Reagan’s budget director David Stockman on why taxes on the wealthy must be increased

I know that I should be writing about TSA pat downs and the new Wikileaks brouhaha tonight, like everyone else with moveable appendages and a blog, but I can’t seem to get with the program. For whatever reason, I feel as though I need to stick with the Bush tax cuts. I know it bores most of you – even those of you that agree with me – to death, but it’s one of those things that I can’t seem to let go of. Maybe it’s the OCD, or maybe it’s just that I’ve watched eight back-to-back episodes of Columbo, but I feel tenacious as hell. So, with that in mind, here’s yet one more post about why I feel as though the Bush tax cuts need to expire… And you’ll notice that I didn’t qualify “Bush tax cuts” by adding “for the wealthiest Americans”, as I have been in previous posts. Maybe it’s that I’ve got a cold, and I’m not thinking straight, but, these past few days, I’ve been of the opinion that we should just let all the Bush tax cuts expire, across the board, including those for the middle class. If that’s what it’ll take to bring the rate on America’s top earners back to the pre-Bush level, then I’m OK with it. If the Republicans want to hold the middle class tax cuts hostage, then I say we call their bluff, and let them have it their way. I’d rather allow all the tax cuts to expire than allow the rich to keep their fucking tax cut, and further the damage that they’ve already done. Anyway, here’s what I wanted to share with you. It’s a video clip from Fareed Zakaria’s Sunday morning program, featuring Reagan’s budget director, David Stockman.

Stockman, for those of you who don’t plan to watch the video, is of the opinion that our Republicans leaders of today, when they invoke lessons of the Reagan administration as a way of defending tax cuts for the rich, don’t really know what they’re talking about. Reagan, in his opinion, never would have suggested that tax cuts alone could eliminate a deficit. Here’s a quote from Stockman, who feels as though we need “a higher tax burden on the upper income”:

“I’ll never forgive the Bush administration and Paulson for basically destroying the last vestige of fiscal responsibility that we had in the Republican Party. After that, I don’t know how we ever make the tough choices.”

He then goes on to say that Reagan’s tax cuts did not, contrary to what the Republicans would have you believe, prove that tax cuts led to increased government revenues. “Reagan proved nothing of the kind,” says Stockman, “and yet that became the mantra and it just led the Republican Party away from its traditional sound money, fiscal restraint.”

Anyway, I just wanted to throw that tidbit out to those of you in the audience who consider yourselves to be “Reagan Republicans.” Hopefully, at least one of you will listen.

Those of you who would like to hear more of what Stockman has to say on the issue of tax policy, can see his recent 60 Minutes appearance here.

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6 Comments

  1. lorie thom
    Posted November 29, 2010 at 9:30 am | Permalink

    ummm…David Stockman is the guy who ran decided that he could run an auto supplier (not unlike Romney’s Bain Capital and the Carlisle Group and Blackstone) suppliers into the ground. His take on the tax cuts for the rich is one I might agree with but his credibility suffers from his disastrous running of Collins and Aikman (so bad it resulted in criminal charges).

  2. Knox
    Posted November 29, 2010 at 9:34 am | Permalink

    Reagan could come crawling out of the grave like Jesus and tell the American people that the rich needed to pay more taxes and it wouldn’t matter at this point.

  3. Meta
    Posted November 29, 2010 at 10:30 am | Permalink

    Republican Congressman Peter King wants Wikileaks to be labeled terrorists and to seize funds and to prosecute all contributors. “This is worse even than a physical attack on Americans, it’s worse than a military attack.”

    http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/11/28/king-wikileaks-cable-release-worse-than-military-attack/

  4. Posted November 29, 2010 at 10:38 am | Permalink

    I’m fine with WikiLeaks posting data online but Assange is a total asshat.

    Where are the dumps of Chinese data? Iran? Perhaps they don’t keep records in electronic format?

  5. Kim
    Posted November 29, 2010 at 10:44 am | Permalink

    Lorie, I hear where you’re coming from on Stockman, but I think, if anything, that just makes it more clear that the Republican party is going into crazy territory. When someone like Stockman says that we need to raise the tax rates, that means something.

  6. lorie thom
    Posted November 29, 2010 at 3:38 pm | Permalink

    Kim – I agree with what he is saying however, he has not credibility in saying it. He ran his companies so badly that he was charged with fraud and handed out undocumented bonuses. He can’t be the messenger on this.

    here is a link for some background (the above board stuff)

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aTcPzjczma.k

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