Rough Beasts Slouching toward the White House

American Thinker ^ | September 9, 2018 | Clarice Feldman

[jazusamo]

Pardon me for the reference to Yeats's poem "The Second Coming," but events this week reminded me of the poem and this line: "the worst are full of passionate intensity."

On the one hand, we have the most effective president in my lifetime, who has, as John Hinderaker details , pulled this country out of the economic doldrums, which were the direct result of the idiotic policies of his predecessor in office:

American wages unexpectedly...

Unexpectedly!

...climbed in August by the most since the recession ended in 2009 and hiring rose by more than forecast, keeping the Federal Reserve on track to lift interest rates this month and making another hike in December more likely.

Average hourly earnings for private workers increased 2.9 percent from a year earlier, a Labor Department report showed Friday, exceeding all estimates in a Bloomberg survey and the median projection for 2.7 percent. Nonfarm payrolls rose 201,000 from the prior month, topping the median forecast for 190,000 jobs.

This is reality. The Democrats' clown show is fantasy. Fortunately, most people care more about reality than fantasy. Still, both confusing the facts and distracting people from them are tactics at which the Left excels.

A Democratic Congress never would have passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. In fact, not a single Democrat voted for it....

[babble-on]

Federal revenues are down sharply every month but April, which again reflects payments due April 15 under the prior tax code. Next year will be far worse still.

[Kickass Conservative]

Interesting, I had not heard that. I’ll have to check that out.

Another reason to visit Free Republic, access to information.

[enumerated]

My point was that we should NOT be scoring tax rate cuts based on their revenue neutrality, or conversely, on their debt neutrality.

We should instead be scoring tax cuts on what I call “government burden neutrality”. This is because it is the level of government spending that burdens the private economy, regardless of whether that spending is financed by taxation or by borrowing.

As long as spending remains the same, tax hikes and tax cuts merely shift the burden from a tax burden to a debt burden - the burden remains unchanged.

I still advocate tax cuts though if that is the will of the people, because that is an honest measure of what the people are willing to spend on government. The deficit spending is the amount being spent AGAINST the will of the people.

I like the idea of keeping the two straight - it exposes the government as the theives they are. Maybe with that awareness there is a slight chance of reigning in the government. If we raise taxes to cover it, then there is zero chance of a cut in spending.

To me it’s like a teenage kid asking for an increase in his allowance, and when the parents say no, the kid says “OK then I’ll run up debt on credit cards and maybe later you’ll have to bail me out of debt”. This is when the parents should say “No, if you exceed your allowance and run up debt, you’re kicked out of the house”. If they are weak, and agree to increasing the allowance because they fear the teenager will run up debt, they are like the “fiscal conservatives” who will raise taxes to avoid debt. It’s a capitulation.

[ArGee]

I agree with you 100%. The way to keep expenses within revenues is to cut expenses, not raise revenues.

I also agree that taxes should be used to generate revenue - ONLY. Not to encourage certain behaviors.