The Case for Cuts

Chris Edwards, writing in the headline article for the Cato Policy Report, says,

“To avert a Greek-style fiscal train wreck, we need much larger spending reforms than the leaders of either party are currently talking about. Most experts agree that we need to reform Social Security and Medicare, but the reality is that we need to pursue cuts in every federal activity from A to Z – from agriculture subsidies to the National Zoo. We should cut entitlement benefits, aid to the states, subsidies to individuals and businesses, and military spending. In many cases we should eliminate whole programs, or privatize activities where possible to remove them from the federal budget altogether.”

Edwards is the director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute and editor or www.DownsizingGovernment.org.

Part of the legacy of George W. Bush and the Republican Congress

Under George W. Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress there was an explosion in the growth of big government on virtually every front. Large increases in spending were accompanied by huge deficits and a doubling of the national debt. Corporatism exploded, too, in the form of bailouts and there was increasingly centralized power in education, expansion of Medicare and rapid growth in government regulation.

George W. Bush did not veto a single spending bill in his eight years in office.

Free Trade (or Politicians bought-and-sold)

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"If politicians can determine what can be bought and sold, the first thing to be bought and sold will be politicians." – P.J. O’Rourke

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O’Rourke is right in this matter, of course. And it is precisely because politicians are willing to hand out special favors to corporations (corporatism), their big political supporters (crony capitalism), unions (unionism and protectionism) and other special interests that monies keep flowing from these groups to “buy and sell” politicians election after election.

Democrats on government spending and job creation

The William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Center web site claims that the country "Moved from record deficits to record surplus" and "Began paying off the national debt" while "[creating] nearly 23 million jobs" and supporting the "[f]astest and longest real wage growth in over three decades." The site also claims that during this time:

• "Family income reached record highs”
• "Unemployment was the lowest in over three decades"
• "Lowest overall poverty and child poverty rates since the 1970s"
• "Lowest percentage of Americans on welfare in 32 years"

So, how did the Clinton administration achieve all these wonderful things?

Well, according to the web site, they reduced the size of government, achieving the "[s]mallest federal civilian workforce in 40 years." They also reduced the burden of federal spending on the economy by having the "[l]owest federal spending as a share of the economy since 1966" and the "[s]lowest per capita growth of government spending since the 1950s."

TODAY'S DEMOCRATS ARE WRONG!

And, remember, the Clinton administration only achieved these things with the help of a Republican-controlled Congress.

Had enough…?

 

Remember to vote on November 6, 2012!

Some optimism and common sense…

I think the American people broadly remain wise; broadly remain convinced that a benevolent government is not always a benefactor; broadly remain convinced that capitalism does not just make us better off--it makes us, in some sense, better. They're broadly convinced that when Jack Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country," one sensible response is that one thing you can do for your country is to reserve a spacious portion of your own life for which you--not your country--are responsible.

I think most Americans still understand what Milton Friedman meant when he said: Take any three letters from the alphabet, put them in any order you want, and you will have an acronym designating a federal agency we could do without.

I think most Americans still understand what Robert Frost meant when he said, "I'm against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise."

And, most of all, I think they understand what Ronald Reagan meant when he said, "I don't want to go back to the past; I want to go back to the past way of facing the future."

– George Will

Our TOTUS

Obama voted “present” so frequently while in the U.S. Senate that I refer to him as “Pres’ent of the United States.”