Dems spending money they dont have

09 January 2002 Dem Senators: How Can You Spend What You Do Not Have?

By Al Colombo, publisher
www.GiantKillers.Org

"Daschle did not call for tax increases or a repeal of last year's tax cut. But other leading Democrats have said some tax breaks for corporations and affluent taxpayers might need to be reconsidered." Judy Keen and Kathy Kiely 07 January 2002 USA Today

So, the Democrat Congressmen wish to treat affluent taxpayers, especially those who own large corporations, differently than they do the common man? This puts me in mind of the following quote, taken from the final words of the Communist Manifesto:

"The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible."

I wonder if it has ever occurred to these Congressmen, as well as many among the general public, that companies are leaving the U.S. by the droves. The last thing we need is to further the problem by souring the pot even more. This author is not suggesting that we give them the kitchen sink, and take the toilet too; but what I am suggesting is that we need to provide some incentives to keep what industry we now have and to seduce others to set up shop here.

Folks, this kind of thinking is selfish and self serving at best, certainly unAmerican at its worst! Because less than 2% of the population have a huge amount of money, the kind Congressmen of the Democrat party would have none of us receive a tax cut. Can the Democrat politicians actually be serious when they say that by raising taxes they expect to boost our ailing economy? Can these Congressmen actually be serious about rescuing the economy at all?

My dear friends, the sad fact is that it causes one to wonder just how patriotic such folks are. It causes this author to wonder which ones among them actually have the enemy's best interests at heart. By gumming up the works at such a critical time, such Congressional politicals are actually aiding and abetting the enemy of freedom and this Democratic Republican form of government.

The bottom line: YOU CANNOT SPEND WHAT YOU DO NOT HAVE. Another way of saying this: YOU CANNOT SPEND WHAT YOU GIVE TO UNCLE SAM.

Now, would someone tell me how eliminating the tax cut or how additional taxes would make our economy any better than what it is now? I can easily see how it would be less better off for such a tax increase.

RUNNING INDUSTRY OUT

I've argued for many years that chasing industry out of country using a combination of incentives would someday come back to bite us in the butts-and that day has arrived. How? Local, county, and state governments are now looking to YOU and I to make up the difference in tax revenue lost by companies moving over seas and down to Mexico. Are you rich? Better hope not because no one will care about you, certainly not the kind Democrat Congressmen who advocate tax increases. How unAmerican!

Through a combination of incentives, companies have been encouraged to set up shop off shore. First, Uncle Sam actually paid them to do this through a variety of programs. Second, we've caused so much havoc environmentally through over regulation that these companies would rather not fight than switch, thus many of them have or are in the process of moving to countries where there are little or no regulations to contend with. Third, if it would have been ratified and made law globally, the Kyoto Protocol would have allowed countries, like China, to slide by, allowing them to operate with very little environmental oversight.

Fourth, the Congress has eliminated the usual tariffs associated with leveling the playing field for stateside companies, thus subjecting them to cut-rate products made in countries where the labor rate is less than a dollar an hour! If you will recall, this author had said in a past commentary that the Timken Co. had told their employees in administration that it costs them in excess of $32.50 an hour to hire labor in the U.S., compared to $1.50 an hour in China? In a word, we have either invited or forced employers to take U.S. jobs overseas and down to Mexico, resulting in the further stagnation of our economy and the loss of extremely important tax revenue.

Now, get ready: YOU and I will pay the bill. I guarantee you, the buck will stop here.

LOCAL INVENTIVENESS IN
RAISING ADDITIONAL REVENUE

Let me give you a good example of local government's dilemma and one county's solution to lost industrial tax revenue (not to mention all the companies that have gone out of business). In xxxxx County, Ohio, alarm companies are now required to take out a permit when they install a simple burglar alarm system. Not only that, it is this author's experience that one inspector required the customer, a doctor, to have a set of blueprints drawn up and stamped by either an Architect or a Professional Engineer (not cheap). The net result was to take a $400 transplant (moving an existing system to another existing facility) and drive the price upward to $1,200.00! In this case, the county realized an application fee of about $85 and a plans examination/permit fee of about $125. The other factor to be noted here as well is that all this time we were unable to install his alarm system, his drug stash went unprotected, which is, I'm almost sure, a violation of federal law.

When I investigated the situation by interviewing alarm dealers across the U.S., I was surprised to find that none of them had yet run into this moneymaking tactic. But, not to worry, for sometime last fall an Int'l code-making body held a seminar in Cincinnati, Ohio where experts taught building officials and life-safety officers how to further their revenue earnings by using this and other tactics. Would you expect anything other of the folks at the global level? If they are to keep local government on line with the new order, they will have to provide them with the tools necessary to make up such revenue lost by evacuating industry. The bottom line, this method of replacing lost tax revenue will eventually make its way across the country. You, too, will be forced to pay higher prices because vendors are forced to pay such ridiculous fees.

In closing, if this were not so serious an issue, this author would probably laugh; but the sad fact is, it will be you and I who make up this difference. Like it or not, the buck will stop here; and you thought NAFTA, GATT, the Global Economy, globalization, and the New Economy were good things-progress no less. You haven't seen anything yet. Perhaps Pat Buchanan is right, and all the wishful and positive thinking in the world won't change it unless each of us get off our lazy butts and take a SERIOUS look around us at all the boarded up stores and vacant industrial plants.

One last thought, please. Robert Rubin, former President Clinton's Treasury secretary, recently said, "Those who created that tax cut…need to repair the damage." In retrospect, isn't is clear by now that we are now reaping the harvest of the last two presidential terms, 1992 through 2000? So many economists have gone on record stating that the current economy is rarely the result of anything that the current administration has done-and this goes for the good things as well as the bad.

Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in today's commentary are that of the author and not necessarily that of Al Colombo or others who appear in this publication. Thank you.

Editor's Note: Permission is granted to reproduce this or any of the other articles and commentaries that appear on this web site, providing they appear in their entirety with the author's name, e-mail address, and www.GiantKillers.Org included. If you have a comment and would like it to appear in The Daily Commentary, click HERE. Thank you. --Al Colombo