Quote Originally Posted by jw View Post
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/0...28Daily+Kos%29




The economy didn't just crash under a Republican president, it crashed under Republican policies. It crashed with low taxes.
I assume the author is referring to the top tax bracket, that received a whopping 4.6% cut down to 35%. It was lower from 86-93, yet there was no economic collapse.
It crashed with deregulated markets.
The market is very regulated, the problem is the regulations are written in a way that the powerful can exploit them.
It crashed with huge restrictions on union activity.
They should cite an example.
It crashed with massive cuts in environmental regulations.
China's economy is booming and they have few environmental regulations.
It crashed with lowered trade barriers.
PBO just signed a free trade pact with multiple countries, yet it appears the economy is improving.
It crashed with big fat Pentagon spending.
So WWII didn't get us out of the depression? Funny, the left always cites that as exhibit a when they want stimulas spending.

They got what they wanted.
False
They got CEOs with no limits on their wealth.
We already had that and the economy didn't collapse.
They got banks with no limits on their "creativity."
We also got bailouts, which we're not for at all.
They got trade agreements that guaranteed manufacturing could be moved to the dirtiest, cheapest, most desperate source available.
Yes, to keep those prices cheaper. Those jobs also get people living in 3rd world cesspools out of grinding poverty. I guess the left must hate those people and wants them to starve to death.
They got massive cuts in capital gains taxes and equally large boosts in the wealth they could pass along in estates.
They got a 5% cut in capital gains, from 20% to 15%. In 1997, Clinton cut capital gains from 28% to 20%, and the economy didn't fall apart, it improved so much we started talking about balanced budgets and surpluses.
They got everything they said would make us all wealthy.
Again, false
They got record oil and gas drilling.
Where?
They got record giveaways of public land. They got everything they said would create jobs.
False
They got the middle class to shoulder more, more, more of the burden so that those beautiful job creators would be free to work their magic.
Actually the middle classes' tax burdon is the lowest it has been since the 1950s

They can't say the economy crashed because taxes went up, because they didn't. They can't say that the economy crashed because there was a raft of new regulation, because there wasn't. They can't blame it on "union thugs" or Saul Alinsky or the guy who writes Happy Holidays cards at Hallmark. They can't blame it on a president who was elected when the world was already in free fall. Only, of course they do.
I blame the fed for reigniting the housing bubble with low interest rates and a normal business cycle. Recessions usually happen every 5-10 years.
their policies directly caused the worst economic failure in American history. Strike that. Make it "the greatest failure in American history since the last time that these same policies were tried."
But then, they've been lying about that bit of history for years.
Actually both of those instances were caused by the fed lowering interest rates too low which caused bubbles that popped.

Conservatism has moved out of the ranks of political theories and simply become a cult
Really? Reading this essay, I got the feeling that the author believes that lower taxes, regulation, and social programs = economic trouble. Yet this country's greatest 20 year period of economic growth occurred from 1870-1890, during a time when we had no income taxes, social programs, and few regulations. It's quite remarkable when you think that this country in 1783 had just fought and won a 7 year war on its own soil against the greatest military at the time. It had little wealth, little ability to create its own wealth, and little infrastructure. It fought another war on its soil against England in 1812, had numerous skirmishes with the Indians, a war with Mexico, a Civil war, and by 1890, it was the strongest economy on the planet.

History proves time and time again that the only path for prosperity for the ordinary person is through economic freedom. Yet, the left doesn't believe that. They ignore the mountain of facts proving them wrong. That is a textbook example of cult-like behavior.