More GOP Non-Debate Fun

That is, if a bunch of unctuous conservatives hurling lies and insults at each other is your idea of fun.

Tonight's episode of the GOP's serial non-debates is supposed to focus on economic issues.  As a time-saving public service, allow me to summarize their oh-so predictable positions:

Most of them like trade deals, none of them like Social Security or Medicare.  None of them want to increase the minimum wage.  But the economic policy centerpiece for every last one of them is that old Republican standby, income tax cuts.  The biggest beneficiaries of their proposed tax cuts would be the wealthy.  For everyone else, it's spending cuts and lumps of coal.  The Wall Street Journal called their tax plans "bold."  I call them BS.

These candidates are engaged in a race to the bottom -- the bottom of the revenue barrel.  They all blithely slash revenue by trillions of dollars without any realistic thought of how to replace it.  All of their plans increase the deficit dramatically, and they either don't care or preposterously claim it won't.

It's still the same old Norquistian, Tea Bag fetish about tax cuts and supply side/trickle-down theory.  And I guess there are still a few slow learners out there clinging to the discredited belief that giving tax cuts to the rich will somehow benefit all of society.  Strictly Fantasy Island stuff.

Below is a post from five years ago.  It's a good refresher, if you need one.  Today, five years ago, 35 years ago -- it doesn't really matter.  Republican tax policy is, was, and has long been bullshit!

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Monday, November 1, 2010

Stranger Than Fiction: A Reaganite Republican Tells The Truth!

You might remember David Stockman as Reagan's budget director and the architect of Ronnie's huge tax cuts. Stockman, a staunch supply-side theorist, justified it by coining the phrase "trickle down". You might also remember the Reagan Recession which followed in 1982-1983, featuring 10%+ unemployment. (Obviously, not enough people remember.)

Last night's 60 Minutes on CBS had a segment featuring Stockman talking not about cutting taxes, but raising them.Seems the one-time Wunderkind has had a change of heart. Said Stockman:

"Tax cuts are a religion for Republicans -- an absolute, the gospel, something which can't be questioned.

"We've demonized taxes, turned them into a metaphysical evil. It's rank demogoguery. To always rub raw this anti-tax sentiment, the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves.

"Both parties are telling a Big Lie, that we can have all our programs and not tax ourselves appropriately to pay for them. It's delusional.

"Neither party would cut more than $50 billion, and the problem is $1.3 trillion."

Stockman actually agrees with Buster (see the 9/24/10 post, "Tackling the Deficit") that all the George W. Bush tax cuts should be allowed to expire at year-end. He then goes a step further, wanting to whack the shit out of the national debt with a one-time 15% surcharge/surtax on the wealthiest Americans. Dude!

Really good ideas. Don't hold your breath.