Reagan: It's time to strike back

DodgeGlobe.com ^ | January 30, 2004 | By Michael Reagan

[11th_VA]

Hatred of President Bush is what drives the Democratic candidates for their party's presidential nomination, says Larry Sabato, the widely respected political observer at the University of Virginia ­ and he thinks it's time for President Bush to wake up to that fact and go on the offensive. "The Democrats have dominated the news media ­ every channel, every hour, with the exception of the State of the Union address," he says. "Democrats' unity of opposition to Bush on every issue has kept the campaign a symphony rather than a cacophony, building toward a crescendo of anti-Bush fervor. The Democrats are pumped. The Bush White House appears blissfully ignorant of that reality, at least early in the campaign season."

He's right. Back in 1996, when Bill Clinton was running for re-election, the Democrats started very early in the campaign to spend a lot of money to derail any Republican's chance of winning. It was the smart thing to do and it worked.

This year it's important that people be reminded that there are two primary campaigns going on, side-by-side with the Democratic primaries there are also Republican primaries.

But it's the Democrats who get all the media attention. Every day. Edwards gives his same speech, Kerry gives his same speech, and Dean gives his same speech: "down with America, down with the president" and all the rest of that demagogic claptrap.

The President of the United States, however, gets almost no time at all. If I were the President at this stage, I'd be showing up for the primaries. I would have been in Iowa and New Hampshire, and I'd be in Missouri and South Carolina and every other state holding primaries.

He should show up on primary nights, thank the Republicans who voted for him. and discount what all these people are saying. Instead, what have we been getting? Six hours of "America sucks, the president is a stupid idiot, America sucks." Six solid hours of that filth.

You get around that by having the President show up on primary night, thank the people who voted for him and set the record straight. Being President, he will get air time and we won't have to listen to six unbroken hours of slander against him and his party. He can start now to demolish all the untruths, blatant lies and distortions about him being peddled by the Democratic demagogues.

When Senator Kerry attacks the President for being allegedly dominated by all those evil special interests President Bush would have an opportunity to point out that Kerry's party is totally owned by special interests. They couldn't exist for one minute without the financial and political support of the trial lawyers, the abortion industry, big labor, the teacher's unions, the radical environmentalist movement and the rest of the motley crew who own the Democratic party lock, stock and barrel.

What Kerry is saying is that the Republican "special interests," which is growth and the economy, must go so he can bring his special interests to the White House and pay off the trial lawyers and the abortion industry and all the rest for their support.

All this garbage is all going unanswered and it needs to be rebutted by the President. Five Democrats, three of whom shouldn't even be in the race, are getting all the publicity bad mouthing the President. He's getting none.

The American people must be warned that if they vote for John Kerry or any other Democrat the war in the Middle East will end there and begin here. You won't have to worry about body bags coming back from Iraq because they'll be coming home from the mall.

Vote for the Democrats and the economy will turn sour. They are anti-business which is where the 401K' s of millions of middle class Americans are invested. But the Democrats attack the very source of our 401K retirement funds ­ business. Most of our financial resources are invested in the market, and these people want to ruin the market, ruin the economy and lose the war.

And nobody is in a better position to tell these truths to the American people that President Bush. He should get out there on the campaign trail now.

Mike Reagan, the eldest son of former president Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Radio America Network. Comments to mereagan@hotmail.com for Mike.

[KAUAIBOUND]

I don't necessarily agree that the tax increase of 1993 helped the economy. I believe that the economy soared in the '90s in spite of the tax increase because of the monumental change in productivity created by widely available, cheap technology affecting both the manufacturing and service industries. Even a tax increase could not stop this quantum change.

For example, for an old structural engineer guy like me, my productivity and that of my employees increased drastically with the availability of cheap, fast computers and user-friendly engineering and drafting software. I was charging 15 to 18 cents per square foot for large (50,000 sf) warehouses in the mid-80's, doing almost all of the engineering and drafing by hand. By 2000, we were making larger profits charging 10 to 12 cents per SF. In inflation-adjusted 1985 dollars, that's probably 6 to 8 cents per SF.

[KAUAIBOUND]

Here on Kauai, there is definitely a housing bubble. In 1998, you could buy a condo in Princeville for $79K, now they list for $350K and upwards. But this is an isolated market. The cost of housing throughout most of the country has skyrocketed because homebuyers tend to buy as big a house as they can afford, and low interest rates allow a larger mortgage and higher purchase prices. When interest rates rise, prices will decrease somewhat. It's what I call the "bond effect", i.e. when interest rates increase, bond prices decrease.

[risk]

He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism; he belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom; he belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements. In 20 campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people. From one end of the world to the other he has drained deep the chalice of courage.
-- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1068922/posts, General Douglas MacArthur's Farewell Speech: the long gray line has never failed us.

[Fledermaus]

The ecomomy is not 'tied directly to the federal budget' but to think that fiscal policy is irrelevant is folly. When the goverment runs a deficit it competes with the private sector for investment dollars because it has to borrow money to pay its bills. Fortunately the US economy isn't a closed system, so capital can flow in to fill both needs in most cases. Unfortunately the largest current buyers of US securities are the Chinese. I'll leave you to consider the impact of that fact.

The "when the govt runs a defict it competes with the private sector for investment" is and has been a lie for decades. It's not provable beyond any measure of "competing for capital". First, the government's deficits are held in long term bonds. They used to be 30 years bonds with very low interest rates until Rubin cancelled them and switched to 10-15 year bonds with slightly higher rates. But in either case, this has NO EFFECT on private sector borrowing since there IS NOT one giant pie of captial investment where one dollar to government is one less to the private sector like a zero-sum game.

The tax rates and financed deficits are factored into the Federal Reserve interest rate decisions. Now, given the govt borrowing as you maintain, then under the higher deficits of the early Reagan administration it would have been impossible for all interest rates to get lower. The fact the deficits grew as a percentage of GDP and the interest rates (prime, mortgatge, consumer debt) were lowered disproves your contention on it's face.

As to your next statement, yes...the US is open to foreign investment. But your facts are skewed when you state it's the Chinese that are the largest "buyers" of US securities "currently". Yes, "currently", they are. But the largest HOLDERS of US Securities, i.e. long term bond debt, are still Great Britain, Japan, Canada and other countries that are our allies. China could continue their "current buying" trend for decades and never get close to those countries in security ownership.

And what's wrong with that? You, I'll bet money on, think that is a weakness we have...oh no, China will call in it's debt! Many see it as our strength, they won't want to harm their investment and thus are more apt to want our continued growth.