As we move closer to November, it is time for the GOP to step forward with a conservative program for the nation. The Republicans need to tell America how they would use control of the Senate if the voters return that power to them. In that way, the new majority will have a mandate from the voters to accomplish certain changes. President Obama will likely oppose these changes, but at least it will be clear that he is thwarting the will of the voters.
In the next weeks I plan to offer my suggestions for this program. I call it "Getting America Working Again".
The first program to be offered has to be one that promotes the creation of new jobs. America has spent too many years under president Obama with only feeble job growth. Right now, after five plus years of Obama's economic programs (or more precisely, the lack of any such program), the nation still has fewer people employed than was the case at the start of the recession. It is a sorry record so bad that one needs to go all the way back 80 years to the Depression to find anything comparable.
So how do the Republicans combat the stagnation of America's economic might under Obama? There are a great many things that could be done, but we ought to start with the one where Congress can have the most impact. My first choice is the restructuring of the tax code. The Republicans ought to pledge to revise the tax code to achieve the following goals:
1. Special tax breaks for the well connected ought to be eliminated. There is no reason why a huge company like GE (whose chairman is a big Obama supporter) should earn 14 billion dollars but pay no taxes while a small business without connections earns one hundred thousand dollars and pays a big chunk of that in taxes.
2. People in the "underground" economy who avoid paying taxes should be brought into the tax base. There is no reason why the tax code should make it easy for people or companies to cheat and evade taxation. The honest people of America should not be left to support the crooks.
3. The corporate tax system has to be revised so that it no longer promotes the movement of American companies and American jobs overseas. If the tax rate differences between the USA and other countries were reversed, we could soon see a huge wave of foreign investment which would add hundreds of thousands or millions of jobs here at home.
4. Tax rates should be lowered on activities that lead to the creation of new jobs and economic activity. This is not "tax cuts for the wealthy". The total revenue obtained from the tax system should remain the same; the sources, however, should be redistributed so that it taxation does not discourage economic growth.
5. The tax code should be simplified. There is no need for America to spend so many billions of dollars each year trying to comply with the requirements of a byzantine labyrinth of a system.
In the next weeks I plan to offer my suggestions for this program. I call it "Getting America Working Again".
The first program to be offered has to be one that promotes the creation of new jobs. America has spent too many years under president Obama with only feeble job growth. Right now, after five plus years of Obama's economic programs (or more precisely, the lack of any such program), the nation still has fewer people employed than was the case at the start of the recession. It is a sorry record so bad that one needs to go all the way back 80 years to the Depression to find anything comparable.
So how do the Republicans combat the stagnation of America's economic might under Obama? There are a great many things that could be done, but we ought to start with the one where Congress can have the most impact. My first choice is the restructuring of the tax code. The Republicans ought to pledge to revise the tax code to achieve the following goals:
1. Special tax breaks for the well connected ought to be eliminated. There is no reason why a huge company like GE (whose chairman is a big Obama supporter) should earn 14 billion dollars but pay no taxes while a small business without connections earns one hundred thousand dollars and pays a big chunk of that in taxes.
2. People in the "underground" economy who avoid paying taxes should be brought into the tax base. There is no reason why the tax code should make it easy for people or companies to cheat and evade taxation. The honest people of America should not be left to support the crooks.
3. The corporate tax system has to be revised so that it no longer promotes the movement of American companies and American jobs overseas. If the tax rate differences between the USA and other countries were reversed, we could soon see a huge wave of foreign investment which would add hundreds of thousands or millions of jobs here at home.
4. Tax rates should be lowered on activities that lead to the creation of new jobs and economic activity. This is not "tax cuts for the wealthy". The total revenue obtained from the tax system should remain the same; the sources, however, should be redistributed so that it taxation does not discourage economic growth.
5. The tax code should be simplified. There is no need for America to spend so many billions of dollars each year trying to comply with the requirements of a byzantine labyrinth of a system.
No comments:
Post a Comment