On the recordJuly 19, 2011
I haven't read Ayn Rand for 45 years, so all I have as a reference point is what I've observed over the last 20 years in this body. I remember when we were trying to pull out of the last recession in 1990. George H.W. Bush called the leaders of both political parties together. They came up with a compromise. They raised revenue, they cut spending, and they started to pull us out of the recession. The economy started rebounding. President Clinton followed suit. In fact, he raised the top tax rates to 39.6 percent. Now we heard at the time all of the Republican arguments, that you should only cut spending, you can't raise new revenue because it's going to cost jobs, and so on. Not one Republican vote was cast for the tax increase, but what happened? We know what happened. Twenty million jobs were created. We had surpluses. We had the strongest economy in modern history. We reduced welfare. We grew the middle class. Homeownership increased. And we handed over a surplus, a projected surplus, of $5.6 trillion. In fact, this year we would have paid off our public debt. And what happened to those who paid at that highest rate of 39.6 percent? They brought home more after-tax income than at any prior time in American history. It worked. And now your party comes in with this attitude we've been hearing about all day, you want to drastically cut taxes, shrink government, and ensure a permanent indebtedness.…
