The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office finds Barack Obama’s $1.2 trillion dollar welfare-and-spending plan causes even more economic damage than if Congress were to do nothing, The Washington Times reports yesterday. Support for the massive long-term expansion of government spending and debt is plummeting, with opposition rising fastest among independent voters.
The CBO finds the House and Senate bills help in the short term, but create such crippling government debt that within a few years it chokes out private investment, driving down our Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years even further than if the government had done nothing.
That economic research contradicts fear-inducing rhetoric coming from the White House. In a move reminiscent of the Bush administration’s strategy to push through the PATRIOT Act and approve the Iraq war, Obama took to the pages of The Washington Post yesterday, telling Americans they would be in danger if Congress does not adopt his plans immediately and with little dissent.
Not so, says the CBO. Congress’ official research arm estimates that by 2019 the Senate legislation would reduce GDP by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent on net. The House version of the Obama spending plan creates similar long-run damage to the economy, the CBO said in a letter to Sen. Judd Gregg, Obama’s nominee for Commerce Secretary.
Rather than do nothing, however, the Libertarian Party joins the rising numbers of economists and experts urging Congress to abandon big spending plans and simply reduce taxes for employers and workers.
America’s job creators pay the second-highest taxes in the world, and allowing them to invest their own money rejuvenates the economy and offers more opportunity than short-term "make work" programs and massive expansions of long-term government welfare programs. Voters agree, with recent polling finding a majority of voters support a stimulus plan consisting of only tax cuts and no government spending.
That’s a real plan for hope and change.
