For over 7 years we have heard Republicans say how we have to keep corporate and investor taxes low. The conservative Republican talking point is that keeping these taxes low would increase investment thereby creating jobs thus growing the tax base.

So where is it? What happened? Where are the good paying jobs? Where is the flood of companies investing in America using American labor? If the tax base has been growing then why are we still in deficit spending?

These policies conservatives and Republicans push only benefit the corporations and the investor class, that’s it. The past 7 years was supposed to be a glorious time. The conservatives were going to finally prove to us how robust their economic policies were. Regulations were rolled back, taxes cut, and lucrative contracts given.

The result has been less tax revenue, lower paying jobs, less jobs, and less investment in America.

The problem with the so-called ‘conservative think tanks’ who flood the TV everyday with their voodoo economic plans is that they are paid hacks for corporations. Their economic policies are there to benefit only corporations and the investor class.

The factor that exists which conservatives and Republicans fail to acknowledge is greed. Conservatives and Republicans act as if left to their own devices corporations and investors will do the right thing. As if the market forces will decide the ultimate direction which they assume is always positive.

Reality is greed sinks conservative economic theology. Case in point is Iraq. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz promised to run the Pentagon like a corporation. They were going to cut waste and stream line productivity. Their big plan was to privatize as much of military operations as possible since we all know government is wasteful. This was their big moment. Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel, and Blackwater USA were going to prove to all America how corporations can do the same job the American Government can do but do it not only cheaper but also better and faster.

Well the opposite turned out to be true. These corporations have instead proven how imperative it is that military operations be not-for-profit. Halliburton and KBR have been a disaster ‘losing’ billions of dollars in Iraq while delivering substandard services to our troops. KBR routinely serves up shit water and forces our troops to wait in long lines for food. KBR runs empty trucks up and down Iraq highways for no other reason than to bill the U.S. government.

What’s worse is Halliburton moved their headquarters over to Dubai so they can avoid paying U.S. taxes. Thus what we have seen is the opposite come true when conservatives enact their economic theology.

There was no investment in America. Instead corporations still moved overseas and sought the cheapest labor where possible thereby driving wages even lower. What’s worse even as corporate and investor taxes were cut to their lowest levels ever they still found ways to avoid paying U.S. taxes through tax shelters and moving overseas.

Corporations are like ravenous beasts with only one purpose; to make profit. If left to their own devices all they are going to seek is the maximum amount of profit with the least amount of expense. They care not about who they trample along the way.

Conservatives and Republicans like to believe that if you unyoke the beast from ‘government regulation’ that it will behave in a civil manner. Conservatives and Republicans like to believe if you lessen the burden on the corporate beast that it will therefore be able to pull more loads thus increasing the amount productivity thereby offsetting the reduction in load size.

So the Republicans unleashed the corporate beast from its yoke and we have seen the result in front of us. Rather than pulling more loads (i.e. increasing the tax base via increased productivity) it has pulled less loads. Instead of behaving and doing what’s best for America the beast has run roughshod all over the American People.

In order for the corporate beast to remain healthy and be productive it needs the yoke of governmental regulations to give it direction. Without it, the corporate beast will consume all the available oxygen and eventually die of its own greed. We saw this with Enron and the electricity crisis in 2000. We are seeing it now with speculators in the oil markets. We saw it in the tech bubble and more recently the housing bubble. Left to their own devices corporations will not engage in sustainable business that creates decent paying jobs.

Instead they immediately start down the path of exponential profit until all materials have been consumed and all profit has been sucked dry. They leave in their wake an economic disaster.

Take a look at the following graph:

Isn't it interesting that as corporate taxes and regulation have gone down so has American wages? Shouldn't the opposite be true? From the 1950's through the 1970's it was possible for one wage earner to support a family. When was the last time that was true? Isn't it interesting that as corporations pay less in taxes individuals keep paying more.