Different languages...

I do not consider myself a conservative.

But...

When I listen to liberals talk, I feel that they are talking a different language.

(Lately, unfortuantely, Republicans don't sound much better.)

There are two essential truths that I think everyone - liberal and conservative - needs to acknowledge:

1. High taxes hurt growth, and low growth rates hurt the poor the most.

This, for anyone who follows the news, is common sense.

Companies and individuals prefer not to do business in places where they will be taxed excessively. Cities like Philadelphia kill off their own entrepreneurs and send to them to the suburbs (which are booming) with their silly taxes.

And countries like Ireland prosper when they lower their (in this case corporate) taxes to suck in business from the US and Britain.

When the US suffers a recession, the first people who lose their jobs are the line and retail workers - low wage workers with few benefits.

These are the very working poor that liberals claim they want to help.

It seems obvious to me: Taxes restrict growth and damage the plight of the poor.

The higher taxes are, the worse that damage is.

But lefties continuously look for opportunities to raise taxes and create stealth taxes (minimum wage hikes, benefits regulation, living wages... )

It is their modus operandi. And it is counterproductive.

2. The costs of governmental giveaways can only accelerate.

If I walked down a city street and gave $100 to every person who looked like they needed some extra money, I might spend $1000 on Monday.

But word would get out: People would tell their friends that there was some dang fool handing out Franklins to every person who looked down on his luck.

By Tuesday, I'd be lucky if my little humanitarian gesture cost me less than $2000.

And if the word spread that I had returned on Tuesday, On Wednesday, I'd be besieged.

And so it is government programs.

They always start small- but they grow quickly.

Welfare, Social Security, and Medicare were never supposed to be the huge money sinks they are today. FDR would be horrified by what his program has become, because it has become exactly what he did not want it to be.

If you create a program, you need to make it a very unattractive option for most people to take. That is the true idea behind "safety nets"

But that is not how politicans work: you buy votes by giving nice benefits to the largest numbers of people.

And that is why we face government financial diaster within the next few decades.

Democrats would do themselves a huge favor if they remebered these two points, because they are really beyond dispute.
- posted by total @ 11/14/2005 06:00:00 AM .