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highplainsdem

(61,987 posts)
Thu Mar 26, 2026, 03:04 PM 6 hrs ago

Robert Reich: This has been the GOP's "starve-the-beast" scheme for nearly 50 years.

This has been the GOP's "starve-the-beast" scheme for nearly 50 years. Meanwhile, millions suffer and struggle to get ahead as the rich get richer. See the problem here?

Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) 2026-03-26T17:15:12.599413Z
7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Robert Reich: This has been the GOP's "starve-the-beast" scheme for nearly 50 years. (Original Post) highplainsdem 6 hrs ago OP
kick highplainsdem 6 hrs ago #1
kicking again, to make sure Robert Reich gets credit for this post highplainsdem 5 hrs ago #2
Another kicky-poo! intheflow 4 hrs ago #3
Thanks for the kick and reply! highplainsdem 4 hrs ago #4
Robert Reich didn't originate it. There are multiple versions going back at least 4 years. SeattleVet 4 hrs ago #5
'Trickle-down' tax cuts make the rich richer but are of no value to overall economy, study finds LetMyPeopleVote 2 hrs ago #6
Trickle Down economics do not work LetMyPeopleVote 2 hrs ago #7

intheflow

(30,170 posts)
3. Another kicky-poo!
Thu Mar 26, 2026, 04:53 PM
4 hrs ago

Becasue I saw this graphic elsewhere on DU without the attribution. Thanks for sourcing!

SeattleVet

(5,901 posts)
5. Robert Reich didn't originate it. There are multiple versions going back at least 4 years.
Thu Mar 26, 2026, 05:35 PM
4 hrs ago

Including one in French from 2023 with the exact same image.

I can find no original attribution, though.

LetMyPeopleVote

(179,570 posts)
6. 'Trickle-down' tax cuts make the rich richer but are of no value to overall economy, study finds
Thu Mar 26, 2026, 07:03 PM
2 hrs ago

Truss was kicked out of office in large part due to the attempt to adopt a trickle-down tax cut plan that was rejected by the UK markets. There is no Tax-Cut Fairy and trickle-down economics do not work in the real world. Part of the Inflation Reduction Act is the 15% minimum tax on the rich. If the GOP gets control of the House or the Senate, there will be attempts to use the debt ceiling to try to undo the 15% minimum tax and adopt some trickle-down economics

There is no Tax Cut Fairy and tax cuts for the rich only make the rich richer.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/23/tax-cuts-rich-trickle-down/

But, just as many economists predicted, slashing individual, corporate and estate tax rates was mostly a windfall for big corporations and wealthy Americans. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did not pay for itself, failed to stimulate long-term growth and did not lead to sustained business investments.

According to one of the most comprehensive studies to date on tax cuts for the rich, this should come as no surprise. A London School of Economics report by David Hope and Julian Limberg examined five decades of tax cuts in 18 wealthy nations and found they consistently benefited the wealthy but had no meaningful effect on unemployment or economic growth........

First, the tax cuts succeeded at putting more money in the pockets of the rich. The share of national income flowing to the top 1 percent increased by about 0.8 percentage points. (For comparison, in the United States the bottom 10 percent of earners capture only 1.8 percent of the country’s income).

But they had no effect on economic growth or employment. Though those quantities fluctuated slightly after the major tax cuts that were studied, the effect was statistically indistinguishable from zero. The “rocket fuel” so often promised by supporters of these tax cuts? It fizzles out time and time again.

“In the last decade, especially with the pioneering work of Thomas Piketty and his co-authors, there has been a growing consensus that tax cuts for the rich lead to higher income inequality,” Hope and Limberg said. Piketty, a French economist, wrote “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” a book on the growth of inequality in rich nations......

Given the historically low tax burdens on the wealthy in the United States, their ability to pay for higher taxes has probably never been better.
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