Comment 62826

By Borrelli (registered) | Posted April 28, 2011 at 16:15:24

Very interesting and selective use of facts there, Smith. In your first paragraph what does education spending have to do GDP growth and how is it related to rewarding the rich?

In your second paragraph, interesting how those interest charges also generally mirror falling interest rates over that period--you've drawn a spurious correlation between tax rates and interest charges, and conveniently chosen the pre-recessionary period to demonstrate this. Would love to see the sources of your data so I can take a look at the interest charge to GDP ratio over a period when (according to the CTF) Harper has added more than $83B to the total debt while lowering taxes dramatically--while interest rates have been at all-time lows.

But as you point out, the issue really isn't whether low taxes are good for economic growth--sure the booming 2000s in the USA demonstrates that they can be, but there's the little matter of who benefits most when the times are good, and who pays the piper when the house of cards falls.

What you're advocating, it seems, is some version of the wholly discredited model of economics: lower taxes, something that only those with lots of money to be taxed truly benefit from, and then hope that this trickle-down effect provide the illusion of spreading the wealth.

It's the classic economic fairy tale, supply-side economics, and has been tried time and time again in that great economic laboratory called the USA. And it's failed every time, too, from the 1890s, to Reaganomics, to Bush's Bubble.

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