Tax Cut Claims Gain Criticism as Employers Shed More Jobs

[kskiska]

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 5 -- Three months after passage, President Bush's $350 billion tax cut package is eliciting fresh criticism that it has failed to stem nearly 20 months of job losses or produce a promised surge in employment.

The perils of presidential promises hit the White House anew when the Labor Department reported this morning that employers shed 93,000 jobs from payrolls in August. It was the seventh consecutive month companies had slashed payrolls, up sharply from the 43,000 positions lost in July. This time, the losses came just as the president's $350 billion tax cut package was showing up in consumers' pockets.

"Today's unemployment report shows we have more to do," Bush said in a brief acknowledgement of the issue. But pointing to strong economic growth statistics, he later added his standard boast, "Tax relief is stimulating job creation all across the country."

(snip)

That is not what Bush anticipated when he was stumping for his third tax cut in as many years. Not only did the president frame the tax cut as a jobs program, but also his Council of Economic Advisers left a paper trail. The council predicted that passage of the tax cut would produce 510,000 new jobs in 2003 and 891,000 in 2004.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32724-2003Sep5.html

[GAspnes]

1. okay, so it's not economics, it's just a payoff

I suppose he's never heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

[Yavin4]

2. Just Like Iraq Was Never About WMDs...

the tax cuts were never about job creation. And, just like Iraq was a payback to the oil companies that sponsor Bush's family and his entire political career, so too were the tax cuts.

[w4rma]

3. Bush has *LOST* at least 2.4 million jobs since he's been in office

The council predicted that passage of the tax cut would produce 510,000 new jobs in 2003 and 891,000 in 2004.

[pansypoo53219]

7. the chimp has new name

now doesn't he.

George herbert hoover.

[TacticalPeek]

11. Or on his election yard signs:

George Herbert "Whistle Ass" Hoover.

[JPace]

25. "Bush has *LOST* at least 2.4 million jobs since he's been in office"

Good chart.....I hope you use it often
when its appropriate so everyone can
learn from it. Thanks!

[BeatleBoot]

4. Huge layoffs where I'm at...

Blows my mind watching Repukes talking up the economy versus the reality that exists out there.

[kodi]

5. ah, the beauty of the symmetry, bush can't find WMD, we can't find jobs

that shitbag spouted off how he would run his presidency like a business, but if a business were run this poorly, bush would have been fired 18 months ago.

all this shows is the nature of crony capitalism where those who run the show protect their own at any cost.

[jamesinca]

17. He is running it like a business

Look at his trac record. Harken for example. It failed, so did his other attempts in the past. As Gephardt said in NM "he is a miserable failure"

[liberalhistorian]

6. WTF? "Tax Relief is stimulating job creation all over

the country" WTF planet does this clueless, brain-dead motherfucker live on, anyway? And for someone who is desperate not to repeat the out-of-touch, domestic policy mistakes of his father, he's sure doing a good job of replicating those mistakes!

Actually, he may be technically correct in that the jobs that are being created are in the ruthless, heartless, good-for-nothing collection agency industry, and for foreclosure attorneys. I'm already seeing many more ads for collectors than normal. Heartless, blood-sucking bastards, making tons of money off of people who have no money!

[TacticalPeek]

9. I recall one year under the Raygun economy

when there were record US bankruptcies and record US Rolls Royce sales simultaneously. I've no doubt the same is happening now.

Damn greedheads.

[wellst0nev0ter]

8. Wow! The Headline Isn't "Democrats Criticize Tax Cuts"???

There may be hope for the kneepad media yet :)

[TacticalPeek]

10. Really! From the article, dig it:

he later added his standard boast, "Tax relief is stimulating job creation all across the country."


and

The "lagging indicator" line was Republican mantra today from the White House to Capitol Hill.


Maybe soon it will be "his standard empty boast", and "mindless Republican mantra".

[Born Free]

18. Wow! The Headline Isn't "Democrats Criticize Tax Cuts"??

http://www.msnbc.com/news/960489.asp


"In the 90's, you had a lot of non-standard work arrangements," he said. "But because the economy was strong, people didn?t suffer."
But this time around things may be different. One factor may be the over-investment bubble of the 90?s which has not yet been worked out of the economy. Another is that creating new jobs is harder than just giving people their old jobs back.

"New jobs are riskier to create and take longer to create," said Groshen.

The New York Fed economists conclude this is a new kind of recovery, driven not by job gains, but by productivity increases. That productivity is great for employers, but may be costing some workers their jobs. "

******************************************

People are doing more for less, more overtime, more work,less breaks, afraid they will get permanetly laid off if they don't do the work of two people. Meanwhile the powers the bush team supports is raking in the profits - great time for the rich, not so good for the average working person. Much like a hangover, the American working family must suffer from the good times brought to them by the democrats,the real question is "DID you have enough yet?" If you are tired of all of it, all the fear-uncertainity and doubt brought on by the republicans, then do the right thing for America and vote them out.

