American Elephants

Count all those zeroes! That’s not the National Debt, but the Deficit — what we owe on our national credit card. And of course, just like a credit card, the interest charges pile up.  One trillion dollars.  If you need a picture, go here.

The stimulus isn’t working, and stimulus plans have a long history of not working.  Only 17 percent of Americans think the stimulus has been very effective according to the latest IBD/TIPP  Poll.  53 percent believe it has not been effective in getting the economy going in the right direction.

Since the start of the recession, 7.2 million people have lost their jobs. These are scary numbers, and many companies are asking people to reduce their hours.

Barack Obama has created quite a bunch of jobs with hefty salaries in his assortment of Czars, 28 domestic and 6 international.  No one is quite sure what these Czars are supposed to be doing, since most activities which are of proper concern to the government are represented by a department with a Secretary, an Assistant Secretary, a Deputy Secretary, and an Assistant Deputy Secretary or something like that, with dozens to hundreds of other employees, all of whose generous wages are paid by taxpayers.

The normal way of dealing with a recession is to try to alleviate some of the taxes on business, so that business is more able to create jobs.  And for government to reduce spending as much as they can after providing unemployment help for those who have lost their jobs.

This administration, however, has chosen to “not let a crisis go to waste”, and determined to “act swiftly” to get through a bunch of programs that they would never be able to get through Congress if the people were paying attention.

Of course when the President just turns over stimulus creation to Congress with only the stipulation of getting a lot of money into the economy quickly — then congressmen get lots of goodies to take home to their constituents.

Nancy Pelosi, for example, gets a $30 million program for renovating the salt marshes in San Francisco Bay to save the salt marsh harvest mouse.  A  cute little fellow that may be endangered.  There are probably  jobs involved, but they may not be those most needed by unemployed San Franciscans.

The usual rule is to avoid raising taxes during a recession.  Once you have done what can be done with unemployment benefits and food stamps, then you do everything you can to favor the small businesses that are always the source of new jobs.  Instead, this time Democrats plan to raise taxes on small business.  First, Obama has promised to let the Bush tax cuts expire.  That will raise the top personal rate from 35% to 39.6%.  If those taxes expire, so will various tax deductions and exemptions bringing the top marginal rate as high as 41%.

Chairman Rangel wants to impose a “surtax” on individuals with an adjusted gross income of more than $280,000 — “the rich.”  But more than six of every 10 who earn that much are small business owners, sole proprietors or subchapter S corporations who pay the individual rate.  Then phasing out various deductions and exemptions would bring the tax rate up to around 46% — a level that hasn’t been seen since 1986.

If that weren’t enough to discourage businesses from hiring or expanding; government has shown a willingness to take over private business, tell business how much they may earn, change regulations and add new ones, and impose economy-destroying mandates like the Waxman-Markey climate bill which would raise costs throughout the economy.

“Capital,” the late Walter Wriston said, “will go where it is wanted, and stay where it is well treated. It will flee from onerous regulation of its value or use and no government power can restrain it for long.”  Must be true.  Steven Ballmer has threatened to move Microsoft overseas, and businesses are leaving California in droves.

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The cartoon is by Michael Ramirez at IBD Editorials