Free Republic

In last week's presidential debate, President Obama seemed stunned to learn that the "$5 trillion tax cut" in his talking points, financed by a mythical middle-class tax increase, does not exist in Mitt Romney's economic plan. But now, even after the Obama campaign staff has acknowledged the error, why won't the President? At last Wednesday's debate in Denver, Mr. Romney explained that he doesn't plan to cut taxes by $5 trillion. This is because, while his plan rolls back individual income tax rates by 20% and cuts the corporate rate to 25% from 35%, he also plans to reduce personal...

"Now Governor Romney believes that with even bigger tax cuts for the wealthy, and fewer regulations on Wall Street, all of us will prosper. In other words, he'd double down on the same trickle-down policies that led to the crisis in the first place."--- President Obama in an ad released September 27. This is Obama’s core message. In one way or another, he says it all the time. It's his kicker on the stump. You cannot watch an interview with the president or one of his subalterns without hearing it.And yet, I don't think I've ever heard a TV...

After watching the first debate, I refuse to believe that American voters will choose an encore for Obama's version of "hope and change." Regardless of his new campaign promises, Romney reminded us of Obama's failed trickle-down-government and his string of broken promises. Here are ten reasons that it's time for a change in Washington. 1. He said, "I am pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office." Instead the deficit has increased by over $5.3 trillion and keeps on growing! 2. He said, "Transparency and the rule of law will...

The biggest item with which Team Obama was able to come out swinging following last week's presidential debate (except for something about Mitt Romney being too "aggressive" and possibly trying to cheat on live television) was playing up their hilariously-contrived claim that Mitt Romney's plan for "$5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy must necessarily raise taxes on the middle class or increase the deficit." a claim with which Robert Samuelson took umbrage: To justify its $5 trillion figure — the estimated tax loss over a decade --- the Obama campaign had to cherry-pick Romney's proposal and the TPC...

Dr. Thomas Sowell's "'Trickle Down Theory' and 'Tax Cuts for the Rich'" has just been published by the Hoover Institution. Having read this short paper, the conclusion you must reach is that the term "trickle down theory" is simply a tool of charlatans and political hustlers. Sowell states that "no such theory has been found in even the most voluminous and learned histories of economic theories." That's from a scholar who has published extensively in the history of economic thought. Several years ago, Sowell, in his syndicated column, challenged anyone to name an economist from any economic school of thought...

There's an old joke about a boy who complains to his mother that his little sister keeps pulling his hair. "Oh," responds the mother, "she doesn't know that it hurts." A few minutes later, the mother hears the girl scream and runs into the other room. "She knows now," the boy explains. There's a lesson for Republicans in that old joke, if they're smart enough to absorb it. For the past few years, there has been a drumbeat in favor of increased taxes from Democrats of all stripes. Make the rich pay their "fair share." Get rid of "loopholes." Make...

On August 18, the Washington Post published an editorial calling Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s tax reform plan “garbage”. Citing reports from the (allegedly) non-partisan Tax Policy Center, the Post said that it is not possible to “broaden the (tax) base” sufficiently to pay for Mr. Romney’s proposed tax rate reductions. The critics of the Romney tax plan are missing the point. The only “tax base” that matters is GDP. The Romney tax plan will broaden the tax base by increasing GDP. Whatever it does or does not do to broaden the tax base by “closing loopholes” is a sideshow....

The Congressional Budget Office said failure to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" of expiring tax cuts and automatic spending reductions would cause U.S. gross domestic product to shrink 0.5 percent in 2013. Previously, the non-partisan CBO forecast full-year GDP growth of 0.5 percent. The first half of 2013 will be particularly difficult, the CBO said in its mid-year forecast update. Tax hikes and spending cuts will cause GDP to shrink 2.9 percent in the first half, compared with a prediction in May for a 1.9 percent contraction. There will still be a slight bounceback in the second half of 2013,...

America’s rich are not interested in seeing their taxes go down, United States Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis claimed before a large crowd of college students in Washington DC late last month. “The Republicans in the Senate blocked a vote so we can tax the higher income people, who really don’t even want a tax break,” Solis said, speaking at the annual Campus Progress conference. Solis was referring to a piece of legislation Democrats have repeatedly brought up in the Senate this year that would ensure that income earned through capital gains would be taxed at least 30 percent. So...

