I try to avoid seeing or listening to Scott Walker on my TV when I can, but apparently he gave some more insight and excuses into his economic theories when he was interviewed by Mike Gousha over the weekend. I got word that Walker said cutting taxes would raise revenue for the state, and he cited something called the "Kohl's Curve" in doing so.
Now, a quick check of the Google didn't show a hint of this "Kohl's Curve", but I think I've heard a similar thing from the retail world, and it basically has to do with putting items on sale. That there's some point where people start buying enough items as prices drop that revenues go up for the store.
Translated over to the tax world, this means that lowering taxes to some point makes people earn more money, and then tax revenues go up for the government. Or in other words, the Laffer Curve, discredited garbage from 40 years ago which has not worked anywhere since federal tax rates for the rich were lowered past 50%.
And there's a second part to Walker's statement that is extremely offensive, because he's implying that the average person can randomly work harder when taxes go down and they'll magically be paid more. Wouldn't it be nice if it were that easy? Just snap your fingers and hey, we get paid more! There's only one group of people that get the luxury of picking their own compensation- trust funders and CEOs who decide how much money they can skim off the top for themselves before giving any compensation to the people below them.
For 99% of us, the ability to choose your own compensation is rare (at best), and not that related to the effort you've put in for the last few months. But such ridiculousness is fitting of someone who hasn't worked a real job in his adult life other than living off of the largesse of right-wing donors and GOP bubble-worlders.
So keep this in mind as the election nears next week. After 4 years of underperforming job numbers and revenue shortfalls after last year's tax cuts, Scott Walker is still listening to the 1%ers and PACs that fund his campaign when it comes to economic growth, and he thinks of people's take home incomes to be as disposable and optional as clothes or appliances. These people have no clue, and must be removed from positions of power as a result.
Off topic, but very share worthy endorsement of Mary Burke. Hits on all the right points. Please pass it on. http://www.wisconsingazette.com/editorial/burke-has-the-skills-commitment-and-decency-wisconsin-needs-to-prosper.html
ReplyDeleteHey Jake,
ReplyDeleteThis is off topic also. I have been looking at September Job numbers that Walker has been bragging about. It looks like someone simply reclassified about 8,000 jobs from Government to Education & Health Care. Does the State report these numbers to the Feds?
Yar- I see what you're thinking, as local government was down -9,700, and that total jobs added were only 300. But that doesn't seem to be the case, because local govt was way up the month before due to the "seasonal adjustments", and snapped back to normal in September.
ReplyDeleteNow if you want to claim that the "8,400 jobs added " are simply due to a lack of layoffs and not re job growth, you may be right, as the non-seasonal numbers showed a loss of nearly 25,000 jobs, but that happens every September with the Summer tourist season ending .