Liberal Forum

GOP Muzzled The Library of Congress's Research Agency Report That Showed That 'Trickle-Down' Economics Doesn't WorkThe New York Times reports that on September 28 the Library of Congress's nonpartisan Congressional Research Service withdrew, under pressure from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R.-Ky., and other Senate Republicans, a widely-circulated study concluding that since 1945 tax cuts have had no measurable impact on economic growth. I have cited the study repeatedly since its September 14 release, and so have many other journalists and academics within what Karl Rove once scornfully called the reality-based community. The withdrawal wont have any impact on the reports availability, except perhaps that more people will read it now. That's because CRS reports are never released to the public anyway. Theyre released to members of Congress. Then the interesting ones trickle out onto nongovernmental Web sites or those of individual senators or representatives. McConnell can tell the New York Times all he wants to take down its copy of the report, but he probably won't bother, because its public information and it has no conceivable relevance to national security.The withdrawal is, nonetheless, outrageous. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart told the Times that the CRS report wasnt just criticized by Republican senators; it was also criticized by what the Times (in a paraphrase) calls people outside of Congress. I wish the Times had taken the opportunity to say who these people outside of Congress are. You can probably guess. Theres the conservative Heritage Foundation. And theres the Tax Foundation, a conservative nonprofit (not to be confused with the Tax Policy Center, which is non-ideological and nonpartisan but has nonetheless been vilified by the right for pointing out that Mitt Romneys proposed tax cut benefited the rich at the expense of the middle class). The author of the CRS study, Thomas Hungerford, has written many excellent studies on themes directly or indirectly related to income distribution, and thats made him a conservative target for some time.What's Senate Republicans Don't Want You to Find OutThere is a lot of buzz now about the fact, discovered over a month after it happened, that the Congressional Research Service (CRS) had withdrawn one of its research reports due to pressure from Republican Senators. Probably the most commonly used adjectives used to describe the CRS are "respected" and "non-partisan," so what is going on here? The simple answer is that the Republicans didn't like the study's conclusions and complained vociferously to CRS. Why did the CRS give in? No one knows yet, although the New York Times reported: A person with knowledge of the deliberations, who requested anonymity, said the Sept. 28 decision to withdraw the report was made against the advice of the research services economics division, and that Mr. Hungerford [the study's author] stood by its findings. What was in the report that terrified Republican Senators so much? In fact, a lot more than reported in the media: "Tax Cuts for the Rich Do Not Spur Economic Growth," Talking Points Memo, September 17; "Tax Cuts for the Rich Cause Income Inequality, Not Economic Growth," Think Progress, September 17; for example.One major finding is contained in a plot of the top personal income tax rate and real economic growth rates for every year from 1945 to 2010. Contrary to conservative arguments, when the top tax rate was from 70-90+ percent, the country had growth rates averaging 4.2% in the 1950s, but only 1.7% in the 2000s, when the top rate was 35%. Overall, according to Figure 5 of the report, there appears to be no relationship at all between the top tax rate and growth.It's important to remember, though, that a simple comparison of two variables tells us nothing by itself. It's only when we control for other potential causal factors that we can say whether a relationship does or does not exist between two variables like tax rates and growth. In the report's appendix, the author carries out such a regression analysis, as it's called, and still finds that there is no relationship between the top tax rate and real GDP growth rates. Moreover, the study takes a look at the ways that lower tax rates are supposed to improve the economy, i.e., by increasing private savings, private investment, and labor productivity growth. In no case does the bivariate analysis (some of which shows higher taxes increasing private savings) or the regression analysis show either the top personal tax rate or the capital gains tax rate having an effect on these intervening drivers of economic growth. This completely undermines the economic arguments for tax cuts as the recipe for a better economy.But wait, there's more! The diagram (scatterplot) showing the relationship between the top tax rate and the private savings rate shows that the highest private savings rates since 1945 were achieved when the top marginal rate was 70% (see top left of Figure 3), which comports well with recent calculations of the top optimal tax rate (70% or higher). In fact, when the top bracket was 90%, the rate of private savings as a percentage of potential GDP exceeded the rate when it was 40% or below in every year but one!The other discomfiting finding for the Republican Senators is that lower top tax rates and lower capital gains tax rates increase income inequality. Not only is this obvious in the scatterplots for the top 0.1% and top 0.01%, it remains true in the regression analyses after controlling for other potential causes of the high income shares of the rich.Tax cuts, then, don't increase economic growth (the ultimate zombie idea, as Paul Krugman says) but do worsen economic inequality. It may even be the case that high top marginal tax rates increase private savings, with the country's historical postwar maximum savings rates coming at a rate of 70%.So tax cuts for the rich don't translate into economic growth but they do translate into greater income inequality?I didn't need a study to tell me that.From Forbes:Non-Partisan Congressional Tax Report Debunks Core Conservative Economic Theory-GOP Suppresses StudyWhat do you do when the Congressional Research Service, the completely non-partisan arm of the Library of Congress that has been advising Congressand only Congresson matters of policy and law for nearly a century, produces a research study that finds absolutely no correlation between the top tax rates and economic growth, thereby destroying a key tenet of conservative economic theory?If you are a Republican member of the United States Senate, you do everything in your power to suppress that reportparticularly when it comes less than two months before a national election where your candidate is selling this very economic theory as the basis for his candidacy.The New York Times posted a link to the report. Edited by MistyBlue, 03 November 2012 - 07:16 PM.

