Pawlenty Tax Cuts Tower Over Bush Tax Cuts

Posted on June 15, 2011 at 4:20 pm by JM Ashby

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities — Tim Pawlenty’s grand strategy for achieving continuous 5% economic growth.

Specifically, in 2013 the Pawlenty plan would give people in the top one-tenth of 1 percent on the income scale (i.e., people with incomes above $2.7 million) an average annual tax cut of $1.8 million — which is more than four times what they got last year from the Bush tax cuts.

Isn’t Pawlenty suppose to be some kind of moderate? A Mitt-Romney-Lite?

It’s no wonder that even conservative economists have declared Pawlenty’s plan to be “ridiculous.” The plan is both gratuitous and borderline fetishistic. And I’m sure fiscally-conservative blowhards across the nation stood up a little taller in their chair, as if Sarah Palin had just winked at them, after Pawlenty’s plan was announced.

It should be noted that Michele Bachmann debuted her own tax proposal the day after Pawlenty announced his, and her plan actually goes one step further. Fortunately, no one seems to be taking her seriously. Rightfully-so.

via ThinkProgress

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  • GrafZeppelin127

    OK, somebody has to explain this.

    One of the reasons for the GOP’s tax-cutting zeal, among many others, is that they claim it is imperative to deprive the government of revenue so that it cannot “spend” and “grow.” Raising revenues in order to cut the deficit won’t work, they say, because if the government takes in more money, it’ll just spend more. Raising revenues will just lead to more “spending” and “bigger government.” Keep “spending” down by keeping revenues down.

    Have I got that right so far?

    OK.

    Now, Republicans also claim that cutting taxes actually increases government revenues. (The infamous “Laffer Curve,” inter alia.) Lower tax rates mean higher revenues. They’ve even got some (incomplete and out-of-context) data to “prove” it.

    So…

    Republicans want to cut taxes (and don’t want to raise them) because they don’t want the “government” to have more revenue. And doing so will … result in more government revenue.

    Huh?

    • muselet

      Graf, you forgot that the Invisible Hand of the Free Market sprinkles magical free-market pixie dust on the entire enterprise and makes the economy grow and tax revenues rise without an increase in the size and scope of government. Only a pinko commie liberal would dare to claim otherwise. Or something.

      Seriously, though, trying to make sense of Republican economic theory will only make your head hurt. It’s best just to point and laugh.

      –alopecia

      • dildenusa

        You also forgot about the “focus groups” that were used in the 1980′s and 90′s to implement policy. These clowns today, Pawlenty, Bachmann, Romney, shun focus groups. Instead they think that demagogueing an issue will get them votes. To paraphrase, “demagoguery will get you nowhere.”

    • http://twitter.com/bphoon Brian C

      Arthur Laffer notwithstanding, the Laffer Curve is very aptly named. In a perfect world, the Laffer Curve can work but only to a point. Given lower taxes and if businesses/the wealthy use the extra money to invest in job creation in the US, total revenue can increase. However, past a point of diminishing returns, revenues start a downward trend until they eventually level out, creating…a bell curve! Like any true statistical curve.

      The mistake the GOP makes in their fantasy world, not understanding how economics works in practice, is 1) they simply assume businesses and the wealthy will invest tax subsidies in US businesses rather than shipping them overseas or stuffing them in their mattresses or whatever, and, 2) they think the Laffer curve extends ever upward without end.

      The logical end to the notion that lowering taxes always increases government revenue is that revenue will reach it’s highest level when taxes hit zero. That makes about as much sense as GOP assumptions about the Laffer Curve does.

      At the end of the day, GOP economic policy is a bunch of flim-flam and it practitioners are professional grifters masquerading as politicians.