I think they're lying. And I think they know it.
 

This article is old, but I believe still relevant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/bu...view.html?_r=1

The crux of it is that, at least in December 2005, we're on the low end of the Laffer curve and that lowering taxes any more will only lower revenue. Every member of Congress surely knows this and yet I've not heard a single one mention it. Not only that, I've heard a hoard of them (all with the same letter after their name) scream that taxes are too high. Indeed there is a movement by citizens to drive taxes even lower and thus bankrupt our country.

Okay, the rank and file at the Teabagger Convention probably doesn't know. They just don't like taxes. But the folks organizing these things do know. And they're lying. Telling people what they want to hear in exchange for votes, even though they know it is running the country into the ground.

Just my thoughts.

Ed

By the way- I don't like taxes either. But I love America. As they say, freedom isn't free.

The Rs have an issue that they can run on 'til the cows come home, just like abortion, and the Ds are too chickenshit to risk losing the votes of people who don't vote for them anyway.

In that lost 8 minutes of mine which you were wise enough not to watch a lady waiting at Palin's book signing said that Palin would "Clean up the spending, stop the spending."

When asked what were some examples of spending she'd like to see stopped, she said, "All of it. All of it."

Brilliant.

John

I've asked the same question here over and over. Nothing.

Ironically, that woman's answer is the same as Palin's answer to what she reads.

Sounds about right.

Dave

Sarah sure did not mind spending the lower 48's taxes on that road to nowhere. Nor did she object to getting more back from the feds than they paid in.

You could always move to the Western European Socialist country of your choosing and pay @29% in national income tax and an additional VAT of 20%. That is of course after you pay property taxes where they apply and then put gas in your Hybrid at $5-6 per gallon equivalent.

Or... Just hang around for a spell. Pelosi is working on that as we speak. Your wish is just a few bills away.

RC

Huh. Don't recall wishing for anything other than what's best for America. Reagan told me the Laugher curve was the be-all-end-all and we should shift our entire economic model because of it. Okay, I'm game Ronnie. What I do object to is people knowingly lying. We started this whole "lower taxes" deal with the idea that it would raise more money for the government and get us out of debt. Well, do we still want to do that or not? Is the Lafer curve wrong now if it says we need to raise taxes becuase that's what's best for America? Are we too greedy to do that? Just give me mine and to Hell with America? Just lower taxes and the concequences be damned?

Lowering taxes didn't work. If we care about America, it's time to stop digging. Raise taxes. Pay the bills.

Extra credit- find the Clinton administration on the chart above.

"Love it or leave it" is alive and well here I see. You know, if you Righties would open your eyes you'd see that some other countries have some things worth emulating.

You might also do well to remember what that "Good Ol' Yankee Ingenuity" actually was, (emphasis on "was"). It was the ability to take what was best from any source and craft a unique solution that was better than any of its predecessors. We don't do that any more. We're so besotted by the notion of "American Exceptionalism" that we believe there's no better way to do anything other than the "way we've always done it".

I wish we would take a few pages from the way some European countries handle the social contract but nothing has transpired to give me any hope of that. All you have to do is look at the pig's breakfast that's likely to be foisted on us as "Health Care Reform" to see just how far from a social democracy we are and how close to a corporatocracy.

John

Let's see, the exponential growth in the national debt began in the Reagan years, continued during the Bush Sr. years, leveled out during the Clinton years, and accelerated to rocket speed during the Dub years. So all these years that the GOP has tried to label the Democrats as tax and spend, it was really a compliment. The Democrats paid for what they bought; the GOP spent more, but they put it on a credit card. Which one of those paths is fiscally responsible?

Not only did the Dub administration spend outlandishly on an unnecessary war, they took the resources away from a more justifiable war in Afghanistan, at a time when we were close to getting Osama Bin Laden, which means it will cost this administration considerably more to finish the job there. And now the GOP is going to do everything it can to keep the current administration from cleaning up the mess.

They must be wearing asbestos underwear, because their pants are on fire.

Regards,

D-Ray