Do you have any idea how un-American that sounds?________________________________________________There is a member of this forum that has this as his siggy.More anti-American crap.You disagree with someone politically? Kill them.The more I see of this kind of crap the more I believe that the Right Wing Flying Monkeys would be much happier living under a dictator.They've been peddling the same phony patriotism for decades. You have to agree though, that this tactic actually WORKS, just as it worked for the Nationalist movements in Europe last century. It has nothing to do with logic or consistency, it just illustrates the power of propaganda. I can see that the end game of the American Right Wing will be some sort of neo-fascist state, but the Flying Monkey pawns that are being manipulated in this election have no clue, not the slightest inkling.

They've been peddling the same phony patriotism for decades. You have to agree though, that this tactic actually WORKS, just as it worked for the Nationalist movements in Europe last century. It has nothing to do with logic or consistency, it just illustrates the power of propaganda. I can see that the end game of the American Right Wing will be some sort of neo-fascist state, but the Flying Monkey pawns that are being manipulated in this election have no clue, not the slightest inkling.Nice to see a new face here in my thread.I hope you stop by again SH.It's better to read this thread backwards starting from the last page, as that is where the most recent stuff is.

I don't think you should talk about that stuff on the forum.It just gives ammo to the pinheads who will use it against you.That's just my opinion.Take it for what it's worth.If anyone says anything out of line to you, I may have to beat the **** out of them.+1.I know, but I hate when people use personal stuff on this forum to hurt people.+1.These are the same union workers Republicans call spoiled, lazy and overpaid.They also consider school teachers and state workers to be subhuman - not to mention postal workers.

GOP Muzzled The Library of Congress's Research Agency Report That Showed That 'Trickle-Down' Economics Doesn't WorkAre you moonbats still denying the Reagan Boom and the undeniable success of Supply Side Economics?More jobs were created in one good month under Reagan than this entire year under Obama-nomics.Come on, you're kidding, right?So tax cuts for the rich don't translate into economic growth but they do translate into greater income inequality?I didn't need a study to tell me that.You'll bleat whatever silly nonsense that supports your moonbat left agenda.Half the money for "tax cuts for the rich" in reality go to small businesses, so of course it generates economic and job growth.Duuuuh.

So tax cuts for the rich don't translate into economic growth but they do translate into greater income inequality?I didn't need a study to tell me that.You'll bleat whatever silly nonsense that supports your moonbat left agenda.Are you saying that the Congressional Research Service has a moonbat left agenda?The Congressional Research Service (CRS), is a public policy research arm of the United States Congress that works primarily and directly for members of Congress, their committees and staff on a confidential, nonpartisan basis.Both parties have always relied on the CRS for nonpartisan information.Republicans did not like the conclusions reached in that report, so they tried to bury it.

