In just ten days, the election will be here. It is important to remember what is at stake when you vote. This is one of the most important elections in recent years. While politicians always tell us of the importance of the impending election, this one truly is critical. You need to vote!
Here is what is at stake:
1) Taxes -- the Democrats want to raise taxes in the middle of a recession. This is true both in Washington and Hartford. Republicans are against tax increases. There are a whole series of taxes under consideration including income taxes, estate taxes, energy taxes, healthcare taxes and even a national sales tax. In general, it is the Democrats who are pushing raises in these taxes, with the GOP opposed.
This is not just a question of taxes, however. Each time taxes are raised, money is sucked out of the economy and jobs are lost. In addition, growth is slowed or stopped and that means that no new jobs are created. Democrats argue that they need the additional taxes to pay for all the new spending that they have pushed through in the last two years. What they fail to recognize is that raising taxes may actually reduce government receipts. The unemployed do not pay income taxes. Even the wealthy will redistribute their investments to minimize taxes if the rates are high enough. So the Democrats taxing plans will reduce jobs, reduce growth that would lead to additional jobs and still not raise government income. No wonder the Republicans are opposed.
2. Spending -- Democrats have no plans to stop the meteoric rise in spending. Oh, President Obama gives lip service to a "freeze" on discretionary spending, but none of the other Democrats are talking about that. Indeed, in the two years since taking office, Obama has presided over an 84% increase in discretionary federal spending. Now he talks about a freeze at those high levels. Republicans, on the other hand, are talking about spending cuts. The Pledge to America calls for a return to the 2008 levels of federal discretionary spending. That would cut hundreds of billions of dollars of spending right there. Republicans also want to tackle the other big spending problems that face the government, namely entitlements.
Democrats do not ever discuss specific spending cuts, but they frequently criticize the Republicans as having no specifics for their proposed cuts. this criticism ignores reality. Cutting spending to 2008 levels is very specific. Indeed, even when Republicans mention specific programs to be cut (like the money for NPR), the Democrats say there are not enough specifics. It is almost as if they are speaking another language.
Simply put, if you think that the level of government spending is too high, you should vote for the Republicans. If you want still more spending which will be paid for through increased debt, then vote for the Democrats.
3. The federal deficit -- since we spoke about taxes and spending, you would think that the federal deficit would also be covered, but it deserves separate attention. The deficit is not curable through tax increases; increases high enough to close the deficit will actually reduce government revenues by driving investments into tax free or tax sheltered areas. They would also reduce growth and jobs in the USA. Spending cuts are unlikely alone to close the entire deficit as well. The Republicans want to make cuts in some of the more extravagant and wasteful programs thrown into the budget by the Democrats, but it will not be enough to close the budget gap. The only way to close that gap is to increase economic growth. If the economy prospers, fewer people will need government help, so expenditures will fall. At the same time, more people will have jobs, earn money and prosper, so tax revenues will increase. this is the best method to close the budget deficit. So pro-growth policies are needed both in Washington and Hartford.
Democrats have adopted a series of anti-growth policies and they are pushing for more. The Democrats have pushed through enormous new regulations and costs for business that act to retard or reverse economic growth. For example, the so-called Financial Reform bill requires all banks and brokerage firms in the US to meet racial, ethnic and gender quotas in their work forces in order to deal with the government. Then it establishes sixteen separate agencies whose duties include enforcement of these quotas. It does not take a genius to understand that financial firms -- which need to compete worldwide -- will do better if they and hire the best person for each job rather than the one who meets the racial, gender and ethnic quota set by the government. Just the cost alone of making sure that the firm meets the government requirements will drive the cost of doing business in the USA up and thereby give an advantage to competitors in London, Hong Kong or Singapore. these regulations will reduce economic growth. Another example is the huge pile of new regulations about healthcare that are spewing out of Washington following the passage of Obamacare by the Democrats. Instead of just hiring a new employee, a business owner has to consider what additional expenses the new hire will bring once all of the obamacare regulations have been issued. This too slows job and economic growth.
Republicans have called for a freeze on new regulations that affect business. Democrats want to move ahead on all of them.
4 Energy -- Democrats have done a good job of reducing US energy production so that we have become more dependent on foreign energy sources. New off shore drilling was stopped for essentially all of the last two years. Then, in the aftermath of the botched cleanup in the Gulf, even the existing areas of off shore driling were closed. Democrats have done nothing to enhance production of clean, abundant natural gas in the USA. Instead, they have putup obstacles to production of this fuel which could both cut oil imports dramatically and clean up the environment in a major way. On top of this, the Democrats almost passed cap and trade and continue to push for it. Cap and trade would drive up the cost of home heating, gasoline, electricity and all other energy in the USA. It would also kill hundreds of thousands of jobs. Oh, and it would NOT make a meaningful reduction in the level of US emissions.
Republicans do not support cap and trade. They also do not want to thwart the domestic production of energy. They support the expanded production of natural gas.
The choice here is clear. Republicans will keep energy costs lower and will do more to clean up the environment by promoting natural gas.
One more note here is needed. Democrats want to promote wind and solar energy as the fuels of the future. While that is nice, the problem is that even the Democrats agree that over the next ten years neither wind nor solar can provide any meaningful portion of the US energy supply at a reasonable cost. The Democrats push for these energy sources may please the environmentalists, but it undermines the economy while providing no real environmental benefit.
5. Defense -- on the subject of national defense, the Democrats need a reality check. Most of the Democrats in congress do not even want to talk about Muslim terrorism. They react like the ladies on the view if someone points out that the 9/11 terrorists were Muslims who acted in the name of Allah. In the two years since Obama has taken office, we have seen the Times Square Bomber, the Fort Hood Massacre, the Christmas Underwear bomber and some other domestic attacks or attempts at attacks on targets here in the USA. After 9/11 with the Republicans in control, there were no further attacks in the US. It may be coincidence, but I believe that the refusal of the Democrats to see the real problem of Islamic terrorism has contributed to our failure to stop each of these attacks.
There are many other issues where Democrats and Republicans disagree, but these are the key ones in my opinion. Personally, I do not see how any sane person could vote for the Democrats, but hey, that's just me.
No comments:
Post a Comment