subject: Economic Reform Needs Reason And Sense [print this page] Government Spending Brings Neither; Keep Taxes Low Instead
by Michael D. Hume, M.S.
I've noticed an interesting trend lately in U.S. national politics: Republicans manage to look and sound stupid while saying smart things, while Democrats look and sound smart while saying stupid things.
This weekend, President Obama (who seems to find doing his job much more difficult than campaigning for it was) gave another interview to a sympathetic member of the liberal media. During this interview, he indicated that wealthy Americans such as Warren Buffet (whom the president named as an example) do not need tax cuts. You see, there's some support for the notion of extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts (commonly referred to as the "Bush Tax Cuts")... and the president doesn't want to do that, at least not for "The Wealthy."
However, what everyone including the president knows is that keeping taxes low is the only appropriate government intervention in a down-sliding economy. Government cannot spend the country back to prosperity. "The Wealthy," though a popular target, are the only group of Americans who can actually invest in businesses, create jobs, and grow the economy. And lowering taxes actually increases revenue to the government by creating millions more taxpayers. But the current administration, along with Congress, would rather play the class-warfare card than actually help the economy. That's why it's going to get a lot worse around here before it gets any better, and why I heartily suggest preparing for an economic storm unlike any you've ever seen. Get a real financial education (unlike those offered in schools and universities), think about starting your own business (to reduce your dependence on employment by others who are unlikely to know how to manage their businesses through the coming depression), and stay healthy (because quality health care may become impossible to find at any price).
If a real journalist had been conducting the weekend interview with the president (not that he would've then granted it), he or she might have asked a real question. For instance, when Mr. Obama asked what someone like Warren Buffet would need with a tax cut, a real journalist might've come back with "Yes, Mr. President, but does someone like Mr. Buffet need a tax increase? How would that help?"
Would a tax increase inspire him to create more business and wealth, or to export his investment dollars?
Would a tax increase help him create more jobs? Or might it actually discourage employment?
Would a tax increase put more people on the tax-paying rolls, or would it actually take taxpayers away?
