Krugman: Spend More, Tax Less (Almost)

(The Bush tax cuts are for the)”benefit of a tiny number of a very small people, a tiny number of very wealthy people,” Krugman said… Why hasn’t ONE reporter done a story on what income of $250,000 actually “looks like?” Mr. Pulitzer prize winner here wants us to believe that a family making $250,000/yr spends their week-ends floating off (dare I say it) Martha’s Vineyard on their million dollar yacht. True, if you’re making $250,000..you aint hurtin’, but to label these folks as “very wealthy” is a politically motivated lie.

He’s an insufferable twit who lives in the world of theory and blubbers on and on about the inherent goodness of socialism and over-reach.
Interesting, he claims an issue with permanent tax cuts allowing more Americans to KEEP WHAT THEY EARNED as being an issue as opposed to the massive, un-American social policies that have caused this problem.
I love how folks like this just say ‘think like me and everything will be OK’ – talk about small minded and intolerant! The ‘left’ are the poster children for hate and intolerance and this reality challenged clown is in the same boat.

So…Krugman wants our government to spend more and tax less? I’m guessing he doesn’t visit Reality too often, huh? His idea is NOT the way for a responsible government to operate. What would I do as a private citizen (without the ability to print my own money) operating according to Krugman? Start SPENDING more money while demanding a PAY CUT from my employer! Result? Goodbye apartment, clothes, car, food, etc. Hello dark alley, cardboard box, tattered blanket, etc. while still, hopefully, going to work where I voluntarily cut my pay! Not a good idea according to MY reality. P.S. And I only make about $30,000/yr.

Krugman stated the somehow Doctors/Lawyers practice’s or investment groups are not businesses….And somehow this is misleading America and evil…Actually most of America knows these are in fact businesses. Why then, because they make significant income, should they be punished. I would laugh at you but you make me so angry….
These groups invest in other business, real estate and donate to nonprofits etc..
So if the “vast majority” of businesses these taxes effect are multimillionaires then raise the base to Multi million income not $250,000.
These taxes should never have been placed in the first place.
I can not believe that you even say what you do….You have obviously been in the academic world not the business world. Doesn’t basic economics say that if someone or thing takes cash from my pocket I will not be able to spend as much? The more they take the less I spend? Pretty simple…

What happened to Capitalism 101? The law of supply and demand? People were not laid off because taxes were too high; they were laid off because of falling demand. Increased demand will increase employment. What fuels demand? Spending money!

Krugman backs his statements up with science and observable facts.
The business community agrees with Krugman, although they never would admit it. They are sitting on their cash because of sagging demand. This is according to an analysis made by JPMORGAN Chase. No doubt they were looking for information on their business projects and not attempting to gain political spin points. I am sure Chase’s lobbyists are saying the opposite, it is because they think Obama is bad for business.
All the true-believer haters who have posted here are just indulging in religious hokum.
The Bush tax cuts didn’t work. The Obama tax cut didn’t work.
Face reality.

People pay taxes to pay for the military and the US empire. So don’t say it is “their money”.

Spending more just means money going to countries that make stuff. Doesnt stay in the U. S. Spending more is just
an excercize in depleting our resources. Foreign workers get paid. American business owners make the profit. American workers are just bypassed.

People who make $250,000 per year don’t like to hear they are in the 5% of the population. If they have trouble making it, just think of the problem of the person who makes $30,000. And the horrible thing is that that person is the one whose job was cut or hours reduced. He is the one whose job was sent overseas to increase the profits of the company whose managers are compensated so highly for increasing those profits. Small businesses wonder what happened to their traditional consumer. The truth is that traditional consumer no longer has disposable income to spend on the things small businesses sell. Until that consumer comes back, small businesses will be reluctant to invest and hire more people. If you allow tax cuts to expire for everyone, we will continue as we are. It isn’t going to work until the middle class has disposable income again. I guarantee it isn’t the lower income folks who are increasing savings during these tight times. They are barely able to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. Wake up America. When the gap between wealth and poverty began to widen, we all lost. We need to restore balance or we are going to see third world conditions in America.

