The Bush Tax Cut, Part I: How Stupid does Bush Think We Are?

Well, it's official: Republicans can do two things well. 1) They can cut taxes (for the Rich) and 2) kill people (those accused of crimes who can't afford a good attorney, and anybody within 200 miles of a foreign leader who scares them). After all, what else is there that we would want government to do? Help people who actually need the government's help? Insure the uninsured? Educate the uneducated? Employ the unemployed? Nope. With republicans, it's either 1) or 2). Having done 1) right after taking office, and having spent the last year and a half doing 2), it looks like George W. Bush is back to 1).

Tax cuts for the Rich? AGAIN? Didn' t Bush do this once? Didn't this moron already piss away 1.3 trillion tax dollars cutting taxes for his rich campaign contributors, without creating a single job? You bet he did. Don't believe me? Let's go to the numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Unemployment Rates:	Under Clinton: 2000	Under Bush: 2001	Difference:
January:	4.5%	4.7%	+0.2%
February:	4.4%	4.6%	+0.2%
March:	4.3%	4.5%	+0.2%
April:	3.7%	4.2%	+0.5%
May:	3.8%	4.1%	+0.3%
(Bush signs the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, June 7)
June:	4.1%	4.7%	+0.6%
July:	4.2%	4.7%	+0.5%
August:	4.1%	4.9%	+0.8%

Notice two things here: First of all the Bush boys like to blame September 11 for the sad state of the economy, so I didn't include anything past August. Second, after Bush cut taxes for his rich friends, unemployment actually increased over the previous year. Let me repeat that for the bone-headed supply-siders out there: UNEMPLOYMENT INCREASED AFTER BUSH'S 2001 TAX CUT! And not just in when compared to the numbers from the year before, either. As you can see from the third column, the "unemployment spread" between Clinton and Bush increased after the tax cut. You heard right: American corporations were so sure that the Bush's tax giveaway to the rich wouldn't help the economy that they actually accelerated their layoffs after it passed.

If this isn't proof enough for you, check out a similar data presentation of the Federal Reserve's attempt to prop up the Bush administration's lame brain tax policy with interest rate cuts:

Federal Funds Rate:	Under Clinton: 2000	Under Bush: 2001	Difference:
January:	5.0%	5.5%	+0.5%
February:	5.25%	5.0%	-0.25%
March:	5.5%	4.5%	-1.0%
April:	5.5%	4%	-1.5%
May:	6.0%	3.5%	-2.5%
(Bush signs the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, June 7)
June:	6.0%	3.5%	-2.5%
July:	6.0%	3.25%	-2.75%
August:	6.0%	3.0%	-3.0%

Again, note that any effect that September 11 may have had on the economy has been removed here. Yet even under the weight of Alan Greenspan's higher interest rates, the Clinton unemployment numbers were better than Bush's. If Greenspan was so sure that Bush's enormous tax cut would fix the economy, why would he continue aggressively cutting interest rates even after the tax cut passed? I would argue that it's because Greenspan knew the tax cut wouldn't do a damn thing for the economy. Even with the tax cut in place and interest rates 2.5 to 3 points below those of the previous year, the nation continued to lose jobs. Supply-siders wind up looking like idiots and taxpayers are stuck with a $1.3 trillion tab. Bush, on the other hand, looks like exactly what he is: A politician who puts paying off his campaign contributors ahead of the health of the nation. He couldn't have cared less about the effect of the 2001 tax cut on the economy. His only concern was to ensure that the Super-Rich, who invested in Bush like a stock in the 2000 campaign, got a giant return on their investment. Boy, did they ever.

So, why didn't the tax cut work? Aren't tax cuts supposed to create jobs? To answer this question, we need to examine a more basic question: Why do investors put money in the market? To create jobs? Hell, no! These folks get up in the morning trying to figure out ways to cut jobs and still get the cows milked. They invest in the market (are you reading this, Dubya) to make money. What follows from this carefully guarded investment secret is this: You can give investors a mountain of extra cash, and they won't invest one dime of it until they are pretty sure they'll make a return on their investment. Without some positive economic sign to point to, investors will take their giant pile of cash from a tax cut and . . . wait until the economy improves. In automotive terms this tax cut strategy makes as much sense as filling the gas tank to overflowing in an attempt to fix a car with a bad fuel pump.

And in case you think that our country can actually afford to cut taxes again for people who don't need it, consider these three fun facts:

2) Congress is poised to raise the federal debt ceiling for the second time since Bush took office. The debt ceiling is going from the Clinton-era of $5.95 trillion to $7.38 trillion. Bush's moronic tax policy has added almost three quarters of a trillion dollars to our national debt since he took office. "Tax and Spend" Clinton only added a bit over $1.5 trillion in his entire eight years, and Bush is almost halfway there in two years and three months. And if you think that stinks, imagine what Bush's latest tax giveaway would do to the debt. Heck, don't imagine. Here's the cost: According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Bush's latest tax proposal, combined with the 2001 tax cut, would add $2.7 trillion to the national debt through 2013. And that doesn't count the usual debt that America will pile up just running the country for the next ten years.

3) For the idiots on the right who think that Congress is just spending too much money on wasteful programs, consider what Congress is cutting to help pay for Bush's last tax cut: The Transportation Security Administration , under pressure from Congress, is cutting 6,000 airport screening jobs - that's 11% of the force - to save money. Thank God we're finally getting the government out of the "providing for the common defense" business. To borrow a phrase that Bush used against Democrats during the midterm, it appears republicans in Congress and President Bush care more about tax cuts than they do about homeland security. Appears, hell. We now know it for a fact.

And now, having forgotten that he already cut taxes for the Rich two years ago with no economic boost and disastrous effects on the deficit, Bush wants to do it again. I have but one question: How stupid does George W. Bush think Americans are?

Of course, the answer is that Bush doesn't think Americans are stupid. He knows it. And he's counting on it.