RUSH: You know, we had the story the other day about the gross domestic product. By the way, stand by sound bites 1 and 2. We had the news that GDP, revised GDP 3% economic growth and job creation, real jobs, not part-time jobs, real job creation now skyrocketing. You know where the Washington Post put that story? They put it on page A-18.
On CNN yesterday, the infobabe Brooke Baldwin was talking to the noted Wall Street Journal writer and economist Stephen Moore, what brought the subject up, who brought up the idea that the gross domestic product in just seven months has outdistanced anything we saw in eight years of Obama. This led to the CNN infobabe to begin shouting and cutting away from Stephen Moore and doing everything she could to prevent him from elaborating and continuing to make the point.
She just would not allow him to point out that we never even got to 2% growth under Obama for eight years. Now already seven months into Trump, we’re up to 3%. So what’s happening is that the Drive-Bys are keeping that news as secret as they can. They’ve got a built-in excuse now with Hurricane Harvey and the recovery efforts to totally ignore and abandon the story, which they are doing.
But the economy is growing and it’s growing at a rapid rate, and this is exactly why the time is precisely right to do tax cuts and tax reform. Now, at the end of the program yesterday — let me just play for you what I said. Audio sound bite number 1. This was near the end of the program. I had to get in there, get it, and get out pretty quick, but this is essentially it.
RUSH ARCHIVE: Okay. Trump has begun his speech in Springfield on tax reform, just now getting into it. There are three lies that the media and the Democrats say after every Republican tax proposal. They are this: The Reagan or Bush tax cuts didn’t work. They then say the rich are not gonna be paying their fair share in this. And that it has to be revenue neutral. Those are the three things. You watch. After Trump finishes, those three lies will be part of the media reaction to whatever he says.
RUSH: That was at the end of the program yesterday. And now we have a montage of reaction to Trump’s speech in Springfield, once again illustrating that I know who these people are, and I know what they say. I know what they’re gonna say before they say it. I accurately can predict them. Our montage here is of Austan Goolsbee, Brian Klaas, Robert Wolf, Julia Chatterley, Anna Edgerton, Ron Insana, and Jared Bernstein, and these are all economic advisers, CNBC, CNN.
These are authors, these are people who’ve had contact one way or the other with the Obama administration. There are three things. They’ll say the Reagan or Bush tax cuts didn’t work, which of course they did. In fact, there’s a stunning stat about the Reagan tax cuts. They will say the rich are not gonna be paying enough, the rich are getting a break, the rich are not paying their fair share, and any proposal must be revenue neutral or we cannot support it. Now let’s listen to see if we hear any of that in this montage.
AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: Let us return to reality, okay? The last time the country did this was when George Bush cut taxes for high-income people and big corporations.
BRIAN KLASS: It’s just a complete lie that it’s going to have this trickle-down effect and massively create jobs. There’s no evidence to suggest it happens.
AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: If he’s just going to keep stating that he wants to cut taxes by something like $6 trillion, somebody somewhere has got to say how they’re going to pay for it.
ROBERT WOLF: This isn’t going to be corporate tax reform. It’s really a tax cut. It’s not going to be revenue neutral.
JULIA CHATTERLEY: Is there any consensus here on whether or not this is going to be revenue neutral? And of course it’s critical.
ANNA EDGERTON: It has to be revenue neutral.
RON INSANA: More tax cuts to wealthy individuals, to corporations, but not to middle class individuals.
JARED BERNSTEIN: These benefits go to households in the richest part of the income scale.
RUSH: What does it mean, folks, when I can totally, accurately predict the reaction and response of liberal Drive-Bys and economists whenever a Republican tax cut is proposed? What does it mean that I can almost predict word-for-word what they’re gonna say? What does it mean?
It means they’re speaking from a script. It means they are totally politicizing. It means they’re not even paying attention to the specifics of what’s been proposed. All it means is they want no part of a tax cut, and they’re gonna do everything they can to try to convince the American people that a tax cut would be the worst thing ’cause it’s gonna cost the federal government money — not being revenue neutral — the rich are gonna get the lion’s share of the tax cut, and they’re not gonna trickle it down. They’re not gonna share with anybody so you’re gonna get worse off.
It’s what they’ve been saying since the 1980s and Ronaldus Magnus. And yet every time tax cuts like this have been tried, they have worked, and that’s why these people are really panicked. Same reason they’re panicked over Trump. Trump cannot be seen as successful. They can’t permit it. They cannot permit. So Trump’s 3% economic growth, put it on page A-18 and ignore it on cable news, don’t even report it.
Trump’s tax cut, “It’s typical. It’s the same as Bush. It’s the same as Reagan. It’s a tax cut for the rich. It blows through the federal budget deficit, and it’s not revenue neutral, and it doesn’t help the middle class.” What it ought to tell you is that the people on the left mounting this opposition are entirely dishonest and nothing but robots reading from talking points and a script right out of the Democrat left-wing playbook on how to deal with the subject of tax cuts.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So Trump goes to Springfield, Missouri, yesterday to pitch tax reform. You know what? There’s a story in Breitbart today that says what Trump ought to do is combine the rescue efforts, the FEMA and all that rescue efforts in Houston with his infrastructure bill. I said that the day we came back, Monday. It was Monday where I came up with that idea. It’s a brilliant idea. I saw it in Breitbart yesterday.
