Electoral Fortune 7/14/2010

By Mr. Lucky

So recently two high ranking Republicans have made some very disturbing comments about the economy that have me very worried about the state of the nation overall going forward. The first was Arizona’s Senator Jon Kyl who said that he supported extending the Bush tax cuts that expanded the deficit in order to cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans. He said that he is fine with tax expenditures for the rich that will expand the deficit but he opposes unemployment benefits because they will expand the deficit. He seems to only advocate for positions that increase income inequality in America. His position is based on helping a select group of people and no one else.

The next was Minority leader Mitch McConnell who claimed that the Bush tax expenditures on the wealthiest Americans did not increase the deficits. He used the same logic that Reagan used during the eighties that decreased taxes would not effect the budget because of increased GDP growth from the lower taxes. The historical record shows his thinking to be false; the deficits under Reagan and the second Bush administrations were huge despite the economic voodoo they used to justify their acts.

The reasons this concerns me is that it is very troubling that one of the two major parties on America are either completely uninformed on economic matters or the more cynical version, they knowing choose to advocate for an economic position they know is false for political gain. Either way this country is in enormous danger if people like these two are writing policy because they do not work based on facts or the best interested of the people.