Old "friend" Paul Krugman, he of the NYT editorial propaganda team, has written an article entitled "It's the Economy Stupid". Paul chides the Democrats and Obama in particular for not hitting the Republicans harder on the economy. He whines that he and his MSM minions have been successfully selling the American people on the "failure" of the Bush economy so why haven't the Democrats been playing his tune louder?.
By all standards of modern measurement, except for one, the Bush economy has been a blazing success. It has not been a failure. The Gross National Product has been steadily climbing throughout George W. Bush's term and the unemployment figures couldn't be better. More Americans have become rich than at anytime in the country's history. Then how is it that Krugman and company has successfully sold their scenario of "failure" of the Bush economy to the American people?
The answer lies in that one failure - the purchasing power of ordinary Americans. Their dollar doesn't go as far as it used to. As a result Krugman & Co. have been using the GWB's success, the startling increase in the income of the rich, to prove to ordinary Americans that there is an unfair "income disparity" that the Democrats, if elected in sufficient numbers, will rectify.
At last count 62% of Americans believe this to be true and exceedingly unfair to them. By all objective standards of political projection the Democrats are going to sweep into office in November and do their "leveling the playing field" dance by taxing the rich and redistributing to the middle-class and poor. They promised to do that in 2006 but didn't have the votes. This time it appears that they will have a veto-proof Congress and will impose those taxes even in the unlikely event that John McCain is elected President.
The Democrats and "their" media have made GWB's and his party's success an American failure. The Republican Party only sits around looking guilty because of that success as does its compassionate tongue-tied President. The Republican Party is cowed by the income disparity issue. They refuse to take credit for Bush's success and only offer the lame reply that the poor are doing better than ever - still poor but doing better than ever.
What the Republicans miss is the hand they're playing is a winning one. Their opponent has one chip left and that is all. That chip is the false belief of ordinary Americans that by taxing the rich that such a policy will deliver them the American Dream. That hope and dream is fueling Barack Obama's march into the White House. Take that hope away from them and ordinary Americans will come to their senses. Unfortunately the "cowed" Republicans have no idea how to stop the Congressional landslide of Democrats. They have no idea how to play their hand.
The answer lies in playing their hole card. Doing what they have been doing to the Marxian philosophy of taxing the rich for the last 25 years - lowering taxes on income. This time they win the game by lowering the insane, totally irresponsible, non-productive PAYROLL taxes on the income of the poor and middle-class. By privatizing payroll taxes the Republicans could rid the American economy of the deleterious affect of the Democrat's entitlement industry and reduce the national budget by 53%.
Privatizing Social Security and Medicare is a good thing not a bad thing. It is a 15% reduction in the taxes on the working life income of ORDINARY AMERICANS. Putting that money to work for them in a personal investment account they can't touch will eventually make them all millionaires. In the meantime dumping the trillion or so of those taxes annually into the stock market will explode the growth of the American economy.
So who is stupid? Is it the Democrats that are playing their last chip or the timid no-idea Republicans that can't seem to leverage that enormous pile of chips in front of them into a convincing victory? This year I am betting on the Democrats to play their hand better because the Republicans have no idea how to leverage their success.
Who should we blame for this predicament - the people or their representatives? I cast my vote for the politicians. Every Republican politician knows that privatizing entitlements will make Americans wealthy - especially the poor and middle-class. They also know that such a move will destroy socialism in our time. Why they don't is a mystery,
Don't look at me. I have been trying my best to tell them how to play their hand.
If you are baffled by this conundrum and want to do something about it read all about how Republicans can unseat the Democrats and put all Americans and the country on a more secure financial footing here.
It is not a mystery or rocket science - except to Republican legislators