[Neecy]

21. yep

People are doing more for less, more overtime, more work,less breaks, afraid they will get permanetly laid off if they don't do the work of two people.

And don't forget that this administration wants you to work all of that overtime so you can do the work of three people, but they don't think you should be paid a premium rate for it.

[sandnsea]

12. A third tax cut???

I think Bush's hot air is affecting my mind. We've had two tax cuts, is that right? He is stumping for ANOTHER one? Or did I miss one in there somewhere?

[TacticalPeek]

13. Well, there have been three big ones that made the press.

That's to say, that we know about: 2001, 2002 and 2003.

Interesting numbers here:

http://www.ctj.org/pdf/allbushcut.pdf

From Citizens for Tax Justice.

[sandnsea]

14. Well I missed one

As I remember, there was the first tax cut where we all got refund checks. Then there was this year's. I swear to god I don't remember last year's tax cut. Obviously made no difference in MY taxes!

Googling it up, I see the first one was the 'Economic Growth' plan and the economy took a dump. The second one was 'Job Creation' and unemployment went high and is going higher. 2003 is 'Job and Growth Tax Relief'. So based on every act he's ever passed that means the exact opposite of what it says, I guess we can expect a full blown depression.

Aaagh. THREE tax cuts in THREE years. With two wars and the US needing increased security at home??? Incomprehensible.

[stickdog]

15. Bush and his cronies are on holiday this weekend.

They're celebrating Cheap Labor Day.

See, all we've got to do is learn to work for 14 hours a day for $4.00 a day like they do in Thailand, and the jobs will come back!

[Buns_of_Fire]

16. No safe haven for Commander Codpiece

Bush strategists have long known a weak economy could be as troublesome as it was for his father, but they had come to believe that the broad public approval of the president's handling of the war on terrorism would serve as an insurance policy. But Ed Sarpolus, an independent pollster in Michigan, said voter attention has shifted markedly back to the home front since the president declared an end to major combat in Iraq. And that shift has taken its toll. (bold mine)

So, first it was "look at our success in Iraq!" Oops, things are unraveling over there? Then look at our economic policy! No wait, look at our success in Iraq! No, wait, don't look there. How 'bout this recovering econom... How bout them Yankees?

Where's a poor bumbling fool to turn when everything he's touched has turned to a pile of steaming cow dung?

[Noordam]

19. Didn't Rove think about whistle-ass carrier landing

would "voter attention has shifted markedly back to the home front since the president declared an end to major combat in Iraq"

[Buns_of_Fire]

20. Rover's a political animal, nothing else

I think he figured that we'd be so tightly wrapped in the flag and the rah-rah faux-patriotism of the photo-op that we wouldn't notice anything else. And, to roughly 30% of the voting population, he's right. But I truly don't think they expected people to start connecting the dots on the domestic level, as well.

[saigon68]

22. ITS A STEAMING PANT LOAD

You can't deny of camoflage it.

[JPace]

26. "No safe haven for Commander Codpiece"

Well said!.....

short and to the point, put in a way that
I had not thought of. Also as more people
tune into what AWOL is saying (tomorrow's
speech) his overconfident, crude, and
confrontive mannerisms are going to become
more apparent and a turn off to those who
are in pain from the economy and the war.

[robbedvoter]

23. Gee! Poppy had a "jobless recovery" too (but didn't actually LOOSE jobs)

"The only other U.S. recession that was followed by such late and slow job growth
came in 1991 and 1992, according to a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That
"jobless recovery" helped doom President George H.W. Bush's reelection, though job growth was
actually flat. "
(That's the one that gives him the rights to take credit for Clinton's recovery - the one WITH the jobs)

[stilpist]

24. If only the tax cuts had been BIGGER!

That's how they'll spin it:

"As Mankiw noted, the tax cut that Bush signed into law was considerably different -- and considerably smaller over 10 years -- than the $726 billion cut the president originally championed."

And that's plausible on its face. Do what should work, get no result, must be you didn't do enough of it. The point being that this won't sway the believers.

But you gotta really "love" this one:

'"Today's unemployment report shows we've got more to do," Bush said...'

My take - PLEASE,GODS, DON'T LET HIM DO ANY MORE!!

- stil

[fencesitter]

27. If I got a huge tax cut...

and if I were an investor, why would I put my money into an American firm? I would invest my money overseas into foreign firms which make money exporting goods back to the US. Ergo, my business investment wouldn't create any new jobs.