Allan Stevo writes:
President Obama's acolytes have begun circulating the term "middle-class economics" through the Sunday morning news programs and throughout the media.
That exact phrase "middle class economics" I've heard repeated 15-20 times in the media these last two days by the President's supporters in preparation for tonight's State of the Union address.
Congressman Charlie Rangel even somehow managed to hit upon that term — "middle-class economics" — while part of a panel discussion on the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
Keen observers of politics judge politicians based on their actions, not their words. As most voters are not keen observers of politics, the game of politics tends to favor the one who speaks most eloquently and repeats the popular talking points the most.
The President may have already won tonight's State of the Union face off by simply staying on message and being repetitive. He is perfectly on point with the term "middle class economics" since Americans naturally care about their personal economic affairs, especially in tough times, and approximately two-thirds of Americans consider themselves middle class.
President Obama will repeat "middle class economics" a minimum of 25 times tonight. The more he repeats it the better he will poll.
The economy still has not turned around for many Americans. Advocates of free markets understand that the more government programs exist aimed at encouraging that turn around the more unlikely that turn around is to occur, since growing the government drains resources from the rest of the economy. While government spending can create jobs, it does not create jobs and other desired economic output as efficiently as money left in private hands.
Polling data aside, free market advocates know that President Obama's actions are likely to have an effect entirely contrary to his words. He's more likely to hamstring the middle class than to create a new path to prosperity.
While this would only represent steps in the right direction, free market advocates know that ideas like the following will turn the economy around and cause America to dramatically grow in prosperity. Steps like these ten would be the first stages a plan that would truly constitute "middle class economics."
1. Implementing a plan to entirely phase out the personal income tax.
2. Phasing out the capital gains tax over the next decade.
3. Reducing US corporate income tax so that it is no longer the highest in the world. In fact, seeking to make it the lowest in the world would be preferable. This will prove an immediate job creator at all levels of the economy.
4. Implementing a plan to reduce the federal budget by no less than 10% each year and returning it to the levels of just one decade ago.
5. Entirely eliminating unnecessary and redundant bureaucracies. Depending on your definition of redundant, that might include the entire government. The Departments of Education, Commerce, Housing, and Interior would be good cabinet level cuts for the President to start with, along with FEMA and the IRS. Eliminating those does not make one adversarial to the stated goals of those programs, only adversarial to the redundant, bureaucratic, and costly way they pursue their stated goals.
6. Scaling back international commitments, making other nations pay for their own security, and focussing on American defense, which would allow for a DOD cut as large as 30% while allowing renewed focus on American defense and ensuring longterm stability for our veterans.
7. Stopping the implementation of any new government regulation.
8. Reducing all welfare spending of any kind, including corporate welfare and bailouts, while placing a moratorium on all new federal welfare expansion, such as federal level schemes directed toward higher education or medical care.
9. Allowing the middle class to cooperate in the free market as the market does its jobs of efficiently distributing resources while providing cutthroat innovation, surging growth, and competitive prices for consumers.
10. Nothing. Even if the President of the United States would go golfing and do nothing else the next 2 years, the United States, with all of its existing economically injurious laws, would become more prosperous simply because businesses could be assured of two solid years without even more economically injurious legislation.
If President Obama did those things he would have a more prosperous economy on his hands a year from now and the Democrats would sweep DC in 2016.
That's "middle class economics" that I would forever praise him for following.
