes are the price we pay

to live in a civil society, and maintain the vestiges of what was known as the commonwealth. That should be one of the best investments a society cn make.

The spin that gets perpetrated by the rentier class through their mouth pieces is "It's your money", of course appealing to the greedier human instincts, IE: saying you want more taxes becomes about as palpable as child abuse.

[ThomWV]

14. Lowering taxes does not now nor has it ever increased revenue. Its not a myth, its a lie.

And no matter how many times a lie is told it does not cease to be a lie.

[Harry Callahan]

15. In 1924, Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon wrote:

"It seems difficult for some to understand that high rates of taxation do not necessarily mean large revenue to the Government, and that more revenue may often be obtained by lower rates." Exercising his understanding that "73% of nothing is nothing", he pushed for the reduction of the top income tax bracket from 73% to an eventual 24% (as well as tax breaks for lower brackets). Personal income-tax receipts rose from $719 million in 1921 to over $1 billion in 1929, an average increase of 4.2% per year over an 8-year period...

[Jim Warren]

16. and they took the money and ran.....

and left the rest of the country bankrupt amid the Great Depression.

[Harry Callahan]

17. That must be why they were jumping to their deaths from the banks on Wall St.

[Jim Warren]

19. Let's weigh that urban legend

up against the thousands of early deaths and hundreds of thousands of displaced souls in the heartland.

[robcon]

18. 1962 Kennedy tax cuts ended the recession.

n/t

[Tennessee Gal]

20. Tax cuts should be targeted.

They should be tied to job creation for industries and small companies. Hire people, get a tax cut for a limited period of time.