Wednesday, October 6, 2004

169 business school professors have published an open letter criticizing what they call “the drastic failure of President Bush’s economic and tax policies”:

• “The data make clear that your policy of slashing taxes — primarily for those at the upper reaches of the income distribution — has not worked. The fiscal reversal that has taken place under your leadership is so extreme that it would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.”
• “The economic proposals you have suggested for a potential second term — from diverting Social Security contributions into private accounts to making the recent tax cuts permanent — only promise to exacerbate the crisis by further narrowing the federal revenue base.”
• “What is called for, we believe, is a dramatic reorientation of fiscal policy, including substantial reversals of your tax policy. Running a budget deficit in response to a short bout of recession is one thing. But running large structural deficits over a long period is something else entirely. We therefore urge you to consider the fiscal realities we now face and the substantial burden they are placing on our economy.”
• “With all due respect, we believe your tax policy has exacerbated the problem of inequality in the United States, which has worrisome implications for the economy as a whole. We very much hope you will take this threat to our nation into account as you consider new fiscal approaches to address the nation’s most pressing economic problems.”