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What always strikes me about the Left when they talk about issues like economics is how incredibly colorblind they are. They are content to regurgitate talking points they read on Leftist websites, despite what must be a painful cognitive dissonance. Read on:
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What is so striking about our current political atmosphere is the utter denial by True Believers of the failure of the Voodoo economics of the Conservative Movement of the last 35 years. (Let's note for the record that Reagan left office 25 years ago, and we have had both Republicans and Democrats as president since then. "Voodoo economics," aka "trickledown," has not been in operation since then, if it ever really was.
What is so striking about our current political atmosphere is the utter denial by True Believers of the failure of the Voodoo economics of the Conservative Movement of the last 35 years. (Let's note for the record that Reagan left office 25 years ago, and we have had both Republicans and Democrats as president since then. "Voodoo economics," aka "trickledown," has not been in operation since then, if it ever really was.
But more importantly, with the exception of 1995-1998 and 2001-2007, Democrats have been in control of Congress, and frequently with a Democrat president. It is Congress that has sole constitutional authority to appropriate and spend taxpayer dollars. So let's affix blame were it belongs. Leftist fiscal policies have continued unabated for decades, with only mild mitigation for brief periods. The big spenders, mostly Democrat, but with a number of complicit RINOs, have led this country to its financial devastation.)
In its worst manifestation, the recent Great Recession, Americans lost around 40 percent of their worth, but salaries have not even kept up with inflation for decades, and the poor have grown in number. The benefits of American labor have gone, instead, to the stratosphere “of the truly deserving.”
The “New Deal” policies of the Roosevelt years from which citizens benefited from the 1930s-1970s began to be eroded with the economic changes begun in the Reagan years and which were dramatically expanded with the Bush tax cuts. (Again, note the complete cluelessness. Apparently unaware of the Great Depression and FDR's utter failure to mitigate it, Ms. Brown proceeds to lionize the very programs which have led to our current financial devastation. The New Deal programs have resulted in the destruction of the prosperity of our country, and the latest "Great Recession" was caused by and exacerbated due to the continuation of that same failed economic philosophy which governed FDR's thinking.)
The “New Deal” policies of the Roosevelt years from which citizens benefited from the 1930s-1970s began to be eroded with the economic changes begun in the Reagan years and which were dramatically expanded with the Bush tax cuts. (Again, note the complete cluelessness. Apparently unaware of the Great Depression and FDR's utter failure to mitigate it, Ms. Brown proceeds to lionize the very programs which have led to our current financial devastation. The New Deal programs have resulted in the destruction of the prosperity of our country, and the latest "Great Recession" was caused by and exacerbated due to the continuation of that same failed economic philosophy which governed FDR's thinking.)
By 1) lowering the taxes on dividends; 2) and weakening government oversight; and 3) starving public services while trying to shift such services into the private ownership sphere (the U.S. mail service is one shining example), Bush policies have consistently undercut government by and for the people, making government the enemy of the good, not the inordinately greedy. (So much folly here. First, government has not suffered for lack of revenue. With the exception of little blips downward here and there, the inexorable trend of revenue is up, up, up. Yes, even during the Bush years. We should also note that increasing taxes has never lowered the national debt, so more taxation never, ever, solves anything.
Second, government oversight and intervention has been increasing geometrically over the decades, yet has failed to ameliorate any financial downturns. A plethora of laws, regulations, and government oversight agencies installed after the Great Depression, with more added regularly, did not stop the 14 subsequent recessions from happening.
Third, No public services have been starved, period. Every department every year gets an increase in budget. This is known as baseline budgeting. Unless Ms. Brown can produce a single government social agency that has a budget lower than the previous year in any year in the past 30. One will do. In which case, I will happily retract my statement.
The USPS is spectacularly bad choice for her example. The USPS has been self-funded by law since 1971, and has at times ran a surplus, most recently 2004-2006. Its operations, with the exception of its pension fund, is off budget. Yet the USPS can borrow up to $3 billion per year from the treasury.
Revenue has declined for a variety of reasons. One, email and the internet has begun to render the USPS obsolete. Two, in 2006, the government required the USPS to actually fund its pension system. Three, competition from companies like Fed Ex has demonstrated that private business performs better.