You make good points.
Let us reduce military spending to 1/10th its current amount.
Time to lay off 1/2 of the (unionized) border patrols.
Let us sell NASA off to the highest bidder.
Time for the states to cut police officers and close their universities.
Time for cities to lay off 1/2 of their (unionized) fire fighters and police officers.
Time to lay off 1/2 of the bridge inspectors.
Gas taxes should be cut because it is not the government’s money. Let the cars drive where the market dictates.

That’s real stupidity. The stimulus has done very little other than save some car jobs, which is actually of questionable value.
Billions have been squandered, and much of it, can’t even be accounted for. That’s real management for you.
Why would we want to do that again??????

I can’t believe you spend so much time listening to this economic imbecile in the morning. Spend more government money, why 1 trillion isn’t enough for you? Government spending has never worked will never work. It creates disincentives for business growth. Giving business more money through tax incentives, removing regulation – health care, cap and tax, will spur the economy on. It worked in 1960 with Pres. Kennedy, 1980 with Pres. Reagan, and right after 911 with Pres. Bush. Open trade agreements that dems have stalled for 8 years for Columbia & So. Korea. Keynsian economic theory will lead us to a disaster, maybe that’s what the dems want with their demogoging of successful business in this country. Maybe we should all be poor and have 40% unemployment like Chavez’s Venezuela.

Rob – your points are well taken, but they will have minimal economic impact in the grand scheme of things. You want real economic impact and cut gov’t spending, then cut our military bugdet in half. Talk about a waste of taxpayer money. . . .

Jim,
OK, so let’s just cut the military budget in half, so we can be invaded. We’re already stretched thin.
Question – why do you think the US rose to superpower status in just 200 short years when other areas (Europe, etc) have been around a lot longer?
2 reasons – free market capitalism allowing innovative entrepreneurs the FREEDOM to take risks & grow the economy by creating businesses, and the fact that our military might has been a major deterrent to any country who would wish to invade.
And what do the leftists want to do? They want to get rid of both of those.

If and when it becomes apparent that the Dems are going to lose big in November, confidence will return and people will get back to business. Doctors are among the big losers when it comes to greater income taxes on the rich. Of course, maybe their income will be reduced enough by reductions in Medicare reimbursments to keep them out of the high tax bracket.

Kay, well, yes we do “need” so many Senators, as that’s what our Consitution dictates.
However, I see your point – a better way of putting it is, does each Senator need so many staffers, admin assistants, gophers, pages, etc.
And this isn’t just at the Federal level, but State, and local Governments too.
There are soooooo many “middle men” type jobs, each of which has it’s own salary, benefits, holidays, vacations, etc, and ALL paid for by Joe Taxpayer.
Eliminate the needless pencil-pushing, paper-shuffling drones and that would free up a TON of taxpayer money.
But yes, I agree – the Gov doesn’t have to always rely on raising taxes – it needs to learn how to work within the budget it has, and to tighten its belt, and to actually (gasp) BUDGET the money it gets from us.
Do you know that CA still has not passed a budget?

If those Bell CA city officials are making 800K, they are being taxed too much. Let’s cut their taxes!

” Of course, maybe their income will be reduced enough by reductions in Medicare reimbursments to keep them out of the high tax bracket.”
Great, Obama is cutting their taxes and saving the taxpayers money!

Krugman has it right. The cuts benefited the very few at the top and we simply cannot afford to do that. The return of the Republican majority would be an attempt to make these cuts permanent. We as a society just cannot afford that.

Juan – “uncorroborated, anecdotal?”
I posted FACTUAL information of REAL LIFE examples. The school lunch example I gave is a real life example because it is happening in my sister-in-law’s child’s school.
The other examples can be looked up & corroborated should you be able to perform a grueling 2 minutes worth of work (I know, it’s difficult for you to do that without the Gov holding your hand).

First you outsource industry jobs overseas so their citizens can be callously exploited without protection… THEN you target tax hikes for people who own small buisnesses, and are most likely to create jobs.
Naturally this forces unemployed people to go back to school and subsidize/BAILOUT education and teachers unions, but what is the point of going in enormous debt for a college education, if upon graduation… NOBODY will hire you!!!
You just got in debt for nothing! And are in a weaker position than when you started… Are they trying to return us to debt slavery and debtors prison or something? This is madness!!!

