"Sure" and "Wow"...that's the sum total of your response when challenged to back up your assertions, Rshermr?
You, my progressive friend are an intellectual "lightweight". Get back to me when you want to have a REAL discussion about economics. I'd love to hear you explain to me how Barry's call for higher taxes on the wealthy in the midst of an economic downturn is something that John Maynard Keynes EVER would have advocated. The rather ironic truth is that Ronald Reagan understood Keynesian economic principles better than Barack Obama does...because HE raised taxes after the economy started to rapidly expand. Keynes would have applauded that...he'd have asked Barack Obama what the heck he was thinking.
the top tax bracket was 50% under reagan, false comparison.
obama is beset with two crises, not just one. if the only problem was the economy, your're right -raising taxes would be bad. but he has to balance that against the 2nd problem - the deficit. since raising taxes on the middle class and poor is clearly a worse idea than raising them on the wealthy, the latter is the better choice
Reagan was facing stagflation...which is a combination of rampant inflation, a slow economy and high unemployment. Stagflation is especially difficult because the remedy for inflation will usually cause an even slower economy and higher unemployment. In many ways the economic puzzle that Reagan DID solve was harder than the one that Obama has utterly failed at.
What even a liberal economist like Christina Romer understood is that raising taxes on ANYONE in the midst of an economic slowdown isn't good economic policy because it will further slow down the economy.
I can only laugh at your contention that Barry is doing something about the deficit, Ooh. He just added another huge entitlement to a system that couldn't support the existing ones. He's running trillion dollar deficits each year that he's been in office and there's no end in sight. The truth is...Barack Obama isn't dealing with the deficit. It's the primary reason that our credit got downgraded. Even if he were successful in raising taxes on the wealthy doing so would only pay the exploding cost of our government for a few weeks. Of course he knows only too well that tax will never get through a GOP controlled House so it's quite obvious that it's just election year posturing. We need REAL solutions to our economic problems...not Kabuki theater from the man who's supposed to be leading us.