By Dave Cribbin
It’s time for this administration to fold up their wishful thinking that the country can spend it’s way out of economic problems, put it back on the shelf, and get in the game by doing something effective on the job creation front.
Their singular accomplishment, if you can call it that, since taking office has been to pass a boondoggle of a Stimulus Bill, and that was a year ago. Their gigantic spending bill that was going to keep the economy from going over the cliff has been, by any measure, an abject failure; so much so that they had to invent an immeasurable new measure in an attempt to quantify how many jobs were saved or imagined. Oh please!
Who cares how many jobs were saved or imagined? Am I really supposed to congratulate them for taxing me to give government employees (employee: one who is employed) who already have a job, a raise? Where I come from that’s not creating jobs; but then again, I wasn’t one of the folks under the illusion that the so-called stimulus bill would actually create any jobs.
Perhaps I’m being to hard on them. Passing the stimulus bill is not their only accomplishment. They have managed to make possible the election of Republican Governors in NJ and VA, and a Republican Senator to represent the good people of Massachusetts, so I guess they have done some good!
A real jobs recovery can start tomorrow or not; all that need happen is for the government to give up on their current wish list of job destruction legislation and pursue policies that are pro growth and pro entrepreneur instead. The President can announce that he’s ditched his favorite job killing bills like Health-Care Reform, Cap and Tax, the Bank Tax, the 250 thousandaire tax and all the other business choking regulations he wants Congress to enact.
He can instead champion tax reform that rewards the job creators by increasing the return on successful risk taking. Why not cut the corporate tax rate to 25% so that American corporations are not at a competitive disadvantage to foreign firms. Making American firms more competitive means more production and more jobs in America.
While he’s at it, he can give all those evil 250 thousandaires he’s been verbally persecuting as though they were the Jihadist a break; a tax break. Many of them are owners of S-Corps who are paying a 35% marginal tax rate that will soon be 39.6% or more. The balance of them are a part of the top 5% that are picking up the tab for his massive government spending spree.
As Jack Kemp was quick to remind us, you can’t have Capitalism with out capital. Taxing capital out of the hands of Entrepreneurs who would use it to create more jobs is no different than eating the farmer’s seed corn. The next crop of jobs will always be smaller as a result.
Larry Kudlow inadvertently illustrated the real problem while calling for a cut in the capital gains tax rate on his show the other night. Larry is a Free Market Capitalist to the bone, but he has made the mistake of letting the Democrats frame the debate. He spoke of a study, which showed that the optimal rate at which to tax capital to maximize revenue is 10%, and called for a reduction in the rate.
Here is where Larry’s went wrong: it’s not about the government and it’s revenues, it’s about the citizens of this country and their well being. The optimal tax rate on capital is 0%, that’s the rate at which the most capital is available to finance the most businesses to create the most JOBS.
Our Government has lost it’s way, it’s needs now take priority over those they govern; they are more worried about their budgets and programs, not your well being. To this government, it is all about how much revenue they can squeeze out of you. It’s time for you to squeeze back!
Dave Cribbin, President of Tailwind Capital, is a Liberty Features Syndicated writer for Americans for Limited Government.
