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If consumer spending were indeed the one solution to economic recovery, the government could simply print money and give us all plenty, and we wouldn't even have to work. We could just spend. The logical question, though, would be: Where would we get the goods and services?
Somebody, of course, would have to make the products or provide the services. The men and women who made those products and provided those services would have to be paid. Someone would have to invest in a building, equipment, materials, marketing, distribution and all the rest.
And, oh yes, they'd have to pay taxes. But when taxes hit a certain level, entrepreneurs and other investors stop investing in buildings, people and equipment. The reward simply isn't sufficient to take the risk.
This is Economics 101. Yet while human experience makes plain these basics, the current administration is mired neck-deep in a failed ideology: tax, tax, tax and spend, spend and spend in the face of a deep recession.
Which is why, on this April 15 week, it is good to consider this simple economic truth: Raising taxes on investors doesn't always raise more revenue for government; in fact, it often lowers revenue. It is more devastating for those in need of jobs; it slows the creation of solid jobs and the innovation necessary to improve productivity.
This is why Germany, France, Sweden, Spain, Ireland and other countries cut their corporate income tax rates this decade, below America's in many instances. They were tired of high unemployment, lower standards of living and sought more opportunity for their people.
After the dot-com recession, America's economy boomed because of President George W. Bush's tax cuts. Europe's economies remained sluggish. Both France and Germany's unemployment stayed at rates that would lose an American president his job. It was big news in 2008 when France's unemployment finally dropped below 8 percent, much better than the 10 percent rate it had become accustomed to.
In 2005, Germany's Finance Minister Peer Steinbruck, admitted that Germany's economy had been known as "the sick man of Europe" and went on to explain why it had adopted American-style tax cuts.
You only have to look back to the harsh recession of 1982: President Ronald Reagan's tax cuts spurred long-term growth of nearly 20 years to the dot-com bust - with the exception of the shallow recession in 1992 - to see another example of tax cuts at work to create jobs and opportunity.
Yet President Barack Obama rejects the experience of the world and clings to his ideology. People who want better jobs, lasting jobs, will be the ones who suffer.
James R. Pilgrim
Gainesville
Tea Party coverage proves mainstream media out of touch
It's simply amazing that The Times felt it necessary to, I suppose, "balance" their coverage of yesterday's great gathering of concerned local citizens, by placing an AP article regarding "counter protesters" in Montpelier, Vt., of all places!
Are you people for real? Obviously, the most effort you put into this coverage was digging to locate "counterprotesters?"
Coverage like this, along with the behavior exhibited by the CNN reporter in Ohio, are the reason you, as part of the mainstream media, no longer have any credibility with average citizens.
This grass-roots movement, and it definitely was grass roots, proves we no longer need you to tell us what is going on in our community and the world. It's actually funny how the so-called progressives thought they had a corner on using the Internet to energize the troops, as in the Obama campaign. But when it's co-opted by average citizens, they go berserk.
I'm reminded of the Bugs Bunny cartoon with Daffy Duck sitting on top of a pile of gold, screaming, "It's mine! It's mine! It's all mine!"
And to the parasites in Washington, we say, "It's not yours; it's ours, and we're moving to relieve you of the keys to the vault!"
Donna Coghlan
Homer
All the ‘shock' at Cagle's decision seems too strong
Re: Thursday's stories on Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle's decision not to run for governor. I was shocked, shocked, by the exaggerated use of the nonappropriate "shocked" in the Local section.
The subheadline on page 4C read, "Hall reacts with shock." Bobby Banks was half correct: "I'm really disappointed." Then, unfortunately, he follows with "Its a shock."
For your information, shocked is defined as: aghast: struck with fear, dread or consternation.
Everyone seems to want to escalate. I can see people being surprised, possibly disappointed, by Cagle's announcement, but shocked. No!
If we keep escalating our use of adjectives, eventually we will be unable to describe the simplest act without flowery and superfluous adjectives.
Earl B. Jackson
Flowery Branch