Blow: GOP Budget is Piracy

Charles M. Blow of The New York Times calls the Republican budget proposal piracy.

Under the guise of deficit reduction, the Republicans are proposing to not only make the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, but to reduce their taxes even more — cutting the top individual rate from 35 percent to 25 percent to “promote growth and job creation.” And they plan to pay for this by taking a buzz saw to programs that benefit the poor, elderly and otherwise vulnerable.

But the spurious argument that cutting taxes for the wealthy will somehow stimulate economic growth is not borne out by the data. A look at the year-over-year change in G.D.P. and changes in the historical top marginal tax rates show no such correlation. This isn’t about balancing budgets or fiscal discipline or prosperity-for-posterity stewardship. This is open piracy for plutocrats. This is about reshaping the government and economy to benefit the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the poor and powerless.

Conservative blogger David Frum recently said "we have a lot of good arguments on our side" in the belief that tax cuts for the wealthy cause economic growth that benefits everyone. I am all ears to those arguments. However, like Blow and Jonathan Chait of The New Republic, I don't see evidence for supply-side theory in recent economic and political history.

It is rare that events so utterly repudiate an economic theory.

--Ballard Burgher