http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=142414 President Obama, in one of his most expansive speeches to date, declared on Tuesday that supply-side economics is a failure and called âgaping inequalityâ across the country a moral shortcoming that is distorting American democracy. Obamaâs speech in Kansas was not just another attack on Congress, or a plea to pass his jobs bill. He did not roll out a new, snappy slogan â such as telling the audience that âwe canât waitâ to enact new laws. 4142 Comments Weigh InCorrections? inShare Video President Obama is taking aim at the nation's income disparities, declaring that the middle class faces a 'make or break moment.' (Dec. 6) Graphic Track how Obama is spending his time Instead, Obama delivered a searing indictment of Republican economic theory, setting the stage for the coming presidential campaign. Summoning the image of a populist Theodore Roosevelt â in the same town (Osawatomie) where Roosevelt delivered a famous speech on economic fairness in 1910 â Obama deployed the language of right and wrong, fairness and unfairness, in a lengthy address that aides said he largely wrote himself. The theory of âtrickle down economics,â which holds that greater wealth at the top generates jobs and income for the masses below, drew some of Obamaâs harshest criticism.
gee whiz guy, I hope you don't read these articles you post. The EPA will declare your brain a "superfund" site. This stuff is not healthy.
The liar-in-chief restates a liberal position and that makes it so? LOL You know whats really distorting democracy? All the voter fraud perpetuated by his/your democratic party Oh...I thought he said he was in Texas And yet that's exactly what it was. He lies to his sheeples faces and they believe it. Oh boy, does this mean even more unconstitutional executive orders? If he cares so much for the middle class, which is a bold faced lie, then why is he willingly saddling them with so much more debt? Actually it was just his usual lies rhetoric and propaganda That asshole has been campaigning since his inauguration dumb ass Oh goody more class warfare, I'm surprised Odumbo didn't think of it sooner
I think this commentor sums it up: "i can certainly tell you that President Obama's plans have not worked. Here we are after three years of his tour of duty as President and he hasn't done a thing but create some temp jobs. Out problems and the answer to them has been right before his eyes and he hasn't spoken to solving either, nor has he taken any meaningful action. It seems that he is intent on staying the course with these bad times as if it will win him the election - it will not."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-22/democrats-recall-reagan-s-tax-increases.html "Reaganâs Tax Increases Have Democrats Recalling Republican Hero By Brian Faler - Jul 21, 2011 10:00 PM MT Democrats are claiming an unlikely ally in this yearâs fight over the debt limit: Ronald Reagan. Reagan, renowned by Republicans as a tax-cutter, also increased revenue about a dozen times when confronted with surging deficits. The Treasury Department has estimated those measures would be the equivalent of $300 billion annually today -- more than what many Democrats are now seeking as part of a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling. That often-forgotten history has some lawmakers trading places, with Democrats hailing the former Republican president as an example for todayâs budget negotiators. âHeâs a guy who was willing to compromise,â said Representative Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. âHe was a practical conservativeâ who ârecognized that itâs unrealistic to get 100 percent of your demands.â Republican opposition to tax increases has emerged as one of the main obstacles to an agreement on a deficit-reduction package that would clear the way to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit by Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department says the government will be unable to meet its obligations. The tax issue has stymied lawmakers all year, helping to scuttle Vice President Joe Bidenâs efforts to find a solution to the debt dispute as well as an effort by President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner to strike a âgrand bargain.