Mark’s Soap Box

Robert Samuelson in a piece posted on Real Clear Politics; says that there is a disconnect between Political Rhetoric and reality.

There is a make-believe quality to modern American politics: People — and this applies across the political spectrum — say things that are stupid, misleading or unattainable and think (or pretend) that these very same things are desirable, candid and realistic.

He then goes on to prove himself correct.

On the right, we have conservatives clamoring for tax cuts when, as a practical matter, today’s massive budget deficits preclude permanent new tax cuts.

Can you be anymore stupid? The idea that the budget is “right sized” is idiotic. Cutting taxes will actually increase Tax revenues. We have seen this before, EVERY TIME we decrease taxes.

He then goes on to lie, to prove why taxes can’t be cut. He advocates irresponsible deficit spending and seems to be clueless to the dangers of more Debt owned by our enemies.

With present policies and a decent economic recovery, the federal government could easily spend $12 trillion more than it collects in taxes from 2009 to 2020, reckons the Congressional Budget Office. So before reducing taxes, the tax cut advocates need to identify hundreds of billions of annual spending reductions — or accept huge and hazardous annual deficits. Naturally, a comprehensive list of spending cuts is nowhere in sight.

Now the CBO is full of Keynesians (people who believe that deficit spending is good), so their opinion is not all that great. Beyond that, cutting taxes DOES NOT require an equal cutting of the budget; commonly and wrongly called “PayGo” or “Pay as you go.” It should however be followed by massive cuts in programs that are not the responsibility of Government.

Next Mr. Samuelson contradicts himself.

On the left, President Obama and Democrats have spent the last year arguing that, despite the government’s massive deficits and overspending, they can responsibly propose even more spending. Future deficits are to be ignored (present deficits, to be sure, partially reflect the economic slump). The proposal is “responsible” because it’s “paid for” through new taxes and spending cuts. Even if these financing sources were completely believable (they aren’t), the logic is that the government can undertake new spending before dealing with the consequences of old spending. Of course, most households and businesses can’t do this.

Suddenly “deficit spending” is bad? You can’t have it both ways.

Mr. Samuelson makes his case for disconnect admirably by writing a disconnected piece that is esoteric and does not address the underlying “truths” or facts.

The most damning evidence is in this quote.

Politicians can, because it’s all make-believe. They pretend to deal with budget deficits when they aren’t.

No Mr. Samuelson, they don’t pretend; they lie. There is a big difference and you seem to not know the difference.

Tags: government, tax, Taxes