“I am Yahweh; that is My Name! I will not give My glory to anyone else, nor share My praise with carved idols.” (Isaiah 42: 8)
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Lawrence Summers is a Nutjob
See “Lawrence Summers: One last time on who benefits from corporate tax cuts”.
Lawrence Summers is a nutjob.
“He was treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001 and an economic adviser to President Barack Obama from 2009 through 2010.”
Those were political appointments. He didn’t earn them.
When Summers left government, he went to Harvard as president of the university. He didn’t last long as Harvard president. The faculty ousted him.
Why?
Lawrence Summers is a nutjob.
Harvard faculty aren’t known for their conservative views. Most of them are proud “liberal progressives”. Even so, they couldn’t stomach an idiot at the helm.
As a part of the deal to remove Summers as Harvard president, he got a faculty appointment which he did not earn.
Facts Are Stubborn Things
Fact: “In 2014, 139.6 million taxpayers reported earning $9.71 trillion in adjusted gross income and paid $1.37 trillion in individual income taxes. The share of income earned by the top 1 percent of taxpayers rose to 20.6 percent in 2014. Their share of federal individual income taxes also rose, to 39.5 percent.”
Fact: “In 2014, the top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97.3 percent of all individual income taxes while the bottom 50 percent paid the remaining 2.7 percent.”
Fact: “The top 1 percent paid a greater share of individual income taxes (39.5 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (29.1 percent).”
Fact: “The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid a 27.1 percent individual income tax rate, which is more than seven times higher than taxpayers in the bottom 50 percent (3.5 percent).”
(See “Summary of the Latest Federal Income Tax Data, 2016 Update”.)
It makes sense that people who pay taxes will benefit from tax cuts.
It makes sense that people don’t pay any tax or who pay almost no tax will benefit less from tax cuts than people who pay most of the taxes.
Using the tax code for social engineering has created all sorts of problems not the least of which is the belief by those who contribute very little or nothing that they are entitled to everything.
That has to stop.
Again, Lawrence Summers is a nutjob.
Switching Gears
There are some issues with the tax bill that just passed in the Senate. See “Guess who loses with Trump’s tax plan?”:
But that’s where we part company. Trump wants the media to pat him on the back for the budget passing and for his proposed tax cuts. In contrast, I want the media to highlight for our fellow Americans that the budget passed by the GOP-controlled Senate would massively cut both Medicare and Medicaid in order to give the richest Americans a big, fat and unnecessary tax cut.
First, let’s look at the budget bill that the Republican Senate passed Thursday, which Trump is now publicly applauding. It would cut funding by $5 trillion over the next decade. And guess who would suffer the most from these cuts? Senior citizens, the poor and the disabled.
Here’s why: The GOP Senate budget calls for “$473 billion in cuts from Medicare over 10 years.” That would be a painful blow to the over 55 million Americans — including my own mother, and maybe yours, too — who depend on this very popular program to manage the cost of their health care.
Add to that, the GOP budget cuts over $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next decade. This is the very definition of cruel. Medicaid is a lifeline for over 70 million Americans — including the disabled, poor, children and, once again, senior citizens. In fact, seniors would arguably bear the brunt of the GOP’s cuts because Medicaid covers 60% of those in nursing homes. So some seniors may see both their Medicaid and Medicare benefits slashed.
No “entitlement” program is sacrosanct—Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid included, but we need to be open and honest about what we have doing. Eventually, these issues will be on the front burner. Right now, they are not.
A Pet Peeve
In the Washington Post article that I used to introduce this editorial, Summers said,
The analysis from [Kevin] Hassett, chief of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), relies heavily on correlations between corporate tax rates and wages in other countries to argue that a cut in the corporate tax rate would boost returns to labor very substantially. Perhaps unintentionally, the CEA ignores our own historical experience in their analysis.
The last serious tax reform effort we had in the U.S. took place in the 1980s under President Reagan. As he promised, tax revenue increased substantially, but federal spending increased substantially more.
Since government spending on “entitlement” programs typically comes with promises to pay even more in future years (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in particular), the increase in federal spending in the 1980s put enormous pressure on our debt and deficit situations. We are still feeling the pressure today.
It’s dishonest to point at tax cuts as a problem when we know that government spending is the culprit. If our political leaders continue spending foolishly as if there will be no negative consequences, we will continue to face debilitating debt and deficit problems.
Any fool can spend more they he makes. A wise person spends less than he makes and invests the rest.
About Social Security
Originally, Social Security was not an “entitlement” program. People paid into it during their working years. It was an investment that working people were required to make. The return on investment was lousy, but it was an investment.
Over the years, Social Security morphed into a plethora of “entitlement” programs many of which have nothing to do with the program’s original purpose. Today, Social Security is a huge problem. Our long-term debt and deficit problems can’t be solved while Social Security is off the table.
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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)
See “His Name is Yahweh”.
