By Steve Levy
Socialists, take note: A recent report from the New York State Comptroller proves that a strong economy lifts all boats — from those on the top end, all the way down to the bottom.
It’s something that our Center for Cost Effective Government has noted for over a decade, and it’s a centerpiece of one of the chapters in my book, Solutions to America’s Problems.
I often tell the story of when I was a state Assemblyman from Long Island. In the Democratic caucus, there were conservative Democrats from upstate, moderate Democrats from Long Island and socialist Democrats from New York City.
The socialists would often whine publicly about the evils of Wall Street, but within our caucus, they would privately tell us how much they were wishing that the Wall Street numbers would be robust. They knew that, when the folks working on Wall Street (whom they publicly disdained) did well, they would have more income that the lawmakers could tap. That would, thereby, result in more money into the state’s coffers.
Thus, the socialist legislators who hate the free market system would be able to take that money and help working-, middle-, and lower-class residents of the state to a greater extent than they would if there was less money coming in.
So the moral of the story is that we need to promote policies that bring about greater revenue. Wall Street did not prosper this year because taxes were raised. Wall Street prospered because taxes were lowered.
It may be counterintuitive to the socialist, but the reality is that, when taxes are lowered, businesses do better. They make more profits, and the state can then bring in more money as a result of the taxes on those higher profits.
This isn’t something new. We’ve seen it every time major tax cuts were put into effect — from John Kennedy in the 60s, to Ronald Reagan in the 80s, to Bill Clinton‘s capital gains cuts in the late 90s, and Trump‘s tax cuts in 2017 and their extension in 2025.
To cure economic woes, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We just have to follow what we already know works.
Steve Levy is Executive Director of the Center for Cost Effective Government, a fiscally conservative think tank. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.”