Back to late 1982. I moved to the northeast to start my first adult job. Housing was horrendously expensive. Reagan had cut income taxes, people had more income, and that inflated the markets for houses and rentals. From my point of view it was a zero sum event. The extra money in my paycheck all went to pay for housing. Without the tax cuts, I calculated, I would have taken less money home but spent less on housing. Some people benefited. Realtors and home builders topped that list. Older. long established homeowners were a tier down. Higher selling prices were offset in part by capital gains taxes.
Six years later, I moved again. Home prices were down, cancelling out the Reagan tax cut infused bubblet.
Here's the point. If Reagan had maintained -- not cut -- income tax rates, the government's extra funds could have produced lasting value. Schools, roads, scientific research, upgrading the electrical grid, and fighting AIDS. Didn't happen. In the end we had neither tangible benefits nor home equity. The money went poof.
Sound familiar? Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations fueled a stock market boom. Companies bought back their own stock. People at the top, wise enough to cash out before November did great. All other investors watched their portfolios drop 15% in just three weeks. Reagan redux. The nation has again been taken for a ride and left with nothing to show. No infrastructure, no added health care, no Federal projects supporting renewable energy. Just another Poof!
Republicans cannot learn. They make the same stupid mistakes again and again. Their anti-tax fetishism produces the same predictable results.
Throw the bums out. Now
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