Posted on 07/05/2005 5:03:43 PM PDT by CHARLITE
President Bush's fifth State of the Union address laid out an agenda that is perhaps the most ambitious domestic agenda of any second term President. The President's plan for an “ownership society” could go a long way in giving citizens more control over their own lives.
Stephen Moore, president of the Free Enterprise Fund, has compiled a book that provides a short, easy-to-read defense of President Bush's policies entitled Bullish on Bush: How George W. Bush's Ownership Society Will Make America Stronger.
Originally written before the 2004 election in order to persuade voters that President Bush's policies are better for America than that of challenger Senator John Kerry, this book is just as relevant today in light of the President's bold agenda for the remainder of his term.
According to Moore, “The Bush ownership society theme is at the heart of what the American dream is all about: owning a home, owning stock, or starting one's own business.”
How to do it: tax reform, private accounts for Social Security, “muzzle the trial lawyers,” restore budget discipline, school vouchers, make the tax cuts permanent, abolish the death tax, offer IRAs, allow Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), and lower trade barriers.
Bullish on Bush not only sets the framework for future policies, but also clears the air about Bush's first-term economic agenda. Moore says the recent recession was not Bush's fault. Rather, it was culmination of external forces: the September 11 attack, corporate accounting scandals, a stock market meltdown, a global recession, and an ongoing War on Terror. The President's policies, including timely tax cuts, actually made this one of the mildest recessions in U.S. history.
Perhaps the most ambitious of all the President's policies is his desire to reform the current Social Security system by allowing individuals to divert a portion of their payroll taxes into personal savings accounts (PSAs). Moore devotes a whole chapter to what he calls “George Bush's New Deal for Social Security.” Moore says “the best way to help the young is to allow them to tap into the awesome power of compound interest to build up real nest eggs of personal savings.” He concludes by asserting, “George Bush is the first President in history to tackle Social Security head on, and for that workers owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Bullish on Bush is much more than an analysis of Bush's economic agenda, however. It is a simple, but thorough, defense of free market economics. Using historical examples from JFK and former President Reagan, Moore provides a sound argument for tax cuts and supply-side economics. Moore states:
If we accept the premise that people work, save, and invest to earn money, then it stands to reason that increasing the rewards of working, saving, and investing will lead to more of those activities.
Moore is not without his criticisms of the President - he does not shy away from condemning the President for failing to keep congressional spending under control – but on the whole he offers many reasons to be “bullish” about Bush.
Moore masterfully makes the complicated appear simple. Complete with easy-to-understand graphs and statistical data, this short volume, topping out at only 118 pages, provides a sound defense against the continuous onslaught being waged against the President's economic agenda by liberals in government, by the media, and by academic institutions. It's a must-read for anyone with an interest in the economic future of America.
Robert Zirkelbach is co-founder and a regular columnist for theconservativemind.com. He previously served as a White House intern and Congressional aide, and is currently the Director of Recruitment at the Leadership Institute.
The only catch is that in the absence of anyone actually following the Constitution, the owners will be Wal-Mart, the Communist Chinese, and illegal aliens.
It seems to me his most ambitious plan is this:
http://www.cfr.org/pub8138/robert_a_pastor_william_f_weld_john_p_manley_pedro_c_aspe/building_a_north_american_community_report_of_the_independent_task_force_on_the_future_of_north_america.php
Count me out.
Since President bush has come into office we have suffered through an enormous expansion of government entitlement programs and we are thrown a bone on some small issues. If this is an "ownership Society" I dont want it. The constitution spells out the duties of the federal government quite nicely, it would be nice to see a congress, president, and supreme court adhere to that document. President Bush, a liberal in conservative clothing.
We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down.
BOHICA
Right.. God forbid that I decide to dictate in how MY MONEY is put away for retirement.. Silly me..
BTTT ! Well said. Blackbird.
Yeah, sure. Which US president presided over the largest budget deficit? Which US president never have seen the spending bill he did not like?
Health Savings account? Some people are much more sickly than others. Which category will benefit more, sickly or healthy?
"tax cuts permanent" plus abolishing the "death" tax might end up in a small oligarchy owning most of the national assets while paying little tax if any (you can live out of dividends quite nicely). Welcome to Latin America in El Salvador/Colombia style.
What are you talking about??????????
I'm no bushbot - but SCOTUS did that - and there ain't nobody on there appointed by him.
We will see. If Janice Rogers Brown gets the nod to the Sc, maybe we still have a shot.
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