Senator McCain's Economic Policies Will Fail -- Big Time

Once again, we're hearing economic la-la land from the Republican candidate. As usual, we're hearing the great canard -- there is a free lunch, you can have something for nothing and you can cut taxes and increase revenue. Let's go over the facts AGAIN for those of you playing at home.

Let's look at the data.

Kennedy cut taxes in the early 1960s. What happened? There was a spike in revenue in the late 1960s.

Maybe that means the Laffer curve is correct?

Reagan cut taxes in the 1980s. But there was no spike in revenue. Maybe tax cuts don't pay for themselves. But, let's try that experiment again.

Bush cut taxes twice (not once) in the early 2000s. Notice that after the first tax cut revenues dropped. But then tax revenues spiked -- so they must work! Actually, no. Remember this is a year over year chart. That means the spikes in the later 2000s are being compared to the dropping revenue is the early 2000s. In other words -- the tax cuts didn't pay for themselves (again).

The chart is very clear. Kennedy's cuts worked to a point, but they weren't the greatest thing since sliced bread. Reagan's and Bush's didn't work as advertised. Thanks to both Reagan and Bush's cuts we are now mired in a boat load of debt.

For those of you playing at home, total federal debt under Reagan increased from a little over 30% of GDP to over 60% of GDP. Under Bush it has increased from 57% of GDP to 64% of GDP.

Can we stop this crap now?