need two parties in a dynamic debate between and tragically is no place for sane people like bruce bartlett who still believes in democracy and who doesn't think that america is best governed by a poor talk receiver of the so-called job creators. somehow or other they believe as and rand did that the rich are like john galt they're the only ones who are productive the hall the rest of us are just lazy bums and moochers and they carry us on their backs and somehow or other this propaganda has penetrated millions and millions of ignorant fools in the tea party who are the shock troops over this revolution but as rush limbaugh warns this revolution may soon go bust when republicans are forced to raise taxes either at the end of this year or the beginning of next so could this break in radical orthodoxy that has seized the party since when is peace time actually give rise to the republican party of yesteryear that will welcome back into the fold rational republicans like bruce bartlett bartlett himself isn't convinced. they can't because the billionaires who control the party want tax cuts for

our second conversation tonight is what i had with bruce bartlett worked in both the reagan and george h.w. bush administrations and currently writes for the new york times in the financial times in our conversation we talked about whether or not conservatives are ready to face the facts and do what is necessary to become a relevant and mainstream political party once again it's my conversation with bruce partly. right we have a special edition of conversations with great minds with greece partly served in the staffs of former congressman ron paul and jack kemp and former senator roger jepson he's been the executive director of the joint economic committee of congress a senior policy analyst in the reagan white house and deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the treasury department during the george h.w. bush administration is a columnist for the fiscal times and the author of several books including the new york times bestseller imposture how george w. bush betrayed america and betrayed our bankrupt excuse me the american betrayed the reagan legacy his latest book is entit

welcome back to a special edition of conversations with great minds with bruce bartlett he's been the executive director of the joint economic committee of congress a senior policy analyst in the reagan white house deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the treasury department during the george h.w. bush administration and the author of several books including his latest in titled the benefit and the burden tax reform why we need it and what it will take let's get back to it we were we were talking about the you know what is driving this and you mentioned plutocracy i was talking about all the darky. to what extent has plutocracy seized either america or the republican party or both and twelve since you were telling i think it's to seize the democratic party too because they're all going hat in hand to the exact same wall street people and i think that's a big problem i honestly don't know what to do about it well bill bill gates sr and a group of very very wealthy similarly wealthy and more wealthy even buffett was one of those people held a press conference i believe it w

bruce bartlett was an economic adviser to the supply-side icon jack kemp, and to two presidents -- ronald reagan and the first george bush. he got into hot water with his conservative cohorts when he wrote a widely quoted book critical of the second president bush. his most recent work is "the benefit and the burden: tax reform-why we need it and what it will take." yves smith is the founder and editor of the popular blog naked capitalism. after 25 years in the financial services industry, she now heads the management consulting firm aurora advisors. she's the author of this book: "econned: how unenlightened self interest undermined democracy and corrupted capitalism." welcome to you both. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> is the fiscal cliff just a metaphor? or is it for real? >> well, the cliff is an inappropriate metaphor. and it does conjure up images, precisely the one you said, of cars or people or companies falling over and landing in a great mess at the bottom. in fact, it would be much more accurately described as a fiscal slope. there are certain changes that will occur on january

bush adviser bruce bartlett bartlett is a republican he's also a radical truthteller about the state of his republican party today here's a bit of what he said to me last week. somehow or other they believe as an ran did that the rich are like john galt they are the only ones who are productive the whole the rest of us are just lazy bums and mooch things have changed so dramatically since the days when i first got involved with the republican politics when the republican party was the the party of ideas announced the party of crazy people ignorant tea party people people who know nothing and are proud of. it was talking about those ignorant crazy people who are proud of it he was also referring to the gun nutters that have taken over the halls of congress and the rest of washington politics over the weekend just twenty four hours at the connecticut shooting suicide massacre bartlett made his views on going after all very clear calling out the gun nuts on twitter on saturday he tweeted idea restrict gun ownership only to the types of guns in existence when the second amendment was ado

we want through the analysis with bruce bartlett, who articulated them very well. as buffet pointed out in his op-ed piece taxes went up from 2000 when clinton was in and the second part of the reagan administration because of the imbalances created by the reagan tax cuts and we created 23 million jobs. by the same token, you know, the tax cuts to the wealthy were extended a number of times including by president obama under duress and starting in 2009 that create add boom in financial assets, but didn't produce many jobs. those are just anecdotal situations, but you can see there have been studies done including most recent one, which was suppressed by the republicans. >> eliot: the republicans suppressing the story that actually shows the data contrary. >> so there's no evidence for their contention, ok, that a., tax cuts to get the wealthy create jobs or b., taxing the wealthy would somehow hurt economic growth. >> eliot: it is no longer a surprise to us that the republican leadership reject it is either science are an littics when it is contrary to an idealogy

