By way of marking today’s 10th anniversary of George W. Bush’s job-killing, society-crushing tax cuts for the rich — which we recently illustrated via one very clear chart, as the largest factor, by far, in exacerbating our current public debt –here, courtesy of Think Progress, is just a few of the things this country could have had for the same 10-year price tag as those tax cuts for rich people who didn’t need them…
– Give 49.2 Million People Access To Low-Income Healthcare Every Year For Ten Years
– Provide 43.1 Million Students With Pell Grants Worth $5,500 Every Year For Ten Years
– Provide 31.5 Million Head Start Slots For Children Every Year For Ten Years
– Provide VA Care For 30.7 Million Military Veterans Every Year For Ten Years
– Provide 30.4 Million Scholarships For University Students Every Year For Ten Years
– Hire 4.19 Million Firefighters Every Year For Ten Years
– Hire 3.67 Million Elementary School Teachers Every Year For Ten Years
– Hire 3.6 Million Police Officers Every Year For Ten Years
– Retrofit 144.6 Million Households For Wind Power Every Year For Ten Years
– Retrofit 54.2 Million Households For Solar Photovoltaic Energy Every Year For Ten Years
Well, that all might have been nice for all Americans.
So how are the current crop of GOP contenders for the 2012 Presidential nomination responding? Here is former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s economic plan, as outlined in a speech today, which promises to triple the size of the existing Bush tax cuts…
Courtesy, once again, of Think Progress, Pawlenty called today for [emphasis theirs]:
““ Cutting the top individual income tax rate down to 25 percent;
““ Having just two income tax brackets, 10 percent and 25 percent;
““ Eliminating all taxation on capital gains, dividends, and estates;
““ Cutting the corporate tax rate down to 15 percent
These proposals, taken together would bestow a massive tax cut on the wealthiest people in the country. They would also reduce overall federal revenues to a such a low level that even if Pawlenty’s draconian, radical spending targets were achieved, deficits and debt would still soar out of control.
All together, Pawlenty’s tax proposal would generate an average revenue level of just 13.6 percent of GDP from 2013-2021. That translates to a tax cut of $7.8 trillion, and that’s on top of $2.5 trillion cost of extending all of the Bush tax cuts (see below for details on how this estimate was calculated).
Pawlenty also says that he will balance the budget, and cap spending at 18 percent of GDP. Unfortunately for Pawlenty, his tax plan leaves him about $8.4 trillion short. Given that reality, he can either embrace a huge middle-class tax increase, or give up his claims to a balanced budget. If he doesn’t make up that revenue, deficits and debt will skyrocket, even if he does slash spending back to levels not seen in half a century.
Click here to see how the Center for American Progress’ Director of Tax and Budget Policy, Michael Linden, arrived at those numbers.
And, since you’ve read this far, in more “celebration” of the 10th anniversary of Bush’s tax cuts, here’s that chart again, as originally published by TPM, detailing the specific causes for our current federal debt…
Serfs !
Sorry pal but its not your money to begin with so no you couldnt do that.
The crushing tax cuts were for everybody, not for the rich.
Did it ever occur to AngryMan9000 that we are all in this together and that everywhere, but the greed-is-good, I’ve got mine, to Hell with anyone else USA, people look at taxes as a form of co-responsibility?
The same billionaires who complain about having to pay any taxes (“not your money”) are often the same one who’ve bathed in public subsidies or make their exorbitant living from the public funds that flow into the military-industrial complex.
WingNutSteve @3 gets it wrong, again! 40% of the 2001 Bush tax cuts went to those earning more than $500,000/yr. Under the Bush tax cuts, the wealthiest 120,000 Americans receive, on average, $3 million each in tax cuts.
The society that the American hard-right has created is, for the vast majority of its citizens, the harshest of any industrial “democracy.” It has the greatest gap between rich and poor; has an horrific health care system where 45,000 citizens are condemned to die annually simply because they can’t afford health insurance. In every other industrial society, health care is a right!
The Plutocrat Party (aka the GOP) places the wealth of the privileged few above health, education, safety, a sustainable economy and even a livable planet, which is why they willingly deny global climate change. It is a vice-into-virtue philosophy which finds its embodiment in AngryMan9000’s “it’s not your money to begin with” remark.
Since the tax cuts were for the rich, and not for everybody, where did the other 60% go? And why do the Democrats want to preserve the Bush tax cuts for the middle class if they were only for the rich?
Ernie @4,
“or make their exorbitant living from the public funds that flow into the military-industrial complex”
I know, ain’t that a bitch!
U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 08 Jun 2011 at 06:02:29 AM GMT is:
$ 1 4 , 3 4 9 , 9 4 7 , 9 4 3 , 6 9 9 . 9 0
The estimated population of the United States is 310,713,594
so each citizen’s share of this debt is $46,183.84.
The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$3.96 billion per day since September 28, 2007!
I remember in 2001-ish when my wife and I both got our $300 check. Ain’t life grand, we thought.
Ten years later, being that we are both public school teachers, we are now having our salaries cut by 1.9%…which is more per month than that refund check. And of course, that salary cut will not be made up at any point in the future. So that $600 total is going to cost us, over the course of the next 20 years, at least $100 grand (plus interest.) Why, that’s probably college tuition (now anyway) for both of my kids.
Well, it’s clear that I was making too much anyway, what with my weekends and summers off. I feel badly for the 35 teachers in my district who were handed pink slips because of their low-end years of service, fresh out of college with student loans, 17 of which were directly out of the badly needed early education K-3 classes. I teach high school math, and I can tell you for certain that if kids don’t get a good start in math at that early age, it is very difficult to make up the difference.
But you get what you pay for.
Semper avarum eget.
Wow, SR. As the child of two public school teachers, your post makes me SO sad. I’m so very very sorry. Wish someone, *anyone* would listen to you…
(oh, and my mother – a lifelong, avid democrat, will never ever forgive Obama for this hooey.)