Obama's Economic Plan Fails Where Reagan's Succeeded

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Despite the massive fiscal stimulus our economy remains on the brink of yet another recession with unemployment being the major culprit, a rising deficit, pending federal tax increases, and of course, the Eurozone’s uncertainty lingering in the backdrop. Fundamentally, our economic issues are intertwined with our federal tax system. As 2011 draws to an end, we now realize that 67 tax breaks (Social Security payroll tax, Alternative Minimum tax, etc) may expire on Dec 31st. What we may not realize is that those tax breaks represent just a miniscule section of the 68,000 pages in the IRS’ tax code. As a result, your first paycheck of 2012 will be noticeably smaller, and if the tax code is not corrected, that paycheck will continue to dwindle in the years to come. America’s tax code is an outdated archaic mess, needlessly complex due to deductions, credits, exceptions, and loopholes. It’s no wonder that folks are up in arms. President Reagan recognized the need to reform the Tax code back in 1981 when he proposed the Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA), the Reagan tax cuts, a 25% across the board decrease in personal marginal tax rates. Even with the then massive cold war military expense buildup and the subsequent dilution of the Act as enacted, the Reagan tax cuts showed that reducing excessive tax rates stimulates economic growth, reduces tax evasion and tax avoidance schemes, and can actually increase tax revenues from the rich. As to the misguided notion that 99% of Americans support 1% of the rich in tax payments, the truth can be found by Googling "Who pays federal income tax?" a link (below) to the National Taxpayers Union displays the actual stats: The top 1% of the wealthiest income earners pay 38% of US tax revenues, the top 5% pay 59%, the top 10% pay 70%, the top 25% pay 86%, the top 50% pay 97.3% and the bottom 50% pay 2.7% of all federal tax revenues. If you take a further investigative look it becomes clear that once federal spending is taken into consideration, those “1% of wealthiest Americans” are paying vastly more into government and consuming virtually nothing, while the bottom 50% receive the largest amounts of that spending while paying virtually no federal tax. We need tax reform that is fair, simplified, flat, easy to understand and collected from all US citizens above the poverty line, while eliminating income taxes for those below the poverty line. We need to drastically reduce entitlements, lower the corporate tax rate so that the US can regain its competitiveness in the global markets thus reducing our unemployment. We can continue to invest heavily in our country’s security, our educational system, shoring up our borders, deporting illegal aliens involved in criminal activities, drastically cutting entitlements, while withdrawing our military occupation of other countries. We can then begin enjoying a more prosperous era of economic growth and a simplified tax system we can all live with, as Ronald Reagan intended.

Igor Sill of CA 3:36PM December 06, 2011

Excuse me? Ronald Wilson Reagan's economy was better? I find that hard to believe. Yes, Reagan's dilemma peaked in August 1982 with nearly 11% unemployment. Far higher than anything currently seen under Obama. Plus, the "REAGAN RECESSION" as it was rightly called for a reason, went on to plague his successor George Herbert Walker Bush. "It's the economy stupid" became a rallying cry that swept draft-dodging William Jefferson Clinton into office. REMEMBER??
Yet, you make references to things beyond the control of the President he has never made excuses for.
Things like Governors who refused to accept the stimulus money. How much was given to Rick Scott here in my home state of Florida which he rejected outright? I have lived in Georgia as well under Obama. The Governor there also rejected stimulus funding for a time, until Georgia's situation became so bad that even he was forced to take some of it. But not until he stripped children's healthcare services of their funding to pay for his own pet projects around the state. He also kicked 81 disabled veterans to the curb when Governor Sonny Perdue shut down the domicile care wing of the Georgia War Veterans Home.
Yet, according to you, those were prudent actions, responsible actions. While the actions of Obama to save jobs, save lives and encourage an environment that would be conducive to creating jobs was nearly wholly rejected from the outset by the Republicans. That is Barack Hussein Obama's fault?
Yesterday I heard Rush Limpbaugh on the radio speaking about how he would support the Republican nominee no matter who it was. That includes names like Osama bin Laden. Saddam Hussein. Kim Jon Il. Fidel Castro. He said that he would vote for anyone but Barack Hussein Obama. Josef Stalin would make a great Republican, would he not? He stood for everything that the current Republican party does. Course, it is no surprise that the only difference between Reagan and Stalin was the moustache. Ever wonder why exactly it was that they looked so much alike? Now you know!
I have a plan for growth. It is called banning political parties. No more would the Republicans be able to place their own selfish interests ahead of the interests of the nation. No more would they be cutting medicare for the elderly while giving that money to the rich. If Robin Hood actually existed, he would be spinning in his grave at the redistributionist mentality of the Republicans who state that the poor must stay poor in order that they, the elites, be rich.

