Robert Reich
Mr. President, I know you feel you have to meet with business leaders today to get their input on the "fiscal cliff" and a "grand bargain" over deficit reduction. But please keep in mind you won last week. When they tell you not to raise their taxes because that will rob them of the incentive they need to create jobs, recall the immortal words of Joe Biden: That's malarky. Businesses are still sitting on almost $2 trillion of cash they don't know what to do with. Top CEOs are pulling in more than $10 million a year. Only 2 percent of "small businesses" would see their taxes go up if the President allows the Bush tax cuts to expire -- and those taxes would rise only on their earnings in excess of $250,000. And they'd only rise back to the Clinton tax rates, which, as I recall, weren't so onerous that the economy suffered.
Let's get real. Businesses and the rich aren't job creators. The middle class creates jobs through their spending. And if corporations and the wealthy don't pay a lot more in taxes, the rest of us will have to -- which means the middle class will be even more pinched than it already is. Or else we'll lose investments in education and infrastructure, and safety nets like Medicare and unemployment insurance and Social Security we rely on, which will pinch us in another way. All this would mean less middle-class spending, and therefore fewer jobs.
So, Mr. President, listen to the business leaders, but take their advice with a grain of salt.
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