Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Eight Things Obama Could Have Proposed In The State of the Union That Would Actually Bring Economic Prosperity to the Middle Class

By Allan Stevo

This week, the acolytes of Barrack Obama went through the media repeating the words "middle class economics." Last night at the State of the Union we heard the phrase "middle class economics" five times from President Obama. 

We additionally heard terms like growth, competitiveness, rebuild, invest, achieve. 

The use of those words were merely political show, as the big government programs the President went on to propose will only make the economic environment less competitive and less robust in its growth. 

He could have sung a different tune, earned my respect last night, found himself in a dramatically strengthened economy a year from now, and secured his party's position if he would have proposed and successfully implemented the following. 

1. Reducing the tax burden that reduces person achievement and economic growth 

This could be done effectively by phasing out the personal income tax, phasing out the capital gains tax, reducing the US corporate income tax so that it is no longer the highest in the world, and making the corporate tax rate the lowest in the world. 

2. Reducing the federal budget by no less than 10% each year until it no longer feels possible to reduce and then tightening the budget further 

Tightening the belt is painful. The economy will adjust and will reach an unprecedented level of prosperity as a result. The world will long praise the leadership it took to make that happen. 

3. Entirely eliminating unnecessary and redundant bureaucracies 

 A good starting place is the Departments of Education, Commerce, Housing, and Interior, along with FEMA and the IRS. Eliminating those does not make one adversarial to the stated goals of those programs, only adversarial to the redundant, bureaucratic, and costly way they pursue their stated goals. 

4. Focussing efficiently on American defense

Scaling back international commitments, making other nations pay for their own security, and focusing purely on American defense would allow for a near-term DOD cut as large as 30% while allowing renewed focus on American defense and ensuring longterm stability for our veterans. 

5. Stopping the implementation of any new government regulation 

Regulations on a free economy should be from the market not from the government. The device I write this on came about because of tough market regulations not because of tough government regulations. Had there been additional arbitrary government regulations "protecting" me from some "problem" that I care nothing about then a device like this may never have come into existence. Government stepping aside takes discipline for politicians and allows the greatest prosperity to happen. 

6. Reducing all welfare spending of any kind 

This includes corporate welfare and bailouts, while placing a moratorium on all new federal welfare expansion, such as federal level schemes directed toward higher education or medical care. 

7. Allowing the middle class to cooperate in the free market 

Cooperation does not need to happen by government dictate. Every time I run out to the store I am cooperating with the countless people who made it possible for me to walk into a store, make a purchase, and go home to eat. 

8. Nothing 

Even if the President of the United States would move to Hawaii to golf and lounge in sun with his family and do nothing else the next 2 years, the United States, with all of its existing economically injurious laws, would become more prosperous simply because businesses could be assured two solid years without even more economically injurious legislation.  

If President Obama said and implemented those ideas he would have a more prosperous economy on his hands a year from now and the Democrats would sweep DC in 2016. 

Allan Stevo is a New York-based real estate investor and writer, author of several books, and contributor to LewRockwell.com, Mises.org, The Daily Caller, and The Hill

2 comments:

  1. None of that matters so long as the Fed is free to manipulate interest rates and increase its balance sheet. These are all good things on this list, but the first and most important must be to abolish the Fed and legal tender laws. Free market in money is the first step.

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  2. We let politicians regulate banks when our politicians don't understand how a bank even makes a loan.

    "Even if the President of the United States would move to Hawaii to golf and lounge in sun with his family and do nothing else the next 2 years, the United States, with all of its existing economically injurious laws, would become more prosperous simply because businesses could be assured two solid years without even more economically injurious legislation. "

    If nothing else, it would teach our population that we don't need them to survive.

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