Part of the 787 billion stimulus package was a 237 billion tax cut. 100 billion of it went to the middle class.
Economist's View: Tax Cuts and the Stimulus Package
The Bush tax cuts were much larger, and longer lasting, than Obama's temporary cuts.
Yes you're right. It was much larger mostly for the wealthy. But gues what? Tax cuts for the wealthy only help the wealthy. Trickle down economics is a lie. How do we know? Because those cuts only stimulate supply. They do very little to stimulate demand. As a result, they have no economic effects. Obama has created more private jobs in his 5 years than in Bush's 8 years. The stimulus created or saved 2.5 million jobs. Not just trough cuts, but also demand.
Trickle down, has nothing to do with "supply side". Supply side economics, is not "trickle down".
Trickle down refers to the fact that everything works from a trickle down system. Nothing can trickle up. No one ever gets a job from a poor impoverished beggar.
Nor do you buy a car, from a poor impoverished beggar.
Trickle down merely describes how the world in fact works. It's rich people that create jobs. It's rich people the create products and services. It's rich people that make the economy work. And this system is universal. Even in the most socialized systems, who runs the state run companies of a socialized country? Rich people. Tickle down is even how socialist economies work.
Zhou Jiping is CEO of China National Petroleum Corporation, and is paid just over $1 Million dollars a year, and not in stock options either. He's paid a million in cold hard cash, and that doesn't include his Government funded Pension for life.
So Trickle down is how all economies work. You look at any country that drives out the rich, and I'll show you a country that is failing economically.
But let's back up a second. Let's talk about supply side economics. I do not support supply side economics, but the idea that boosting supply doesn't work, is actually wrong.
If you in fact boost supply, even if you do not boost demand, that can have a positive effect.
Why? Because supply verse demand, results in price.
If you increase the supply of cars, the price of cars will decline. If the price declines, while incomes remain exactly the same...... you can afford more cars, because they have a lower price.
While saying that only increasing wages will boost the economy, is a nice populist belief system, and plays well with voters, the fact is, if you have policies that lower the cost of production, which increases production, and lowers the price of goods, that can have the exact same effect, as having a higher wage.
Which is better....
Earning $20,000, up from $15,000, with the cost of goods like a car, being $15,000.
Or earning $15,000, with the cost of goods like a car dropping to $10,000 from $15,000.
The answer is, neither one is better than the other. Supply side, or demand side, both have a positive effect.
Again, I am not a supply side believer, I'm a pro Free-Market Capitalist. I believe taxes and regulations and fees, should be as low as possible, while the market should be as free as possible.
I believe in increasing both supply and demand, by cutting as much regulations and taxes, on both citizens and business.