Bush-wacked Americans

To find most of the blame for America's unsustainable fiscal situation, one need go no further than George Bush's presidency.

The Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 for higher income Americans have totaled US$2.9 trillion, according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. (This includes mortgage interest deductibility for two residences of up to $1 million apiece.) The two Bush wars, Afghanistan and Iraq, have cost at least US$1 trillion. And the bailout, caused by non-regulation of Wall Street and mortgage brokers, cost trillions more.

So why did American voters this fall hand over control of the House of Representatives to Republicans and Tea Party representatives? Why would Americans remain unperturbed about the shifting of the tax burden from high-income to low-income? Why are there no protests demanding military budget cuts?
These questions are pertinent as Congress and the White House cobble together another budget. But public opinion is starting to shift.

In April, a surprising poll by GlobeScan revealed disenchantment with America's sacred cow, the free market system itself. Some 59% of Americans in general agreed "strongly" or "somewhat" that the free market was the best system. While still a majority, the point is this response was down from the 80% of Americans who agreed "strongly" or "somewhat" that the free market was the best system back in 2002. Even more significantly, support for the system among "poor" or low-income Americans, a class that has jumped in size, fell from 76% to only 44%.

This shift was inevitable because tax cuts for very rich do not trickle down. But that notion, along with the American Dream myth that anybody can get to the top, has been why many US voters cast ballots against their own best interests. They believe they, or their kids, could be rich one day and also be able to pay low taxes and write off mortgages on fancy condos and ski chalets. So they vote against universal health care, against tax fairness and against leaders who want to chop military budgets.
This mentality, by the way, does not exist in Canada, Australia or Europe where tax cuts are desirable and granted, but never skewed simply to make rich people richer or to, as Bush once said, help "the haves and have-mores".

More research, by Michael Norton who is an associate professor at the Harvard Business School, reveals that Americans don't know that the richest 20% of Americans own 84% of all wealth. His polls showed that people, both Republicans and Democrats, thought the richest owned 59% and that they should only own 32%.

Information will change minds, but for those who don't read and think the sea change will occur when Congress is forced to default on entitlement obligations for Social Security and Medicare because it won't end the Bush tax cuts for the privileged or axe defense expenditures. Only then, will Americans wise up.

Cross posted at Financial Post

 

Comments

[Tony Rubino]

01:49 PM on 05/30/2011

Take my love.
Tank my land.
Take me where I cannot stand.
I don't care,
I'm still free.
You can't take the sky from me.

[ZeraLee]

08:13 PM on 06/01/2011

Unfortunately, the frontiers have been settled. We can no longer expand into new territories to protect our liberties from the robber barons. Unfortunately, corporations have reached the point where they really can burn the land and boil the sea, and are willing to do so for the sake of profits. The time has come to fight for our sovereignty, or surrender it.

F&F in the name of Serenity, and the Browncoats.

[greyhound2]

09:35 AM on 05/30/2011

You are right on! Why is this happening? The average education level of the American people is only the 8th grade, which makes them very gullible and easily manipulated by the propaganda and brain washing of the American Dream, which really only exists in the Land of Oz and on the "idiot box".

[OneFish]

02:24 AM on 05/30/2011

This is old news. Accurate, but old, forgotten, part of daily life so ingrained that you couldn't remove it if you tried. We need a new way to fight.

[realpolitic]

02:03 AM on 05/30/2011

Yes, as Republicans have waged war on the middle class and Bush created deficits as far as the eye can see through his failed wars and his tax cuts for the wealthy, one has to wonder why voters voted in Republicans again in this last election. They broke the system and then complained because Obama did not fix it quickly enough. How did Republicans respond to being widely voted in at the state and federal level? They waged war on the middle class in the form of ending collective bargaining rights for public unions, they made women have to jump through bureaucratic hoops to seek out an abortion, and they made it more difficult for people to register to vote hoping to suppress the Democratic vote. Their ideological fervor is indeed frightening and impressive at the same time as they feed red meat to their base and they have done little to create jobs. At the federal level they are seeking to privatize social security and end Medicare as we know it by replacing it with a system that leaves seniors to the vagaries of a free market system that maximizes profits. When will we tire of the Republican war against the middle class and the poor? The budget can not be balanced on the backs of the working class forever without without some public reaction. Republican values say the rich should be the beneficiaries of a transfer of wealth that makes the disparities of the Gilded Age seem modest by comparison. When we no longer buy into the notion that we can all get rich it may help us to rid ourselves of this Republican war on the public good.

[ScaredAcademic]

12:57 AM on 05/30/2011

As the late and great Molly Ivins once wrote, "In the real world, there are only two ways to deal with corporate misbehavior: One is through government regulation and the other is by taking them to court. What has happened over 20 (now 30) years of free-market proselytizing is that we have dangerously weakened both forms of restraint, first through the craze for "deregulation" and second through endless rounds of "tort reform," all of which have the effect of cutting off citizens' access to the courts. By legally bribing politicians with campaign contributions, the corporations have bought themselves immunity from lawsuits on many levels."

Sometimes the smart see the future....

[RealistBC]

08:57 PM on 05/29/2011

Americans continue to support our "free" market system because they have been long indoctrinated that any other system is suspect and corrupt.

[wmnorton]

08:05 PM on 05/29/2011

Then along came Bush II, he for the first time in history set th top tax rate on dividends at 15%. That has given us the obscene condition where the average Billionaire pays a lower tax rate (16.6%) than a guy working for minimum wage (10% income 6.6% Social Security 1.45% Medicare = 17.05%). Yes I know that they get a lot of it back with the earned income credit but most people, especiall on the right consider that wealfare. But the Billionaire is geting the same kind of treatment why isn't that also considered wealthy welfare?

