What with all the political tragedy and comedy lately - the Community Agitator In Chief appointing himself Pope, his OccupyDC camp out for socialism fading into irrelevance with a pathetic whimper, his rapidly unraveling Mideast policy swiftly turning LAS into a literal believer in the Book of Revelations, the GOP contenders for his job thumbing each other in the eye Three Stooges style on a glide path to a brokered convention, etc. – the most important political topic to the American voter (the economy, stupid) has been receiving short thrift.
I, LibertyAtStake, shall now repair this gross oversight. Because as the great “Cool Cal” Calvin Coolidge once opined: “the business of America is business.” So, let’s now turn our attention to the program of economic annihilation administered by BHO and His Corrupt Gang of Progressives.
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Of course, this gang of treasonous incompetents has been patting themselves on the back lately for some economic numbers they are trying to spin as positive. It’s an election year, you know.
They are ready to break out the champagne because the official U3 unemployment rate the past three months has been officially measured as 8.7%, 8.5%, and 8.3%. They seem to like this trend; notwithstanding the fact they were the geniuses who told us their trillion dollar ‘Stimulus’ boondoggle was necessary to keep this number below the 8% we should have expected by doing nothing. They are telling us this trend puts the republic back on the right track notwithstanding the fact that economists traditionally peg the notion of “full domestic employment” on the meter at 4% to 5% U3.
They’ve released the balloons and confetti because growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been officially measured the last two quarters at 1.8% and 2.8%, respectively. They seem to like this trend, too – notwithstanding the fact this is the slowest and shallowest recovery from a recession since World War II.
Of course, this is an election year. So, they want you to believe George W. Bush dug such a big hole they will need not one term, but two terms, to heroically return the greatest economy the world has ever seen to full prosperity. Well, that’s the election pitch, anyway. They’ve concocted this election pitch despite the plain fact their actual policies are consistently anti-growth.
• Such as consistently preventing the development of all kinds of domestic energy resources – to satisfy their tree-hugging “green” lobby in an election year.
• Like consistently demonizing and threatening the republic’s job creators with confiscatory taxes and crushing regulations in the health care realm and other realms.
• And consistently strengthening the hand of labor unions to extort more and more capital from employers – most destructively in the public sector where the “employer” is you and me.
This one clearly falls under the heading “watch what they do, not what they say.” Now, let me be clear about one thing – LAS is no fan of George W. Bush’s domestic policies. ‘No Child Left Behind’ would not have occurred in an LAS administration … it would have been more like ‘What the hell is the Department of Education even for?’ The Medicare prescription drug entitlement expansion was
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The fact of the matter is the only thing this gang of treasonous incompetents has proven is you couldn’t kill the American economy even if you tried, as I recently heard the great Lawrence Kudlow opine on WMAL radio.
As this graph shows, the long term trend in annual growth since World War II has followed a basically straight line trend through all manner of administrations, various recessions, and every twist and turn in the natural free market boom and bust cycle. The 65 year trend line looks to be about 30 degrees positive to my eyeballs – what a beautiful economic engine for prosperity.
Actually, the most interesting part of the trend is the plain fact that annual growth clearly lags the 65 year trend in precisely one period – the present one, the one under Obama’s stewardship.
These numbers make Obama the most anti-growth President since World War II. Period. For a review of the philosophy making it so, and a contrast with the competing philosophy that informed Ronald Reagan’s incredibly successful two terms – you can read my 5/11/11 post ‘Stuck On Keynesian Stupid.’
This graph I’ve been keeping up presents the contrast by the numbers.
Big Government has additional secondary measures documenting the misery of Obamanomics.
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Now, the real turd in the economic toilet bowl, of course, is the ridiculous debt Obama has run up to create these abysmal results.
In fact the national debt now equals annual GDP for the first time ever. That means you would have to confiscate every dollar earned by everyone for an entire year to pay it off.
You are going to need serious pro-growth policies to dig out of this debt hole, America. You are going to need to elect people willing to take bold and, yes, ‘radical’ (dictionary definition) action to get DC the hell out the way of the business of America (business, per Coolidge, as previously noted). Before casting a vote, listen carefully to what this year’s candidates say – and more, importantly, look very closely at what the record says they’ve done in the past with respect to economic growth. The future of the republic depends on it.
Footnotes
Following are my two favorite general ideas for radical tax code reform, which are mutually exclusive in my mind, in ascending order of preference.
Eliminate all loopholes in the income tax code, tax all forms of income equally, cap the top rate at something non-confiscatory (say 15%), and make sure everyone pays in at least something (even if it has to be 1% on the lowest rung). Want to get money out of politics? Flattening the tax rates, broadening the tax base, and simplifying the code goes a hell of a long way toward doing it. If there are no tax advantages to lobby for, no one will see economic benefit in buying a politician.
Alternatively, scrap the income tax altogether, and replace it entirely with a consumption tax. What could be a more simultaneously libertarian and progressive proposal, I ask you? If you want something, and can afford it, you pay the tax. Period. ‘Poor’ people consume less (so it’s “progressive”), and I won’t be coerced into paying for your Viagra under ObamaCare (making it “libertarian.”).
Update 2/14/12
One Trick Crony submits 2012
Fellow DemoHack Dingy Harry Reid promises DemoHack controlled Senate will pass no budget for fourth straight year nevertheless.
2/15/12
The Conservatory blog has a great post on an important component of Team Obama's anti-growth regime ... burdensome regulations. The picture is precious.
