Even after the close call we just had with Wall Street practically taking down the entire world's economy, Brit Hume thinks our economy is not recovering because of the "regulatory atmosphere". Apparently Hume thinks we need more of what took the system down as a means to fix it.

Hume: You talk to bankers across the country, you talk to potential borrowers across the country, they’re all saying the same thing, even now, the credit still remains for many of these potential borrowers a tremendous problem, credit is tight and that restricts their ability to invest and to grow and actually therefore to hire. And that is part of what is holding this recovery back. This economy needs to be unleashed. What has happened over the past year or so is it’s been leashed.

Williams: How do you unleash? We’ve had tax cuts through the Bush years. President Obama extended the Bush tax cuts and you have in place a regulatory atmosphere that’s trying to respond to the excesses of Wall Street…

Hume: I agree Juan.

Williams: …and those very bankers and you want to sit here and defend the bankers and corporate America after this terrible performance.

Hume: Juan let me just say this… (crosstalk)

Williams: He extended the Bush tax cuts this year this year. Think of the logic. Why did he do that? Because he knew that raising taxes is deflationary and recessionary. Why doesn’t he extend the Bush tax cuts again next year? Why are all the huge environmental regulations...

Williams: You’re making a political argument…

Kristol: No.

Williams: …on what’s to come (crosstalk). President Obama has cut taxes. Is that an argument?

Hume: He has not cut taxes in a way to be meaningful to the private sector, to business owners and so when you talk to them all, they’re virtually unanimous on this point that the credit atmosphere, the tax atmosphere and the general regulatory atmosphere are all adverse to job creation and the growth of their businesses. Now they’re all trying Juan and they’re all doing the best they can but when you see this, what you just said, defending corporate America…Juan…who do you think does the hiring in this country?

He goes on to defend the bankers who were bailed out with our tax dollars by saying that they're paying the money back, unlike the automotive companies that got bailed out. I'm not sure why he thinks the auto companies needing a bailout excuses what Wall Street did and they sure as hell have not paid all of the money back. And as usual Hume and Kristol's answer to everything is more tax cuts.

Naturally Forbes Magazine shares their feelings on raising corporate tax rates in this article -- What The Top U.S. Companies Pay In Taxes. Our team member Jamie pointed to these two items in the article.

The most egregious example is General Electric. Last year the conglomerate generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion.

...

"Corporations are paying lower amounts of their profits in taxes now than in the past," says Douglas Schackelford, who teaches tax law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Other countries have been lowering their rates, but not the U.S."

All I've seen from these big companies is a race to the bottom unless you force them to behave otherwise. The Humes and Kristols of the world pretend they will behave if you just as Hume put it "unleash" them. Unfortunately we've already seen the results when that happens and it's why the economy is in the mess it is now.