{"id":12757,"date":"2012-10-30T10:51:20","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T15:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=12757"},"modified":"2012-10-30T10:55:19","modified_gmt":"2012-10-30T15:55:19","slug":"fix-the-debt-destroy-the-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2012\/10\/30\/fix-the-debt-destroy-the-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Fix the Debt, Destroy the Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The American Prospect<\/em> article Fix the Debt, Destroy the Recovery<\/strong><\/a> by Robert Kuttner is another cry for economic sanity.<\/p>\n

\nThe Fix the Debt campaign, much like the Bowles-Simpson Commission and the propaganda of the Peterson Foundation generally, contends that the projected national debt is depressing business willingness to invest now. Presumably, businesses are worried about inflation and uncertainty. But the government can fund ten-year bonds at less than 2 percent interest and thirty-year bonds at less than 3 percent. So investors don\u2019t seem worried about inflation. It\u2019s not lack of confidence in deficit reduction that\u2019s depressing business investment but lack of confidence in consumer purchasing power. [ssg note: no freaking customers]\n

If anything, the economy needs more public spending to get us out of a deep slump brought to you by the very people behind this campaign. Cutting the deficit prematurely will only depress purchasing power and deepen the slump. That\u2019s the real lesson of Greece, Spain, Portugal, et al.
\n.
\n.
\n.
\nAccording to a very helpful analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness<\/a>, 13 of the corporations whose CEOs are behind this lobby paid zero taxes in recent years. Here is their chart drawn from an analysis of IRS data by Citizens for Tax Justice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Corporation<\/strong><\/td>\n\n

Federal Income Taxes 2008-2011<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Profit? 2008-2011?$ Billions<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Tax Subsidies 2008-2011?$ Billions<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Boeing<\/td>\n\n

$0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$14.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$6.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Corning<\/td>\n\n

$0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$2.9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$1.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

General Electric<\/td>\n\n

$0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$19.6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$10.6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Honeywell International<\/td>\n\n

*$0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

*$4.9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$1.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Verizon Communications<\/td>\n\n

$0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$19.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$7.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

TOTAL<\/strong><\/td>\n\n

$0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$62 billion<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

$27 billion<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

.
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\nThis stuff would be comical if it weren\u2019t so influential. And if President Obama is re-elected, the corporate CEOs add up to one more pressure group pushing him to agree to a budget-cutting deal that will be suicidal for the economy and for his legacy in a second term.<\/p>\n

Deficit reduction in a deep slump is not a path to recovery but to a deeper slump.<\/p>\n

The fact that corporate CEOs are behind this latest push should not give the campaign greater credibility, but rather should signal \u201cbuyer beware.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the bipartisan camouflage, this campaign was always deeply conservative\u2014hostile to social outlay, activist government, and a decent income distribution. Shame on any Democrat who doesn\u2019t see through it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How is lowering the tax rate on corporations who pay zero taxes anyway going to do anything for the economy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American Prospect article Fix the Debt, Destroy the Recovery by Robert Kuttner is another cry for economic sanity. The Fix the Debt campaign, much like the Bowles-Simpson Commission and the propaganda of the Peterson Foundation generally, contends that the projected national debt is depressing business willingness to invest now. Presumably, businesses are worried about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12757"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12760,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12757\/revisions\/12760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}