Greece Comes to Washington, Again
A Commentary By Lawrence Kudlow
One day Team Obama announces a plan for enhanced rescission authority to impound wasteful spending. The next day the House surfaces a $200 billion “stimulus” plan to spend on transfer payments for welfare, even more unemployment compensation, still more Medicaid, and a bunch of special-interest subsidies.
So are we to believe that Obama will rescind the excess appropriations? Hardly. And since pay-go is dead, most of the new spending is not offset. It will add to deficits and debt.
The Greek disease. The welfare state run amok. Right here at home.
And in true class-warfare style, a small portion of the $200 billion is supposed to be offset by jacking up capital-gains taxes for investment partnerships. If passed, this would reduce investment, jobs, and economic growth, and enlarge the deficit. Higher spending and investment taxing is a true austerity trap.
Then we read in USA Today that private-sector personal incomes are at an all-time low, while government benefits as a share of income stand at an all-time high. I believe this is called redistribution.
And then comes a study from the Harvard Business School that states: “Stimulus Surprise: Companies Retrench When Government Spends.” What a shocker. (Hat tip to Don Luskin.)
House Democrats apparently don’t read newspapers from Greece or the United States. And they sure don’t read Harvard B-School studies.
COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
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Views expressed in this column are those of the author, not those of Rasmussen Reports.
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