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发帖数: 6571 | 1 Larry Kudlow
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Posted: Aug 01, 2016 12:01 AM
This economy may be perilously close to recession. That was the message of
the second-quarter real GDP report and its meager 1.2 percent growth rate.
Over the past year, real GDP has slipped to a paltry 1.2 percent. Business
investment continues to fall. Building and factory construction has dropped
sharply. Productivity is flat. The profits recession is still in force.
And what's the Hillary Clinton plan? Tax us into prosperity.
In her own words at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on
Thursday night, Clinton said, "Wall Street, corporations, and the super-rich
are going to start paying their fair share of taxes." That's her fix. Why?
She continued: "Not because we resent success. Because when more than 90
percent of gains have gone to the top 1 percent, that's where the money is."
Let me get this right. In order to spur growth, Clinton intends to raise
taxes on individuals, businesses, capital gains, stock trading and firms
that move overseas (which they do because the U.S. has the most
uncompetitive tax system in the corporate world)? In addition, Clinton's
door is open for a carbon tax, higher payroll taxes and a 25 percent gun tax.
She also argued in Philadelphia that the economy is not working the way it
should because our democracy isn't working the way it should.
Huh.
What she's getting at is appointing Supreme Court justices who "will get
money out of politics" and pass "a constitutional amendment to overturn
Citizens United."
CARTOONS | Steve Kelley
View Cartoon
Citizens United removed spending limits for super-PACs. And yet those mean
and nasty super-PACs have thus far benefited from pro-Clinton hedge fund
contributions to the tune of $48.5 million, according to the Wall Street
Journal.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, has received only $19,000 from hedge funds.
Get it? Citizens United, according to Clinton, is the source of our weak
recovery and it must be overturned. Meanwhile, she is the big beneficiary of
the Supreme Court decision to allow unlimited political donations.
Next, there are the recurring themes of class warfare and inequality, roots
of evil according to Clinton. Turns out that the top 1 percent received a
big share of income growth during the recovery. OK, but it also suffered the
biggest loss during the Great Recession.
Research from Scott Winship of the Manhattan Institute shows that during the
recession, the top 1 percent lost 36 percent of its income while the bottom
90 percent lost 12 percent. Through 2014 the top 1 percent was still poorer
by 18 percent than it was in 2000. That's compared to a 9 percent decline
for the rest of us.
According to Winship, income for the top 1 percenters was basically no
higher in 2014 than in 2000. It turns out that that group bumped into the
same income stagnation suffered by the U.S. middle class since 2000.
And according to new studies by Aparna Mathur of American Enterprise
Institute, raising top marginal tax rates reduces growth incentives and
yields very few revenues. Yet, in addition to higher tax rates, Clinton
wants $1 trillion in new spending programs.
The numbers also don't add up for President Obama, who defended his so-
called recovery at the DNC and even called Clinton a 30-year member of the
establishment, a change-maker.
Obama's seven-year recovery averaged 2.1 percent real growth at an
annualized rate. For historical comparison, after seven years, President
John F. Kennedy's economy increased by 5.4 percent yearly and President
Ronald Reagan's by 4.5 percent.
Did Kennedy and Reagan beget long booms by raising taxes? No. They cut tax
rates across the board.
Clinton is a combination of Barack Obama 3.0 and Bernie Sanders 2.0. This is
not change. This will not yield strong growth, lift jobs and wages, and
make America more globally competitive.
A week prior to the DNC Trump offered a different perspective at the
Republican National Convention: "America is one of the highest-taxed nations
in the world. Reducing taxes will cause new companies and new jobs to come
roaring back into our country. ... Then we are going to deal with the issue
of regulation, one of the greatest job-killers of them all. ... We are going
to lift restrictions on the production of American energy. ... With these
new economic policies, trillions and trillions of dollars will start flowing
into our country."
So Trump wants to reduce tax rates and regulations, unleash energy and make
America the most hospitable investment destination in the world. Clinton
wants to raise taxes, regulations and spending and put the energy sector out
of business. (She would abolish coal and oil-and-gas fracking.)
No wonder the blue-collar, hard-hat, Democrat middle class is going for
Trump.
Clinton is not an agent of change, nor does she have any idea how to restore
rapid economic growth. Instead, she is a prisoner of the left.
If Trump stays on his growth message, he'll whup her in November.
To find out more about Lawrence Kudlow and read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at
www.creators.com.
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