Last-Minute Ohio Directive Could Trash Legal Votes And Swing The ElectionA last-minute directive issued by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted [R] could invalidate legal provisional ballots. Ohio is widely viewed as the most critical state for both presidential campaigns and with some polls showing a close race the 11th-hour move could swing the entire election. The directive, issued Friday, lays out the requirements for submitting a provisional ballot. The directive includes a form which puts the burden on the voter to correctly record the form of ID provided to election officials. Husted also instructed election officials that if the form is not filled out correctly by a voter, the ballot should not be counted.According to a lawsuit filed by voting rights advocates, this is contrary to a court decision on provisional ballots a week ago and contrary to statements made by attorneys for Husted at an Oct. 24 court hearing. Indeed, it also appears directly contrary to Ohio law. From the lawsuit: Ohio Rev. Code 3505.181[B](6) provides that, once a voter casting a provisional ballot proffers identification, the appropriate local election official shall record the type of identification provided, the social security number information, the fact that the affirmation was executed, or the fact that the individual declined to execute such an affirmation and include that information with the transmission of the ballot . . . . (Emphasis added.) The law ensures that any questions regarding a voters identification are resolved on the spot or, consistent with due process, the voter is informed that he or she needs to provide additional information to the board of elections. This protects the integrity of the voting process, and provides a reasonable opportunity to resolve deficiencies. The last-minute directive changes this and switches the burden to the voter, greatly increasing the chances that legal provisional ballots will be discarded. The court gave Husted until Monday to respond to the lawsuit and indicated it will resolve the dispute before provisional ballots are counted on November 17. Husted has also tried to limit voting in Ohio by reducing early voting hours.This guy is doing everything he can to shrink the electorate because he knows that the more people that vote, the more his party's chances of winning go down.I don't trust him or the Secretary of State in Florida to count the votes accurately.As one of the founder's of the Conservative right movement (Paul Weyrich) said, "I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."

This is what happens when you try and take away people's right to vote.

This is what happens when you try and take away people's right to vote.Got any actual proof? No? Never thought you did.99 to 1 that's baloney. Florida, for example, is run by counties, so if there are lines in Democrat areas, blame the local Democrat officials.I'll bet it's the same in many other states.You'll bleat whatever silly nonsense that supports your moonbat left agenda.Are you saying that the Congressional Research Service has a moonbat left agenda?It wasn't done by "the CBO." It was done by that particular individual, an Obama contributor, on his own initiative.It's the usual unethical partisan bulls*** liberals pull around election time.The Congressional Research Service (CRS), is a public policy research arm of the United States Congress that works primarily and directly for members of Congress, their committees and staff on a confidential, nonpartisan basis.Both parties have always relied on the CRS for nonpartisan information.Republicans did not like the conclusions reached in that report, so they tried to bury it.The conclusion is bulls***, unsupported even by Obama's former economic advisers and every School of Economics that exists.Your side puts out deceitful nonsense, then pretend it's "nonpartisan."

MistyBlue, on 05 November 2012 - 01:57 PM, said:This is what happens when you try and take away people's right to vote.Got any actual proof? You want proof? Open your **** eyes. It's as obvious as the nose on your face.99 to 1 that's baloney. Florida, for example, is run by counties, so if there are lines in Democrat areas, blame the local Democrat officials.I'll bet it's the same in many other states.It's not the 'counties' that cut early voting days in half Jackhole. It's the state legislature and the governor. It wasn't done by "the CBO." It was done by that particular individual, an Obama contributor, on his own initiative.It's the usual unethical partisan bulls*** liberals pull around election time.How can you be so wrong, so often?Not the CBO jackass, the CRS.Your side puts out deceitful nonsense, then pretend it's "nonpartisan."It's obvious that you don't even know anything about the CRS. They're not on anyone's side.Do yourself a favor and look it up so you won't continue to sound like an idiot.

Uh Oh!Dick Morris is backpedaling on his predictions now.Sudden danger signs in polling as Election Day nears.Karl Rove is already blaming hurricane Sandy. LOLKarl Rove Framing Hurricane Sandy For Possible Election Day DefeatAnd Paul Ryan's allies are speculating what he might do after he and Romney lose the election, just like Palin's allies did in 2008.GOP nominee Ryan's future unclear.

Uh Oh!Dick Morris is backpedaling on his predictions now.Sudden danger signs in polling as Election Day nears.Karl Rove is already blaming hurricane Sandy. LOLKarl Rove Framing Hurricane Sandy For Possible Election Day DefeatAnd Paul Ryan's allies are speculating what he might do after he and Romney lose the election, just like Palin's allies did in 2008.GOP nominee Ryan's future unclear.Maybe that's why clem is so quiet -- he finally found pessimistic voices he could believe.

