Mr. Sowell Please!

So I am reading an article by Thomas Sowell, conservative think-tank scholar and pundit.

He is trying to make the case, yet again, that tax cuts stimulate the economy.  He also is making the case that liberal tax increases harm the economy.

Moreover,  included in his narrative is   reinstating tax cuts,  that were intended to stimulate the economy is regressive,  that all tax revenue is somehow bad for economic growth and vitality.

Amazingly he uses Calvin Coolidge and John F. Kennedy in the same paragraph as examples of lowering taxes to spread prosperity for all.

Is he kidding?  Has he looked at the historical context at all?  In the late 20s, Coolidge completed the “guilded age” massacre of the economy.   Basically the government stayed out of financial matters, no regulation at all was the watchword.  So, the economy merrily continued on, concentrating wealth in the hands of the few, running a Wall Street that became a flash in the pan casino.

Then Oct 1929 hit, and it all fell down. 

Buying stocks on margin, investing the difference, then selling to make money sounds a lot like “flipping houses” in the 2000s;  buying a house on margin, taking out an equity loan, fixing up the house a bit, selling it at a huge profit, paying off the loan with a profit, and then buying two or three more. 

Then 2007 hit and it all fell down.

.

And what fueled that massive speculation?  Tax cuts! 

And, while the revenue for the federal government took a speculative holiday, two wars were started and President Bush spent money like there was no tomorrow.

So, Mr. Sowell, where is there ANY proof that tax cuts stimulate the economy.  All they do is increase rich people’s bank accounts, harm job growth, and create deficits that cut programs that are needed because the ecnonomy has been wrecked by speculation caused by tax cuts.

The United States has the largest defense budget in the world by many times over.  We are spending money like there is no tomorrow, in the “War on Terror” and previously on the “Cold War”.   That is where most of the money goes, so we don’t have the resources to have a decent universal health plan (like all othe other nations in the world have).

That, Mr.Sowell, is where your cut tax madness has led us.