Speaker of the House John Boehner has recently touted a list of 88 economists who warn against the expiration of tax cuts on high-income earners. These economists came together from some of the country's top universities, think-tanks and business organizations to write that the expiration of the tax cuts pushed by President Obama "will hurt the economy and must be stopped before it goes into effect." Speaker Boehner also touted a study from Ernst and Young conducted for the National Federation of Independent Businesses that found that allowing tax rates to go up on high-income Americans could destroy up to...

There's an old joke about a boy who complains to his mother that his little sister keeps pulling his hair. "Oh," responds the mother, "she doesn't know that it hurts." A few minutes later, the mother hears the girl scream and runs into the other room. "She knows now," the boy explains. There's a lesson for Republicans in that old joke, if they're smart enough to absorb it. For the past few years, there has been a drumbeat in favor of increased taxes from Democrats of all stripes. Make the rich pay their "fair share." Get rid of "loopholes." Make...

I once heard a saying that there are two things we can all depend on. The first was death and the second was taxes. We are all going to die and we are all going to pay taxes. I want to add a third item to that list. We can also depend on Congress to play the blame game when it comes to issues that are political hot potatoes. Such is the case with the fight over upcoming automatic spending cuts and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. Everywhere I turn, there seems to be a story about the...

MANSFIELD, Ohio (AP) — President Barack Obama says Republican Mitt Romney's economic plan would give tax cuts to the richest people in America at the expense of popular tax breaks for most everyone else. On a campaign trip in Ohio, Obama said Wednesday that Romney's tax proposal would force many people to give up popular tax deductions that allow them to buy a house, afford health care and send their kids to college. Obama pointed to a new report that concluded Romney's economic plan would shift the tax burden from wealthy taxpayers to low- and middle-class taxpayers.

"Republicans in Congress and their nominee for President believe that the best way to create prosperity in America is to let it trickle down from the top. They believe that if our country spends trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthy ...." - Barak Hussein Obama July 28, 2012 Tax cuts are not spending unless you believe it's the governmnets' money in the first place.

A key attack line in President Obama's campaign stump speech these days is to claim that the country has tried Mitt Romney's economic policies already, and they were a dismal failure. Romney, he says, wants to do two things: Cut taxes for the rich and massively deregulate the economy. "The truth is," Obama says, "we tried (that) for almost a decade, and it didn't work." Bush-era tax cuts and deregulation, he argues "resulted in the most sluggish job growth in decades" along with "rising inequality, surpluses turned into deficits, culminating in the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes." There's just...

CBS Host Laughs At Paul Ryan After She Fails To Distinguish Between Tax Cuts And Tax Hikes (video at link)

Young Americans love tax cuts--even for the wildly successful. A new McClatchy-Marist poll revealed 69 percent of young people (ages 18-29) favor tax cuts for all Americans, while only 29 percent oppose. The wealth redistribution and "fairness" rhetoric coming from both academia and the Obama administration seems to be failing. Young Americans like financial and personal freedom. And, maybe they like jobs too. Private sector businesses--not the federal government--employ young people, and every government spending stimulus has led to economic stagnation for America's youth. In contrast, the Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush tax cuts led to nearly immediate job growth for...

What should Congress do about the expiring Bush-era tax rates? Let them expire. We need to get our deficit under control Extend them for one year, for those making under $250,000 Extend them all permanently Extend them for one year, for those making under $1 million Extend them all for one year

This afternoon, President Barack Obama gave a speech affirming his support for extending some of the 2001 and 2003 temporary federal tax cuts, which are often grouped together and referred to as the “Bush tax cuts.” It was a bluntly political speech made for the sole purpose of making headlines tomorrow along the lines of “President Obama Supports Tax Cuts.” I’ve written before about the so-called “Bush tax cuts,” so if you want to know my opinion about whether or not they should be extended, look here. For the purposes of this post, I’m going to ignore the political and...

President Barack Obama will call on Monday for a one-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for families earning less than $250,000 a year, according to a White House official, seeking to spare the economy the impact of taxes going up on January 1. Obama, a Democrat, will make the request in a statement at the White House, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Republicans in Congress, however, are unlikely to be swayed, as they have consistently argued that the Bush tax cuts should be extended for everyone.