Obama's tax cuts were entirely aimed at buying votes. Nothing more or less. Nothing he did was designed as anything but buying votes. They were designed to be handouts labeled as tax cuts for marketing purposes.
It is interesting how you make stuff up with no evidence and then believe it as fact.
What was made up? That Obama focused on payments of "tax cuts" to people that didn't pay taxes? That's not a tax cut, that's a handout labelled as a tax cut.
That Obama targeted providing handouts for political purposes? Only a child would believe otherwise. No matter which party you support you should understand that very little they do is purely principled.
Democrats knew there was zero chance of approving a UBT or a universal handout, they would have been destroyed politically. However, doing the same thing and calling it a tax cut? Steals the Republican's arguments and high ground, since the Republicans are big tax cut advocates.
There was considerable contemporary discussion by Republican politicians that the Trump-Ryan-McConnell tax cut was explicitly political, required by their donors in return for financial support in the 2018 midterm. Here is one example, and there are others:
And? I did my own analysis of the results. You always want to over weight random side bar comments (and completely ignore the random and express ones you don't like - like the Obama care architect's omission they lied about what was in Obamacare to get the simpleton's to support it).
Tax relief is in fact a major concern of the Republican donors and voters. So yes, getting it done was a major priority. Dems want tax relief too, they just want it done through special interest benefits (your beloved CA gives, for example, massive tax relief to the billionaires at Google and the millionaires in Hollywood), that the politically connected get while sticking to the other guy. What do you think the whole SALT work around is about? That's expressly and specifically targetted at giving relief to the 1%'ers and its completely owned by the Dems - where's your outrage about that direct betrayal that puts the lie to your arguments about what the Dems are really trying to do?
Not to mention getting a competitive tax rate and regulatory relief to US corporations was absolutely vital to reestablish our global competitiveness, something Obama's policies were deliberately harming and suppressing.
So heck yeah, Republicans demanded tax relief. It was in the best interests of the country and the populace ALL THE WAY DOWN to the poorest in America.
The Obama's tax cuts occurred right after an election, and the contemporaneous discussion by legislators was all about the fact that the US economy was in the biggest collapse in 80 years.
Duh. Obama's tax relief was welfare. Of course that was the conversation. It's part and parcel of the failed belief that only the government can save people.
I also believe that deficit spending has its place - very important when the economy is in collapse, an inefficient use of stimulus when the economy has already gotten close to full employment.
The fact that you see not stealing people's income as "stimulus" is a big part of the problem. You have a technical argument, as stealing less and giving some back both have the same result of putting more money in the victim's pocket, but your moral position is grossly suspect. The entire central planning mentality with all economics flowing from government is just a recipe for increased corruption and graft. It does not result in good economic decisions or results, it just maximizes rent seekers. But since the Blue team has professionalized rent seeking you like it better than a fair system.
But what makes your counterarguments remarkable is that you apparently don't seem to care that the wealthy donors have taken our collective credit card to order themselves some pizzas, while all that most people get is a few bits of the corn meal from the bottom of a breadstick.
Doubling down on the crumbs? I mean breadsticks. Lol.
What makes my arguments remarkable is that they are based on the proven fact that free markets (with reasonable regulation) generate massive wealth for everyone involved in the economy, and that socialist and redistributive policies just generate misery, dependence and lack of opportunity. Yet you keep pushing them while trying to cloak yourself in a white cloak.
Wealthy "donors" win more when the Democrats implement sweet heart deals - which they always do - and no one else wins in that circumstance. Broad based tax relief, which is what we got, benefits everyone, including yes the wealthy people who generate virtually all the jobs in this country. And what have we got? Massive reductions in unemployment and indications of real wage growth.
Take a look back at that fed funds rate chart. Obama had 8 years at near zero because his policies were such an economic drag. That line under Trump is now back to levels last seen in the Bush admin and seems to be going higher.
