Romney is planning on cutting taxes by 20% across the board, in conjunction with eliminating some tax deductions. The plan is to broaden the number of people who the Government collects taxes from while at the same time lowering the overall rate.
Obama counters by asserting that this amounts to a Five Trillion Dollar give-away to the rich over the next 10 years.
The problem with Liberals is that they see taxation as a zero sum game. They fail to realize that cuts in taxes produces more economic activity that produces more taxes
The whole thing reminds me of the Reagan era. Let's face it, Reagan had a plan to cut taxes from 75% to 50%, then subsequently to 28%. So overall, he cut the rates by 67%! Or more than THREE TIMES what Romney's proposing. If Obama was running against then "Candidate" Reagan, he would have claimed that Reagan's plan would cut taxes by 15 Trillion in today's dollars. However, the truth is, that Reagan's plan DOUBLED total revenue for the Federal Government over the 8 years that he was President.
In fact, if you look throughout history, every time that tax rates have been cut, Federal Revenue's end up increasing. Why? Simple. When Job Creators get to keep more of their money, they create MORE JOBS. With more jobs, the government needs to support less people and instead collect taxes from more people Not just Income taxes, but sales, gas, Import, ... everything.
If we look to history as our guide, when Harding cut taxes from 75% to 25%, unemployment went from near 14% to less than 2% over the next 4 years AND paid down all the debt the Government had racked up from WWI!
When Hoover increased taxes from 25% to 63% in reaction to the Market Crash, instead of the anticipated boom in Revenue, revenue PLUMMETED with new company creation coming to a halt, and unemployment hitting 15%
When FDR increased the rate to 90%, revenue fell even more and unemployment hit nearly 1 in every 4 workers! A stat that stuck for nearly an ENTIRE DECADE! Only the War ended up pulling us out of that malaise.
Tax cuts passed after FDR eventually got the economy going again, but since they kept going up and down over the next several decades, not until Reagan was elected did we see another "Harding Style" revival of the economy.
Let's also not forget that the last time the budget was balanced was when Clinton cut the capital gains rate from 28% to 20%. Sure he increased the "INCOME" tax from 28% top rate to 39%, but that happened during his first term and DID NOT close the budget gap, instead it widened on his first term!
The problem with Liberals is that they see taxation as a zero sum game. They fail to realize that cuts in taxes produces more economic activity that produces more taxes, more jobs and removes people off government doles. Increased taxes have the opposite effects, Job creators move to other countries or change operations to get out of paying the increased taxes. Apple is a perfect example. Apple used to manufacture most of their components here in the U.S. With the tax and regulatory environment here in the U.S. becoming increasingly unfavorable, they moved their operations to the Asian rim, where the top rate is 25%, Capital investments are fully tax deductible and Capital Gains taxes are half what they are here and also tax deductible. What good does it do California and the Federal Government to have an effective rate of nearly DOUBLE, when they've moved their operations offshore? They now can't collect it.
There is one thing though that's undoubtedly true about that Five Trillion Dollar Number, while Bush added 4 Trillion in debt in his two terms as president, Obama has added 5 Trillion in new debt in just his first term.
