Posted by
John Caile on Friday, July 31, 2009 2:36:27 PM
In the la-la world of the economically illiterate socialist, any government program is a "success" for no other reason than that lots of people sign up for it. Never mind that the Cash for Clunkers program is a classic "rob Peter (taxpayers) to pay Paul (auto buyers)" scheme - all that matters is that a certain number of people get in line for their government check. Gee, Martha, what did you expect - "free" money!
Now, if the Obama administration, and Democrats in general, had ANY understanding of economic realities, they would have offered an income tax CREDIT to everyone who bought a new car. THAT would have been a genuine stimulus. Right now, we are simply taking money from one tax payer and writing a check to another (the car buyer) with a net increase in private capitol of...zero.
With a tax credit, on the other hand, you would have allowed the purchasers to keep more of their OWN money, increasing the amount of private capital in the economy. The $8000 housing credit for new home buyers is a good example, and the only thing Obama and friends got right - don't tell them, though, or they'll likely repeal it!
But you see, there's a (political) problem with such economically sensible policies - tax credits don't help the 40% of American workers who already don't pay any income tax, because they have nothing to apply a credit to anyway (and since most of these free-loaders voted for Obama...).
Which is precisely why today's Democrats resist tax cuts - real, substantive tax cuts don't normally visibly benefit their primary constituency, the lower income voter (I know, I know, cutting taxes on "the rich" and corporations DOES benefit the poor immensely in terms of job creation, but most Democrat voters don't get that - if they did, they wouldn't BE Democrats).
And in any event, no government give-away program put forth by Democrats has anything to do with promoting growth and prosperity - it has to do with buying votes from the poor.
The sooner you realize this, the better you will understand the long term strategy of the neo-socialists who currently control both the White House and the U.S. Congress - creating a permanent majority of non-tax-paying Democrat voters, by TAKING from those who achieve and giving to those who don't.