Comment by theropost
19 days ago
Fair enough, I didn't dig too deep though here's what I have come up with - I'm sure there are many factors, but it is quite interesting here:
Historically, Democratic and Republican administrations have followed distinct fiscal and economic patterns: Democrats typically oversee deficit reduction and falling unemployment, often achieved by maintaining or increasing the tax burden. Conversely, Republicans typically oversee deficit growth and rising unemployment, largely driven by decreased tax burdens through legislative cuts. Statistically, since 1945, real GDP has grown faster under Democrats (4.3% vs. 2.5%), while modern Democratic presidents (Clinton, Obama, Biden) have all reduced the deficits they inherited, whereas every modern Republican (Reagan through Trump) left office with a larger deficit than when they started
So you'd think tax cuts would create more jobs, less unemployment but it has not. It seems like the opposite, I'm sure there is much more to it.
> you'd think tax cuts would create more jobs, less unemployment
Again, that idea is rhetoric, not policy. In fact no one ever thought this, it's a zero-sum/microeconomic intuition (to wit: that there is only so much money available) that doesn't hold at the macro level.
Economic growth happens naturally via finance. Growing companies and interests that want more money to build stuff just borrow, that's literally what banks are for. No one needs to go the government for a handout to make that happen.
At the extremes, sure. Tax corporate profits at 100% and you'll just train them to offshore. Drop taxation to zero and the government won't be able to repay bonds and kill its own finance spigot. But in the middle, where real governments live? No meaningful effect.
> So you'd think tax cuts would create more jobs
Only if you believe in trickle-down economics, which many people could see was bunk when Reagan first implemented it 40 years ago.