Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Sowell: Cut Transfers to Billionaires

Thomas Sowell on a solid first step to cutting government down to size:
Since everybody else seems to be coming up with plans on how to cope with the skyrocketing national debt, let me try my hand at it too.


The liberals' easy solution is just to increase taxes on "the rich." But, if you do the math, there aren't enough of "the rich" to cover the huge and record-breaking deficit.

Trying to reduce the deficit by cutting spending runs into an old familiar counter-attack. There will be all kinds of claims by politicians and sad stories in the media about how these cuts will cause the poor to go hungry, the sick to be left to die, etc.
My plan would start by cutting off all government transfer payments to billionaires. Many, if not most, people are probably unaware that the government is handing out the taxpayers' money to billionaires. But agricultural subsidies go to a number of billionaires. Very little goes to the ordinary farmer.

Big corporations also get big bucks from the government, not only in agricultural subsidies but also in the name of "green" policies, in the name of "alternative energy" policies, and in the name of whatever else will rationalize shoveling the taxpayers' money out the door to whomever the administration designates, for its own political reasons.

The usual political counter-attacks against spending cuts will not work against this new kind of spending cut approach. How many heart-rending stories can the media run about billionaires who have lost their handouts from the taxpayers? How many tears will be shed if General Motors gets dumped off the gravy train?

1 comment:

  1. Even in the midst of budget hacking Texas, corporate handouts continue. This one's for solar and being pushed by a bipartisan group of legislators:

    http://stateofthedivision.blogspot.com/2011/04/texas-sized-solar-rebate.html

    A second cash sluice came with health reform:

    http://peureport.blogspot.com/2011/04/errp-payments-campaign-donations.html

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