Jeb Bush Crashes And Burns Immediately After Announcing Plan To Cut Taxes For The Rich

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If Jeb Bush wants people to forget about his last name, this is not the way.

Bush has unveiled his tax plan and it’s basically the same old same old Republican Trickle Down promise, replete with tax cuts for the rich and corporations and, just like his brother former president George W Bush, Jeb Bush has not explained yet how he would pay for these tax cuts. We are to presume that a booming economy would result, but his brother’s own eight years in office under the same failed premise are a lingering reminder of that failure.

http://www.vox.com/2015/9/8/9285421/jeb-bush-tax-plan
That said, slashing individual and corporate tax rates; eliminating the estate tax, Alternative Minimum Tax, and taxation of foreign business income; increasing the standard deduction; and making it easier for businesses to deduct investments are all changes that’ll cost money.
Bush claims, “Taken together, these policies will unleash increased investment, higher wages and sustained 4% economic growth, while reducing the deficit.”
Ohhhhh. Republicans are pushing Trickle Down again, because maybe this time it will work?

Matthew Yglesias at Vox dissected the options and none of them are looking too great. He noted that there are basically three options, “The Paul Ryan Model, the Mitt Romney Model, and the George W Bush Model.” OK, that’s not comforting.

Yglesias broke down that the Ryan model relies on spending cuts, the Romney model on loophole closing, and George W. Bush on borrowing (Cheney’s failed “deficits don’t matter” claim).

Democrats can claim a much more fiscally conservative approach to governing than Republicans of late, with plans to pay for the proposals they push. (No one is claiming the plans are perfect, but it can’t be argued that Republicans are actually fiscally conservative or responsible.) And also, Democrats tend to actually do the math for the proposals they push, which Paul Ryan (R-WI) has still avoided doing.

Meanwhile, Jeb Bush’s claim that his policies resulted in Florida leading the nation in job creation has been given four Pinocchios by the Washington Post Fact Checker, who wrote, “We initially thought this might be worthy of Three Pinocchios, but the total package of mendacity tipped us to Four.”

Yes, all politicians cherry pick numbers and Bush is no different, but he took off a bad year completely and just acted like the numbers cited represented his leadership, when the Fact Checker notes that actually job creation numbers are led by national economy.

This, in a nutshell, is the problem Republicans have trying to get the White House again. While regional candidates can run on rhetoric and false claims, a national candidate for the White House is going to be called out. It’s simply surreal that Republicans are still trying to sell unpaid for tax cuts for the rich as the solution for the middle class.

If they want to sell unpaid for tax cuts because it benefits their donors, that’s one thing. But to suggest this leads to prosperity for the middle and lower classes is simply ridiculous. The public hasn’t forgotten yet about the Bush recession. It’s a bit too soon to be selling this stuff again, and unfortunately for Jeb Bush, he doesn’t have the charisma to distract the public from his policies.

But any time Republicans pick someone with charisma, they pay dearly because reason dictates that if someone is wiling to sell their soul to the top 2%, they are either too ignorant to understand they are being used and will be discarded when outed as a poster person for propaganda or they are delusional about their purpose on this planet (see Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin, who cite God wanting them to succeed).

So it always comes down to the policy and this is the one thing Republicans won’t change. They keep changing the dressing and tossing rhetorical bombs and accusations to distract everyone from their policies. But that doesn’t work in a long, national election in the age of social media.

Sarah Jones

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