| Perry's Job Plan: More Corporate Tax Breaks |
| Posted by Don Kusler (don) on Sep 16 2011 at 4:58 PM |
THEY REALLY SAID IT
Apparently unfazed by the continuing failure of a well-tried prescription, Texas governor Rick Perry recently outlined to a WFW New Hampshire activist a jobs plan that relies exclusively on further tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations and fewer protections for workers, consumers, investors and the environment. In a 15-minute conversation at the Harvey Bakery and Coffee Shop in Dover on August 18, the current frontrunner in the GOP presidential race acknowledged that excessive deregulation led to the financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent Great Recession. Yet he still maintained that big business in essence wasn’t yet powerful enough. He also touted job growth in his home state, much of which is in low-wage jobs or in jobs created through federal-government stimulus spending.
WHAT IT REALLY MEANS
Public regulation of business has occurred only in response to widespread, long-standing, and clearly-documented abuses; deregulation is an invitation for those abuses to return. When government programs ensuring basic human needs are facing deep cuts, reducing taxes on profitable corporations and wealthy individuals is illogical and immoral. Perry’s plan is to accelerate an existing economic trend: rapidly growing incomes for a tiny economic elite, rapidly diminishing opportunities for the middle and working classes.
WHAT REALLY SHOULD BE DONE
Well-regulated economies are more stable and distribute the benefits of growth more fairly. Periods of relatively high taxation on wealthier Americans have also been times of the strongest and most evenly distributed economic expansion, such as the 1960s and 1990s. Restoring shared prosperity and obtaining a healthy, vibrant society requires good jobs, equitable taxation, and a vigilant public sector looking out for the interests of ordinary people.