Corporate Profits At Record High

The Republican Party would like for Americans to believe that jobs aren't being created because President Obama is an anti-business president, and has stunted U.S. corporate growth. The chart above shows that to be sheer lunacy. American corporate profits are higher than at any point since World War II (including the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, the presidents who pushed "trickle-down" theory the most). And we are talking record profits, not sales.

American corporations are currently sitting on trillions of dollars in cash -- and if a large amount of money was all that was needed to create jobs (as the Republicans want us to believe) then job creation should be happening at a record level. But it's not happening. That's because jobs are created by demand, not money. Jobs will be created when the public at large increases its demand for goods and services, and not before that happens.

That means that new tax cuts for corporations and the rich will do nothing to create jobs. What must be done to create jobs is to get more money into the hands of the bottom 90% of Americans. That can be done by rebuilding our infrastructure, increasing social spending, and increasing the minimum wage significantly -- and these can be paid for by letting the rich and the corporations pay a little more tax on their record profits. That's not what right-wingers want to hear, but its what needs to be done.