Gene,
Yes, I agree with you. I believe a good old fashioned “war bond drive” or as you stated, a war “surtax” should have been pushed.
However, I doubt that many Americans would’ve bought bonds, and even less would have welcomed more taxes.
And don’t get me wrong – I FULLY believe that where there is waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, etc in ANY Gov agency, including the Defense arena, please FLUSH IT OUT & get rid of it.
I think the thing that is the most frustrating to me is we hear the Gov say “let us fix health care, let us fix the banking industry, let us fix the auto industry, let us fix this-n-that” – but the thing is, the Gov is one of the MAJOR reasons we’re having problems in the first place!!
The cause of the problem cannot be the solution to the problem!!
They can’t even flush out waste, fraud, abuse in things like welfare, social security, worker’s comp, etc – yet they want the American people to sit back & let them try to “fix” even more things?
I say we, the American people, should demand that Gov fix the OTHER programs first, before we blindly hand the reigns of yet ANOTHER Gov beauracracy to them!! PROVE to the American taxpayer that they can be TRUSTED with OUR money!!

“They are trying to make these tax cuts, which were never affordable, become part of the permanent structure of the population to the benefit of a tiny number…of very wealthy people,” Krugman said. “We cannot afford this.”
LOL – God, why does the media keep giving this moron a forum to talk?
We cannot afford to keep throwing trillions against the wall in the hope it will smell good! By all means Paulie Walnuts, lets just ramp up those prnting presses at the mint.
I have agreat idea for you Krugman, we will try your scheme one more time, but if it does not hit 100% on target, you never ever speak publically again on the subject of economics! No do-overs with the excuse of how you under-estimated, mis-calculated, or mis-read something.

Well, I make 260k per year and after taxes, student loans,mortgage,gas,car loan,kids and wife expenses,etc, I dont have much left at the end of the month…we live on a budget !!!

Paul “Mr. Spend” Krugman is not a fully developed economist.
If you were to hire the man to advise your company on what to do strengthen it’s economic outlook with the one requirement that you didn’t want to spend a bunch of money, he’d give you a blank stare. The man is a one pony show where ever answer is to spend more money. He doesn’t understand the whole picture of the economy. You would be smart, ABC News, to find another economist to put on your broadcasts.
I know he did win a Nobel Prize but consider the source, that doesn’t carry much weight.

The answer to all of the economic issues facing America is jobs. The manufacturing jobs and technical assistance jobs that are being shipped across our borders would more than put all Americans back to work.
American workers are well paid and have great benefits, so that angers American executives who want that pay for their bonuses. When will they see that the end is near and there will very quickly be no middle class to purchase the products that are being manufactured by workers in other countries.
American workers have worked and produced the products that gave this country the greatest economy in the world. Now they are to forced to compete against workers that do not even make enough to pay for a fast food lunch. The benefits they have are non-existant and their work conditions would be considered against the law in this country.
America will compete, but it needs to compete on a level playing field. Bring our jobs back and stop allowing products into this country that are built by workers who are so far behind the American workers in pay and benefits.
Do not let the American executives have small fortunes every year in bonuses and yet blame the salary of the American worker as the reason they cannot compete.

The wealthy float on top of our society like cream on milk. All of its infrastructure – physical and social – and all of its production benefits them disproportionately. When a road is built; private property rights enforced; a civil law court established; a right-of-way granted – everything benefits the wealthy exponentially more than it does the poor. Roads, bandwidth, private property, schools, law enforcement, legal system – all contribute to make Bill Gates richer and richer. They benefit the poor sod eating baked beans for dinner very little. We support the rich man in a million ways every day. It is perfectly just and fair that the rich contribute more than the rest of us to discharge our mutual responsibility…the promotion of the general welfare…since it is always their welfare that is most benefited. Empirical evidence shows us that whenever the income curve becomes too top-heavy, both the economy and the society are destabilized and everyone, except the wealthiest, suffer. Why would anyone be in favor of that? My personal, biased opinion is that they are selfish, anti-social elitists, or wannabe elitists, or have been deluded into believing they are among the elite.