Eleven Years of Bush Tax Cuts and “Ain’t We Got Fun?”

On June 7, 2012 · Leave a Comment

By Alan Grayson | Central Florida

“The rich get richer and the poor get laid off. In the meantime, in between time, Ain’t we got fun?”

As I mentioned on MSNBC last night, today marks 11 years since the Bush tax breaks for the rich were enacted. President George W. Bush signed the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act on June 7, 2001.

Bush claimed (as right-wingers always do) that tax breaks for the rich would create jobs in the private sector. Well, they haven’t. There were 110 million private sector jobs in America in 2001. There are 110 million private sector jobs in America today. Despite a population increase of more than 25 million, there are no more private sector jobs today than when the Bush tax breaks for the rich became law.

In the past 11 years, the number of Americans living in poverty has increased from 33 million to 44 million. The number of Americans receiving food stamps has risen from 18 million to 46 million. “Trickle-down” has not even been a trickle.

But what could we expect? We didn’t give tax breaks to the poor; we gave tax breaks to the rich. And for the rich, the past 11 years has been one long party. According to the Paris School of Economics, the top 1% in America saw their share of national income increase by more than 13% from 2001 to 2010. The top 0.1% saw their share of income increase by 20%. The top 0.01% saw their share of income explode by more than 37%, from 2.4% of all of the income in America to 3.3%.

The Bush tax breaks for the rich have yielded the most unequal distribution of wealth in American history, more unequal even than that of 1929, just before the Great Depression.

The lurch toward inequality started decades ago; the Bush tax breaks for the rich only accelerated it. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, since 1979, income for the top 1% has increased by $700,000 a year, while income for the bottom 90% has declined by $900 a year. Between 1992 and 2007, income for the richest 400 Americans increased by 392%, as their taxes dropped by 37%.

You see where this is going. The end-game of the Bush tax breaks for the rich is the end of the middle class in America. No jobs, no healthcare, no pensions, no home equity, no higher education. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.

The Bush tax breaks are due to expire in a few months. We are at a fork in the road.

No more tax breaks for the rich. No. No. No. No.

“The rich get richer and the poor get laid off.
In the meantime, in between time,
Ain’t we got fun?” – Van & Schenck, “Ain’t We Got Fun” (1921)

 
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
Reddit Facebook Twitter Delicious Digg

Comments are closed.

Get to Work, Governor, and Implement Health Care Reform Now

Healthcare

Dan Gelber | June 29, 2012 –
For over a decade, the same Republicans howling loudest against health care reform have mismanaged Florida’s health care delivery system so much so that we have the third highest rate of uninsured in the nation.
READ IT ON FLORIDA VOICES

How Shareholders Are Hurting America

Robin Hood tax”

Jesse Eisinger | June 27, 2012 –
“The Robin Hood tax — a transaction charge on securities trades — would curtail zero-sum, socially useless trading and might insulate corporations.”
READ IT ON PROPUBLICA

Chicago votes to decriminalize marijuana

Criminal Law

Rebecca DiLeonardo | June 27, 2012 –
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel earlier this month expressed his support for the ordinance, which he said would allow “ultimately [free] up police officers for the street.” Emanuel said he spoke with police authorities before endorsing the ordinance.
READ IT ON JURIST

Drone strikes: playing God in Pakistan

What constitutes due process?

Editorial | June 5, 2012 –
The rhetoric may have gone out of the war on terror, but as far as the actions themselves go, Mr Obama is, in the view of Aaron David Miller, a Middle East adviser to both Republican and Democrat administrations, George W Bush on steroids.
READ IT ON THE GUARDIAN

Florida: Voter Registration

Odd time to purge voter rolls

Robyn E. Blumner | May 20, 2012 –
Republicans actively gin up voter fraud claims to justify turning voting into an obstacle course to dissuade Democratic-leaning constituencies. Meanwhile, why is there no attempt to tighten rules for absentee voting, probably the easiest way to produce a fraudulent ballot?
READ IT ON TAMPA BAY TIMES

McDonalds' Shareholders Do the Right Thing

Shareholders, Top Doctors Demand McDonald’s Assess its Health Impacts

By Sara Deon | May 25, 2012 –
For a second straight year, shareholders voted on a resolution requiring McDonald’s to publicly assess its impacts on the nation’s health.
READ IT ON CIVIL EATS

Bill Moyers: When Will Americans Face the Horrific Truth? We're a Nation of Torturers

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

By Bill Moyers | May 25, 2012 –
When will the United States form its own Truth and Reconciliation Commission to confront the truth about the cruelty we as a nation have inflicted on other human beings?
READ IT ON ALTERNET

Doctors and Michael Douglas' Son Hope to Help Addicts with Treatment, Not Prison

Addicts should be treated with rehab, not prison.

Julianne Escobedo Shepherd | May 21, 2012 –
As Howard Josepher, a former addict who now runs a drug treatment center in New York put it, “The various powers that be view addiction as a disease, but they treat people who have this illness as criminals.”
READ IT ON ALTERNET

Los Angeles adopts 'responsible banking' ordinance

“Just make them responsible and do the right thing.”

Catherine Saillant | May 16, 2012 –
New ordinance requires banks doing business with the city to disclose information on loans and foreclosures but doesn’t go far enough for some activists.
READ IT ON LOS ANGELES TIMES

Florida: Education

Why I’m Relieved My Daughter Won’t Be Attending UF

Pierre Tristam | May 21, 2012 –
Rather than joining the ranks of competitive, high-tech states with an innovative or sought-after workforce, Florida is becoming a wasteland of tourist ghettoes, sunbathing spreads and Medicare colonies, its golf courses tended more lovingly than its classrooms. Florida does not take its K-12 school system seriously.
READ IT ON FLAGLERLIVE