Myth of Job Creation by Lower Taxes

Job creation statistics do not support the Republican claim that lower taxes support job creation.

Job creation under George W. Bush's administration, when Republican tax cuts were pushed heavily, created only 1.1 million new jobs. His dismal net job creation programs performed even worse than the next worst performers since the Great Depression: his father, who created only 2.6 million jobs in his term, and Herbert Hoover, who lost 6.4 million jobs during his administration.

The Republican performance on job creation has been abysmal compared to the Democrats since Herbert Hoover. In that eight-decade span, Republican administrations produced only 28.6 million jobs compared to 70.3 million jobs created by job creation strategies of Democratic administrations.

Ronald Reagan's administration's government job creation strategies did create 16.1 million new jobs (56.2% of all of the jobs created by Republicans since Hoover), did not compare well with Bill Clinton, whose administration was responsible for 22.7 million jobs.

The Republican and Tea Party mantra between now and November 2012 will surely be, "Don't Raise Taxes! " But the reality is that when taxes were lowered to the lowest level since the Great Depression, under George W. Bush, the performance of the economy was appalling, and the economy produced the fewest number of new jobs since Herbert Hoover, 1.1 million new jobs in eight years. Compared to his son, George H. W. Bush's performance was stellar, with more than 5 times as many jobs created on average, but his performance was still the second worst since Herbert Hoover.

It is true that 3.05 million jobs have been lost since Barack Obama took office, but that is easily attributable to the economy that was in free fall when George W. Bush left office.

What have we gotten from the lower taxes on the wealthy? We've gotten a federal deficit that more than doubled under recent Republican presidents. Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush are responsible for more than half of the total U.S. National Debt, while Bill Clinton managed to reduce the National Debt as compared to GDP by 9.7%. While the debt grew by 1.63 trillion during his term, it grew 7.46 trillion thanks to the work of the most recent 3 Republican presidents.

Conservative economic policy seems to believe that the more they repeat economic lies, the more Americans will believe them. That may be true in totalitarian systems, where there is no counterpoint, but in a Democracy with Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press, we can refute those distortions with the facts.

The next time you hear a Republican making claims about the economy, make sure you check the facts. In recent articles I have shown that they are misleading the American public about the long-term viability of Social Security and Medicare, and that the last Republican to lower the national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product was Richard Nixon, in his first term. Here I have shown that their often restated claim that GOP tax cuts for the wealthy lead to job creation is also untrue.


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Skip Conover is an International Executive, Author, and Artist. Learn how politicians, artists, and marketers use the collective unconscious to sell their story at http://archetypeinaction.org