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The Politics of Bad Ideas: The Great Tax Cut Delusion and the Decline of Good Government in America 1st Edition

by Bryan Jones (Author), Walter Williams (Author)
3.2 out of 5 stars 4 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0205600793
ISBN-10: 0205600794
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (November 16, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0205600794
  • ISBN-13: 978-0205600793
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 7.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,520,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 starsWell-argued and disturbing but clunkily written
By Alan A. Elsner VINE VOICE on September 10, 2008
Format: Paperback
This book by two professors of public policy convincingly demonstrates that supply-side economics and the policies pursued by Republicans and conservatives for the past 30 years have failed and in doing so have badly damaged the U.S. economy and society.
Using numerous graphs and charts the authors reach many surprising conclusions:
-- cutting taxes produces more government, not less. As they say, the programs funded can be those favored by liberals like social programs and welfare benefits and health care or by conservatives such as prisons, police and the military. But the budgetary implications are the same. This surprising assertion is fully backed up by the data.
-- the authors compare the records of the Republicans in the current decade and Democrats in the 1960s and find similarities but one important difference. Both funded wars (in Iraq and Vietnam) and expanded education and health programs but the Democrats funded their programs from taxes while the massive increase in government under George W. Bush has been funded through borrowing. The result is a massive increase in the budget deficit and the national debt which will be borne by future generations.
In fact, the authors demonstrated irrefutably that cutting taxes has never led to increased tax revenues as the Reagan and Bush administrations both said they would. They lead only to deficits.
-- the data shows the greater the Republican control of Congress the higher the growth of spending. So those "fiscal conservatives" who care about small government have been doing the exact opposite of what they intended.
-- Bush is the second biggest-spending president since 1945, second only to Johnson. The two presidents under whom real discretionary spending rose the least were Carter and Clinton.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsVery good review
By KD on January 2, 2008
Format: Paperback
I have very little policy experience; I read this book for a class on public policy. Having no experience, I found it to be a great help in understanding how we got to the place we are. It traces through the post-WWII years up to current times, detailing how the approach to policymaking has changed over the years. I now have a whole new appreciation for the fiscal state of our country, and if nothing else, this book is valuable to someone who hasn't paid much attention to politics just for that. It's pretty readable for the average person which is very nice; there are only a few spots where it helps to have a background in public administration theory.

I chose this book to read because, of those I had to choose from, it seemed the least likely to be hell-bent on bashing Republicans. It did a relatively good job of remaining neutral, but at times the political bent of the authors was clear.

I think this is pretty darn good book, and I'm glad I had a class to force me to read it. I gave it 4 stars because a few questions that were left unaswered for me - is everything REALLY only a result of policy, or can fads among the public steer things too?
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4.0 out of 5 starsread this if you want to understand how our country's finances got where they are
By LJK on July 22, 2011
Format: Paperback
Written by an economist and a political scientist, "The Politics of Bad Ideas" provides an in-depth look at the origins and effects of tax-cut ideology. It details how and why tax cuts generally do not accomplish the benefits attributed to them, but instead are counter-productive from an economic point of view. It explains how the U.S. government, especially during the administration of George W. Bush, wedded itself to an economic theory with such flimsy foundations. And it argues that the Bush administration more broadly embraced a theory of "responsive competence" in which government officials are expected to reject evidence-based policy making and instead follow the political lead of those above them, no matter what the real-world effects of their policies. The writing is uneven in quality (hence the four stars, not five), but if you want to understand how we got ourselves into our current fix, I recommend this book.
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1.0 out of 5 starsFlawed thinking
By Terry D. Taylor on March 19, 2011
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
There are few books that stun me with poor analytics before I get beyond the introduction. This book did. Silly thinking expressed by these authors is the staement that, as a "clear example of regressivity" of the Bush tax cuts, those earning over $500,000/year got $118,000 from the cuts while the mddle 20% received only $740 in benefits. They quote the Tax Policy Center for these numbers, an institution I respect. This ignores, of course, the problem that the highest income categories pay far more than their income as a percent than do middle income taxpayers. For example, the TPC estimates for 2010 are that those earning $1MM or more pay $818,000 in federal taxes (income, payroll taxes, interest, dividends, capital gains, estate, etc.), or 26.9% of income. Middle income taxpayers (average income of $62,995) pay $10,223 in taxes, $4,800 of which is in Social Security and Medicare taxes (for which they have an entitlement for future benefits), which is 16.2% of total income. How do you get a regressive tax system out of this? Answer: You don't.

How can you get a "refund" for taxes you haven't paid? Of course the rich got most of the tax cuts. BECASUE THEY PAY MORE, FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!!! Millionaires earn 11.8% of pre-tax income AFTER the tax cuts, yet they pay 16.3% of all personal taxes paid. The middle income group earns 12.0% of pre-tax income but pays only 10% of taxes. And the middle class expects to get most of that back later in the form of Social Security and Medicare. This is not regressive - it's a progressive tax system. This is all from the TPC research, which the authors twisted to make sound supportive of their position.Read more ›
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