Distracting from what? IF there was a point to your post, I assume it was that both Democrats and Republicans have been guilty of overspending and accumulating deficits. In support of that point, you provided a list of statistics that made no sense. I wasn’t disputing your point, I was disputing your data, and the meaninglessness of it! The statistics I provided DID make a point. I further provided the data sources and a full explanation of the data and the analytical method used. The analysis showed that during 2000-2012, the lower the tax rates, the higher the total tax receipts. Since you’ve convinced yourself that high taxes are wonderful and result in higher revenues, it appears that nothing factual will change your mind.
Kindly point out where I said that higher taxes were wonderful. However, having said that, it is amazing as to how the economy grew, the middle class grew, etc., when the taxes were at their highest rate. Then as taxes on the wealthy were lowered under Reagan the middle class began to shrink, wages became stagnant, and income inequality grew.
http://www.shmoop.com/reagan-era/economy.html
But the expansion of stockownership to nearly 30% of American households still left more than two-thirds of the country shut out of direct benefits from the great bull market of the Age of Reagan. For the 70% of American households that still lacked any stake at all in the stock market, the Reagan economy was not quite so lustrous as it seemed to those enjoying the fruits of rising equity values. Real wages, which had increased steadily from 1945 to 1972 but then stalled through the stagflation era, remained flat through the 1980s as well. Unemployment declined from the atrocious highs of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but the high-paying blue-collar industrial jobs that had been the mainstay of the midcentury economy continued to disappear. (It's important to note that this process began long before Reagan came into office, however.) In short, the economic outlook for middle- and working-class families who depended on wages for their incomes was somewhat better than it had been during the bleak 1970s, but still significantly worse than it had been during the 1950s and '60s.
The uneven distribution of benefits from the Reagan boom reflected a growing trend toward what has been called the
"financialization" of the American economy. As the financial sector displaced industrial manufacturing as the dominant economic force in American society, the gains from growth came to accrue almost entirely to those with major investments in the market, while individuals dependent solely upon wages and salaries found it harder and harder to get ahead. During Ronald Reagan's presidency, the wealthiest one-fifth of American households (those who naturally owned the most stock) saw their incomes increase by 14%. Meanwhile, the poorest one-fifth (who presumably owned no stock) endured an income decline of 24%, while the incomes of the middle three-fifths of American families stayed more or less flat. This uneven pattern represented a marked departure from the earlier economic expansions of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, which had generated smaller returns for investors but raised income levels across all classes of society.
As to your "chimp" site it was good enough for the monkeys like you I suspect. However, it did not go into great detail as you claim. Nor did it prove anything of what I posted to be in error, or meaningless. As to your claim that record tax receipts were accrued under Bush, well, that is true for only one year:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...llespie-touts-bush-record-taxes-job-creation/
In 2007, tax revenues represented 18.5 percent of GDP. That's high by historical standards but hardly a record. It only ties for 16th place going back to 1934, and within the 14-year stretch between 1996 and 2009 it only rises to 7th place.
So if Gillespie's point is that Bush's tax cuts led to record revenues, they did -- for 2007 at least -- but that was a record aided by a the largest, non-recession economy in American history.
WHAT do you think “Revenues” are, lefty?? Could they be….. TAXES?? If you believe that an analysis of one of the main topics of your post is “irrelevant”, would only a mindless acceptance of your numbers be relevant?
Is there a point where you will actually show the numbers to be in error, or should we just read more of your mindless drivel as usual.
I have to agree with the first sentence above. I don’t think you could be educated. If you want to discuss individual, economic theories, I’m ready when you are. However, unless you can upgrade your education fast, you may not be prepared to support the claims of how/if/why those theories have or have not been successful in actual practice. Theories are fine, but only when they’ve been applied successfully as defined can they be evaluated in a worthwhile way.
NO economic theory has ever been proven to be true, or even feasible. They are great for the intelligentsia to sit around in parlor to act as if they actually know something, however, in reality they are meaningless ideas. Now, if you actually want to discuss one just start the ball rolling. Afterall, YOU are the one who feels he is the "educator".
In general, history has shown that the highest tax rate should be maintained between 25% and 42% depending on the nation’s economic conditions and unemployment. NOW is NOT the time for higher rates! As for tax loopholes, I’m generally opposed to them.
Ahhh, but we are not there now are we, and ones like you think they should be even lower. Then you would argue that closing the loopholes would be to increase the tax rate, and whine that it should not be done.
Oh, you were asleep when you made this post? That explains everything.
Only that you are boring, know little of what you speak of, and in general prove nothing save for the fact that you have an ideological bent that would be impossible for you to discard.