Palemoon of FL 11:42AM October 12, 2011

Ronald Reagan wouldn't have fared so well had Republicans only agreed to his tax cuts and blocked each of the tax increases he found necessary to enact.
What would have happened to the economy under Reagan had he been treated the way Republicans are treating Obama?

Caroline of NC 6:43PM September 03, 2011

The Senate-controlled Dems have shot them all down! I know, as I receive
letters (complete with H.R. bills) from the staff of the House Speaker every week.
Regardless of this fact, the idiotic "scotomic" liberal/progressives keep asking, "So, what have the Republicans done to create jobs?"
.....so why bother???
Personally, I (along with the rest of the country, as well as the world) am convinced this country's economy will not get a positive re-start until "Chief-Bone-Head" in our White House is gone in 2012!
.....watch and see!

John Wayne of NM 11:36AM August 29, 2011

Government can only transfer funds from the private sector to the public sector - with a large percentage of wealth lost in the process through government graft and bureaucratic inefficiency.
America has spent decades destroying manufacturing jobs through "out sourcing", regulation, unionizing and taxation. We have become a nation of paper shufflers that imports most of its basic needs; energy, food, machinery, and raw materials.
For 40 years our schools have emphasized "white collar" jobs - "blue collar" jobs were referred to contemptuously by school counselors and administrators as, "dead end", "unfulfilling", "unskilled" and "going nowhere" jobs. Everyone doesn't need a college degree - there is honor and pride in honest, hard work - celebrate all labor.
Corporate greed, government regulation/taxation, eco-dogma , and educational/vocational bigotry has transformed us, in just 40 years, from the industrial giant of the world to a country that can't provide the basic necessities of life or even control its borders.
Any hope of salvaging at least a remnant of our former greatness it must include some combination of the following steps.
1. Eliminate the Capital Gains Tax for investment for companies creating jobs.
2. Reduce corporate income taxes based on a "jobs" formula, and raise taxes on crazy bonuses and salaries.
3. Massive tax incentives for companies who bring "out sourced" foreign jobs back home -penalties for those who export them.
4. Dump the "hard green" agenda in the trash bin. Draconian Enviro-regulations make competition difficult, and result in higher costs and unemployment.
5. Forget National Health Care. Expand Medicare a to those 50+ or with preexisting conditions. Means test SSI and Medicare.
6. Start drilling off shore - especially California, and Alaska (remember, offshore drilling actually reduces natural seepage from undersea fissures). Tweak shale oil and clean coal technology. Stop tearing down damns because of fish and frog worries, and fast track nuclear plants and natural gas. Low cost energy is a must for production.
7. Stop the ethanol fiasco - families need less expensive food - not more expensive gas.
8. Cut government red tape to the bone from local to federal level. Projects need to be fast-tracked and not tied in regulatory knots over a thousand issues with Environmentalist theology. Government needs to "relearn" common sense and judgment. Stop micromanaging and creating roadblocks over insignificant issues. We're in an economic war - Get moving!
9. Close that southern border! Deport those who are here less than 5 years. Fine the heck out of companies who hire illegals. After 300 years it's time Mexico handled their own economic and political issues.
10. Schools need to stamp out intellectual, educational and vocational snobbery. To paraphrase Booker T. Washington, “No nation can prosper until it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.”
Now, get to work.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 11:30AM August 29, 2011

