Jim Cramer slamming Bush tax cuts

[rlev1223]

on CNBC---says he feels stupid for intially supporting them because he thought rich people would start a bunch of companies and hire people...says the end came and it didn't work, and all the tax cuts have done is make rich guys lke him richer. Also says that a national sales tax would be incredibly regressive.

[fizzana]

1. WTF was he thinking in the first place

That rich people would go out and start companies and hire people because they got bigger tax cuts?

People start companies and hire people if demand rises. Rich people getting more money only increases demands for yachts and jewelery.

[rlev1223]

3. that'swhy he feels stupid

n/t

[annxburns]

2. I like whine and cheese

... watching media whores get drunk is amusing.

[rlev1223]

4. he was putting it away pretty good

n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

5. You mean he actually bought the myth??

I assumed that he was just along for the personal enrichment ride with no actual illusions about the real consequences of the tax cuts. Jeez--he was only stupid, and all along I thought he was sociopathic and greedy.

[rlev1223]

7. No...

...he said that all Bush has done is make rich guys him who don't need it richer. He's a weird guy, always enthusiastic about enterprise rather than just accumulation. Thinks Henry Blodgett should have gone to jail.

He says the reason that the public never catches on to the tax scam, with almost all of the benefit going to the super-wealthy, is that eveyone in public thinks one day he/she can be one of the super wealthy.

Pandering to impossible aspirations is the oldest game in American politics.

[RobertSeattle]

6. 50 years from now historians will look back at the great Supply Side Hoax

It is so ridiculous - give more money to rich people to help the economy - it is absolutely the most inefficient way to spur the economy but middle class people fall for it every time

[Doctor_J]

17. it's already been 25 years

and the sheeple are still lapping it up. Hopefully it won't take the collapse of the us economy to wkae everyone up.

[moondust]

8. "...start a bunch of companies and hire people"

Doing what? In what new industries? Where are the new cottage industries and garage upstarts? This ain't 1982 and it wasn't 3 years ago either and that much was obvious.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Provide universal health care

so would-be entrepreneurs can afford to take the risk of launching themselves into the void--and don't have to worry about providing insurance to their employees.

Now, that really WOULD get some startups going.

[moondust]

14. Good idea.

Hope it's not too late given the deep, deep fiscal hole they've stupidly driven us into and from which it may take forever to escape.

[PurityOfEssence]

16. hahahahahahaha

What? De-rig the game? Are you nuts? Having employer-provided health care is the greatest thing since the Iron Maiden: small businesses can't compete with the big boys, and employees are indentured servants at the whim of their bosses. If you create single-payer SOCIALIZED medicine, owners wouldn't be able to harass and dominate their employees anywhere near as well, CEOs couldn't bamboozle such massive compensation for themselves and big businesses would actually have to be good to survive. Suddenly people wouldn't be in abject terror of their very lives and at the mercy of their employers. Why, that's the fraying of the very fabric of society.

What are you thinking?

Sheesh.

[Jackpine Radical]

20. Yeah, yeah. I know.

And believe it or not, I actually know small businesspeople who think universal healthcare is a bad idea(Gov't can't run anything right, etc.) and who think the Pugs are best for them. They get totally wild-eyed and irrational when you try to tell them anything.

[union_maid]

22. I've been saying that for years!

People saying that they don't want government control of healthcare has always boggled my mind. Do they ever think about how much freer they'd be to take chances in life if they had universal healthcare?

[unfrigginreal]

9. Better late than never I guess

To me, the Bush "tax cut" always represented a shift of tax responsibilities from the upper class to the middle and lower class, or another way of putting it, a tax increase.

I was baffled that Democrats, as a whole, did not fight harder against the initiative. I think that other than letting Bush get his war on, this was the biggest strategic blunder our party made. It was predictable that the results would be a shift of tax responsibilties.

Now the CBO comes out with their study and the press, talking heads and our leaders will become very vocal about it, as they should. I just wish that we could count on them, once in awhile, to protest before the shitty legislation gets passed.

[welshTerrier2]

10. he was great on Seinfeld but ...

well, i suppose it's nice to see that even a moron like Cramer can come to see the truth ...

frankly, who gives a damn what he thinks ... anyone stupid enough to believe the myth that we should give all the government's revenues back to the wealthy so they can create more jobs doesn't carry much weight with me ...

[Warpy]

12. Even the super rich know that dog won't hunt.

All Bush's giveaways to fat cats did was drive up the prices they're paying for fine wines, antiques, fine art, and the like, things that are sought after by the rich because of their relative scarcity. They have actually seen their incomes drop over the past 4 years as the consumer driven 2/3 of the economy has started to grind to a halt, choking off the money flow.

If that stupid man gets back in, we're assured of slipping into a full blown depression, because he's too ideologically blind to notice his crap aint working. We may do so with Kerry, too, but at least he has enough advisors who know what steps to take that it may not be as long or as severe.

[indepat]

13. Wonder what Cramer thinks about the assault on the environment, the UN,

world order, the Constitution and especially the Bill of Rights, the rule of law, international law and treaties, most of our allies and other friends, and another sovereign nation via pre-emptive, unsanctioned war? I bet his co-host, Kudreallylow, loves it all.

[finecraft]

15. It killed me when Cramer went over to the dark side

He was a big-time Dem and supported Clinton and Gore, but bought into the whole "The world changed after 9/11" stuff. I like him, and glad to see that he has regained some of his senses.

[librechik]

18. putz

what was that dingbat doing shilling for the right anyway?

Why didn't he say that 3 years ago when Krugman did?

[oasis]

19. I remember Cramer screaming "Enron is not a political scandal" even

before right wing creep Kudlow could even get a word out on the subject. "It's a business scandal" Cramer insisted, providing early cover for the Bushes, Phil Grammm and the rest of the GOP crooks.

Screw that sleazy bastard.

[TacticalPeek]

21. Poor Kramer. He's been around Kudlow too long, and become pure booster.

And any 'wonder' is fake.

This was proposed ('voodoo economics') and tried ('Reaganomics') in the '80s and failed, as reason dictates and one would expect. Will any supply-side drooge admit this? Not that I've ever seen or heard.

Now they run the same scam again, deluxe version, and get deluxe deficits and debt, and an economy both feeble and fragile. Utter failure of a bankrupt policy, but successful deception and denial. Again.

If we wait for a third strike, these fools could actually break the US economy. And some of them, if they see a short-term buck to be made, would say 'Break away!'.

What a waste of heritage!

[grasswire]

23. CYA Cramer! CYA!

What a load.

He's got his. Now he's complaining.