Posted by
Marked in Pgh on Wednesday, February 04, 2009 2:13:09 PM
Taxing ourselves into prosperity is not new. It's now known as Keynesian Economics and is based on the idea that goverment can spend beyond its means, pay for it by increased taxes and borrowing to stimulate the Economy. It's been tried even during the George W. Bush administration and hasn't worked. The Economy continued to expand for six years because of Bush's tax cuts, not by Keynes' empty theory.
Many governments through out history have tried to the same thing, even during the time of the founding of our country. The Founding Fathers were aware of the practice and rejected it. One of them, I believe it was John Adams, made an analogy about the idiocy. He said, in effect, that to tax ourselves into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift it, and himself, by the handles. Obama and his minions are trying to do the same thing now. We need to save them from wrenching out their backs, while attempting change.
What does Obama say about his new pumped up Keynesian economic placebo? "Only the government can lend us the short term boost to get us out of a recession this deep." It shows the sad fact that fools never learn and end up wrenching out their backs, while never knowing why.
Professor Walter E. Williams, in his posting on 1-28-09 called "There Is No Santa" sited a colleague of his at George Mason University, Professor Richard Wagner, who wrote "Any so-called stimulus program is a ruse." Dr. Williams then pointed out there is a direct tradeoff between increased government spending causing an equal decrease in private spending. The proposed 4 trillion dollars in government spending will then be offset by an aqual 4 trillion dollar decrease in private spending; whether the increase is in the form of increased taxes, spending or the printing of new money.
Williams then stated "Politicians love it when the victims of their policies are invisible and beneficiaries visible. Why? Because the beneficiaries know for whom to vote and the victims do not know who is to blame for their plight." How true.
He then summed up the so-called stimulus bill as a person carrying a bucket of water from the deep end of a pool, then pouring it into the other end to make the shallow end deeper. It does not increase the volume of the pool or deepen the shallows; it just moves the water around and leads nowhere.
Now, I ask, does that make sense? Yes, to a bucket head taking a break from lifting himself in the same bucket he now uses to carry water. Would this act of insanity and idiocy occur to a bucket head? No, neither would the accounting principle of liquidity, where the closer an asset is to money, the greater its liquidity (or closeness to cash). What is more liquid than water (or cash) and more equalizing?
Dr. Williams' illusion also reminds me of something else. The word for water carrier or bearer in Latin is Aquarius. So is this the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, of insanity and the realization of the lies of the 60's?
We have to save Obama and company from their folly. They look as silly standing in their buckets tugging away as FDR, Keynes, Stalin, Mao or anyone else who attempted the same ruse. That is, when they're not carrying water for Communism. We should celebrate the Age of Aquarius by buying liberals a bucket for each of them on their birthdays and a second one as an accessorizing bonnet for a gift for Christmas or Easter. Even bucket heads would appreciate those hand outs, while still believing in Santy Clause.