Obama’s Depressing Economic Delusion

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The only way the U.S. economy will recover is by raising taxes on the wealthiest 1/3rd of U.S. federak income taxpayers. This is what Obama will need to do in 2010. All wage earners above 166K have to pay the piper now. 35% tax rate.
It is really that simple.
The federal tax cuts since the early 1980's have not brought about sustained economic growth. In fact, they have been a huge failure - Republicans are just afraid to admit it!

Dana Mattiza of TX 6:03PM December 25, 2008

Let me summarize this article: "Liberals are awful."
Right. The Bush tax cuts really made the economy "take off like a rocket." Now is the time for healthcare reform, infrastructure spending, and "green" energy investment-- logical (ahem, I mean "liberal agenda") ideas. Projects as large as these have required federal involvement in the past, and rather than wading through the smoldering economic wreckage of the most recent Conservative government (like the last Liberal President did, and like the one after Obama will inevitably have to do), Obama is offering a New Deal which will at least give us something to show for our money (what do we have to show for the Bush Whitehouse's voracious appetite for deficit spending? Anyone? Smoldering Iraqi wreckage?).
James Pethokoukis believes this great nation could survive another 8 years of Bush economics. Reality disagrees.

Jeffrey of CA 3:30PM December 25, 2008

I'm reading from the same folks that voted in an incompetent buffoon under the premise that he'll cut taxes for billionaires, then do nothing... that worked out real good huh guys? Obama is the real deal, unraveling he total disaster spawned from your misguided ideology.

John Fowler of MN 5:07AM December 25, 2008

wow!
I see an assortment of closet racists, deluded deregulationists,neocons, and brainless evangelicals coming out to post complaints about obama.
8 long years listening to an affirmative action beneficiary in the white house, espousing white supremacy and values around the world, trampling on our constitution, appointing staff members who stumbled into two very costly wars, the failed katrina effort, and a deregulated nightmare that sparked a financial meltdown that is the embarassment of this country and you idiots who had it your way for 8 years are whining about obama.
we as a country lost significant credibility. you all are a joke coming from the right wing.

sensible behind a computer of CO 10:09PM December 21, 2008

Obama is lowering expectations about how quickly "hope and change" will fix the economy. Perhaps, too, he understands that handing folks checks for $500 didn't produce any stimulus in 2008, or any time it's been tried. What the US needs is lower corporate tax rates, lower capital gains rates and lower individual rates. The solution that works every time.

LindaK of NY 1:31PM December 10, 2008

"But when the full weight of the tax cuts was felt, the economy took off like a rocket, rising 4.5 percent in 1983 and 7.2 percent in 1984."
I think you mean GDP took off, half of the rise being due to massive numbers of illegal aliens eating tacos, and half due to consumption based on credit card debt.
Wealth have been declining, however. One shouldn't confuse GDP and wealth.

Luther of IL 6:25PM December 09, 2008

Considering this: http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html
Saul Alinsky would be proud of Rahm Emmanuel....

Darrell of OR 4:41PM December 09, 2008

Which Is It?
Washington has either no understanding of how to encourage economic growth, or no idea of which of their depressive, anti-growth barriers to reduce or remove.
Or perhaps it's just they have no interest in things improving anytime soon.

Greg Toombs of NJ 4:12PM December 09, 2008

Ray of CO: I agree with what you say. I would say, however, that Bush could have done more (in addition to what he did do) to defuse the CRA/Fannie timebomb. But, in the end, he would have been met with the same rabid and vicious reaction that his effort to reform social security was met with. We wouldn't have had a fix, but at least we could have done a proper job of placing blame where it belongs.
I would ask libs - how exactly did Bush initiative "A" lead to the present state we're in?
They seem obsessed with the deficit, which did tick up early in Bush's first term as a result of the Clinton recession. But it actually shrank considerably as economic growth resumed, becoming an ever-smaller percentage of GDP. Was it the deregulation in the financial sector that the Clinton administration enacted? Oh yeah, that's Clinton, not Bush.
I guess just the very act of cutting income taxes is the road to economic ruin. Good grief, what rank economic no-nothingism.

Dean of MN 4:09PM December 09, 2008