2,000 Days of DDO: When in Recession, Taxes Should be Lowered

My ArgumentsI. 1920-1921"My opponent barely responds to my refutation. I say we used welfare programs, he points out it is just relief. Potato potaato. I admit that it was relief. I misread and I apologize. Either way, relief requires tax funding. Also, my opponent said that tax cuts take a while to go into action, so why wouldn't this apply here? He has not shown a source that correlates the tax cuts to the end of the recession. My opponent also says that the great depression is irrelevant to my refutation. Okay. Fine then."Taxes was cut in the 1920-1921 recession and my first source explains how the tax cuts were successes in fixing the economy. I can give more sources if my opponent is happy. The tax cuts took a while, but when they effectively came in the sources note the difference before and after the cuts came into effect. What we can conclude than is that the small unemployment compensation did not work and the tax cuts did. [2,3,4]II. 1981-1982My opponent wants a Reagan quote? Here: “Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”-- Quote by Ronald Reagan, Remarks to the White House Conference on Small Business (August 15, 1986) [5] This is Reagan’s negative view on government taxes and regulations. The only tax bill of importance when discussing the 1981-1982 recession is the 1981 tax cut which, as my sources prove, significantly brought economic growth. It came into full effect in 1982 which significantly dropped unemployment while raising real GDP. This was a massive tax cut and the 1982 increase came into effect after the recession. [1,2,3,4] Just some information, Reagan signed two major tax cuts and one major hike. The other ten increases are not major increases, so these are not hikes. My Refutations I am confused where my opponent thought a graph helped him with showing how taxes helped end the Great Depression. There are three graphs I posted for this debate. The first is a graph on simply the top tax rates from 1913 to 2003. The second graph simply shows stock market growth after the recession to prove that Harding and Coolidge’s policies worked. Stocks from the Great Depression are shown, but these are much smaller compared to stock growth after the 1920-1921 recession. Finally, the third graph simply shows stock growth after the 1981-1982 recession. This is past the 1920s and the 1930s, so there is no way the Great Depression is shown in that graph. “My opponent's main concern with my arguments is that I talk too much about education. I'm sorry if I didn't clarify this, but having a smart country is good for the economy. It means people who make smart choices and have a knowledge of economics and how to support our country. Smarter country, better country.” That’s nice, but that does not talk about how raising taxes to fund education can fix recessions. I’m happy my opponent has clarified what specific programs help to fix the economy. However, the problem here is that tax cuts have proven to work better than maintaining or increasing the tax rates and spending money on social programs and stimulus packages as has occurred in the 2008 recession. If we compare growth from the recessions under Reagan and President Barack Obama, we see the Reagan recovery was better. [7] “My opponent says that we were never in a recession with Bill Clinton….There was a pretty deep one in the beginning of Clinton's presidency.” What? The Clinton presidency lasted from January 1993 to January 2001. The only recession that would be close is the early 1990s recession, but that lasted from July 1990 to March 1991. This is the presidency of George H.W. Bush, not Clinton’s. [6] “My opponent also says that Clinton issued tax cuts, however he has no source for this. To the best of my knowledge, he never issued a tax cut, much less one of importance. If my opponent wants to win the Clinton argument, he will have to weight important and unimportant tax cuts and hikes and see if the cuts outweigh the hikes that Clinton issued.” This has nothing to do with the recession, but he did sign a capital gains tax cut later in his term which raised revenue significantly. [2,4] Sources1. Niskanen, William A., and Stephen Moore. "Cato Institute Policy Analysis No. 261: Supply-Side Tax Cuts and the Truth about the Reagan Economic Record." Cato Institute. N.p., 22 Oct. 1996. Web.2. Cain, Herman, and Rich Lowrie. 9-9-9: An Army of Davids. Herndon, VA: Velocity ; Mascot, 2012. Print.3. Laffer, Arthur. "The Laffer Curve: Past, Present, and Future." The Heritage Foundation. N.p., 1 June 2004. Web.4. Graber, John. "Conservative Economics." The Conservative Politico. 2012. 5. http://history1900s.about.com... 6. http://en.wikipedia.org... 7. http://washingtonexaminer.com...