Bush Tax Cuts Should Be Made Permanent

By Caomhin

There is talk in some people of “the new normal,” which is essentially a view that our economic situation will never vastly improve over where we are today in the sense that there will be high levels of unemployment, lowered consumption levels, and a generally poor economic climate.  I strongly disagree with this notion.  I strongly disagree with this sentiment.  We are the greatest country on the face of the Earth.  Americans can overcome any obstacle that is thrown in their way provided that we are not hindered from doing so from external forces.

Government is not inherently bad.  I am a proponent of effective, efficient, and accountable government at each level.  On the other hand, big government, is inherently bad.  A large, bloated government puts a strain on its people through unnecessary regulation, high tax burdens, and disincentives to create among other things. Contrary to what Joe Biden recently said, essentially that government should get the credit for every innovation..ever, his view is completely wrong.  Milton Friedman’s assertion is correct.  Freidman, of course, said:

The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.

Innovation spurs economic activity along with other factors such as certainty, the potential for profits and growth, and freedom in the market place.  “The New Normal,” does not exist if we lower tax rates and cut spending, if we eliminate inefficient, ineffective programs and focus on maintaining a streamlined government that is responsive to the needs of the people and respects them as individuals.

We have a number of crisis heading our direction from the recently passed health care abomination to social security and Medicare.  We have the means to fix these programs and eliminate billions in waste.  We have the ability to start moving towards a partially privatized system of retirement which, when proven effective, will hopefully lead to a completely privatized system.  In terms of the current economic conditions taking disposable and investible income out of the private market to put in the government’s coffers is an astonishingly bad idea.

We are Americans, we do not begrudge someone success, we wish it upon them.  We should not be green with envy when another person reaches great heights, we should congratulate them.  When the representatives of our government go on enormous and never ending spending sprees with the citizens’ money, it is shameful when they go on TV and claim the government “can’t afford” to stop their reckless indulgences.

I am whole heartedly behind Sens. Coburn and DeMint’s crusade against earmarks and I commend Sen. Coburn in particular for reminding the GOP that they can and will face primary challenges should they ignore what the people want.  What the people want, of course, is an end to the earmark process, lower taxes, more freedom, and good governance.  We are entitled to this and we are entitled to leaders who will provide this for us.  We will continue to take our fight to the ballot box and we need these tax cuts to be permanent.