Posted on 12/21/2012 5:53:38 AM PST by Kaslin
"God put the Republican Party on earth to cut taxes. If they don't do that, they have no useful function."
Columnist Robert Novak was speaking of the party that embraced the revolution of Ronald Reagan, who had hung a portrait of Calvin Coolidge in his Cabinet Room and set about cutting income tax rates to 28 percent.
But, to be historically precise, the GOP was not put here to cut taxes. From infancy in the 1850s, its mission was to halt the spread of slavery. From 1865 to 1929, it was the party of high tariffs. Mission: Build the nation and protect U.S. industry and the wages of American workers.
And if the Deity commanded the GOP to cut taxes, the party has had an uneven record. Warren Harding and Coolidge cut Woodrow Wilson's wartime tax rates by two-thirds, but Herbert Hoover nearly tripled the top rate.
Under Dwight Eisenhower, when the top tax rate was 91 percent, the GOP ratified the New Deal and provided the tax revenue to balance the budget at the elevated levels of spending 20 years of Democratic rule had established.
Richard Nixon followed suit. Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, aid to education, the Peace Corps, the arts and humanities endowments, all of the Great Society programs grew -- with Nixon adding OSHA, EPA, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Cancer Institute.
Reagan cut tax rates to 50-year lows, but also accepted new gasoline and payroll taxes. George H.W. Bush then raised the top rate back to 35 percent.
George W. cut tax rates, but put two wars, prescription drug benefits for seniors and No Child Left Behind on the Visa card. Speaker Boehner is about to sign on to higher tax rates.
Point of this recitation: Republicans may talk of reducing the size of government, cutting taxes and balancing budgets. But the history of the last century suggests the party has been driven into what may be described as an inexorable long retreat.
When Coolidge left the White House to "Wonder Boy," as he called Hoover, federal spending was 3 percent of gross national product.
Today, it is around 23 percent. Add state, county and municipal government spending, and we are at 38 percent. Anyone think this figure is going down in our lifetimes?
Can anyone say the GOP, if it is the party of small government and low taxes, has over the past 80 years been a successful party? Or does the America of today look more like the country Socialist Norman Thomas had in mind in 1932?
How, conceivably, can spending go down when, from 2012 to 2030, 75 million baby boomers will be retiring and going on Social Security and Medicare at a rate of 10,000 every day?
How can spending go down when a million legal immigrants arrive annually, 85 percent from the Third World, and most lacking the academic and linguistic abilities or the work skills of Americans?
These immigrants -- and, with "immigration reform," 11 million to 12 million illegals, as well -- will be eligible for welfare, earned income tax credits, food stamps, rent supplements, Medicaid, Head Start, free schooling K-12 with two or three free meals a day at school, Pell Grants and student loans at graduation, job training and unemployment checks for 99 weeks.
Under Bush and Barack Obama both, these programs have exploded. And with 40 percent of all babies now born to single moms in America, does anyone believe these programs will shrink?
When the Great Wave of immigrants came between 1890 and 1920, these programs did not exist. In the 1930s, welfare was seen even by FDR as a temporary necessity to get through the hard times.
Our gargantuan welfare state of today, however, is permanent, as are the millions of government employees who milk and manage it.
Consider our largest government expenditures.
They would be, at the national level, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, homeland security and interest on the debt. At the state and local level, education, transportation -- streets, highways, subways -- and public safety.
If God put the Republican Party on this earth to cut taxes, how do we do his work in the face of these inexorable forces for increased spending? Do we ignore the surging deficits and soaring debt?
Mitt Romney said cutting tax rates would lead to a balanced budget. But when? The Bush tax cuts never did. His were the largest deficits of all, until the coming of Obama.
If we would see our future, we should look to Europe. There, the governments consume more than 40 percent of GDP and, in countries like France, almost 60 percent.
In Europe, the militaries have been hollowed out. Political parties face repudiation. Taxes in France have hit 75 percent. The wealthy flee. Pension promises are reneged upon. Government salaries are cut; employees laid off. Unemployment is astronomical for the young. The divisions deepen; the protests grow. Now, Europe's banks, fearing social unrest, have started to emulate the Fed and buy up regime debt.
Looking at the West over the last century, the arc of history bends toward socialism and insolvency.
Correction: To cut taxes AND SPENDING
ITS THE SPENDING!!!!!!!!!
Great thread! Thanks! Bookmarked.
To show us mortals just how gullible we are and that He has a sense of humor.
Since when is cutting taxes NOT fighting slavery??
http://capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/bruce-bartlett/1701/jude-wanniski-taxes-and-two-santa-theory
Yes, keep cutting taxes and growth will follow. The irony is that the more revenue comes into the treasure, the faster the politicians spend it. We are in rather a lose-lose situation.
If Americans really wanted less spending and smaller government, we would have it. They don’t.
Bingo! We have a winner.Let me be the first to place that statement in nomination for FR comment of the decade.
So the progs would have something to stand on?
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Seriously, BEST article I've read in a while.... Thanks for posting!
the potty of lincoln it is/was
the potty of lincoln it is/was
Is it time for a third party? There are a lot of unhappy people in this country who want little part of the Obama Revolution, whatever that is. The Republican Party is squandering an opportunity here. If it doesn’t voice that discontent, is it time for a third party?
Taxes ARE slavery. If you work for someone and he takes all you produce you are his SLAVE. If he takes half of what you produce, you are his SLAVE. If he takes anything of yours that you produce you are to that extent his SLAVE. You may not be Mandingo but you are working for the Massa nonetheless.
I think it is. I would have said no last year because it would have guaranteed an obama victory. Well, we got the obama victory anyway. Now that the worst has happened it’s time for the Tea Party in Congress to become a third party. They can caucus with the GOP to keep the rats from the Speakership...or not. But it’s time for an authentic conservative party dedicated to limited government and individual freedom.
I despise Buchanan's proported anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism. That doesn't, however, mean he's wrong on everything else.
Obama proved his point in the last election. There are enough Americans who will elect a demagogue who promises unending handouts from the government.
If the idea was to sell people on fiscal sanity, Romney did a poor job. It's crazy to give spending addicts more money until they prove they've cut everything that's waste, fraud, and abuse.
Once they get there, then we can have a discussion about national priorities.
Interestingly, Buchanan served in the Nixon Administration.
Extremely inappropriate.
Christ is not Mohammad so weak and unstable as to be so easily offended by words—especially the words of his followers intended to promote his causes.
This is why I have such a hard time with both Buchanan and Ron Paul.
They both make so much sense on so many issues, but the ones they are wrong on, they are REALLY wrong on.
Anyway, NOBODY in our clown-car congress is going to fix anything, and the average American is a fat, mouth-breathing ignoramus who hires politicians to steal stuff from his or her neighbors.
In short, we are screwed.
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