Bob Weiner Debunks White House Myth That Rich Tax Cuts Help Economy In Radio Com

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Bob Weiner, president of a Washington think tank, former Clinton senior White House staff for 6 1/2 years and former Capitol Hill staff for 16 years (for Congressmen John Conyers, Charles Rangel, Claude Pepper, Ed Koch, and Senator Ted Kennedy), made the following invited commentary on WAMU/NPR airing today, Labor Day. The piece was scheduled to air 1:57 PM during The Kojo NnamdiShow.

Here are some Labor Day myths and facts that affect America's workers:

President Bush regularly says he's reduced the deficit to $200 billion, created 8 million jobs, and kept a low 4.5% unemployment. He says the economy is strong due to his tax cut policies.

On the other side, Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, House Appropriations Chair, complains of our limited resources now because of Bush's "gargantuan deficits he created with that stupid war and those stupid tax cuts paid for with our money."

Obey is right. It's not a matter of politics, but it is an urgent matter of policy.

Bush inherited from President Clinton a federal budget surplus expected to total 5 1/2 trillion dollars over 10 years. Bush reversed the surplus into a trillion dollar deficit in just three years because of the Iraq war and his push for permanent tax cuts for the wealthy.

It's a new version of Herbert Hoover's catastrophic "trickle-down" theory.

It's gotten us a loss of 2 million American jobs in his first two years and a net gain of just 6 million in his six years, the worst since - yep -- Hoover. Clinton created 23 million jobs.

It's not rocket science to figure out the difference. Clinton: tax breaks for the middle and lower incomes who actually spend the money, no Iraq war. Bush: 50% of his tax breaks to the wealthiest 1%, 3/4 of a trillion dollars to a war benefiting only military contractors but a financial sieve for the rest of the country.

If we just pump into defense contractors and high-income Americans, we hurt the whole economy.

John Maynard Keynes was right in 1936: When you "prime the pump" into people programs (like jobs or lower income tax cuts to help Americans buy what they need), you get people results. Consumer spending is directly 70% of the economy. On the other hand, when you move money from the economy into tax cuts for the rich and a military vacuum, you don't prime the economic pump; you deplete it.

Misdirected tax cuts, plus the Iraq war, have taken the money from America's workers.

I'm Bob Weiner.

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