This stuff started in the early 70s...progressive economics.
Whenever you bend the rules by utilizing more government control over the economy the people in power will find a way to profit from it. Like say requiring banks to loan to demographics that are unable to actually pay back normal mortgages.....or offer $2k limit credit cards to unemployed 18 years olds all through the 90s....or allow refinancing 2-3 times in the 2000s for cars and TVs and vacations......or now offer college loans and endless unemployment so people can go to school for 6-8 years and "find themselves" only to not want to work.
This has all come to a head now, and I honestly don't know of anyway to see it being fixed. Politics is just for plunder while things slowly fall apart.
Even in the 70's we were not trying to blow everyone the fuck up or police the world. War is very expensive and our military budget is bigger than every other country combined together. Take that along with the constant export of jobs to other countries and its a disaster.
Bush's general idea for lowering the taxes was that the "Wealth would trickle down"...
WELL HE HAD 8 FUCKING YEARS AND I SURE AS HELL DIDNT GET A FUCKING DROP BUT I GOT A PINK SLIP FROM ALLTEL AND WAS LAID OFF ALONG WITH 400 OTHER PEOPLE IN 2007 CAUSING ME TO DO WHATEVER I COULD DO TO PAY THE BILLS LIKE....UM...MAYBE STAND ON A TABLE WITH BILLY GUNS AT THE OLYMPIA FOR A COUPLE DOLLARS MAKING A COMPLETE FOOL OF MYSELF!!!Wealth never trickles down. Bush gave the wealthy a tax break and instead of them speading the wealth, they used it to ship more jobs overseas and pocketed the rest of it. That's why we are in this fucking mess. At least Obama is trying to put things back in order....not doing a great job but when you have a troop of assholes pulling political stunts, its no wonder