bush advisor bruce bartlett lashed out at his party from which he has now been excommunicated saying this. things have changed so dramatically since the days when i first got involved with the republican politics when the republican party was the party of ideas and now it's the party of crazy people ignorant tea party people people who know nothing and are proud of it earlier this month charlie crist who as recently as two thousand and ten was a very popular republican governor in florida switched parties and joined the democrats saying what changed is the leadership of the republican party i didn't leave the republican party it left me even current republican members of congress are openly talking about what's wrong with their party after speaker that was john boehner his plan b. failed last week as proving that even the smallest tax increase on the smallest group of rich americans camp as the republican house republican congressman steve la tourette blasted the tea party wing of his party saying it's the continuing dumbing down of the republican party and we are going to be seen mo

i want to bring in bruce bartlett. he's an analyst from the reagan and bush administration. you were there at the beginning of the supply side revolution, the tax revolt. i guess, what is your sense of how it's evolved and what the poll -- how the politics have changed over time. >> first of all, in the late 1970s, early 1980s, taxes were, in fact, at a historical high. more importantly, they were rising rapidly. we had high inflation. the tax system was not index for inflation. people pushed into higher tax brackets. we needed a high tax cut to keep the burden from rising. the taxes as a shared gdp were about the same as they were in the 1970s. there was less of a tax cut than people imagined. part of the reason for that is ronald reagan raised taxes 11 times after 1981 and this whole history of ronald reagan, the tax increaser has been whitewashed out of right wing history. by 1988, he took back about half of the 1981 tax cut with tax increases. now, i think, today, our economic problems, our fiscal problems are vastly different than they were in 1981. we need different so

bruce bartlett, a gentleman who is a high-ranking republican, said it succinctly. the party has been reduced to stupid people and crazies. that is what john boehner has had a lot of problems. these people have taken over. the american public has come out of this 30-year coma. we realize why we are where we're at. we're in this terrible fiscal problem because of policies that originated under bush-cheney in the name of two wars, tinkering with the doughnut hole in medicare, and tax cuts that were given to the wealthy during times of war. unprecedented, never done before in the history of the united states. all of these things combined have gotten us into this fiscal problem. guest: i think you can clearly look, over the years from 2001, when we had a projected surplus, until now, and figure out that the main differences and why we do not have that surplus anymore are the economy is a third of the difference, tax cuts and the more is another third of the difference, and that other changes to legislation have been the other third. looking forward, it is also clear we

bruce bartlett, a gentleman who is a high-ranking republican, said it succinctly. the party has been reduced to stupid people and crazies. that is what john boehner has had a lot of problems. these people have taken over. the american public has come out of this 30-year coma. we realize why we are where we're at. we're in this terrible fiscal problem because of policies that originated under bush-cheney in the name of two wars, tinkering with the doughnut hole in medicare, and tax cuts that were given to the wealthy during times of war. unprecedented, never done before in the history of the united states. all of these things combined have gotten us into this fiscal problem. guest: i think you can clearly look, over the years from 2001, when we had a projected surplus, until now, and figure out that the main differences and why we do not have that surplus anymore are the economy is a third of the difference, tax cuts and the more is another third of the difference, and that other changes to legislation have been the other third. looking forward, it is also clear we

bruce bartlett, a gentleman who is a hang wrecking -- high- ranking republican, said it 6 simply.he party has been reduced to stupid people and crazies. that is what john boehner has had a lot of problems. these people have taken over. the american public has come out of this 30-year,. we realize why we are where we're at. we're in this terrible fiscal problem because of policies that originated under bush-cheney in the name of two wars, tinkering with the doughnut hole in medicare, and tax cuts that were given to the wealthy during times of war. unprecedented, never done before in the history of the united states. all of these things combined have gotten us into this fiscal problem. guest: i think you can clearly look, over the years from 2001, when we had a projected surplus, until now, and figure out that the main differences and why we do not have that surplus anymore are the economy is a third of the difference, tax cuts and the more is another third of the difference, and that other changes to legislation have been the other third. looking forward, it is also clear we need t