Tax cuts, tax cuts. That’s all the Republicans believe in anymore (well that and gun show loopholes, attacking homosexual marriages and punking Barack Obama). But we’ve been living the tax cut dream for the last eight years. President Bush and the Republicans in Congress piled on tax cut after tax cut. So why did all those wonderful people who paid less in taxes not stimulate our economy into a Capitalist Nirvana? Why are we facing the worst economic crisis of my lifetime (I’m 52, by the way)? Daniel Gross has the answer:
The typical worker—white-collar, blue-collar, no-collar—doesn’t have anything like tenure or a guaranteed job. In fact, she may be working at a company that has just laid off 10 percent of its work force and may soon lay off more. She may be one of the 3.6 million people who has lost a job in the last year. She may work in an industry in which one large, longtime player has just liquidated. She might still have employer-provided health insurance, but the company may have just jacked up the employee contribution. She knows that if she loses her job, she would have to start spending several thousand dollars a year to purchase health insurance. Meanwhile, this worker—say she’s in her mid-40s—is providing for her own retirement via a 401(k), whose balance has fallen by 40 percent in the last year. Oh, and her adjustable-rate mortgage is about to readjust to a higher rate.
You see, back in the day, before corporations made downsizing and outsourcing into words that the Dictionary recognizes, people had reliable jobs. They generally stuck with one employer, the salary increased as they got older, they had a pension plan and social security to look forward to when they retired, and the Federal Government and most states kept the cost of higher education affordable so Joe and Jane Citizen could send their kid to College, or to Law School, or Med School or pay for him or her to become a CPA (Yes, some people really do become accountants).
We don’t live in those days anymore, however. Since “globalization” and union busting and deregulation and all those other wonderful Republican policies were implemented, we’ve been bleeding good paying, steady, reliable jobs and replacing them with temp jobs and fast food burger flipping jobs, and “Have a Happy Day” Walmart greeter type jobs. Low paying, here today, gone tomorrow, type jobs. And even the people who had reasonably well paying jobs never knew when the hammer might fall on them and their jobs would just go bye-bye.
But a lot of Americans just kept sipping that Republican Kool-aid, the one flavored “more tax cuts are the answer to all our problems.” Or the one called “Government is the problem, not the solution.” Or my all time favorite: “Democrats are Evil Tax and Spending Fools.” But hey, we all know people spend their tax cuts and grow the economy, right? Yeah, right.
So, what happens if you cut this worker’s payroll taxes (assuming she’s on somebody’s payroll and isn’t a contractor or self-employed)? Well, she might spend the increased cash flow. But given everything that’s going on, a fearful but still rational person might not rush out to spend or invest the money. She might be far more likely—and well-advised—to save it, to build up a cash hoard that would allow her to remain solvent should she lose her job, or to prepare for the eventuality that she might have to buy her own health insurance. Or she might start shoveling that extra $100 per week into her 401(k) to make up for some of the huge losses she’s suffered.
Of course, that assumes most ordinary workers would get a tax cut, instead of say, the people who’d like to see the capital gains tax eliminated. Or corporate tax rates slashed even more. Or the Estate Tax terminated forevah, baby! You know, rich folks, like those CEOs and Senior Corporate Executives who won the MegaMillions’ Bonuses Game! The same folks who made out like bandits while their companies and those “other” employees went down in flames. But hey, that Old Tax Cut Rag sure sounds purty and you can do a line dance to it, too. Just ask your friendly neighborhood GOP man (or woman). They’ll (still) tell you. If you can stand the same old tune over and over and over . . .
