Obama: Why Reaganomics Didn't Work. Spread the Wealth

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supply side taxes

While it may be true that supply side economics widens the gulf between the rich and the poor, it is not true that the poor are somehow made more poor by this. The wealthy will invest access revenue(which increases the tax base), the middle class will save access revenue, and the poor will spend away access revenue leaving them just as poor as before but with new stuff.

red13 of TX @ Nov 01, 2008 20:15:15 PM

Get real, Reagaonomics worked! The only reason it appears the poor are getting poorer is that illegal immigration is out of control. The poor in this country have cars, cell phones, and tvs. Give me a break!!! If Obama gets elected watch the stock market tank with all these unnecessary taxes. Unemployment will go up too.

Veer Right of SC @ Oct 30, 2008 20:14:47 PM

Double Negatives

"In other words, a tax system that wasn't indexed for inflation and that had a sky-high 70 percent top rate was not a disincentive to working or investing." In the end of your sentence: "the top rate was not a disincentive to working or investing" you are employing the use of an ungrammatical doulble negative. Next time just say "the top rate was an incentive to working or investing." If you want someone to understand your flawed economic philiosophy, at least make it grammatical.

Steve of PA @ Oct 28, 2008 11:04:16 AM

RE:Reagonomics

I'm not sure who wrote your talking points for you, but they are incorrect.

Have a look at this report from the Federal Resevere Bank of Minneapolis, you'll see that income per person adjusted for inflation is up 80% over the past 30 years.

http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=4049

The part you did get right though is if your going to lie , Lie Big

DJC of FL @ Oct 28, 2008 09:08:13 AM

Reagonomics

The median income (single earner) corrected for inflation hasn't increased since the beginning of the 70's, while the GNP has been constantly increasing. WHY? Isn't it a serious problem?

It seems to show that, when the tides is climbing, small boats are sinking.

Bob Binette of NH @ Oct 25, 2008 06:44:31 AM

Reagonomics

The median income (single earner) corrected for inflation hasn't increased since the beginning of the 70's, while the GNP has been constantly increasing. WHY? Isn't it a serious problem?

It seems to show that, when the tides is climbing, small boats are sinking.

Bob Binette of NH @ Oct 25, 2008 06:42:58 AM

god forbid

"But you got yourself a lot more billionaires to idolize."

Yes, god forbid people become billionaires.

And god forbid those people who became billionaires from expanding their companies in the process, employing thousands more people than they ever would have had they never become billionaires.

Those are some evil folks.

amk of KY @ Oct 25, 2008 04:26:57 AM

High taxes boost employment?

"When taxes are high, people and corporations are MORE likely to spend on employees---not LESS.

Nonsense, you say?"

Yes, this is the dumbest comment I've seen for a while.

While business is good where I work, anticipation of Obama policies has management already planning cuts in the workforce in marginal areas. Certain low margin operations are acceptable when taxes are low, but the margin goes away altogether with tax hikes, and costs are costs... no, we won't do the work if there's no payback.

Gene Bocoi of AL @ Oct 24, 2008 14:44:36 PM

reaganomics and trickle down myths

"Yet the initial effect of the 1980s tax cuts was a deluge of folks back into the labor market (the labor force participation rate went from 63.6 percent in 1980 to 66.5 percent in 1989). "

Wasn't this because more women joined the workforce and NEW folks in the workplace, not returning folks? Now it takes both parents in a household working to maintain an adequate standard of living.

of WI @ Oct 24, 2008 11:40:09 AM

Yes, I agree, nonsense . . . .

The effective marginal corporate tax rate is important and the US is losing out to other nations because it's too high. This, from the Tax Foundation:

"[W]hen we take a more comprehensive look at the business tax systems and account for changes in the business tax base, we find that the effective marginal tax rates of other nations have fallen while the United States has stood still.[footnote omitted.] Indeed, the effective marginal tax rate abroad has fallen by about 30 percent since the mid-1980s while remaining largely unchanged in the United States.

See http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/printer/23561.html (8/28/2008). This (high rates) is a very big issue and needs to be addressed.

The other issue that's flying below the radar screen is, for both personal and corporate tax consideration, the cost in studying, planning, obtaining, and implimenting the "gambits" that lower effective rates (e.g., the tax shelters du jour, different depreciation schedules, and the like), not to mention the built in cost of compliance even without the gambits (how long before the government, for the alleged purpose of reducing computation errors, substantive "misunderstandings," and enforcing universal electronic filing [cheaper for the government, it will say] requires we purchase tax preparation software?).

The only thing Obama may unwittingly be on to here, and I doubt that he would even consciously consider it, is the utility of a flat rate with few, if any, credits or deductions. In a "Change" World, that's anathema because the primary goal isn't revenue, but, instead, control and surveillance.

Marc of MI @ Oct 23, 2008 12:35:32 PM

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Capital Commerce

U.S. News business reporter Matthew Bandyk examines the issues, people, and debates that shape the nexus of political and economic life in the nation's capital.

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