Posted on 09/13/2008 7:16:08 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Gloom deepens as Americas debt piles up
Irwin Stelzer: American Account
The great clunking fist has struck again, or almost. This time it was aimed at the chin of John McCain, who just might be the next president of America. Fortunately, McCain has proved he can take such a blow, so his staff confined its reaction to polite enquiries of Britains ambassador, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, asking: What the devil is the British prime minister doing endorsing the economic programme of Barack Obama?
Not that it much matters. The McCain team knows that Brown is largely responsible for the mess in which the British economy finds itself. That makes his support for Obamas economic plans about as useful as feathers on a fish, to borrow a phrase coined by congressman John Dingell in another connection.
The differences between Obama-Brown and McCain are far from trivial. Obama wants to raise taxes on families earning more than $250,000 a year, and on their dividends and capital gains, to support a redistributionist cheque of $1,000 to each of the 95% of Americans not in the top bracket. He would take the tax rate on high earners to about the UK level of 40%. Brown naturally leans more towards Obama than a tax-cutter like McCain.
Otherwise, it is difficult to understand the attractiveness of Obamas economic programme to the prime minister, with the possible exception of the Illinois senators proposal since withdrawn to provide relief for some hard-pressed homeowners. Brown famously stole the Tories clothes by proposing reductions in inheritance tax; Obama proposes to raise it. Brown believes union members should be protected from their leaders by being entitled to a secret ballot; Obama favours stripping Americas union members of that protection.
(Excerpt) Read more at business.timesonline.co.uk ...
The next President has to guide population through confronting the stark reality, not fooling them with another costly scam.
Ping!
What other way is there for our govt to make money to pay it’s debts, other than raising taxes or borrowing against our future?
Bring The Budget To Balance By 2013
John McCain will balance the budget by the end of his first term. The near-term path to balance is built on
three principles:
Reasonable economic growth. Growth is an imperative historically the greatest success in reducing
deficits (late 1980s; late 1990s) took place in the context of economic growth.
Comprehensive spending controls. Bringing the budget to balance will require across-the-board
scrutiny of spending and making tough choices on new spending proposals.
Bi-partisanship in budget efforts. Much as the late 1990s witnessed bipartisan efforts to put the fiscal
house in order, bi-partisan efforts will be the key to undoing the recent spending binge.
In the long-term, the only way to keep the budget balanced is successful reform of the large spending
pressures in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
http://www.johnmccain.com/Images/Issues/JobsforAmerica/briefing.pdf
Inflate.
yes! you have to do that first before you can go after the spending.
Well, I did feel pretty “gloomy” there for a while this year and then John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his VP and all of a sudden, a gust of fresh air blew the clouds away, the sun came out and the world seemed a better and more positive place and the future seemed better and brighter.
Thank you John.
I don’t believe that the Dems will only target those earning $250,000 a year and above. When Dems get into power, all kinds of taxes go up. In my state of PA, as soon as Ed Rendell got into office, the state income tax went up whereas the Pubbies before him tried to keep it low. Right now Rendell is trying to sell off our state turnpike to foreign corporations who will have the right to administer toll collections.
Monetize the debt.
That is the only way the books can be put into some semblance of order.
The next President has to guide population through confronting the stark reality, not fooling them with another costly scam.
Methinks the way out that Government has chosen is to claim that 10% inflation is really only 3% inflation. That way they can forgo raises in pensions and SS, saving billions to bail out their Wall Street buddies.
oh of course. They just want to raise class envy as the hook for new taxes on the rich and later “oh we must make sacrifices” for taxes on everyone
I actually have confidence in McCain on the budget. As a Senator, he has proven to one of the few Senators who has managed to keep his job without bringing home the bacon. I think he’ll be using his veto pen far more than GWB and will definitly keep congrees in check on their spending. GWB just pretty much gave congress a blank check.
doesn’t matter who he “targets.” Changing the SS withholding (IT IS NOT A TAX) from topping out at ~$100K to infinity will be the largest tax increase in history, and will put the lie once and for all to the claim that Social Security is a public pension fund.
John McCain is going to cut spending. It will shock everyone. You heard it first here. Earmarks, programs. Watch and see. (Assuming he is POTUS)
I hope you are right. But that seems like a gargantuan task. D.C.Is so bloated and self serving.
I know that is his plan, and I like it.
Yeah, look at all the gloom:
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/09/08/daily61.html
Consumer confidence soaring
I wish conservatives would awaken on the deficit issue. The deficit is getting smaller versus or GDP.
This is very important. It means that small amounts of pro growth policy such as done with tax cuts can easily grow the government out of deficit.
Tax cuts increase revenue for the government. That is the ugly reality that every conservative should know. Holding down government growth even without cuts will eventually allow the economy to grow past government spending.
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