Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Tax and Spend Liberals

John Petty over at Progressive Involvement checks the record from WWII to the present:

1. The largest growth in domestic product – Truman

2. The highest growth in jobs – Clinton

3. The largest increase in personal disposable income after taxes – Lyndon Johnson

4. The highest growth in industrial production – John F. Kennedy

5. The highest growth in hourly wages – Lyndon Johnson

6. The lowest Misery Index (inflation plus unemployment) – Truman

7. The lowest inflation – Truman

8. The largest reduction in deficit – Clinton

Think what our elections would be like if only our public education system worked.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If there were a nice study or report that such things could be summed up in or linked to, that would be awesome ammunition.

Anonymous said...

It's so hilarious that their whole mantra now is how Obama's going to raise the taxes of upper-middle class plumbers across the country. McCain also says he wants to continue the wars indefinitely and give tax credits for health insurance and continued corporate subsidies for corporate farms, oil companies (and Alaskans, for that matter), etc. etc. Who the hell is going to pay for all of it? Where will the money come from?

I mean, really, what separates us from poverty-stricken, so-called 'third world' countries? Taxes and the citizens who pay them! Amazing.

I know. This is hardly the only outrage. But we really need to work on promoting this idea that it really IS patriotic and absolutely essential to our democracy that we pay taxes.

Of course, we can reform how we spend the money, and certainly make the system more progressive, but in the end we still need to pay taxes.

Personally, I like having potable water; working street lights; safe highways and bridges that generally don't fall down; regulatory agencies to test everything from food, drugs to car seats; national and local parks; public universities and high schools and elementary schools; museums and other cultural institutions; and, hey, fire departments, police departments, and a decent military, to name just a few of the things my taxes pay for.

Does this make me a socialist? If it does, then drape me in red. I don't mind at all.