[ScaredAcademic]

08:46 PM on 05/29/2011

Notice no one ever mentions that. It's because it's where the money really is. However, my personal opinion is that you raise it after the markets close on the last day of the year, in a surprise, or you would get a massive sell off to avoid taxes.

[wmnorton]

12:39 AM on 05/30/2011

There would probably be much less selling than you would think. People are in the stock market because they believe that is where the best return on their investment is. There were lots of people in the stock market back when divdends wer ordinary income. And there are a lot of people like me that are not concerned with the 15% tax on dividends. My IRA holds some stock, but my tax rate is dependent upon how much I take out every year. There are also all the institutional investors like pension plans, the 15% dividend rate means nothing to them, They give out checks to the participants and then the participants are the ones paying the taxes.
But it is fun to think about pulling a surpise on all those greedy b4st

[wmnorton]

08:04 PM on 05/29/2011

Well stated! I have been saying here. for years, that we do not have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem The givaway to the rich started under Reagan and got much worse under Bush. Reagan had his "tax reform" that lowered the taxes on the rich from a top rate of 50% to 28%. He later had to raise it. But his tax reform was revenue neutral. That means that it would generate the same amount of revenue after the changes as it did before the changes, If the Rich got big tax cuts someone else had a big tax hike. I'm a middle class guy and when he did his tax reform my taxes amost doubled. So when the rich say that we should let them keep more of their money because afterall it's their money, I say no it's not it's my money and I want it back. The problem with the Tea Party People is that they are right about their taxes being too high, the problem is that they blame Obama, who has only lowered their taxes, instead of Reagan who is the one who did it to them.

[AdamSmart]

07:50 PM on 05/29/2011

Couple points

1. Bush Wars- This is the reason why there has not been a terrorist attack on American soil since September 11

2. Bailout- Reason why there was not another great depression

3. Bush tax cuts to the wealthy- a lot of people seem to forget that the wealthiest people already get taxed the most. Sure not taxing them more brings in less revenue but at a certain point it must become unAmerican to tax so high. Although it is true a 90% tax on the richest will bring in more revenue but that is socialism not capitalism.

[ScaredAcademic]

08:41 PM on 05/29/2011

1) Prove that. You can't. What you can prove is that opinions of the US in the Muslim world were never higher than just after 9/11 and have torpedoed since those wars began. Wanna guess what feelings terrorists generally have about the US?

2) Of course, if the SEC and DoJ had not been filled with empty-headed ideologues, it never would have happened.

3) Socialism is public ownership of the means of production. As should be obvious, it turns out that has nothing to do with the top marginal tax rate. Heck, it isn't even a hard salary cap.

W - Worst President Ever. It will take a generation or more to recover from his misadventures both foreign and domestic.

[Angelaaaa]

08:59 PM on 05/29/2011

So, where is this point? Is 89% a worthy contribution to the society they profess to hold so dear, while 90% is unAmerican? (love that word - it can mean absolutely anything you don't agree with, without the pernickety requirements of justification).

As for the wealthiest people being taxed the most - are we talking percentage-wise (because they surely aren't) or net amount?

I am fine with capitalism but I object to socializing the losses, while the wealthy walk away with the profits and government subsidies. If it's capitalism we want - then we should have it ALL.

[ScaredAcademic]

07:05 PM on 05/29/2011

An education campaign on the free market would certainly help. For example, under the "free market" a shale oil and gas company can poison your water well with toxic chemicals while saving costs in casing, cement, and drilling and then dare you to sue them. If you do, then they can spend millions defending the lawsuit that you cannot match. It's called legal theft but it is the free market. So free that it operates by the golden rule, he who hath the gold maketh the rules.

[Gottlieb]

08:19 PM on 05/29/2011

I understand why you are a "ScaredAcademic." It is too late for education since a well educated electorate is necessary for a functioning democracy. The US education system does not teach the basics necessary to the general public for an education campaign on the free market to be comprehended. Destroying the middle class public education system has been necessary to enable this new "Gilded Age" we are entering. Most people get their information from TV between commercials programming them to believe what is important. I think the GOP's brand of populism mixed with demagoguery is going to work since they offer simplistic solutions to complex problems while scapegoating segments of the population. Teachers are the problem, unions are the problem, immigrants are the problem, a religion is the problem, women's health care is the problem. The GOP has the solutions which appeal to people worried about losing all they have worked their lives for. The GOP is now the party of the "Big Lie." The GOP is working now to suppress the vote and winning. ACORN worked to mobilize the poor by voter registration and education and was destroyed by the "Big Lie." Unions worked to organize the middle class but are being destroyed by the "Big Lie." I don't see any hope for the sheep looking up but we have to keep trying.

[ScaredAcademic]

08:43 PM on 05/29/2011

Nailed it. Most people think it is some spinelessness or whatever but it comes from teaching students at a top 15 national private university and realizing that America's best and brightest are selfish and arrogant but not all that bright and certainly not well educated.

[SAGMUN]

06:43 PM on 05/29/2011

The only time you are going have trickle down from the "have mores" is when they use the urinal.

[Dawg1000]

05:16 PM on 05/29/2011

If you drive a car,
I'll tax the street.
If you try to sit,
I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold,
I'll tax the heat.
If you take a walk,
I'll tax your feet.

[Jim Pasterczyk]

06:28 PM on 05/29/2011

No, just leased.