Eric Cantor’s deception on the budget talks

[Elmore Furth]

FDR brought the country out of the depression by massive tax increases during WWII. Hasn't Cantor read the economic history?

The conservative fairy tale is that the good fairy will be bestow jobs to the peasants when the tax burden on the rich is lifted.

And frogs won't hit their asses every time they hop when the conservative fairy brings peace to the world.

A "report" from Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee says that the path to job creation is cutting ... the very things that create jobs. This is like saying that cutting taxes increases revenue. We know how that worked out, and the job-consequences of budget cuts are going to be just as disastrous.

Sometimes you can cut through ideology by looking at what actually happens in the real world. Reagan cut taxes: huge deficits resulted. Clinton raised taxes, the deficits went away. Bush cut taxes, we went back to huge deficits. And you can see the same thing when you look at government spending and jobs. England and Greece are trying austerity, and their economies are sinking as a result. In 1937 the United States learned this lesson, succumbing to deficit cutting which choked off the recovery from the depression. On the other hand, the "stimulus" boosted the economy, held off a depression and created millions of jobs.


Tax Cuts: Myths and Realities

Okay, kids, let’s review the Republican fiscal position as of today. Eric Cantor has walked out of Joe Biden’s budget talks because Democrats are insisting that tax hikes be part of any debt-ceiling deal. But Cantor and his entire party have already voted for the Ryan budget plan, a plan that does not include any tax hikes and which as a result (despite its controversial spending cuts) still racks up $5.4 trillion in fresh debt over the next decade.

Before Thursday it would have been hard to find a purer example of political posturing and hypocrisy than Republican support for a plan that adds $5.4 trillion to the debt even as Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling. But that phoniness factor has just been increased by Cantor’s huff.

For the umpteenth time, let me say it: President Obama should insist that both sides increase the debt limit only by the amount it would take to accommodate the Ryan budget’s debt over the next decade — and then say we can work out the details later. If the president came before a microphone and uttered these few lines it would change the entire news coverage, and thus the dynamics, of this negotiation overnight. With Cantor pulling stunts like this one, isn’t it time the White House did something creative?


Eric Cantor’s deception on the budget talks

[The Magistrate]

1. That, Sir, is One Cold Suggestion Mr. Miller Makes....