Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Why We Need to Return to Conservative Fiscal & Government Policies


The Federal Deficit in 2006 - the last year spending was controlled by a Republican House & Senate:

Total Debt = $8,680,224,380,086 – which was 64% of GDP


Federal Deficit as of the end of 2011:
Total Debt = $15,125,898,976,397 – was 98.7% of GDP

Total National Debt as of Today = $15,981,490,847,043 – which is 102% of GDP

This is the first time in our nation’s history that our Federal Debt has exceeded 100% of our annual National Economy (GDP). Our problem is quite simply – SPENDING!

Oh... and please do not try to compare this deficit period to that of Presidents Reagan and Clinton.

While Clinton’s deficits were much smaller (less than half of these numbers), both presidents had Pro-Economic growth policies with positive job creation and very low unemployment.

In the case of Reagan, it was the longest peacetime economic expansion in modern American history with:
  • 20 million new jobs were created.
  • Inflation dropped from 13.5% in 1980 to 4.1%.
  • The net worth of middle class families earning between $20,000 and $50,000 annually grew by 27%.
  • Real gross national product rose 26%.

Our national spending and deficit nightmare is precisely what Governor Chris Christie was addressing in his speech last night when he said:

“Our leaders today have decided it is more important to be popular, to do what is easy and say "yes," rather than to say no when "no" is what's required… … Now we must lead the way our citizens live. To lead as my mother insisted I live, not by avoiding truths, especially the hard ones, but by facing up to them and being the better for it… … They said it was impossible to cut taxes in a state where taxes were raised 115 times in eight years. That it was impossible to balance a budget at the same time, with an $11 billion deficit. Three years later, we have three balanced budgets with lower taxes.” (Speaking of New Jersey)

Speaking of the Democrats – Christie said:

“…They believe that the American people don't want to hear the truth about the extent of our fiscal difficulties and need to be coddled by big government. They believe the American people are content to live the lie with them… … They believe seniors will always put themselves ahead of their grandchildren. So they prey on their vulnerabilities and scare them with misinformation for the cynical purpose of winning the next election. Their plan: whistle a happy tune while driving us off the fiscal cliff, as long as they are behind the wheel of power.

It is time for REAL CHANGE. It is time to return to fiscal conservative principles and the values of hard work, don’t spend more than you make, tell people the truth even if it hurts. It is time to remind this generation of American’s that the generation that came before us NEVER shied away from hard work, sacrifice and doing the tough thing in order to make our nation and lives better for our kids!

Let’s return to the fiscal pro-growth, pro free enterprise; Pro-American policies that ushered the in longest economic expansion in modern American history. These were the policies of a Reagan Generation.

SOME SIMPLE INDISPUTABLE FACTS

FACT #1 - The American System of Free Enterprise has done more to lift the poor out of their poverty than any other government program or economic system in the history of the world. This is precisely why people of other countries have come here in droves for about 200 years now.

FACT #2 – More jobs have been created under conservative leadership since WWII than under progressive leadership.

How many jobs were created under the Reagan Administration?

In 1986 and by the latter year the nation was well into a 96-month-long economic recovery during which 20 million new jobs were created -- the longest peacetime economic expansion in modern American history.
  • 20 million new jobs were created; Inflation dropped from 13.5% in 1980 to 4.1%
  • During Reagan’s Administration, growth in government spending plummeted from 10% ... The seemingly insatiable Federal government was on a much-needed diet.
  • The net worth of families earning between $20,000 and $50,000 annually grew by 27%.
  • Real gross national product rose 26%.
  • The prime interest rate was slashed by more than half, from an unprecedented 21.5% in January 1981 to 10% in August 1988.
  • Given actual rates of inflation, through 1987, the Reagan tax cuts saved the median-income two-earner American family of four close to $9,000 in taxes from what it would have owed in 1980.
What about the 1990’s under Bill Clinton – With a Republican Controlled House & Senate

Clinton ushered in a robust economic growth by COOPERATING WITH CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP.

QUESTION – Is President Obama cooperating with Conservative Leadership? Rhetorical question – the answer is no!

Clinton cooperated with Republicans in the 1990’s to:
·         Cut spending – Obama’s plan dramatically increases spending.
·         Lower personal and corporate taxes – Obama plans to raise taxes.
·         Usher in welfare reform that ultimately reduced the welfare rolls by 54% and put millions into jobs – Obama recently wiped away the foundations that created success in welfare reform - under Obama’s leadership the welfare rolls have more than doubled and are at record highs.

In the mid to end of 1980’s the economy set new records of growth that improved the lives of millions of Americans. This carried over into the 1990’s. In 1996 the economy was still growing.

Today the economy is in deep-deep trouble and may be on the verge of getting much worse. Our economy is not the economy of 1996. In fact, it is not even close. Former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich noted in the Wall Street Journal recently that in the spring of 1995 the economy was adding about 200,000 jobs a month. By February of 1996, we added 434,000 jobs in just one month. Unemployment was 5.5 percent and declining. (It dropped to 4.2 percent within months.)

Comparisons between the negotiations of a Clinton Administration and a Republican controlled Congress – taking us from a recession and into a booming economy in the 1990s and those taking place in the Obama Depression today ignore one of the most important factors. What factors are those? After taking a bad economy and making it worse while adding trillions to the debt, President Obama's radical ideology, hostility to financial success, and bureaucratic micro-management have combined to virtually guarantee he will not fix the economy.

Under these circumstances – surely the Progressive Liberal Democrats do not actually possess the moral high ground. How is it moral and beneficial to people when your policies have made it worse for the poor and the middle class? How is moral or OK to refuse proposals to go forward in the Senate – to refuse the two party system of Representative Government to do its job?

Obama is not working with, cooperating with; or negotiating at any level of good faith with Conservatives. Instead he is demonizing them, calling them “The Enemy” and refusing to reach out and work with them. The conservative republicans have offered up no less than 27 different proposals in good faith to the Obama Administration and Harry Reid in the Senate. Harry Reid has refused to allow even one of these proposals to go to the floor of the senate much less to committee. Obama, Reid and other Democrats then have the audacity to go on national TV and say that the Republicans have no plan; or have not offered any alternatives. This is pure lies!

So the next time some Progressive Liberal Democrat tells us some sob story about the poor single mother with nowhere to turn - or the unemployed middle class worker who is losing his home and having trouble feeding and caring for his family – just note that they will use this imagery to get you to feel emotional about government taking care of these people. They want you to feel moral outrage over these situations so that you will vote for them. But what they have done has NOT HELPED, and what they are proposing to do will not help people – it will make things worse! Don’t fall for it!

Wake-up America. Vote Obama out and Romney / Ryan in! Let conservative policies do what they have always done – usher in robust economic growth and more economic freedom and opportunities for the poor and the middle class.

That is the moral to do!

Resources & Links




WHY MAKE THE MORAL CASE FOR FREE ENTERPRISE?
Brooks, Arthur C. (2012-05-08). The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise.

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