Nice rebuttal! You should write more often. You did write that right? On Oct 14, 5:24 am, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > Tax cuts for the rich trickle down to everyone else. Baloney. > Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both sliced taxes on the rich and > what happened? Most Americans' wages (measured by the real median > wage) began flattening under Reagan and has dropped since George W. > Bush. Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke.How is it again that taking > water from the deep end of the pool -- sloshing some of it on the pool deck > -- and pouring it into the shallow end raises the level of the pool? When > Government confiscates dollars to funnel into THEIR politically motivated > schemes and providing livelihood to those who produce nothing, those > Individuals can no longer spend/save/invest them ... taking those dollars > away from THOSE recipients. Higher taxes on the rich would hurt the > economy and slow job > growth. False. From the end of World War II until 1981, the richest > Americans faced a top marginal tax rate of 70 percent or above. Under > Dwight Eisenhower it was 91 percent. Even after all deductions and > credits, the top taxes on the very rich were far higher than they've > been since. Yet the economy grew faster during those years than it has > since. (Don't believe small businesses would be hurt by a higher > marginal tax; fewer than 2 percent of small business owners are in the > highest tax bracket.)Same things as above, only NOW Reich introduces > causality problems. Post WWI part 2 the US had capital advantages over other > countries like Japan -- as those economies 'came back' that advantage > waned. Shrinking government generates more jobs. Wrong again. It means > fewer government workers - everyone from teachers, fire fighters, > police officers, and social workers at the state and local levels to > safety inspectors and military personnel at the federal. And fewer > government contractors, who would employ fewer private-sector workers. > According to Moody's economist Mark Zandi (a campaign advisor to John > McCain), the $61 billion in spending cuts proposed by the House GOP > will cost the economy 700,000 jobs this year and next.And yet we MORE of the > same thing as above. Here Reich imagines that he is creating jobs by having > 10 people pay an 11th but ignoring the loss created for each of the 10. Why > not make EVERYONE a Government worker and SOLVE the unemployment woes AND the > economy itself? Cutting the budget deficit now is more important than > boosting the > economy. Untrue. With so many Americans out of work, budget cuts now > will shrink the economy. They'll increase unemployment and reduce tax > revenues. That will worsen the ratio of the debt to the total economy. > The first priority must be getting jobs and growth back by boosting > the economy. Only then, when jobs and growth are returning vigorously, > should we turn to cutting the deficit.And yet MORE of the same thing as > above. Now Reich wants those 10 people above plus a few more to pay people > NOT to work. Medicare and Medicaid are the major drivers of budget > deficits. > Wrong. Medicare and Medicaid spending is rising quickly, to be sure. > But that's because the nation's health-care costs are rising so fast. > One of the best ways of slowing these costs is to use Medicare and > Medicaid's bargaining power over drug companies and hospitals to > reduce costs, and to move from a fee-for-service system to a fee-for- > healthy outcomes system. And since Medicare has far lower > administrative costs than private health insurers, we should make > Medicare available to everyone.Health care costs are rising precisely BECAUSE > of Medicaid/Medicare (and numerous other interventions into the marketplace). > What incentive do bureaucrats -- spending other people's money -- have to > economize? None. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Don't believe it. > Social > Security is solvent for the next 26 years. It could be solvent for the > next century if we raised the ceiling on income subject to the Social > Security payroll tax. That ceiling is now $106,800.Correct. In a Ponzi scheme > the dupes have a choice. With social security the dupes are forced. Raising > the ceiling proves the point made by those who correctly identify this scam > as largely identical to Ponzi. What is raising the ceiling but the equivalent > to finding new dupes to support the others? It's unfair that lower-income > Americans don't pay income tax. > Wrong. There's nothing unfair about it. Lower-income Americans pay out > a larger share of their paychecks in payroll taxes, sales taxes, user > fees, and tolls than everyone else.What is actually fair is for ALL > Individuals to pay the same dollar amount. Why should one Individual be > forced to pay more or less for the monopoly 'service' Government? How -- > exactly -- is this section a purported 'myth'?Demagogues through history have > known that big lies, repeated often > enough, start being believed - unless they're rebutted. These seven > economic whoppers are just plain wrong. Make sure you know the truth - > and spread it on.As William Anderson observed, "Robert Reich, the former U.S. > Labor Secretary and full-time crank". > Don't take his advice and continue chanting his big lies. I guess we can at > least take refuge in the fact that he announced he was going to lie. > Regard$, > --MJThe art of politics, under democracy, is simply the art of ringing it. > Two branches reveal themselves. There is the art of the demagogue, and there > is the art of what may be called, by a shot-gun marriage of Latin and Greek, > the demaslave. They are complementary, and both of them are degrading to > their practitioners. The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to > be untrue to men he knows to be idiots. The demaslave is one who listens to > what these idiots have to say and then pretends that he believes it himself. > -- H.L. Mencken
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