Tuesday, October 7, 2008

When all you have is aspirin

There is an old adage, "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

For Republicans, during the last 28 or so years, the only prescription for improving the economic fortunes of the nation has been smaller government, including the meme' that lower taxes stimulate growth, reinvigorate a sagging economy, or are the right action to take when the economy is moving along well as the government no longer needs the receipts (as shown by the surpluses created during boom times).

In short, for every situation, tax cuts are the remedy. They are the aspirin to every problem. They are the ONLY solution worth discussion, every time, all the time.

Today, the solution Bob Dole recommends to John McCain, for McCain to solve his financial crisis "crisis", by extolling.. you guessed it - MORE Tax cuts. We'll deficit spend our way out of debt apparently. The other thing McCain should do, according to Dole, is to suggest that Obama will (fear factor) 'oohhh scarrry' - raise taxes.

Now Obama, for his vapid part, is promising tax cuts too.. as if that's the prescription for this mess. A $500/year cut or even $5000/year cut, won't solve the problems, as those are ALSO lost services, but the real point is, a tax cut is NOT the issue, problem, solution, resolution, or even germane to the problem we face. The problem we face is having too much money at the top, chasing too few real investments BECAUSE those what gots the money don't want to spend it to create jobs, pay better, build infrastructure or improve the economy on-shore. That's got little if anything at all to do with tax cuts, except in that those who have benefited by this skewed system over the past quarter-century, have, as a percentage of their income, paid less and less and less (in taxes, in salary to workers, in infrastructural investment) - leaving workers further behind, the infrastructure crumbling, and the nation in debt up to its hairline.

Tax cuts are no more a cure-all than is a federal program for every ill. Done at the wrong time they destroy the credit base of the economy AT BEST, and at worse, put the nation on the road to ruin if done poorly - meaning if done by offsetting lost revenue with merely printing paper. They are a zero-sum-game in most respects, until they squelch out investment, which NEVER happened in any of our lifetimes. During the 50's, corporate and personal income taxes were FAR higher on those making the most (and on corporations), yet we boomed. There were clearly other factors (like lack of competing industry in some nations), but people STILL invested - because make 30% of 1,000,000 is still far better than making 0% of 10,000,000.

But the real point is, they AREN'T the cure all for THIS problem. Getting investors to invest in jobs on shore, protecting the American workforce force from what is essentially slave labor in Africa, or near slave labor wages in China, and having an adequate tax base to pay for public health care, public schools, and public infrastructure upon which to conduct trade, That's the start of a real change. Boogey-man theory about tax increases aside, it's time to recognize we don't have either a nail to hit, or a headache to treat. We have a need for an arc-welder, and we need to cure both corporate myopia and the cancer of unbridled greed.

2 comments:

  1. I don't mind Senator Obama's tax cut scenario because, in the short run, at least his proposed cuts would help folks who need it to offset higher energy and food costs. Folks who can handle a slight rise in their taxes (i.e. those who make $250,000+ per year) will help to create room for those tax cuts without the budget deficit exploding yet further due to this plan.

    But your basic premise is pretty spot-on. For one, given the credit crisis, the deficit is going to rise one way or the other for a while, as federal and state tax revenues recede. Also, we have yet to work at a national level to solve the energy and health care crises, which will only get worse before they get better, and which will only put us into a more intense form of economic dire straits as they continue to become more and more untenable.

    I am not suggesting that some sort of overarching, Soviet-style "Five Year Plan" is in order. That would prove disasterous. But I am suggesting that we start taking the long-view at the local, state, and national levels, and stop stumbling about like babes in the woods. Let's come up with a few strategies and then work to make them, well, workable, which means they need to be flexible and lean enough to work but not too insubstantial, and they need to utilize the best components of both government leverage and the free market.

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  2. Notice that Bob Dole did NOT get elected president... and in fact, I think he's reduced to starring in Viagra commercials now.

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