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Reclaiming Republican Economics
by Michael Spencer
"We must always ask: is government working to liberate and empower the individual? Is it creating incentives for people to produce, save, invest and profit from legitimate risks and honest toil? Or does it seek to compel, command and coerce people into submission and dependence?"
- Ronald Reagan
Alan Greenspan is not my hero. If that is the face of Republican economics, we are in trouble. The other guy, the one in the cowboy hat, is the face of Republican economics, and we are very much in need of remembering why.
Sometime in the last decade, an obviously bored America decided that Bill Clinton could have sex with a moose while burning the Constitution as long as Mr. Greenspan was at the helm of the economic ship. The media and a mumbling mob of suddenly NASDAQ rich baby boomers decided that the perfect combination for economic prosperity was the free-spending, lying, charismatic Clinton and the sour, barely understandable, omniscient Mr. Greenspan. With Clinton's budget and Greenspan's interest rates, we're all rich.
Poppycock. (Or whatever word you would like to insert.) This is absolute rubbish. And I am surprised that so many conservatives believe the Greenspan part of the fantasy. Let me say it loud and proud: Republican Economics isn't about Mr. Greenspan. It's about the people controlling their own money.
I do not trust Alan Greenspan. I think it highly likely that his interest rate hikes are the reason my portfolio is now considerably more depressing than it was a few months ago. I join Neil Cavuto is saying that it will be a cold day in Hell before Mr. Greenspan says he goofed. I also do not trust him on taxes. He smoozed with Dubya early on and got his friend Paul O'Neil into Treasury, but his supposed support for the tax cut seems to be vaporizing like Bill Clinton's supporters. Everytime he starts talking to congress about "triggers" and the mystery of consumer confidence, I see too many Democrat heads wagging. This is not Republican economics.
Republican economics says this tax cut is a modest beginning on the major moral mandate of returning to the American people the money their bloated and inefficient Government has overcharged them the last eight years. We need rate cuts, payroll tax cuts and overall tax reform. Get off the back of the American people and you'll see consumer confidence. Greenspan talks like everyone in America is a dot.com millionaire. Get the $1600 bucks and a rate cut to the average guy and feel good about it.
When Republicans are optimistic about what people can do with their own money, they sound and look great. When Democrats are saying don't give the people their money, let government keep it, they sound small, mean and frightened. Which America do you think people prefer to hear about? One that can't be trusted with a few bucks of their own money, or one where the government knows the difference you and I can make if we keep our own money and use it as we choose?
I'm no Alan Greenspan, but even I know the Federal Debt is going away. Greenspan-inspired Democrats are in a panic about how fast to make it go away, which is interesting since they made it happen by spending like drunken sailors during the eighties. They've become like people who won't buy food or have Christmas until the house is paid for. Relax guys, the money is there. You can actually pay off the debt AND have a tax cut. Maybe Mr. Greenspan could explain it.
I know Mr. Greenspan has done a good job at the Fed, but if Republicans buy this baloney that has made Greenspan the most powerful man in the country, they will regret it. We don't need to kiss this guy's ring. He's unaccountable and frequently wrong. His job is to keep the money flowing and inflation down. The real economic heroes are Americans who take risks, start businesses, pay taxes, work around regulations and put in the long hours to be successful. When government makes that possible by cutting taxes and regulations, it's allowing the greatness of American Freedom to shine through.
President Reagan's optimism is echoed in Dubya's economics. We now have a better grasp of Reagan's principles than we did during his Presidency. We know there never was a Clinton economic boom. There was a Reagan economic boom. We know that the deficits were not because of tax cuts, but because of unrestrained spending. And we should know that Alan Greenspan is not our personal savior.
Give the people their money. Make government the servant of a great economic machine called free enterprise. Reject the lie that government produces prosperity. Reclaim the optimism of Reagan. And tell Greenspan to get on our bandwagon.