"Chicago Sun-Times" readers respond to neo-con columnist regarding Bush tax cuts!

[DailyGrind51]

Tax cuts for the rich help only the rich
Comments

September 15, 2010

Re: Terry Savage's column <"Why hiking taxes on the 'rich' doesn't work," Sept. 13>: Most Bush tax-cut dollars go to higher-income households, and these top earners don't spend as much of their income as lower earners. In fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that of 11 stimulus alternatives it examined, extending the Bush tax cuts actually delivers the smallest bang for the buck.

The government could more effectively stimulate the economy by letting the high-income tax cuts expire -- reverting back to Clinton-era rates in the 1990s -- and use the money for aid to the states, extension of unemployment benefits and tax credits favoring job creation. Dollar for dollar, each of these measures would have about three times the impact on GDP as continuing the Bush tax cuts, according to the CBO.

As for the claim that failure to extend tax cuts to top earners will stifle job creation, recall that while the Clinton-era tax rates applied to the rich in the 1990s, the economy created more than 22.5 million jobs in less than eight years -- the most jobs ever created under a single administration. And we had a surplus. Borrowing money to give tax breaks to people who don't need it will do nothing but add to the deficit.

Cathy Foster, Lincoln Square
Rich don't create jobs in U.S.

Columnist Terry Savage seems to believe that doing the same thing in the same way will somehow result in job creation and a better economy.

However, prevailing evidence has demonstrated just the opposite. The top 2 percent have had their 4 percent tax cut for some time now, but have not used it to create American jobs, preferring to fuel the investment bubble that precipitated the economic meltdown in the first place.

If any jobs were created, they were created overseas for much lower salaries, thereby making American labor uncompetitive, exacerbating the wage disparity between the richest and poorest Americans.

On the other hand, retaining tax cuts for the middle class will return dollars directly to the economy in reduced individual debt and enhanced consumer spending.

Richard A. Kosinski, Edison Park

http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/letters/2709382,CST-EDT-vox15.article