"Willful Ignorance", a term that was coined by Rush Limbaugh in referencing the liberal Democrats earlier this year!
I caught you, you RINO!
: )

Havahavanna of CA 6:35AM August 29, 2011

1. Have heard, why no TEA during Bush years. True, no TEA, we had Nancy Pelosi:
"When Pelosi became speaker in January 2007 she was emphatic that there would be no new deficit spending."
“After years of historic deficits, this 110th Congress will commit itself to a higher standard: Pay as you go, no new deficit spending,” she said in her inaugural address from the speaker’s podium. “Our new America will provide unlimited opportunity for future generations, not burden them with mountains of debt.”
"[...]When Pelosi was sworn in on Jan. 4, 2007, the national debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04. At the close of business on Jan. 4, 2011, her last full day in the speakership, it stood at 14,014,049,043,294.41–an increase of $5,343,452,800,321.37."
http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/democrat-controlled-congress-added-5-34-trillion-to-national-debt/
Now TEA is called every dirty name in the book for following in Nancy Pelosi's high heel shoes, what she spoke "January 2007".
2. Hear recession Bush fault.
a. Pelosi:
"During her weekly press conference on April 15, a reporter asked Pelosi a seemingly innocuous question about taxes. Pelosi prefaced her response with a fairly standard litany: explaining the dire state of the U.S. economy inherited by President Obama and setting the blame at the foot of the Bush administration. But she also added this: “When [then-Senator Obama] accepted the nomination in Colorado, the [Bush] Administration had kept from the public the idea that, in a matter of weeks, the financial community would be in crisis, and we would need to pass the TARP legislation.”
Here's proof Bush warnings began Year Bush was elected:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2010/05/pelosi-caught-in-major-lie-says-bush-didnt-warn-congress-about-financial-crisis-records-show-he-warned-congress-17-in-2008-alone/
b. "Video: Democrats insist “nothing wrong” at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac in 2004"
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/29/video-democrats-insist-nothing-wrong-at-fannie-mae-freddie-mac-in-2004/
3. TEA about "social issues"
Democrats, with help of PORK, passed obamacare. Last needed Democrat votes, required no federal funding for abortion. obama so signed a Executive Order .
"Obama Signs Executive Order Reaffirming Laws on Federal Funding of Abortion
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/24/obama-signs-executive-order-reaffirming-laws-federal-funding-abortion/#ixzz1W8anQuzR"

Bill Hedges of MO 2:58AM August 29, 2011

So tell me how TEA is ANY DIFFERENT than PELOSI'S OWN words ? EXCEPT, we want the cuts TO HAPPEN. There is good reason why TEA must win:
"Federal Budget 101 - Eye opening analysis! "
"The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year"_ (democrats did not Oct. 2010_ had control, NO NERVE) _"in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is so we created a breakdown of federal spending in simple terms. Let's put the 2011 federal budget into perspective":
"U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)"
"It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to. Let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family."
"Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700
Amount of money the Jones family spent: $38,200
Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Amount cut from the budget: $385"
"So in effect last month Congress, or in this example the Jones family, sat down at the kitchen table and agreed to cut $385 from its annual budget. What family would cut $385 of spending in order to solve $16,500 in deficit spending?"
"It is a start, although hardly a solution."
http://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2011/07/federal-budget-101-eye-opening-analysis.html
_____
THE BIG BAD TEA was unhappy with recent agreement. Why ? Democrats say We sabotage, caused AA, racist, etc..
How did WE cause Nov. 2, 2010. Democrat no understand. BLAME TEA...

Bill Hedges of MO 2:55AM August 29, 2011

Within the G.O.P., willful ignorance has become a litmus test for candidates. They have truly become a cult of stupidity.

Pro-Science Pro-EducationPro-Environment EvolutionGlobal Warming Bullet Trains of CO 2:15AM August 29, 2011

sorry mr. bill,and others,not sure who,science of co. is,but it;s not me.but i do admire his clear and insightful though process.he,like myself is just trying to point out your misguided thinking on numerous subjects.

bruce b of NV 12:40AM August 29, 2011