Great article from Salon on the fact that lower taxes have never been particularly good for our economy.

Though the Reagan zeitgeist created the illusion that taxes stunt economic growth, the numbers prove that higher marginal tax rates generate more resources for the job-creating, wage-generating public investments (roads, bridges, broadband, etc.) that sustain an economy. They also create economic incentives for economy-sustaining capital investment. Indeed, the easiest way wealthy business owners can avoid high-bracket tax rates is by plowing their profits back into their businesses and taking the corresponding write-off rather than simply pocketing the excess cash and paying an IRS levy.

Let’s jack them up. I had a stupidly low effective tax rate last year. And while we’re at it let’s talk about the wisdom of having a Fed that has said they’re never going to raise interest rates. How is that going to get the economy going? Telling business owners they’ll have free money available in perpetuity is going to do what? Make business owner postpone investing and hiring in perpetuity. Got to give them a reason to jump Fed!

Of course, we’re talking about religious beliefs here. You’re not going to be able to convince most people that they could have more and better roads if we raised taxes. No matter how stupidly obvious that is.

Trickle down is a myth. It doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked. The only reason it’s even pretended to work is because we had two major bubbles created by fraud that made it appear that our economy was still growing. Give up the dream.