Herman
Cain
Read Herman's bio and previous columns
April 21, 2008
The Democrats’ Lies
about the Economy
Last week John McCain revealed some of his ideas about taxation to help
sustain the economic expansion of the last six years if he is elected
president.
Namely, he would make the current tax rates permanent, reduce the
corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent, abolish the
alternative minimum tax and raise the tax exemption for dependent
children from $3,500 to $7,000 per child. Of course he would have to get
a stubborn Democratic-controlled Congress to support these ideas.
On
the spending side, he would suspend any increases in federal
discretionary spending and veto all bills with “earmarks” for special
pork barrel projects.
Sen. McCain also proposed a dramatic simplification of our current tax
system, although he did not reveal specific details.
Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign was quick to declare McCain’s proposals an
extension of the “failed” Bush economic policies, and to be fiscally
irresponsible.
Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign quickly criticized McCain’s proposals as
a George W. Bush redo of corporate windfalls and tax cuts for the
wealthy.
The Democrats will not change their talking points no matter how wrong
they are. And their supporters and followers have drunk so much of the
Democratic Kool-Aid that they would not dare to challenge their leaders
on the validity of their accusations.
Well, I did not drink the Kool-Aid, so here is the truth.
An
article in U.S. News & World Report dated Friday, April 18, 2008
reported that the current six-year economic expansion dates from
November 2001 through the present time, despite some recent slowing.
This was the same year George W. Bush took office as president, so how
could these be failed economic policies?
The American Council for Capital Formation published a study in January
2008 entitled “Tax Reductions Contributed Significantly to Post-2001
U.S. Economic Expansion.”
The study went on to say, “Economic growth really began to accelerate in
2003 as the tax cuts ramped up. This was despite the negative shocks of
the 9/11 terrorist attack, global terrorism, wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina and energy prices”
So, how is this fiscally irresponsible and failed economic policy? It is
not.
Of
course you can find some reports that downplay the economic expansion of
the last six years, but they have to dig really deep to construct some
irrelevant factual basis for their view. As usual, the New York Times
provided that conspicuously negative and irrelevant view in David
Leonhardt’s April 9 piece titled “For Many, a Boom That Wasn’t.”
Leonhardt had to compare the median family income in 2000 of $61,000 to
the median family income in 2007 of $60,500 to try to support his point.
What he did not tell the readers was that most of the families at the
median income in 2000 had moved up to a higher level of income by the
time 2007 rolled around.
The most egregious part of this consistent Democratic deception is that
they never offer a better idea or plan. They just want to raise taxes
and get elected by their Kool-Aid drinkers and anyone gullible enough to
swallow their persistent lies about the economy.
Blind loyalty to the leaders of the Democratic Party is a person’s
right, but when the leaders lead with deception and lies, the followers
are just blind to the truth.
And that’s just the truth.
© 2008 North Star
Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
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