Is it November 2006 yet?

Only in a country that loves David Hasselhoff as a singer would anyone consider this economic reform:

Ms Merkel has emphasized that the flat tax is a distant dream, a vision for how taxes could be simplified and lowered. Her short-term goal is to raise the value added tax by 2 per cent and use the extra revenue to stimulate the jobs market.

I strongly support the flat tax (more to come on this), so I don’t want to belittle too much what she’s trying to accomplish. But in no way is a country attached to reality when government tells business “give us your money and we’ll create jobs within your companies”. Here’s an idea: outlaw Germans from working more than 5 hours per day. The work will still exist, so more people will no doubt need to be hired. Ignore the man behind the curtain saying that more people will be underemployed.

Which leads me to today’s economic stupidity from an American. By now, everyone’s read House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s stupid quote declaring an “ongoing victory” on cutting fat from the federal budget. The statement is ridiculous in a way so obvious that further comment specific to that quote is pointless. I do think it important to highlight this quote, as well.

CAGW [Citizens Against Government Waste] and the Heritage Foundation also suggest rescinding the 6,000-plus earmarked projects in the recently passed highway bill.

But Mr. DeLay said those projects are “important infrastructure” and eliminating them could undermine the economy as Congress tries to offer hurricane relief.

“It is right to borrow to pay for it,” he said. “But it is not right to attack the very economy that will pay for it.”

Mr. [Tom] Schatz [president of CAGW], though, said the highway bill included projects such as flowers for the Ronald Reagan freeway in California, which he said aren’t essential spending.

The pork in the Transportation bill, and presumably most other pork spending, is essential to the economy. The wise, benevolent capitalists in Congress must take money from everyone named “Joe” in Kentucky so that 50 Alaskans can have a bridge. Otherwise, the economy is under attack. I guess the only reason those 50 Alaskans didn’t build the bridge connecting their tiny island with the rest of Alaska is because they’re stranded, with no method to return and no materials to build the much-needed bridge. And the increase in interest rates caused by an additional $2,000,000,000,000 in federal debt in the last five years is inconsequential to the economy.

This is the best representative the fiscally conservative Republican Party can find in Congress?

2 thoughts on “Is it November 2006 yet?”

  1. What pisses me off almost as much as news like this, is how the Democrats don’t call them on this bullshit.

  2. I meant to include that. If the Democrats had any leadership, or even basic intelligence, they’d jump on this issue. This is what voters want, but Democrats are too entrenched in the process. It’s a joke. At least if they jumped on this, I could understand them to be power-hungry. Fine, politics is like that. Instead, if they’re not too stupid, they’re just pathologically anti-Bush.
    Where is a qualified third-party candidate, preferably a real libertarian?

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