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I actually kind of agreed with the corporate tax cut (as did Obama and many Democrats). I can see how that could stimulate the economy, benefit companies' workers, as well as shareholders and executives, and possibly generate additional tax revenue in the process. It's the cuts to individual rates for people who are already obscenely wealthy that really piss me off. And of course, now that those cuts have ballooned the deficit even more than it already was, suddenly we can't afford social security, medicare, or Medicaid any more.
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This seems sort of borderline thinking with the Laffer curve. Businesses will expand when there is an obvious market. If not, they consolidate their financial position in the marketplace. I'd guess all this buying back of stock was an example of this.
Aside: I hope they go back to doing this after the dip in the market. I'd certainly like to see it go back up.
I think the deficit thing will encourage future inflation. Despite the rhetoric about the "evil" government, it provides necessary services which must be paid for. You noted Social Security, medicare and medicaid. Since they don't have the money, they are borrowing which increases the money in circulation. More money in circulation means that each dollar is worth less. If each dollar is worth less, we have inflation.
I really doubt whether the pirates who currently run Congress have the best interests of the American public in mind. I can't think of anything they are doing to promote the general welfare. I'm sure there is.
I agree with some sort of government medicine. If they could get some kind of a crack in the current marketplace, it would begin a big reform of medicine. Maybe , some sort of government run no profit clinics in the areas where they can't get medical support. If people saw medicine with no insurance BS attached, it would almost certain to expand.
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**Note: this is entirely about the Individual Income tax, NOT the corporate tax side**
The Laffer curve "story" depended on the belief that we are at a tax rate so high that cutting that tax rate would actually increase revenue. There is no evidence that this actually happened, whether with the Reagan tax cuts (1981) or the Bush tax cuts (2001 & 2003). In both of these cases, the large tax cuts were followed by economic growth, but also larger budget deficits.
The Laffer curve "story" is rather something that Plutocrats have used to sell tax cuts to people who really have little to gain from them.