Tax cuts for the Wealthy…What about the rest of us...HuH? Trickle Down…Baloney!

You are probably tired of even thinking about politics and politicians, and I can’t blame you for feeling that way, but something is going on in this country that we must, as citizens pay attention to, whether we like it or not. As Senator Clag horn Hen said in the Hanna Barbera animated cartoon “Pay attention boy, or you’re going to lose your lunch”.
The conservative right is trying to foist on us the thought that tax cuts for the rich are the way to reduce the deficit. They use as their example of how this works, the tax cut that was enacted by the Reagan administration. They point to the expansion that took place during the Reagan years, and how great things were in the ‘80’s. The only problem with their thinking is that the deficit rose 189% during the Reagan years. 189%! From 1982 to 1989. WOW!
Tax cuts for the wealthy don’t work anymore. Why? #1. Taxes aren’t high enough to make a difference. Reagan cut taxes that were in the 80 to 90% bracket. #2. And most important under Reagan the money saved by paying lower taxes stayed in the United States. It was invested in stocks, bonds, plant and equipment. Today the wealthy buy everything but U.S. goods. They buy Yen, Chinese stocks, gold. None of these things help the U.S. economy. In fact under Bush II the rich corporations even benefited from shipping our jobs overseas. Reagan and Bush II were rich man’s presidents and that’s a fact. The middleclass has gone nowhere since Reagan deregulation. Average earnings after inflation are the same today as they were in 1982. Average executive earnings have gone sky high in the same period. And the guys that run hedge funds are taxed at a lower rate than you are, and they make billions. Where do they invest their money? With the rest of the rich of course.
The tax breaks for the wealthy must be allowed to lapse in 2011! If you want to give the rich a tax advantage, get something for it. Don’t let them ship the money out of here. They can do anything that they want with their after tax income, but any new tax break should be targeted to the U.S. economy. So, monies invested here would be deductible from their income, up to a certain limit, that would ensure that the money was invested here. Investments overseas would not be deductable. Maybe that way, if the wealthy get tax cuts, at least the rest of us will participate too. I believe that is how to create jobs. That is what is fair.