Just after Friday’s August jobs report, at the Chamber of Commerce’s annual Labor Day briefing on Monday, Chamber chief economist Dr. Martin Regalia expressed disappointment with the job numbers, as well as frustration at the president’s crusade for “fair” taxes for the wealthy.
The number of created jobs is “paltry,” Regalia said. The initial numbers were, he continued, were “glossed over,” and when actually investigated, it was “harder to find something that’s good.”
The jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was made public the morning after President Barack Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention. In the president’s address, he said he wants to “reform the tax code so that it’s simple, fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes.”
“This is the kind of chart that just sends me up a tree when I hear the president talk about ‘fair’ taxes,” Regalia continued. “You know, tax groups ought to be fair. My view — I guess I’m too literal — because when I hear ‘fair,’ I think proportional. You know, that everybody pay according to their needs. Well, if you look at this, you see the income distributions haven’t really changed. The top one percent pays a much higher percentage of federal income tax … and the people at the bottom don’t pay much at all.”
Regalia also urged Congress to address the approaching “fiscal cliff” of tax increases and spending cuts, or else a second recession would occur at the beginning of next year.