Reply from Congressman Emanuel Cleaver concerning OrphanWorksActof 2008

[Leo Mauler]

--- On Wed, 8/13/08, Jim Herrmann <kclug at itdepends.com> wrote:

> Plus, Jon, the economics you are espousing is supply 
> side, aka trickle down, aka voodoo economics.  That's 
> been proven, twice now, that it doesn't work. Raising 
> the taxes on the people who have more money than
> anyone needs does not hurt the macro economy.  Cutting 
> taxes on the wealthy just let's them be richer.  It 
> doesn't generate more GDP.  Putting more of the rich 
> people's money in the hands of the poor and middle 
> class generate GDP, and thus jobs.

Exactly.  A poor person given another 1% of a $10,000 income as EITC will likely immediately have to spend that $100 in the local economy, boosting GDP and trickling up through the economy.

A rich person making $300,000 a year and given a 1% tax cut, will put the $3,000 where it earns the most investment, and if that is in a German factory or a Chinese labor camp, then so be it, and the money leaves the U.S. Economy, possibly never to return.

If the GOP's "supply side", "trickle-down" tax cuts were working so well and the economy was so fantastic, why did anyone in government think the Extra Tax Rebate Program (essentially an extra EITC, but for the middle class too) was necessary?  Handing out more money *directly* to the poor, without filtering it through the rich first?  Isn't that against everything a supply-sider stands for?

If Bush thought the tax cuts would work, he would have vetoed the Extra Tax Rebate.

> Supply side economics is about to die, at least for 
> awhile, thank goodness.  The second gilded age is 
> about to come to an end.