Avi Zenilman and the dread Politico put out a solid piece making the point that the central plank of Rudy Giuliani's economic policy outlook is hokum: Tax cuts do not, in fact, increase revenues no matter how many times Giuliani says they do.
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Supply-Side Madness
14 Dec 2007 10:28 am
Comments (11)
"Tax cuts do not, in fact, increase revenues no matter how many times Giuliani says they do."
They do however increase Giuliani's sordid revenues quite a bit.
So much for my platform to eliminate the deficit by reducing taxes to something close to nil...
The Politico published actual information, correct and useful? Did the Editors get plowed in, couldn't make it to work?
On Sept. 21, for instance, he told the Northern Virginia Technology Council that if the Alternative Minimum Tax was eliminated, he would be able to regain the lost revenue through additional tax cuts. “If we were going to eliminate it, though, we'd have to balance it with additional tax cuts," he said.
Balancing tax cuts with tax cuts! That's so insane, it's awesome!
I just love living in America during the time that public discourse became insane.
Madness becomes us.
is GOD.
Wasn't that JFK's argument in the early 60's, that a high tax rate was stifling the economy, and that lowering taxes would stimulate the economy and produce higher revenues? Once his tax cuts were enacted (for the most part posthomously) that's exactly what happened.
Ted Kennedy was angry at Reagan for quoting his brother's line about lowering taxes and raising revenues.
"Wasn't that JFK's argument in the early 60's..."
No. You got it part right. Tax cuts would stimulate growth was Kennedy's argument. Keep in mind, the upper rate was 90% at the time.
While it is true that revenues increased, they had been skyrocketing for years. Other factors were dominating. Government revenues did grow after the Kennedy tax cut, but by much less than they had grown the previous years.
"So much for my platform to eliminate the deficit by reducing taxes to something close to nil..."
But that would make government revenues grow to staggering levels. the government would then crowd out all private industry with its purchasing power. We would need to raise taxes to shrink government to a manageable level.
Njorl,
I like that - the Alan Greenspan theory of keeping taxes...well, not exactly high, but at some reasonable rate above zero...
Well done.
Comments closed December 28, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
But Rudy has such a long schlong.
Posted by Homedoggydog | December 14, 2007 10:45 AM