You know how much I enjoy Newt Gingrich – don’t always agree with him but generally he’s very thoughtful about that which he espouses. Here’s his take on our economic situation, which runs a little over 3 minutes.
Much of what he and American Solutions proposes is in the area of tax relief, which obviously I favor but perhaps in a different fashion than the group advocates.
For example, the only “temporary” thing in Washington seems to be anything which would accrue to the benefit of the producers of society, such as their first idea of a temporary tax stimulus by reducing the payroll tax by 50 percent (similar to a tax holiday idea pitched earlier by Rep. Louis Gohmert.)
Instead, I’ve advocated for a consumption tax which I think would work even better at my goal of starving the beast whose red tape tends to strangle growth and job production.
Probably the best of the twelve to me is drilling for our own oil and natural gas, which is a natural extension of the “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” campaign from last summer (which is where American Solutions picked up the vast majority of their mailing list and influence.)
But there is one area that was all but missed in the overall program, with only the call to eliminate earmarks and pork-barrel spending among the twelve proposals. That’s not to say I wouldn’t like to see those eliminated, but there is much more which can be done to place federal power and influence on the wane.
Despite the fact that the coin of the realm of federal spending has graduated now from mere billions to trillions, no one is talking about bailing out two items that already threaten to add trillions to our annual budget in a few short years whether this latest bailout works or not – Social Security and Medicare. Instead, these vital items are all but ignored when we talk about Fedzilla’s push into the private sector.
It’s because of this push that I think perhaps the private sector needs to push back. Maybe the Democrats want to take over the banking system, but at the very least a fair trade would be to relinquish the government’s hold on the health care and retirement sectors of the economy.
Would it not make things easier on taking care of budgetary matters if the government slowly backed away from the health care system? Perhaps they could cede some control to the states at first, but pulling out of Medicare and Medicaid on a federal scale would certainly begin to balance out some of those trillions we’re believing will resurrect the economy.
Meanwhile, since the stock market is at a low point now, this is the perfect time to allow that Bush idea of partial privatization to take hold. Now we’ve pretty much weathered the storm so returns should soon be on the upswing. People continue to forecast the recession will be over by the end of 2009 so the stock markets should begin zooming up sometime soon.
Perhaps I sound a little tongue-in-cheek, but haven’t we tried this bailout and stimulus idea a couple times already? And is not the definition of insanity to do the same thing over and over again but expect a different result?
Finally, let me close by taking note of a rant Rush Limbaugh went into today.
I think I caught the tail end of this, but the basic thrust of the message that I heard was that the Democrats were building a government so big and powerful that once Republicans regained control (as they eventually will) they should use that power to squash the Democrats into oblivion just as Democrats have tried to squelch our side.
Well, I’m not sure I agree with that in toto. Personally, I think a better revenge would be to dismantle every last edifice that was built (such as the aforementioned Social Security and Medicare) and bury it so deep it couldn’t come out. You’d have a lot of unemployed pencil-pushers but the world needs ditch diggers too.
Would it create a class of miserable people? Yes, it would. However, if there’s anything we know about life, we know it’s not fair. As things are progressing at the moment, the miserable people in the short-term future will be the producers. If someone can ask President Obama for a home and have one delivered what does that say to the person who’s worked hard but won’t have anything to show for it once their tax rates are raised to confiscatory levels to pay for bailing exceptionally wealthy individuals out?
My friends, we are in a mess of our own making; unfortunately there are no brooms available for another 20 months.
