The Bush Era Tax Cuts Essay

In statistical terms, over the course of Reagan’s career, “seventeen million new jobs were created… with the unemployment rate falling from 7.6 per cent to 5.5 per cent over the same period” (Hannaford). The American middle class significantly grew during Reagan’s presidency, and by the end of it, “there were 5.9 million more Americans who had salaries exceeding $50,000 (adjusted for inflation) than when Reagan took office—an increase of 60 percent… [Furthermore,] there were 2.5 million more Americans who had salaries exceeding $75,000—an 83 per cent increase” (Hannaford). It is clear that, under Reagan, not only was the quantity of jobs increased, but quality as well, with a higher number of people

This idea of reducing taxes to increase investment within the economy sounds like a good idea but hasn’t lived up to its expectations historically. The idea of supply side economics wasn’t a new idea for the American tax code. During the early 1920s, income tax rates were cut multiple times which averaged to a total of most rates being cut by a little less than half. The Mellon Tax Cuts named after Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. He believed that changes in income tax rates causes individuals to change their behavior and practices. As taxes rise, tax payers attempt to reduce taxable income by either working less, retiring earlier, reducing business expansions, restructure companies or spending more money on accountants to find tax loopholes. If executed properly tax cuts can actually benefit economic growth, data from the Internal Revenue Service(IRS) showed that the across-the-board tax cuts in the early 1920s resulted in greater tax payments and larger tax share paid by those in the higher incomes. As the marginal tax rate on the highest income earners were cut from 60 percent or more to just 25 percent, the amount that this tax group payed soared from around 300 million to 700 million per year. (See Figure 2) This sudden massive increase in revenue allowed the U.S. economy to rapidly expand during the mid and late 20s. Between 1920 to 1929, real gross national product grew at an annual average rate of 4.7 percent and

Heated debates over tax cut have always been one of the central economic themes on the American political table. Since taxes relate directly to the quality of lives, it is by no means surprising to find people showing significant concern about policies regarding cutting or raising the amount they have to pay. The idea that lowering tax rate makes room for growth has remained generally popular among the majority, taking a possible decrease in individuals’ tax burden and increase in productivity into account. There is, however, extensive research conducted on the topic that produced controversial results. Despite its appeal to instant benefits for one’s saving account and investment, reducing tax rate has yet to show a definite positive effect

More than 35% of American adults are obese and as a consequence, are at increased risks for health issues such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes ("Overweight & Obesity"). The U.S. taxpayer is supplementing much of the cost to treat obesity related health issues through public health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid ("Economic Costs"). A positive externality will occur in the form of decreased health care expenditures on Medicare and Medicaid. The U.S. government should impose an excise tax on soda and other beverages that contain sugar. Consumers who drink excess sugary beverages impose a negative internality on their health; as well as imposing a negative externality on the American

From what is supposedly being shown in papers and on the news the U.S. economy is currently concerned about unemployment, caused by the recession. This “current macroeconomic situation” is pardoning my language freaking a lot of individuals out, because some have no idea of how it is going to get better. The news/media is not painting us such a pretty picture of it, by calling it “this decade’s depression”. The unemployment rate is at 8.2% as of July 2012, whereas the average in 1948 was at 5.6%.

The recession of 2008 is also called the ‘Great Recession’, said to have begun in December 2007, and took a turn for the worse in September 2008, and it was a severe economic problem expanded globally. This recession affected the world economy, and is said to have been the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression. The decline in the Dow Jones this time was -53.8%. Since the official start of the recession in December 2007, and through June 2010 there have been about 2.3 million homes foreclosed in the United States. In 2012, the state with the most foreclosures in January alone was California, with 51,584 houses being repossessed. Unemployment during this collapse was 8.5%, and continued to increase to about 10% as of 2010. People’s reaction to this recession was a huge decrease in spending and borrowing from banks, but an increase in saving.

The encouragement of economic disparity because of these tax cuts is bad for America. The US should be aiming for more social and economic equality for everybody. Tax cuts can slow down the economy by putting more money into the wealthy peoples’ hands and giving less to the people who need it.

Throughout history, taxation on United States citizens has proven to be a necessary component of a growing economy as means of generating revenue for the federal budget. The federal budget funds the many government programs implemented to keep the disabled, elderly, and unemployed from falling bellow the poverty level. Unfortunately, this fund is not always available when catastrophic evens, such as an economic recession, deplete the revenue coming in and create a budget deficit. In order to regenerate money coming in and replace the deficit, the government calls on money gained from taxes. What happens when tax money is already appropriated to other programs? A tax reform. A tax increase has many times been the

Everybody in the United Stated was affected by the recession that began in December of 2007 and spanned all the way to June 2009. Even though the recession is over, many people are still being affected by it and have still not been able to recover from the great recession. “The recent recession features the largest decline in output, consumption, and investment, and the largest increase in unemployment, of any post-war recession”. Many people lost their jobs due to the recession and some of them are still having a hard time finding jobs and getting back on their feet. Businesses

In these current economic times, people have lost jobs. People have lost faith in the economy since the worth of their money keeps falling. Businesses are failing left and right because of the lack of confidence in the system. Banks have folded because of the amount of people who are unable to pay their loans, leaving the banks without funds. The auto industry is failing as people cannot afford the new cars being produced by Detroit. Confidence in the economic system of the United States is very low. How can the country recover from this economic recession? Some economists would say that the government should step in to save the day by pumping funds into the system. President Obama signed a massive stimulus bill in an attempt to turn the

Americans have been bombarded by new worries in recent days with the war in Libya, unrest in much of the Middle East, and the seemingly endless series of catastrophes in Japan as reported by a recent Gallup poll measuring economic confidence. Added to that, there is a weak job market, increasing fuel prices, and fierce budget battles in Congress, obviously, it is clear the U.S. economy still faces

There is nothing worse than working hard all year, having taxes withheld from your paycheck, and then finding out you still owe Uncle Sam come April. Taxes seem to be one of the most politically charged issues, with candidates from both parties making the topic an integral part of their campaign. Whether any real movement takes place is something that remains to be seen, as the Nation gears up for the next Presidential election.

When given the option to merge three municipalities, people, living within these towns, would seem hesitant to choose to support the merging because of a lack of support showing that this a good thing. The lack of research done on the effects of merging of three towns, shows that nobody really know what will happen if the consolidation was passed. The three towns of Round Lake Beach, and Round Lake Park would merge into one Round Lake area, as well as, all the business and public services that each town offers would merge into one. The people in support of this merger suggest that merging these three town will save the townspeople money by reducing taxes the people pay.There is a lack of evidence to show how much money merging the three towns would save. The reduction of taxes may be a good thing but it affects more than just the local businesses, local governments, it has effects over the schools and their teachers, police departments, hospitals, and fire departments.

This recession has been the biggest economic struggle in my lifetime. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. The event that led to this recession is the housing crisis, where banks were giving out loans, almost without any restrictions. People were getting involved in one of the best economic times in our history. Confidence was everywhere and the ideal mindset hit everyone. When the economy hit all new highs, people thought the supply and demand chain would continuously rise. The business cycle seemed to be a lie to many Americans. However, the business cycle is real and the world lives a part of it everyday. When deregulation became extreme and private companies, especially banks, got all the power, nothing could stop them

The technical, economist's definition of a recession is when GDP is negative for two consecutive economic quarters (Amadeo 2012). Given this definition, the United States is currently not in a recession: "real gross domestic product the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012...In the fourth quarter of 2011, real GDP increased 3.0 percent" (National income and product accounts: Gross Domestic Product, 1st quarter 2012, 2012, US Department of Commerce).