Reagan-Era Conservatives Reject Economics of Today’s GOP
 

Reagan-Era Conservatives Reject Economics of Today's GOP

Why are Reagan-era conservatives and financial industry executives challenging GOPonomics? Their arguments flow from a consistent and principled conservatism in economic matters. They reject the phony conservatism that masks cronyism and corruption.

Uh oh, this could be trouble

Please let it be David Stockman, please let it be David Stockman...

Oh, how about that... it's David Stockman.

Nothing to see here... move along.

Another champion of Reaganomics brought similar charges. Bruce Bartlett held senior economics policy positions in both the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, and was a senior fellow at the reliably conservative Heritage Foundation. Recently, Bartlett challenged GOP opposition to allow tax rates at the top brackets to return to where they were (39.6 percent) before the George W. Bush tax cuts. Bartlett reminds us that the economy grew robustly under the higher Clinton-era tax rates, and the federal government ran surpluses. He concludes that while higher taxes don't promote growth they "play a very big role in reducing the budget deficit and are not necessarily a drag" on growth. Tax cuts, he says, can be either good or bad depending on circumstances, notably the level of federal debt and the stage of the business cycle (growth or recession). When you don't feel like actually putting up an argument, straw man, straw man, straw man.

NEWS FLASH>>> Clinton era liberal rejects Obama tax increase on top earners.

Ex-President Clinton to Newsmax: Raising Taxes Won't Work

I'll let Bill Clinton make my argument

What he actually says is that we should postpone dealing with deficits at all till the economy is on firmer ground. And that he likes very much the payroll tax cuts that Obama has supported.

He explains: “In the speech that the president gave to Congress, he didn’t propose any new taxes. The speech was $250 billion in tax cuts, $250 billion in spending over a period of two to three years. It focused mostly on a rather innovative set of payroll tax cuts and incentives to hire people.

“I personally don’t believe we ought to be raising taxes or cutting spending until we get this economy off the ground. If we cut government spending, which I normally would be very inclined to do when the deficit’s this big, with interest rates already near zero you can’t get the benefits out of it.

“So what I’d like to see them do is come up with a bipartisan approach, starting with the payroll tax cuts because they have the biggest return.

“Then what I’d like to see is an effort made at a bipartisan resolution of the banking home mortgage crisis.

Read more on Newsmax.com: Ex-President Clinton to Newsmax: Raising Taxes Won't Work
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now! Do you swallow NewsMax headlines unquestioningly, without at least looking at the details? Every third story is about birther crap, Newsmax?

Amusingly, you like the source well enough to include four quotes from it, but none of them dispute the headline.

Yeah Clinton says he would postpone dealing with deficits at all but also said that if you had to pick one area to "spend" in terms of tax cuts to get the biggest bang for the economy it would be in payroll tax cuts geared towards middle class and working people, not the very wealthy and dividend earners.

I'm shocked, shocked.