Maybe that's why clem is so quiet -- he finally found pessimistic voices he could believe.Dick Morris has got to be a big disappointment to him. LOL

Maybe that's why clem is so quiet -- he finally found pessimistic voices he could believe.Dick Morris has got to be a big disappointment to him. LOLThat column is three days old. Morris was on Greta Van Sustern's show and stood by his prediction that Obama will lose badly, in an electoral landslide.That makes three highly informed political commentators who basically agree; Morris, George Will and Michale Barone.Well heck, you have that baseball oddsmaker on your side.Got any actual proof?You want proof? Open your banned word eyes. It's as obvious as the nose on your face.Then it's safe to assume you're just making bulls*** up.It's not the 'counties' that cut early voting days in half Jackhole. It's the state legislature and the governor.Well run counties and localities can handle entire voting event in one single day. Why can't they handle it spread over weeks?Duuh.It wasn't done by "the CBO." It was done by that particular individual, an Obama contributor, on his own initiative.It's the usual unethical partisan bulls*** liberals pull around election time.How can you be so wrong, so often?Not the CBO jackass, the CRS.Way to dodge my point, troll. I don't care if the group was the EPA, IRS or IRA. It was controlled or done by one partisan hack, a campaign contributor to Obama.And it violates every School of Economics and goes contrary even to what Obama's top economic advisers believe.It's bulls***, another Democrat Talking Point Lie, so of course you bleat your support.

Florida, for example, is run by counties, so if there are lines in Democrat areas, blame the local Democrat officials.It's not the 'counties' that cut early voting days in half Jackhole. It's the state legislature and the governor. Well run counties and localities can handle entire voting event in one single day. Why can't they handle it spread over weeks?Duuh.That doesn't even make sense.There are long lines BECAUSE the state cut the early voting days in half.Less time to vote, plus 10 page ballots equals long lines.Long lines means that some people will just give up and not vote.And that's exactly the goal.What part of that do you not understand?

Well run counties and localities can handle entire voting event in one single day. Why can't they handle it spread over weeks?Duuh.That doesn't even make sense.There are long lines BECAUSE the state cut the early voting days in half.Less time to vote, plus 10 page ballots equals long lines.Long lines means that some people will just give up and not vote.And that's exactly the goal.What part of that do you not understand?You aren't really that stupid, so you must be lying. Read it again.Well run counties and localities can handle entire voting event in one single day, election day. Why can't the counties you're complaining about handle it spread over weeks?

This is the latest meme from the right wing flying monkeys.Obama voters are takers not makers.Shades of Romney's 47% remarks.Ted Nugent On Obama Election: 'Pimps Whores & Welfare Brats' Voted For 'Economic & Spiritual Suicide'Detroit rocker and right-winger Ted Nugent was not too happy when President Barack Obama was reelected, so he took to Twitter to denounce the "pimps," "whores" and "welfare brats" who voted for America's "economic [and] spiritual suicide." Nugent tweeted some choice words on Wednesday after Obama earned four more years in the White House in a landslide victory over GOP candidate Mitt Romney. He bid America "Goodluk" [sic] and good riddance.Oh good. Is he leaving?

This is the latest meme from the right wing flying monkeys.Obama voters are takers not makers.Shades of Romney's 47% remarks.Oh good. Is he leaving?We can only hope. I pity those where he goes, if he goes. I would take an extra, super duper sized sewage system to handle all the **** that big mouthed, rabid, draft dodging, pedophile pukes out.Why is Ted Nugent even relevant?

This is what happens when you try and take away people's right to vote.That's right. And you think these people that had to wait hours in those lines, and then had to take 30 minutes reading the extended ballot version.....you think they're gonna forget that when it comes to to vote again..? The repubs keep shooting themselves in the foot...and I want to thank them one and all, for all the generous votes they gave the President. A big shout out THANK YOU..! Thanks Rush..you single handed gave us untold millions of women's votes. Thanks go out to Sean and the other looney Cuckoo repubs who say things like "legitimate rape". THANK YOU..!! The women's votes handed to us, quite possibly, is what gave us the popular vote. Karl Rove..sorry man. Kiss those billions of dollars down the drain. oh well...I'm so thankful the cons antiquated ideology they embrace, and refuse to change paid us huge dividends....lol. But hey...they still got 65% of the white guys over 40, lol.

Why is Ted Nugent even relevant?Beats me.That's right. And you think these people that had to wait hours in those lines, and then had to take 30 minutes reading the extended ballot version.....you think they're gonna forget that when it comes to to vote again..? The repubs keep shooting themselves in the foot...and I want to thank them one and all, for all the generous votes they gave the President. A big shout out THANK YOU..! Thanks Rush..you single handed gave us untold millions of women's votes. Thanks go out to Sean and the other looney Cuckoo repubs who say things like "legitimate rape". THANK YOU..!! The women's votes handed to us, quite possibly, is what gave us the popular vote. Karl Rove..sorry man. Kiss those billions of dollars down the drain. oh well...I'm so thankful the cons antiquated ideology they embrace, and refuse to change paid us huge dividends....lol. But hey...they still got 65% of the white guys over 40, lol.Well said.