mark haines

Mark Haines: “Higher taxes creates more jobs.” No, I am not making this up, he really said this and he is basing this on 18 years of history from the Clinton years to the Bush years. I am not exactly sure when Mark went off his rocker, but he definitely hit his head, hard, when he landed. I have never heard such stuff in my entire life and it makes no sense. Let me explain.

Did Clinton raise taxes? Yes, he did. Did jobs increase? Yes they did. However, when did jobs increase? Not until after 1994, the Republican Revolution and some of Clinton’s tax policies were reversed, like his huge tax hike on the retired, the largest in history I might add. It is also important to note that this is when the internet came into everyday life and altered the business model of U.S. corporations and created a “new economy” which turned out to be horse poop, there is never a new or old economy, and there is merely an economy. However, the internet did improve efficiency, pricing and competition which create growth. All of this combined with dirt cheap oil led to the greatest economic expansion we have ever had, there is no question about that.

However, comparing the 1990’s to the 2000’s is crazy. It is the same thing as comparing the roaring 1920’s to the 1930’s, there is just no way you can make the comparison in an honest fashion and say there is any correlation. In fact, taxes were low in the 1920’s and we had a similar expansion as the 1990’s and taxes were higher in the 1930’s and unemployment was through the roof, so according to Haines the opposite should have happened. Also, according to Haines, the 1970’s should have been boom years as well as taxes were way up, but if memory serves me correctly the 1970’s, besides the Bee Gee’s, ABBA and Marvin Gay, sucked.

I guess the mandate from corporate, GE, to make the current administration look awesome and push their policies, no matter what, really went to Mark Haines’s head and he took it literally. I guess if we can prove Stalin had economic growth through killing 20M of his fellow citizens that too would be a good enough policy to enact here as well? I am just wondering how far he would go with his whacky correlations since he is clearly left of center. Higher taxes means people will spend less in order to save for the future tax bill, I save more when I know I have taxes coming up, I mean, this is economics 101. Hell, this might be business law high school style it is so basic, but not in bizzaro world. In fact, I am wondering if the market would not shoot up 1,000 points, with no circuit breakers of course because it is an up day, on the news of a VAT and a marginal income tax rate of 95%.

I get it, everyone hates Bush, I don’t blame them, and everyone wants to blame a policy for our problems, but making stuff up isn’t the answer. Pulling correlations from two uncorrelated periods is not the answer. Personal ideology being interjected into what is supposed to be unbiased reporting is not the answer. Is there any wonder why NBC as a whole is in decline? Businesses will not higher if they do not know if their effective tax rate is going to be 15% or 50% next year or how much health care per employee will cost them. They will not hire if they think end demand will not be there because people, like me, are saving to pay those higher tax bills that are coming. This is basic business sense which is clearly lost on the, what is their motto, “The #1 Business Network?”

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