Following his big win in Tuesday’s midterm elections, Senator-elect Rand Paul explained his economic philosophy in about 30 seconds during a CNN interview, claiming he wants to shield the wealthiest Americans from paying higher taxes – in the name of protecting the working class. "I would say that [Democrats] must be in favor of a second American depression, because if you raise taxes to that consequence, that’s what will happen in this country," Paul told CNN host Wolf Blitzer.
"What if they just raised taxes on the richest, those making more than 250,000 dollars a year?" Blitzer asked. "Well, the thing is, we’re all interconnected. There are no rich. There are no middle class. There are no poor," Paul explained. "You remember a few years ago, when they tried to tax the yachts, that didn’t work." "You know who lost their jobs?" he continued. "The people making the boats, the guys making 50,000 and 60,000 dollars a year lost their jobs. We all either work for rich people or we sell stuff to rich people. So just punishing rich people is as bad for the economy as punishing anyone. Let’s not punish anyone. Let’s keep taxes low and let’s cut spending"…
WEALTH INEQUITY
Essentially, Bush lowered the tax by about 4% for the upper income brackets [>$250,000/yr]. Which immediately sent us into deficit spending, even before our misbegotten wars. It was a repeat of the initial Reagan tax cuts. The cuts were made without any adjustment in spending. In fact, in both cases [Reagan/BushI, BushII], spending actually increased. I frankly find it hard to understand why people don’t know that, just like I find it hard to believe that people didn’t notice that the wealth never did "trickle down." If it trickled, it trickled uphill [money has a way of doing that].And as for the ontogeny of our current debt, it’s fairly clear how it can be partitioned:
There are no secrets here. Here’s another version:
And like the Republicans before him, Rand Paul and his cohorts are suggesting that the solution is to cut spending, something they’ve actually never done:
Even if you eliminate military spending:
So, it’s simply a lie. There are rich. The deficits aren’t from wild Democrat spending. The Republicans don’t cut spending. There’s no rational reason for their policies. And it actually hurts the people who elect them. It’s not Socialism or Communism that pushes us to want a balanced budget, it’s common sense. Their next attack will come in saying that it’s those "entitlement programs" like Medicare, Social Security, and now Healthcare that cause the problem. While that will be the subject of future posts, that’s not true either.
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