Declining Fortunes

While the ongoing new jobless claims have not received much attention from the executive branch, this dour economic news surely will.

Seriously, if regressive tax cuts come at the expense of growth (either directly or because they foreclose some alternative and more stimulative policy) then they don’t even help they rich. Or, more precisely, they improve the relative (to everyone else) wealth of the rich, but come at the expense of absolute wealth.

Another way of seeing this is to ask your rich friend which they would prefer: (1) Paying a marginal tax rate of 39.6% and having the economic growth of the Clinton Years, or (2) Paying a marginal tax rate of 35% and having the economic growth of the Bush Years (I or II)?

AB

X-Posted at It’s Still the Economy