A recent insightful op-ed column in the Wall Street Journal by Karl Rove described the Democrat party’s current infighting, self-destruction, and outright hysteria. Colorado Congressman Jason Crow (or whichever of his liberal staffers likely wrote it) replied with a feeble letter to the editor that was an unresponsive, laughable repetition of distorted, and delusional Democrat talking points.
Among them was the long-discredited claim that “Trickle-down economics didn’t pay for itself in the 1980s or during President Trump’s first term, and it won’t now.” There’s no such thing as trickle-down economics. That expression is just a mindless rant. It’s pedigree goes back to William Jennings Bryan, a notorious populist demagogue, who declared in 1886 that “If you legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below.” That’s the left’s standard justification for “soaking the rich.”
Lower rates, more revenue
In 1962, Democrat President John F. Kennedy knew better when he persuaded Congress to pass an across-the-board tax rate cut that included a drop in the top marginal tax rate from a confiscatory 90% to a mere 70%, declaring, “It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues too low, and the soundest way to raise revenues is to cut tax rates now.” The result was an increase in revenues, especially from the rich.
Twenty years later in the 1980s, another round of across-the-board tax rate cuts under Ronald Reagan caused revenues to again soar with “the rich” paying an increasingly greater share of the overall income tax burden, despite Democrats having mocked this as trickle-down economics. Tax revenues grew from $517 billion in 1980 to $990 billion in 1989 (exceeding inflation by $220 billion), as Reagan’s economic policies triggered an extended economic boom that reversed a recession.
Income tax rates for all were cut again in Trump’s first term. The considerable increase in the standard deduction dropped the federal income tax bill to zero for millions of lower income Americans. The reason overall tax revenues stalled during that period was the COVID-era shutdown of the economy. In Trump’s second term, contra Crow, tax rates aren’t being cut. Rather, were it not for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” tax rates in effect since 2017 would have automatically expired, imposing a huge across-the-board tax increase, reducing everyone’s after tax income, which could have triggered a recession. Crow’s claim ignores that.
Eating Crow
Crow faults Trump because “prices are going up.” Duh, prices are always going up. But they’re going up a lot less now, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase in the low two percents, compared to the more than nine percent CPI increase brought on by the needless post-COVID Democrat spending binge and budget deficits during Bidenflation.
Predictably, Crow gives Trump no credit for instantly securing the border from the Democrat open-border fiasco.
Crow shamefully misrepresents Republican Medicaid reforms, claiming they’re “kicking people off their healthcare.” No deserving people will lose their coverage, only those who shouldn’t have been added, like illegal immigrants and able-bodied adults without dependents, capable of meeting the work requirement added in Trump’s first term (and rescinded by Biden) but choose not to. When established in 1965, Medicaid was intended only for low-income children deprived of parental support, their caretaker relatives, the elderly, the blind, and individuals with disabilities.
Obama-era policies greatly expanded Medicaid eligibility and cost. And it expanded even more during the COVID pandemic with total enrollment soaring from 70 million in 2020 to a high of 94 million in 2023 due to Biden-era policies not enforcing eligibility rules.
Crow represents Colorado’s 6th Congressional District, once a Republican stronghold in Arapahoe County when Mike Coffman last held that seat. It’s since flipped to the Dems, just as their one-party rule is ruining Denver and Colorado. When Crow was first elected in 2018, I was hopeful he’d be a moderate Democrat since he’s a military veteran, 63% of whom favor Republicans, far more than the 35% who favor Democrats, according to a Pew Research Center report.
Nope. Crow is a big disappointment, leading a partisan Trump impeachment and just another radical progressive. His solidly left-wing voting record in the House earned him a 100% rating from the ACLU, the AFL-CIO, and League of Conservation Voters; and an 85% rating from Americans for Democratic Action on the progressive fringe. Among conservative groups his rating was 0% from the Heritage Foundation, the Club for Growth, and the Family Research Council; and 3% from the American Conservative Union.
Take his letter to the editor in that context.
Longtime KOA radio talk host and columnist for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Mike Rosen now writes for CompleteColorado.com.
