Wednesday, July 11, 2018

The "trickle-down" putdown is bogus

In 1921, when the tax rate on people making over $100,000 a year was 73 percent, the federal government collected a little over $700 million in income taxes, of which 30 percent was paid by those making over $100,000.
By 1929, after a series of tax rate reductions had cut the tax rate to 24 percent on those making over $100,000, the federal government collected more than a billion dollars in income taxes, of which 65 percent was collected from those making over $100,000.
This disturbed big-government liberals who loved raising taxes. They began mocking the idea of cutting taxes as "trickle-down economics," meaning that tax relief for the wealthy who pay taxes was supposed to trickle down to the less wealthy.
It made no sense, and no one proposing tax relief ever made such a claim, but liberals adopted it and have repeated it ever since, in the mindless way they repeat nonsense that appeals to unthinking people.
They tried it when Ronald Reagan got Congress to reduce tax levels in the 1980s. It had the same effect then, just as it had when the Democrats cut taxes under Johnson, fulfilling a proposal by the late President Kennedy.
When people are allowed to keep more of their own money they don't stuff it under the mattress. They invest it, which creates jobs and wealth. Everyone benefits.
Liberals would spend every dime you earn if you let them, because they fancy that they know better than you how best to use the money.