Question about Reagan-era tax cuts...?

[hexola]

I'm too young to know...

When Reagan cut taxes...did people get checks in the mail like they have on 2 occasions durning Bush's administration?

It just seems like Bush was buying votes...

[wryter2000]

1. I'm too old to remember

Just kidding. No, I don't remember any checks. I could be wrong. It was a while ago.

[madmax]

2. No checks

We got umbrellas for the trickle down. ;)

[MacCovern]

3. No checks in the mail in the 1980's

Nope. I was just a teenager when those tax cuts went into effect, but
there were no tax refund checks in the mail.

One thing that is forgotten about those tax cuts is how drastically
the tax code changed. The tax brackets were lowered, BUT many write-offs were discontinued (some good, some bad). No longer could you deduct credit card interest, average your income over a period of several years to lower your current year taxes, etc.

[SharonAnn]

19. No longer could deduct sales taxes either.

It reduced our (middle-class) deductions quite a bit. Plus we had three kids in college and got no deductions for them.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hexola]

7. ...but no 600 dollar checks?

...tax cuts provide relief to a struggling economy...

They well may - but does a "tax cut" imply a need to send a check to every Amercian? From the replies...I don't think that's how Reagan did it...

...when you file your tax return you get a check from the government and the size of the check is determined by how much money you make...

I'm not refering to your yearly tax return! I'm talking about the 600 dollar checks that BushCo has issued on 2 occasions...these checks were issued independently of any tax returns.

And no, I don't remember the Great Depression...heard about though. I thought the Smoot-Hawley tarrif happend after the Depression had began? The stock market crashed in 1929...Smoot-Hawley didn't happen until 1930

[Kathy in Cambridge]

10. Yeah, the economy is really 'rouring', PandaPoo2

only 1,000 jobs were created in December-the height of the Christmas hiring season. :eyes:

On edit: Kraft just announced it's laying off 6,000. Here's a :toast: to your 'rouring' economy!

Learn how to spell while you're at it!

[hexola]

11. I thought PandaPoo meant...

the deficit!!!

[bobbieinok]

12. ??????

roaring economy we have now????????

after you file your return you get a check ONLY if too much withholding tax was taken out of your pay

???????????????????

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

14. ummm

nevermind

Oh, welcome to DU.

What do you think about Bush's new massive tax increases? Debt is a tax you know.

[Warpy]

5. No, we just saw the next paycheck climb, usually by less than a dollar.

Those of us who were able to do the math realized Reagan was cutting our taxes by pennies, but cutting the taxes on his own fortune by nearly a million. Yes, we saw those paychecks rise by a few cents. No, it didn't do any of us any good.

Then, as the tide of red ink began to rise, he doubled FICA, supposedly to create a trust fund for social security, but really putting most of the hike into the general fund, where it could be used to fudge the books. Thanks to Reagan and continued Congressional robbery, the country owes social security TEN TRILLION DOLLARS. Do you really think they're going to tap the fat cats to get that money paid back? Do you think the Red Sox will ever win a World Series again?

Reagan effectively shifted the burden of government away from wealth and onto labor, exactly the opposite of what was originally intended. May he rot in hell.

[FloridaPat]

6. No checks. And it wasn't a tax cut - it was an increase

for the middle class. Yes, the lowered the actual tax rate, but they got rid of all the deductions or added the percentage crap that if you bills are bigger than x% you can take them off your taxes.

I was going to buy a house at that time. I got a hold of the tax "cut" rules and found out I'd get killed if I bought that particular house. I had one friend who is a Democrat and stays up with what's going on. He claimed it was a tax cut. I ask him how much he got back - he ended up paying $3000 more a year. The middle class got royally screwed on that one.

[hexola]

8. Intaxication?

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you
realize it was your money to start with!

(apologies to the Washington Post)

[Overkil]

9. My dad credits (in part) the reagan tax cuts.......

for spurring the economy at the same time he started his engineering firm. They just celebrated 21 yrs in business. Go Brooks Engineering and Surveying, Inc. !!

[Kathy in Cambridge]

13. The '80s were an awful time for a lot of working people

unions busted, layoffs, decreasing standard of living.

Very few benefitted-you're father's ingenuity probably spurred his business, not the tax cuts.

[Mormegil42]

16. How where you doing

in 1987?

[Kathy in Cambridge]

18. My family was struggling.

And you?

[Mormegil42]

15. No they didn't

Presidents didn't do retroactive tax cuts. That started under the current President Bush in response to President Clinton's retroactive tax increases in 1992.

[hexola]

17. So you are saying...?

...that the BushCo tax cut was nothing more than a political middle finger to Clinton...?