Anyway, Trump goes and he mentions his proposal. And Terry Jeffrey at Cybercast News Service last night put together some numbers that were released by the government, the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And the upshot of it is this: “Americans Spend More on Taxes Than Food and Clothing Combined.” And you know what? I’ve got the numbers here. I’ll bet you most Americans don’t know that. I’ll bet you most Americans would come across this story, they wouldn’t know it.
You know what strikes me? Whenever tax cuts comes up as an idea, I am always, still to this day, shocked that a great majority of Americans do not join the effort. Really. I expect whenever the idea of tax cuts come up that this is something all — now, I understand, look, I’ve had calls from seasoned citizens. I’ll never forget this one call from an elderly woman in Boston. And she did not want her sons and her grandsons to have a tax cut because a tax cut meant less welfare for her.
Now, I know that there are people like that out there, but I’m talking about the vast majority of people who work. And I think the reason most people don’t join this call for tax cuts is they have no idea how much they’re paying in taxes, ’cause they never see the money. All they see — and they may not even get a check anymore. There may not even be a paycheck with a stub. With automatic deposit, an amount of money every pay period just shows up in the checking account, and that’s it. And they never take the time to look at what has been withheld.
So they don’t know what federal taxes they’re paying. And when it comes to filing their federal taxes, most of them don’t have to pay anything because they’re already so overtaxed that they get a refund. So when April 15th comes around or whenever they file, they expect a refund, and they think they’re screwing the government, and they love to brag to people, “Yeah, my refund, I’m getting $1,200 back this year. I’m really taking it to them.”
You’re not screwing anybody. They’re screwing you!
If you get a tax refund, it means that way more money was withheld from you than you were required to have withheld . Now, a lot of people like getting a refund because it’s the one time of year that they have a big bundle of cash, like a thousand dollars or $1,200 or whatever it is to go spend on whatever they want to spend it on. But smart money management would say plan your taxes so that you don’t get a refund and so that you don’t owe anything, or owe a little.
But there’s no reason to give the government control of your money when they’re not paying you any interest on it. So getting a big tax refund is not smart. It may make you feel good. Bottom line is people don’t know how much they’re paying in taxes. They never have to write the check. They never actually have possession of the money and have to give it away. They never see it because of withholding.
But you go talk to people that pay their own taxes who have to file quarterly estimates, and you’ll not find a single one of them that thinks they’re undertaxed. Anybody who literally writes the check and pays their taxes knows the score. They know how overtaxed everybody is. And this is a great way now to finally illustrate it.
“Americans Spend More on Taxes Than Food and Clothing Combined.” But that’s even a little misleading, because Americans don’t spend on taxes. You don’t have the option of spending money on taxes. You never see the money that goes to taxes. It is withheld. Your payroll tax, your FICA, the state income tax, the federal income tax, whatever the hell else tax, it’s withheld. And you never see it. And so when the tax cut calls come around, “Well, I’m doing fine, I don’t need it.” You don’t even know what you’re paying in taxes. Now when somebody tells, “You know what, the amount of money taken from you in taxes is more than you’re spending on food and clothing,” and food and clothing are mandatory. You can’t go without food. You have to spend that money. Clothing, arguably the same thing.
The fastest way to get to real tax reform is to end withholding for a year and force everybody to actually write the check to the federal government four times a year or once. Then to the state government, however often, four times a year or at once. And then send the check off to the payroll tax people. And then send the check off to Medicare. That’s a separate category now. And then your property tax, make sure you pay that. Don’t put that in your mortgage payment. Make sure you pay your property taxes, a separate payment.
And if people had to do this, there would be a tax rebellion. One of the reasons there isn’t a tax rebellion and one of the reasons there is such a docile attitude about this is precisely because of withholding. But this is outrageous. Americans have more money deducted from them to pay taxes than they are spending on food and clothing combined. I have the actual numbers here from the latest BLS data.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Mark in Tallahassee, Florida. I’m glad you waited, sir. What’s happening?
CALLER: Well, I’m a longtime — my wife and I longtime listeners, first-time caller.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I wanted to know… I was watching this tragedy unfold out there in Texas, and I kept looking for the snowflake and the Antifa navies to come in and lend a hand. Seems like they’re really good at, you know, tearing things down and pointing the finger on how bad things are, but when we’re in a crisis, I don’t — did you see their boats or anything?
RUSH: No, but don’t jump to conclusions. Antifa will move in after the fact. If there are ever any reports that, say, African-Americans were passed over by rescuers or cops — and those reports might happen, might be made up — then you’ll hear from Antifa. I’m not predicting it, but don’t be surprised, folks, if days, weeks ago from now something like that happens. That’s exactly the kind of stuff they do.