Voodoo Economics Are Partially Rolled Back
by Thom Hartmann
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has announced that the Obama administration will let tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire on Jan. 1, despite calls from a small group of mostly millionaire conservadem politicians.
Mr. Geithner said it's part of the effort to bring down the mounting deficit, although the White House does plan to extend tax cuts for middle- and lower-income Americans. With the exception of two world wars, for more than 200 years the debt of the United States rarely and only briefly surpassed what would be one trillion dollars in today's dollars.
That long American history of fiscal sanity came to a screeching end when Ronald Reagan was elected and dropped the top income tax rate on millionaires and billionaires from 74 percent down to less than 30 percent. The result was an explosive tripling of the national debt to nearly three trillion dollars during Reagan's term.
George H.W. Bush, afraid to raise taxes, added another trillion or so, and George W. Bush - fully embracing Reagan's voodoo economics - added almost another five trillion to the debt.
While letting tax rates rise back to Clinton era levels is a good start that will probably somewhat reduce our annual budget deficit, the real solution is to end the 30 years of voodoo economics insanity by rolling back the Reagan tax cuts.
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