The Fat 25 Years [What a great article!]

OpinionJournal.com [the FREE version] ^ | 2/28/06 | Pete Du Pont

[harpu]

Ronald Reagan's election marked America's economic turning point.

In 1981 Ronald Reagan became our 40th president, the hostages were released from Iran, Walter Cronkite retired after 19 years as "CBS Evening News" anchorman, and Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female Supreme Court justice.

But a quarter of a century later we should remember 1981 as the year the kaleidoscope turned in America, a dividing point between the previous two decades' big-government beliefs and the individualism and market economy thinking of the next 20 years. We have seen sharply different opportunities--in jobs, incomes, economic growth and inflation--between the governmental years of the 1960s and '70s and the market decades of the '80s and '90s and the new century.

- one big snip -

Finally, we should move from static to dynamic economic calculations. Static calculations say that when income tax rates are cut by 10%, federal tax receipts will decline by 10%. But that is erroneous thinking, for when income taxes are cut some individuals decide to work more and some companies to invest more, so tax revenues increase. Harvard economist Martin Feldstein calculates that income tax rate reductions give back one-third of their projected revenue loss to the government. But it can be even more dramatic: When the Bush capital gains and dividend tax cuts were enacted in 2003, the Congressional Budget Office's static analysis estimated that tax revenues would decline by $27 billion over the subsequent two years. In fact, the tax rate reductions increased governmental tax revenues by $26 billon. So static scoring put the CBO $53 billion in error.

- snip -

President Reagan's economic morning in America has lasted a while, and we must make sure it lasts a great deal longer.

[harpu]

It's a FReebie...get it, read it, and enjoy!

[E Rocc]

Dammit, I feel almost as old as when I had to explain to my girlfriend why John Lennon and Ronald Reagan got shot (the latter event occurring three weeks before her birth).

-Eric

[Grut]

[What a great article!]

It would be, if it had been written in 2001. Du Pont just ignores the fact that since everything the Republicans have done since then contradicts his ideas, they aren't going to listen now.

[harpu]

You know...sometimes a person just can't handle anything but a 'half empty' glass!

[raybbr]

Third, we must bring the rapid growth of government to an end. Domestic discretionary spending rose 7.1% a year in President Bush's first term, the highest of any modern president. Education spending is up 139% in the president's first five years, and government energy spending has doubled. The 2002 farm bill added $8 billion a year to spending, the Medicare prescription drug bill will cost at least $33 billion a year, and ethanol subsidies are up $2.3 billion. Congressional earmarks have grown too, from almost none in the 1980s to some 13,000 last year. Some 6,373 of them, costing $24 billion, were in the recent highway bill. Some vision, some vetoes and some fiscal discipline are needed to control and then decrease annual spending growth.

Yeah. Bush is great!!!!Bush is great!!!!Bush is great!!!!Bush is great!!!!Bush is great!!!!Bush is great!!!!

Keep repeating this over and over. Pretend he and this "conservative" Congress are, in fact, conservatives. Republicans of today are the democrats prior to Gingrich.

[Grut]

You know...sometimes a person just can't handle anything but a 'half empty' glass!

Harpu, meet raybbr.

[harpu]

Rock solid opinions from Connecticut & Maine...kind of says it all - now that's an alliance I'd follow anywhere!

AND, just for a kicker - Good ol'Willie Green [Michigan's own Mr. 'sky is falling'] is brought into the post. Oh yeah...I'm following this lot of 'naysayers'!

[capitalist229]

The 'half full' glass is increased growth.

The 'half empty' glass is ever increasing financial risk of that growth.

I hope that the Fed can successfully negotiate the perils of an increasing risk/reward ratio.

BUMP

[raybbr]

Rock solid opinions from Connecticut & Maine...kind of says it all - now that's an alliance I'd follow anywhere!

I knew you had to an arrogant Texan!

By the way, do you dispute the charges made in point 3?