I've argued a lot for a more progressive tax code in order to save this country from our debt crisis, because I've always felt that a flat tax is not a fair tax, and that to take more from those who can least afford it is not the way to get our fiscal house back in order. In response, I hear time and time again that taxes on "job creators" will stifle innovation, lose millions of jobs, and wreck our economy. The silver bullet that they propose instead is one that has been tried time and time again, and has failed to deliver each time. Lowering taxes on the wealthy does not drive the economy, it does not provide for the poor, and it sure as hell does not equate to prosperity for everyone. Our top marginal tax rates, whether personal income, corporate income, or capital gains are at the lowest levels they have been since the 1930's. How low is low enough? When will the magic of tax breaks cast its spell?
In response to a debt reduction plan that defies arithmetic, democrats proposed a plan offering a balanced approach to debt reduction. A combination of spending cuts and tax increases, democrats argued, would be the best way to continue providing necessary services to those in need while bringing our finances back from the brink of insolvency. Let me remind you of a moment from the republican debates a few months back. When asked if they would accept 10 dollars of spending cuts for 1 dollar of revenue increases, each and every prospective republican candidate refused the offer. These candidates don't negotiate, they stonewall. Again I ask, how low is low enough? Why have we not seen results from tax cuts? I can see the effects these revenue cuts have taken all across Oregon, my home state. Schools are cutting teachers and cramming more children into classrooms badly in need of repair, roads and bridges are going years without adequate repair, and policemen and firemen are losing their jobs. Food assistance for the starving is underfunded, care for the elderly and the disabled is being cut, all in hope that somehow, sometime, the economy will boom, and everything can be paid for again. This is not a reasonable approach to deficit reduction, it is placing the burden of Wall Streets failure upon the backs of those who had no part in its crash.
Look, when the government employs people, that's not throwing tax dollars away, that's putting tax dollars back into the economy. Teachers, firemen, police officers, social workers, and government employees are consumers, just like any person from the private sector. Every dollar spent on a teacher is a dollar invested in the next generation, and a dollar that will get spent in the market, or reinvested by the teacher. Government jobs are real jobs, held by real people, and they have a real impact for millions of middle and low class people across America. To those who proclaim that we are robbing our children of their futures by overspending, and in the same breath advocate for deeper spending cuts for education, I say: how dare you. Education is the key to one's future. If we forget that, it won't be a fiscal deficit we have to worry about, but a knowledge deficit. When the next generation of Americans grows up, it is our duty to have provided them with the skills they will need to succeed in that work force. Austerity fails to do so.
Whenever a plan is advertised as "good for the economy," I wonder, for whom is it really good? Government jobs are primarily filled by individuals in the middle and lower classes, and cutting government jobs most acutely affects those who can least afford it. On the other hand, financial analysts argue that if their taxes are cut further, GDP will surely rise. Well, GDP growth is at best a crude measurement of the health of the economy. If the richest tenth of our population is doing great, GDP will rise, regardless of the conditions felt by the other 90% of citizens. Lowering the highest marginal tax rates and relaxing financial regulations will just further entrench money in financial centers, but won't bring any relief to struggling counties in the Mississippi delta, in the Appalachians, or in rural middle-America towns. They simply won't see the prosperity come raining down, and if they do, it will be a trickle. With an eye to the future, and with a plan that will immediately create jobs, the government should boost infrastructure and education spending that will lower unemployment and bring us out of this depression. Yes, there are cuts to be made, and government waste to be reduced. But we cannot rob this next generation of the infrastructure and education that we enjoyed, simply because our financial institutions became "too big to fail." That would be economically unsound, and morally unjust.
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