Reich On The Politics of the Economy

Here are 3 reasons why everything you hear from Republicans about economics is baloney:
1. They say tax cuts on the wealthy and on corporations spur economic growth. Wrong. The U.S. economy grew faster each year between 1945 and 1980, on average, when the top marginal income tax rate was never lower than 70 percent and when corporate taxes were far higher, than the economy has grown since 1980.
2. They say economic growth trickles down in the form of better jobs. Wrong again.... Almost all the gains from growth since 1980 have gone to the to the top 1 percent and into corporate income. And the share of corporate income going to workers has plummeted to its lowest level since 1951. Just since 2000, that drop has cost workers $535 billion annually, or $3,770 per worker, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

3. They say Republican presidents do better for the economy than Democratic presidents. Baloney. As the accompanying article from Forbes (of all places) shows,
-- Personal disposable income has grown nearly 6 times more under Democratic presidents.
-- Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown 7 times more under Democratic presidents.
-- Corporate profits have grown over 16% more per year under Democratic presidents (they actually declined under Republicans by an average of 4.53%/year).
-- Average annual compound return on the stock market has been 18 times greater under Democratic presidents (If you invested $100k for 40 years of Republican administrations you had $126k at the end, if you invested $100k for 40 years of Democrat administrations you had $3.9M at the end)
-- Republican presidents added 2.5 times more to the national debt than Democratic presidents. The two times the economy steered into the ditch (Great Depression and Great Recession) were during Republican, laissez faire administrations.
Given all this, why would anyone who cares about jobs, wages, and the economy vote Republican?
Robert Reich