help me answer this LTTE slamming Molly Ivins

I writing an answer to this ltte I say in my local paper today. Any input would be appreciated

Wrong on tax cuts

In her recent column, "GOP tax cuts just didn't work," Molly Ivins must be brain dead. According to her, "The series of major tax cuts enacted in the past four years has not strengthened the economy." Take a minute to let that sink in. We have record low unemployment. We have record high business investment. Our overall economy is growing at almost 4 percent a year - better than practically anywhere else in the world. Hampton Roads is experiencing a shortage of skilled workers. Ivins continues, "By virtually every measure, the economy has performed worse in this business cycle than was typical of past ones, including that of the 1990s, which saw major tax increases."

Ivins and her liberal fellow-travelers just can't be happy unless the jobs-producing class gets hit with higher taxes. But this time the numbers don't lie. The tax cuts, particularly those on dividends and investment, are the fuel that dramatically shortened the recession of 2001 and continues to drive the economic expansion we are experiencing today. What we don't need is to dampen this expansion by an Ivins-recommended "major tax increase."

Liberals just don't get it.

That 4% GDP growth has been felt only by the top 5% of wealth holders. Ordinary people have faced wage declines for each of the past five years, and now inflation is back. More and more jobs are sent overseas every month, and layoffs in the thousands are announced by the "job producing class" every single month.

No rich man ever gave anybody a job he didn't have a paying customer waiting for.

Conservatives just don't get it.

Great response! :thumbsup:

for the years under George W. Bush . . .

If you've been unemployed more than four weeks, you're no longer counted.....

http://stats.bls.gov/cps/cps_faq.htm#Ques5

There were 6 million unemployed people when whistleass was installed in early 2001...today, there are 7.6 million that they bother to count....

http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

That's some record low, all righty.....

because letter-writers like that usually aren't interested in being contradicted...

I like to use the credit card analogy.

Basically what this country has done is increased spending AND at the same time, taken a voluntary cut in salary (taxes).

How can you take a salary cut and increase spending? The only way to do that is to rack up the credit cards.

And so we have. If I took a voluntary cut in salary, and then took my credit cards and took out loans, and bought a new SUV and a wide-screen TV and new computers, and remodeled my kitchen, and you didn't know how I was paying for it, you might look at me and say, "Hey, he must be doing pretty well - new kitchen, wide-screen TV, fancy new car"... gee, his personal economy must be pretty good!

And that's just what the country is doing.

Although there are subleties to economics, pure common sense would tell you that you don't cut your income and simultaneously increase your expenses. Something has to give. The United States is living on credit cards, and that's not good. We can buy nice stuff, but we haven't had to pay the bill yet, so it only looks like we're doing okay.

thanks.

Paul Craig Roberts:

Dec 2, 2005
Don’t Confuse the Jobs Hype with the Facts
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/051202_jobs.htm

Nov 6, 2005
Still No Jobs: Corporations Deserting American Workers
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/051106_no_jobs.htm

Pat Buchanan:

Suicide By Free Trade
www.amconmag.com/2004_04_12/buchanan.html

(I especially enjoyed the last paragraph !)

And the research done at Center for American Progress
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/c.biJRJ8OVF/b.8473/

on the economy....

plus the fact that the only thing keeping the economy afloat right now is the temporary 'Capital Repatriation' program that essentially repatriates globalized monies offshored (along with jobs) by those multinational corporate 'citizens' and their CEOs. The current estimate is about $350 Billion has made its way back. This is only a one year experiment by Bush & Co. Democrats would be wise to make an issue out of it !

www.americanshareholders.com/news/asa-repat-08-19-05.pdf

unemployment, and we came close to it several times during the 1950s and 1960s.

Now Allen Greenspan gets nervous about "inflationary pressures" if the unemployment rate gets below 4%.

In addition, you are not counted as unemployed if you work for pay even one hour per week.

European countries have higher unemployment rates on paper, but they also 1) count ALL their unemployed and 2) don't maintain massive military and prison-industrial complexes to soak up the "excess" workers.

...under Reagan and since Volker and Greenspan the Phillips Curve has been interpreted as allowing for 6% unemployment and up to 6% inflation as "ok".

What about "full" don't the consevatives understand ?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/12/12/9925/4524

some good info to help you....

I'll post of copy of what I send here tomorrow.

Thanks again.

as previous administrations -- in calculating inflation, unemployment, consumer confidence, or just about anything else. They are cooking the books, just as Kenny-Boy did at Enron.