I had an interesting discussion with Bradley Rees on the Sons of Liberty show the other day. The last two weeks have been interesting to say the least, so we took a few steps back to do our own state of the union assessment.
I’m astonished that the American people appear to be spreading the blame for the present economic malaise across both Democrats and Republicans, and between the White House and Congress. Of course, the Republicans didn’t manage the debt ceiling negotiations well. After passing the Ryan budget and receiving no counters from the President, they proceeded to develop a watered down proposal on their own to—as Boehner put it—stave off economic catastrophe. As it turned out, investors focused on global economic problems and were not just interested in getting a deal. The S&P downgrade and market tumble demonstrates that people who put their own money on the line are not impressed with 10-year budget plans and special committees. Obama and the Democrats are certainly culpable, but the Republicans lacked the courage to tag them with the majority of the blame for their fiscal irresponsibility, at least since the 2008 election. Apparently, many Americans don’t understand the details and just see this as another case of Washington as usual. This is unfortunate.
Indeed, the economic logic advanced by John Maynard Keynes has been flawed from the beginning, but even Lord Keynes wanted to balance budgets and save capitalism from what he saw as its fundamental weaknesses. Today’s twisted notion of Keynesianism is even worse, replete with unsustainable deficit spending, heavy central economic planning, and a big dose of class warfare. One might think that a reasonable person would examine the world today and reject this neo-Keynesian mentality outright, but this doesn’t seem to be happening.
Perhaps we might need to articulate our case more effectively, but there is a fundamental problem we must face. About 50% of Americans don’t pay federal income taxes in the first place, and many in this group have become accustomed to the notion that wealth redistribution is an appropriate function of government. They appear unwilling or unable to consider economic reality if it means entitlement cuts. In other words, the national debt doesn’t matter if you won’t have to pay it back. Obama’s numbers might be trending down, but true conservatives are facing an uphill fight.
To make things worse, the battle for the Republican presidential nomination is still anybody’s guess and the current frontrunner has been largely quiet about the crisis. But Marxist thinking is on the ropes and can be defeated. The last two weeks should be a solemn reminder that a middle-of-the-road response to Obamanomics is not only bad economic policy, but it also fails to make the clear distinction between philosophies that is essential if we are going to make the kind of advances in 2012 necessary to return to a fiscally sound, Constitutional form of government.
We’re losing time and we might be past the tipping point. If you add amnesty to illegals there will be too many on the dole to ever turn back.
This analysis is simply wrong. We are at a tipping point because Republicans won’t explain to their rich constituencies that they just need to pay more to balance the budget. They expect everything for free. The poor and middle class are struggling too much and can’t afford tax increases, and the government programs they receive are necessary. The only way to pay for the government services is for corporations and wealthy people to pay their fair share..
If we penalize production we will get less of it. If we reward non-production we will get more if it. That is common sense. This is exactly what a progressive tax system like the one we have does. The share of taxes paid by the top earners has increased over the years, not decreased. The problem is not taxes being too low, it is spending is too high.
We’re finally having a national discussion about spending, thanks to the Tea Party. You can see the media, Washington establishment, especially the left, and frankly many of the government dependents are desperately clinging to a failed system. The liberal orthodoxy of tax and spend has been exposed for the failure that it is. Let’s hope that we still have a national conscience that will guide us to vote not in our own short-term narrow self-interest but in the long-term national interest.
Tarek-
There is a fatal flaw in your premise that can be corrected by visiting that evil right-wing-conspiracy website, IRS.gov
There you will find tax receipt data which says, in no uncertain terms, that a full 47% of US income earners are a net drain on Federal revenue. In other words, they pay in less than they can deduct. What this means, simply put, is that those “rich” people who “aren’t paying their fair share” are actually footing the bill for 80+% of Federal revenues.
So, I ask you, is their “fair share” 85%? 90%? Hell, let’s just hang the entire tab around their necks, right? And let the bottom 60% of income earners (and ALL of the leech class) completely off the hook. Would that be more “fair”?
The numbers simply don’t work, sir.
Just for the sake of argument, let’s impose a 100% income tax on everyone making $250k/year and above. (You know, those millionaires & billionaires.) The total tax receipts to the Treasury would be just shy of $950 billion. At our present rate of spending, that amount will fund all government functions for 94 days.
So now we’ve punished those evil rich people, and done what you would like to do (whether you admit it out loud or not). At this point, I have only one question for you (and I can’t imagine you coming up with a logical answer) – What do we do on day 95?