Economic history clearly shows that tax cuts for the extremely rich hurt the economy. The argument that high taxes on the wealthy stifles economic growth is false since during WW II the highest tax bracket was 91 percent and the economy boomed.
President Clinton raised taxes on the rich and during his administration 22.5 million jobs were created, the federal deficit was eliminated, and budget surpluses resulted. Warren Buffet has said “The rich are always going to say, just give us more money and it will trickle down to the rest of you. But that hasn’t worked out the last 10 years.”
During the Bush administration taxes for the wealthy were reduced and virtually no jobs were created. Growth was channeled to the top 2 percent of the population, real wages for most U.S. workers stagnated, and high unemployment and deficits resulted.
Extending the Bush tax cuts on income above $250,000 a year will add $900 billion to our deficit over two years, but the hypocrites in the Republican and Tea Parties, who claim to be interested in reducing the deficit, demand a tax cut for millionaires.
Rush Limbaugh, with a reported income of $58.7 million, would save $2.7 million with the tax cuts extended. Would he spend it to stimulate the economy or bank it?
William Butler Yeats described President Obama, Republican politicians, and tea party members perfectly in his poem, “The Second Coming,” when he wrote “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
When will Americans catch on that it is not in most of our interest to renew a tax cut for multimillionaires? Let’s all start to show some passionate intensity and demand that our legislators do what is right.
Ronald A. LeMahieu
West Windsor
