The inimitable bonddad strikes again right here, calmly and systematically destroying right-wing claims of superior economic policy. The evidence he marshals is impressive and his conclusions are devastating: so-called "Supply Side Economics" as practiced by the last three Republican presidents was and is simply a shell game, where economic growth was financed by the accumulation of enormous debt. (In fact, 70% of America's national debt, from 1789 to the present, has been accumulated under Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II.) This debt has put us in a horrendous hole. bonddad supplies the numbers and facts:
Let’s look at tax revenues to see how they have responded. First, remember that Bush first cut taxes in 2001 and again in 2003. So let’s go back to the first tax cut to see what happened from that point forward. According to the Congressional Budget Office’s Historical Budget Data, total revenue from individual taxpayers was $994 billion in 2001 and $1.043 trillion in 2006. Since the fourth quarter of 2001, the GDP price deflator has increased from 103.1221 to 117.003 (this was the price deflator in the third quarter of 2006 when the federal government’s fiscal year ends). This is an overall increase of 13.46%. In short, after adjusting for inflation, the overall increase in tax revenues from 2001 when the first tax cutting began is nothing to write home about.
And how was the mediocre economic performance of Bush purchased? bonddad again:
Total Federal Debt
09/30/2000 5,674,178,209,886.86
09/30/2001 5,807,463,412,200.06
09/30/2002 6,228,235,965,597.16
09/30/2003 6,783,231,062,743.62
09/30/2004 7,379,052,696,330.32
09/30/2005 7,932,709,661,723.50
09/30/2006 8,506,973,899,215.23
In other words, Junior put our "prosperity" on the credit card, and our children and grandchildren will have to pay the price. Read the whole thing--and then resolve to throw these profligate, reckless bums out next year.
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