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ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Tax cuts work instantly – at no cost
In the last 10 minutes of Chris Matthews’ Jan. 23 “Hard Ball” show on MSNBC, Democrat and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, “Every dollar of stimulus we deliver costs $1.76.”
After quieting his quivering left leg as they had been talking about President Obama, Matthews asked him to repeat the statement in disbelief, “Every dollar of stimulus we deliver costs $1.76.”
This means that 57 percent of the potential benefit goes to the bureau in the form of thousands of new jobs; millions of forms; their design, writing and editing; collection and analysis; approval; and, ultimately, delivery of benefits and tracking to find and prosecute fraud.
This percentage far exceeds the 28 percent bureau shrinkage we had found from analysis of previous programs.
There are two things wrong with this approach to solving our problem.
Building several huge bureaus and getting them in operation will take months if not years and 57 percent efficiency is poor when 100 percent efficiency is available with the stroke of a pen.
Cutting taxes works instantly, costs nothing and succeeds every time. It is the tool that Presidents John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush used to quench recessions quickly, quietly, with 100 percent efficiency. But the move does not grow government and is thus unpopular with the elected class, especially Democrats.
History shows FDR’s New Deal, controlled the economy and Washington authority was a galloping failure with unemployment rising from 1929′s 3.3 percent to 25.2 percent in 1933. It only began to decline significantly when the Supreme Court found the National Recovery Administration unconstitutional.
Historians now call it our flirtation with fascism. English gold gearing up for war took us out of the Great Depression. No such angel is on our horizon today.
Adrian Vance
Lakeport, Calif.
More casting cold shoulder to global warming
Once again, eco-wacko Al Gore gives a major speech about alleged man-made global warming. And once again, hijinks ensue: The speech is accompanied in much of the U.S. by bitter cold temperatures and plenty of snow.
As it so happens, a growing number of scientists are gravitating toward the belief that Earth already has entered a slight cooling period. As such, I commend those who willingly stand up to the closed-minded eco-wackos by speaking truth to power, such as John Coleman. The Weather Channel founder said, “I am totally convinced there is no scientific basis for (the theory of man-made global warming). It is (a) hoax. It is bad science. It is a hijacking of public policy. . . . It is the greatest scam in history.”
Mark Kalinowski
New York, N.Y.
$800B stimulus simply too little, too late
What is the danger in the $800 billion stimulus package?
The danger is not that the federal deficit will increase. The deficit merely is the government’s method for adding money to the economy, and the largest deficits have been associated with the best economic growth.
The danger is not that much of the money will be spent on pork. The definition of pork is “any project in someone else’s district.” All federal projects can be justified as necessary, and all can be considered pork.
The danger is not that the government can’t afford the stimulus package, or that taxpayers will pay for it, or that it will cause inflation or will have any other negative effect.
The government can afford anything, taxpayers don’t pay for deficit spending and deficits don’t cause inflation.
The danger in the stimulus package is that it is too little and too late, thereby “proving” to the naysayers stimulus packages don’t work.
To increase the per capita money supply – a necessary criterion for economic recovery – the stimulus must exceed population growth, inflation and the negative balance of payments.
The stimulus definitely would work were it $2 trillion or more, but possibly not at only $800 billion. And that is the danger.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Wilmette, Ill.