â Itâs still frustrating lawmakers even as Standard & Poorâs and Moodyâs Investors Service warn they may cut the governmentâs credit rating if lawmakers donât act. Senate Democrats yesterday balked at a potential deal between Obama and Boehner over the issue of raising taxes. Changing Course Reagan is remembered for his tax cuts, owing to his signature Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, which slashed the top marginal rate to 50 percent from 70 percent. And even with the later increases, he was a net tax-cutter: He didnât rescind the marginal cuts, and lowered the rates again in a 1986 overhaul that traded rate reductions for the elimination of individual tax preferences. By the end of his administration, the top marginal rate had been dropped to 28 percent. Still, his administration reversed course after the first tax-cut bill became law, when budget projections showed the deficit poised to reach levels not seen since the World War II era. âWe were scared out of our wits because that seemed to be unimaginable,â David Stockman, Reaganâs first budget director, said in an interview. Corporate Breaks Reaganâs biggest deficit came in 1983 when it reached 6 percent of the gross domestic product -- about two-thirds the size of the shortfalls the government has run in each of the past three years. The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, then criticized as the largest tax increase in history, scaled back corporate tax breaks, increased unemployment-insurance levies, and raised excise taxes on cigarettes, among other changes. âThe goal is simple and just: to see to it that everyone pays his fair share,â Reagan said in August 1982. He predicted the tax increase would help the economy because it would reduce the deficit, which he said would lead to lower interest rates. Reagan later signed the Highway Revenue Act of 1982, which temporarily doubled the gasoline tax. Both measures came as millions struggled with the 1981-1982 recession, when the jobless rate was stuck at about 10 percent for almost a year. Undercutting the Argument âThat put the lie to the current arguments of Republicans that the economy is too weak to bear a tax increaseâ because âthe next year 3.5 million jobs were created,â said Stockman, who says tax increases are now needed to help reduce the deficit. âWhen the Republicans rhetorically say now, âWho would raise taxes in a recession?â the answer is Ronald Reagan.â The following year came the Social Security Amendments of 1983, which was designed to head off the programâs insolvency. It raised the Social Security payroll tax and, for the first time, began taxing the benefit checks of wealthier seniors. The Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 raised the estate tax, cut more business tax breaks and boosted taxes on distilled spirits, among other items. A review of Reaganâs budget requests to Congress shows his administration expected those and a handful of smaller levies to raise about $1 trillion between 1983 and 1992. A 2006 Treasury Department report shows that Reaganâs tax increases now would bring in about $300 billion a year, if the increases were measured against todayâs economy. Those higher taxes replaced about half the revenue lost to the Treasury with the 1981 cuts, according to Reaganâs budget documents. âA Mistakeâ âI would hope that todayâs Republican Party can learn from President Reagan and work with Democrats,â said Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat. Grover Norquist, head of the anti-tax Americans for Tax Reform, blamed Congress for the Reagan-era tax increases, saying âevery one of those was a mistake.â Reagan was âpushedâ into them by the Democrats who then controlled the House and the âliberalâ Republicans who ran the Senate. âReagan didnât get to win every fight,â said Norquist. He said Reagan helped him in 1986 write his groupâs anti- tax pledge, which has now been endorsed by most Republican lawmakers. âThis is a different Republican Party youâre talking about,â he said. âThe modern Republican Party does not raise taxes.â Focused on Today Representative Richard Nugent, a freshman Republican from Florida, called Reaganâs tax increases âancient history,â saying, âI live in the present.â âIâm more focused on whatâs happening today,â said Senator Marco Rubio, another Florida Republican. âIâve yet to meet a job creator whoâs told me theyâre looking for higher taxes.â Senator Jon Kyl, the chamberâs second-ranking Republican, said, âReagan was in a situation where he had to compromise in order to get some things doneâ and âpresidents sign lots of things that theyâre not for.â Van Hollen, of Maryland, said if Reagan were around today, heâd have to fight to win his partyâs nomination. âIn todayâs environment, Ronald Reagan would be primary-ed by a Tea Party candidate.â
Interest rates were in the high teens around the time Reagan was elected. Just lowering rates would stimulate growth as the construction industry ground to a halt around 79-80. Contrast that with 5 years of ZIRP and the exhaustion of every type of stimulus known to mankind...and yet we're still at stall speed. I'm indifferent as to who did what when, there is so much revisionist history already, why screw with it anymore than necessary.