"TAX CUTS
I just have to keep saying it. This is really dumb. I guess we have to do some of it, for political reasons, but that famous line – who can spend your money better, you or the government? – is not nearly as wise as it sounds.
You will spend your money to pay down credit card balances (as you should, but that hardly creates jobs) or to shore up retirement savings (as you should, but that hardly creates jobs) or to buy clothes (that creates jobs in Shanghai) or to buy a flat screen TV (that creates jobs in Seoul), or to take the kids skiing or to take your honey to dinner twice a month instead of once a month – which is good for the chef, waiters, and busboys, but here is the thing we have to ask ourselves:
Is now really the time to keep borrowing (for this tax cut will be financed entirely with borrowed money) to keep more busboys and waiters employed? Or is now the time to be borrowing to become energy independent, build a smart energy grid, digitize our medical records, dredge our waterways, repair our bridges, and educate our children?
Is now the time to be borrowing to give people with jobs a break (much as we’d like to), or is it the time to be borrowing to extend unemployment benefits – and, by spending on infrastructure, create new jobs?
Should we borrow to give people the money to go out to dinner and keep restaurants open? Or should we borrow to funnel money to the states to keep them from having to lay off teachers and cops and shut down after-school programs?
Which would be worse? Becoming a nation with fewer auto dealerships and fewer retail stores – perhaps even fewer real estate agents and fewer restaurants – or remaining a nation whose infrastructure continues to deteriorate and whose kids fall further and further behind the global competition?"
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