2012 U.S. Presidential Election

[PanzerJaeger]

That's not an argument, that's an obvious. The question is how to achieve that strong private sector.

I would argue if slashing taxes were the solution, we would know about it by now. The Bush Tax Cuts have had a decade to yield massive wealth to society, and have manifestly failed to do so. Moreover, we're at historic lows in marginal tax rates, and yet we're stuck in a very slow recovery.

Ack. I've refuted this same reductionist pop-economics line several times on this board already. => Bush cut taxes and the economy sucks, thus the Bush tax cuts failed.

The problem with that line of reasoning is that tax policy is only one factor among many that, taken together, dictate economic trends. Significant economic growth actually did follow the Bush tax cuts, and a strong argument could be made that they helped bolster the nation against the economic headwinds coming from the East. And, of course, the economic crisis had nothing to do with tax policy. It is very difficult to accurately gauge the effectiveness of tax rate changes with so much other data effecting economic performance.

So while the exact effect the Bush cuts had on the economy may never be known, what is known with more certainty, is that raising taxes during a period of economic distress - as the current president has been campaigning on - is generally a bad idea.

Anyone who wants to break down Zakaria's argument should probably start here.

And just for fun - I'm always reminded of this TNR blurb on Zakaria any time he is invoked in a serious discussion. The man is pseudo intellectualism embodied.

FAREED ZAKARIA
Fareed Zakaria is enormously important to an understanding of many things, because he provides a one-stop example of conventional thinking about them all. He is a barometer in a good suit, a creature of establishment consensus, an exemplary spokesman for the always-evolving middle. He was for the Iraq war when almost everybody was for it, criticized it when almost everybody criticized it, and now is an active member of the ubiquitous “declining American power” chorus. When Obama wanted to trust the Iranians, Zakaria agreed (“They May Not Want the Bomb,” was a story he did for Newsweek); and, when Obama learned different, Zakaria thought differently. There’s something suspicious about a thinker always so perfectly in tune with the moment. Most of Zakaria’s appeal is owed to the A-list aura that he likes to give off—“At the influential TED conference ...” began a recent piece in The New York Times. On his CNN show, he ingratiates himself to his high-powered guests. This mix of elitism and banality is unattractive. And so is this: “My friends all say I’m going to be Secretary of State,” Zakaria told New York magazine in 2003. “But I don’t see how that would be much different from the job I have now.” Zakaria later denied making those remarks.