So, "Bush policies" had no impact on the self-funded USPS.
I have a question, though. How did "Bush policies" start with Reagan?)
And how about those endless wars and Republican cronyism (Halliburton, anyone?) So good for the market. With Republican and Republicrat legislators having agreed to lower taxes (particularly on the wealthy) while at war — the last decade has been economic manna for the economic elite, although not those who were called to fight and die. (*Sigh* It's so easy to spout bumper sticker slogans, but much harder to refute them. Ms. Brown tosses out a bunch of talking points as if they were self-evident truth, but offers exactly zero evidence, analysis, or substantive discussion of the issues she raises. Because of her ideological tunnel vision, Ms. Brown cannot see anything but Republicans, despite billions, if not trillions, given to green industries and Democrat-sympathetic businesses like Microsoft, Goldman-Saks, and Berkshire Hathaway. Democrats also voted to authorize the wars, and the continuation of the wars under Obama and the starting of new ones. And the fact is, the "economic manna for the economic elite" has increased profoundly under Obama.)
The Conservatives seem incapable of connecting the dots between their policies and the debt that so horrifies them. (Back at 'cha, baby. But note the conversation has switched from the eeevil Republicans to conservatives. Apparently Ms. Brown is unaware that there is no "conservative" party, that conservative ideas have not held sway in government for decades, and, as noted above, it is leftist economics that have largely governed the country since FDR.
So, "Bush policies" had no impact on the self-funded USPS.
I have a question, though. How did "Bush policies" start with Reagan?)
And how about those endless wars and Republican cronyism (Halliburton, anyone?) So good for the market. With Republican and Republicrat legislators having agreed to lower taxes (particularly on the wealthy) while at war — the last decade has been economic manna for the economic elite, although not those who were called to fight and die. (*Sigh* It's so easy to spout bumper sticker slogans, but much harder to refute them. Ms. Brown tosses out a bunch of talking points as if they were self-evident truth, but offers exactly zero evidence, analysis, or substantive discussion of the issues she raises. Because of her ideological tunnel vision, Ms. Brown cannot see anything but Republicans, despite billions, if not trillions, given to green industries and Democrat-sympathetic businesses like Microsoft, Goldman-Saks, and Berkshire Hathaway. Democrats also voted to authorize the wars, and the continuation of the wars under Obama and the starting of new ones. And the fact is, the "economic manna for the economic elite" has increased profoundly under Obama.)
The Conservatives seem incapable of connecting the dots between their policies and the debt that so horrifies them. (Back at 'cha, baby. But note the conversation has switched from the eeevil Republicans to conservatives. Apparently Ms. Brown is unaware that there is no "conservative" party, that conservative ideas have not held sway in government for decades, and, as noted above, it is leftist economics that have largely governed the country since FDR.
And we should also note that the debt horrifies more than just conservatives. But conservatives have no power, they don't have the numbers, they cannot do anything about the debt or the economy so long as Leftists and big government Republicans control the budget.) As a country, we are paying a staggering price in deteriorating infrastructure, weakening services, climate change disasters, and stressed citizens, for their denial. (Huge cognitive dissonance here. Ms. Brown decries the national debt but wants to spend more money?)
In reality, corporations are legal figments, not people. In reality, we tax ourselves to benefit each other and the nation. That is, if we are a true democracy. (No, "we" don't tax each other. Government taxes us, and it taxes us to redistribute wealth from those who earned it to those who did not. However, the purpose of taxation is to fund the necessary duties of government as required by the Constitution, not to "benefit each other." It isn't possible, logically, constitutionally or morally, to use taxation for us to benefit each other.)
Alanna K. Brown
Bozeman
In reality, corporations are legal figments, not people. In reality, we tax ourselves to benefit each other and the nation. That is, if we are a true democracy. (No, "we" don't tax each other. Government taxes us, and it taxes us to redistribute wealth from those who earned it to those who did not. However, the purpose of taxation is to fund the necessary duties of government as required by the Constitution, not to "benefit each other." It isn't possible, logically, constitutionally or morally, to use taxation for us to benefit each other.)
Alanna K. Brown
Bozeman
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