STUMPTALK: History misunderstood by liberals

Opinion

November 26, 2012

STUMPTALK: History misunderstood by liberals

By Jerry McDonough Chronicle contributor The Crossville Chronicle Mon Nov 26, 2012, 01:30 PM CST

CROSSVILLE — Either Obama and his liberal minions are too lazy to read and understand recent history, or they are grossly misleading American citizens. Not only has socialism not worked in the history of the world, but neither has tax increases ever in history increased revenue to that amount tax cuts increase revenue. Less than intelligent Biden said in his debate with Ryan that tax breaks have never increased revenues before, especially if given to wealth creators. Let us then revue recent history.

John Kennedy enacted a major tax cut which became law in 1964 promising to grow the economy thus growing revenues and close the budget gap. The law cut the top tax rate from 91% to 70%. The economy immediately began to grow at a 5.5% rate and unemployment fell to 3.8%. As individual tax revenue nearly doubled, the deficit fell from $7 billion to $1 billion. New York University, a non-ivy league school, economist Richard Sylla said, “Rising income more than offset the decline in income tax rates as far as the federal revenue was concerned.” Kennedy and his supply side economists carried the day. When Johnson raised taxes and added a surcharge on the wealthy after Kennedy’s death, federal revenue increases immediately ceased. Glaring proof that tax increases on the wealthy do not work.

Ronald Reagan did Kennedy one better. Reagan and republicans together with the democrats cut the top personal rate from 70% down to 28%. This tax relief triggered record new business startups and small business expansion. It also caused federal tax revenues to explode throughout the 80s rising 57% to $467 billion. Glaring proof that tax cuts for the wealthy work.

Then came Bill Clinton. Liberal Obama wants to return to “the tax rates we had when Clinton was president” because THAT is what brought us from deficits to surpluses. There goes Obama again, dictating his own facts which are factually untrue when independently checked, but what is new about that. Surpluses under Clinton and referred to by Obama began in 1997 after the GOP tax bill was reluctantly signed by Clinton cutting capital gains taxes from 28% to 20%. Republicans were in the majority in congress, but not the super majority meaning many democrats voted with the republicans effectively rendering a probable Clinton veto useless. The result was that capital gains revenues ballooned as stock and other capital investment more than tripled rising 20%. For the first time individual tax revenues topped $1 trillion before peaking in the Clinton recession near the end of his time as president. Glaring proof that tax cuts for the wealthy work.

And here goes Obama again stating that Bush tax cuts caused the recession! Reality goes out the window with liberals. George Bush signed the largest tax cut since Reagan dropping the marginal tax rate from 39.6% to 35%. This caused federal individual tax revenue to rise from $794 billion to $1.2 trillion and then the mortgage crisis began. Bush warned the 2008 congress, which had a super democrat majority capable of overriding a presidential veto, twenty four times (24) that the mortgage system needed to be fixed or prepare to face the fiscal collapse of the economy. The 2008 congress failed to act and the rest is history. Obama and his liberal friends seem to be mentally challenged when it comes to logic, reality and truth, but then this deficiency seems to run back through “saint” FDR, Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt.

All of the above is easily verified if anyone cares to read history.

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