If someone were to tell you that they heard something once someplace, and scribbled a curved line on a napkin, would you risk your family’s safety and security on that quick little offhand doodle? Of course not. But that is exactly what the Voodoo Economics politicians have done to our entire nation.
Supply-Side Economic s (the notion that we should shovel extra money to rich folks in order to create prosperity for all) is a purely theoretical notion, and one with no data or historical basis to support it. This specious doctrine has crashed our economy and resulted in an unprecedented looting of wealth from the American majority: the biggest Reverse-Robin Hood scam ever perpetrated. Somewhere in Hades, the Sheriff of Nottingham is cringing with envy.
The Beltway Banditos have taken this unproven notion and, over the past three decades, behaved as if it were a proven fact. It is not a fact, and never was. It was nothing more than a scribble on a mouth wipe, based upon a few cherry-picked quotes from historical Middle Eastern and European scholars. It had never been tried in isolation and had no long-term track record of success (such success as was attributed in the past has been questioned, to put it mildly). Now that is has been attempted, the idea that cutting taxes for rich folk will lead to overall economic gains has been proven NOT to work.
On a purely personal level, Mr. Blunt and Cranky loves tax cuts. But he is fully aware that from the 40’s through the early 70’s, our nation’s economic and tax policies fueled its most productive expansion ever, in terms of infrastructure, personal liberty, and overall economic and social prosperity. Said expansion started to wane as the supply-siders took over, slowed further, and is deader than a doorknob at present. Hell, we are sliding backwards, watching the achievements of the last century crumble around our ears.
This writer heard Mr. Laffer on the news this morning: in response to criticism, he stated that economists who disagreed with him “spent too much time looking at data”. He also said that data was good, but you had to “interpret” it. Put another way, the fool lives in a dream world, an ivory tower, a think tank; somewhere NOT connected with reality. If the data says your idea is not working, then anyone who has spent any time on Planet Reality will reexamine their idea. But not Mr. Laffer and his mindless Supply-Side Lemming Brigade.
If anybody could provide a real-world example in which this laughable notion had actually worked, maybe we could give it more time. But no one has provided such an example, because Supply Side has never worked for more than a few years. Not once. Not ever. Not in recorded history. It is a pipe dream that has become dogma, and hard though it may be, it is time to stop huffing on the Laffer pipe, expel the Laffing Gas, and return to the common-sense economic policies that have been proven to work throughout history.
Mr. B & C
bluntandcranky 