Not One Republican Vote

This sounds like a bad joke: what kind of stimulus doesn’t stimulate? Answer: the Obama Democrat economic non-stimulus package.

The President tells us he wants to spend more than $800 billion, perhaps as much as $1 trillion, not including the $1 trillion already dumped on banks, automakers, and one-shot tax gimmicks to "stimulate" the economy. He promises that this will create 3 million jobs, of which "only" 600,000 will be tax-eating governmental employees. Assuming that he’s right (while we can put a price tag on the spending fairly easily, predicting the employment effects is an exercise in arithmancy), that works out to more than $250K for each job created.

Upwards of $250K per job? Even if we got that many, wouldn’t it be cheaper to simply throw bales of money out of airplanes?

In reality, the proposed spending package has nothing whatsoever to do with stimulating the economy. Quoth Rahm Emanuel a few months back: "Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste. They are opportunities to do big things." Obviously, the Democrats took that admonition to heart and are simply using the present crisis as an excuse to spend huge amounts of borrowed money on their traditional wish list of programs.

If any hoary leftist notion or program, from "family planning" to the arts, hasn’t got a massive finger into this obscenely large pie, it’s not for want of trying. (Borrowed) money for everything: increased welfare spending of every conceivable variety. Medicaid, unemployment, public schools, the list is endless. All at the expense of our kids, who will be handed the bill for this spending orgy.

Now, apparently worried, lest people believe that an economic stimulus package is actually intended to stimulate the economy, Democrats are already warning that the results will not be immediate. The Ledger headline blares forth: "Officials Downplaying Impact of Any Stimulus".

Umm ... isn’t the whole point of this undertaking to make things better NOW? Sending billions to the states, so that they can continue wasting money on a monumental scale; "investing" in "shovel ready" plans so as to start the hiring TODAY; providing huge sums in giveaways and welfare payments, because those folks will spend it; all of this sold to us under the assumption that it would improve things immediately. If it won’t – and it won’t – why borrow $1 trillion or so, to be repaid by our kids?

The professionals – even honest Democrats – have not been kind to this proposal. The Democratic controlled Congressional Budget Office reported that less than 10% of the proposed spending would be spent in the first year. Less than 1/3 of the spending would be undertaken before the end of 2010. In the spirit of the new Administration’s open government policy, the report has been airbrushed from the Congressional website, but the import is clear: this bill is NOT about stimulus; it’s about taking advantage of a crisis to ratchet up spending on all manner of leftist programs.

Now that the media appears to be emerging from its campaign-mode Obamaphilia, perhaps the perpetually timid Republicans will take heart and become increasingly aggressive in their heretofore tepid opposition. Although they should NOT filibuster – the Dems are adept at blaming the GOP for ... everything and should not be provided with any cover – the GOP should provide not so much as one vote for this monstrosity. They should not cooperate, vociferously oppose it, and repeatedly point out its failings and excesses. This should be Obama’s baby, and for its certain failure, he should shoulder the blame.

The GOP should, though, offer a pro-freedom alternative: eliminate the corporate income tax.

Corporations don’t exist, except as pieces of paper in the Secretary of State’s office; they can’t pay taxes. Government uses businesses as tax collectors, hiding the true size and expense of government in the prices they charge for their products. As only people can pay taxes, all taxes should be assessed against people, right out in the open, preferably payable the day before the November elections, such that the expense of voting for Democrats is fresh in the electorate’s mind when they go to the polls.

As we have apparently decided that deficits mean nothing for the near term – a debatable proposition, but a question for another day – we can either waste the borrowed money on welfare and government, or we can invest it, through tax cuts, in productive businesses. If, instead of handing hundreds of billions to selected, governmentally-approved businesses, we remove the tax friction from business and let private folks reap the full return on their investment (subject, of course, to taxation on any distributions), our enterprises will instantly become hugely competitive worldwide, our goods and services substantially less expensive, resulting, of course, in an increase in demand. That produces jobs. REAL jobs. Not governmentally-created, busywork positions.

Whether they prolonged it cannot be ascertained, but leftist economic policies did precisely nothing to end or ease the Great Depression. Contrariwise, the last truly significant downturn, in the late 70's and early 80's – brought on by foolish leftist economic policies (for which, incidentally, I give full measure of credit where it’s due, to Richard Nixon) – was ended outright by the freedom based economic policies pursued by Ronald Reagan.

We should do the same thing now. Recognize that freedom and prosperity are inextricably intertwined. The economy will heal when people become confident that they will have a job tomorrow, when businesses feel it makes sense to invest, when lenders are confident that their loans will be repaid. Government CAN make a difference, by guaranteeing freedom.

Instead of increasing the size and scope of government, cut taxes on the productive sector of the economy, enabling private business to retain their present employees and hire new ones. Instead of providing unemployment benefits for those without jobs, prevent those losses in the first instance, and provide jobs for those displaced, through a vibrant, growing economy.

This Americans know how to do: get government out of the way and let us do it.