Ready Freddie Strikes Again
Perhaps one reason why GOP presidential candidate and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson isn't as high in the primary polls as he once was (i.e. before he got into the race) is because he's just too gosh darn good to be true. Fast on the heels of his Social Security privatization proposal - which, let it be reiterated, is the ONLY way an economically catastrophic collapse of the granddaddy of entitlement programs can be averted - FDT rolled out another choice-oriented proposal, this one regarding every American's favorite April past-time.
And I don't mean pulling April Fool pranks:
That's the most attention-grabbing aspect of FDT's proposal. Other planks include extending the Bush tax cuts; a doubling of the standard deduction to $25,000 for joint filers and $12,500 for singles; an increase of the personal exemption to $3,500, exempting a family of four (like my own) from income tax on the first $39,000; preserving the $1000 child tax credit and marriage penalty relief; and permanently repealing the estate tax once and for frakking all, as well as the the Alternative Minimum Tax, a separate system created thirty years ago to ensure that a few high income Americans could not use deductions and credits to eliminate their tax liability.
Even Fox News couldn't refrain from asking the inevitable ignorant question; and Fred was ready with the inevitable correct answer:
Which is why supply-side tax cuts always end up increasing federal revenues rather than decreasing them. One would think that after the tax-cut-unleashed economic booms of the Reagan and Bush43 years, respectively, and the recessionary/slow-growth counterpoints of the Bush41 and Clinton tax hikes, the efficacy and potency of tax-cutting both to the economy and to the federal treasury would be a settled question. And it is - at least in the absence of blind liberal fiscal dogma, anyway.
The pertinent point is that Senator Thompson has once again lapped the GOP field. Giuliani and Romney have also pledged to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, but no more than that. Fred has left them in the dust with a bold, comprehensive proposal that ought to electrify the Republican base and galvanize a tsunami of support that will carry Ready Freddie to the nomination and beyond - especially as he, unlike, say, Steve Forbes, is an entirely viable vehicle for said proposal who can unquestionably and credibly sell it to the American people.
Once again, the dichotomy of the Grand Old Party: it has the candidate with the right ideas and the ability to deliver the goods, and its voters are pining after a big name phony and an airbrushed tomato can.
For now, anyway. I just hope that six weeks is long enough for sheer superiority of presidential timbre and Reaganian message to burn through that stubborn Rockefelleroid fog.
And I don't mean pulling April Fool pranks:
Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson proposed an income tax plan Sunday that would allow Americans to choose a simplified system with only two rates: 10% and 25%.
Thompson's proposal, announced on Fox News Sunday, would allow filers to remain under the current, complex tax code or use the flat tax rates.
That's the most attention-grabbing aspect of FDT's proposal. Other planks include extending the Bush tax cuts; a doubling of the standard deduction to $25,000 for joint filers and $12,500 for singles; an increase of the personal exemption to $3,500, exempting a family of four (like my own) from income tax on the first $39,000; preserving the $1000 child tax credit and marriage penalty relief; and permanently repealing the estate tax once and for frakking all, as well as the the Alternative Minimum Tax, a separate system created thirty years ago to ensure that a few high income Americans could not use deductions and credits to eliminate their tax liability.
Even Fox News couldn't refrain from asking the inevitable ignorant question; and Fred was ready with the inevitable correct answer:
Asked whether the plan would cut too deeply into federal revenues, the former Tennessee senator and actor said experts "always overestimate the losses to the government" when taxes are cut.
"We've known for years any time we have lowered taxes and any time we've lowered tax rates, we've seen growth in the economy," Thompson said.
Which is why supply-side tax cuts always end up increasing federal revenues rather than decreasing them. One would think that after the tax-cut-unleashed economic booms of the Reagan and Bush43 years, respectively, and the recessionary/slow-growth counterpoints of the Bush41 and Clinton tax hikes, the efficacy and potency of tax-cutting both to the economy and to the federal treasury would be a settled question. And it is - at least in the absence of blind liberal fiscal dogma, anyway.
The pertinent point is that Senator Thompson has once again lapped the GOP field. Giuliani and Romney have also pledged to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, but no more than that. Fred has left them in the dust with a bold, comprehensive proposal that ought to electrify the Republican base and galvanize a tsunami of support that will carry Ready Freddie to the nomination and beyond - especially as he, unlike, say, Steve Forbes, is an entirely viable vehicle for said proposal who can unquestionably and credibly sell it to the American people.
Once again, the dichotomy of the Grand Old Party: it has the candidate with the right ideas and the ability to deliver the goods, and its voters are pining after a big name phony and an airbrushed tomato can.
For now, anyway. I just hope that six weeks is long enough for sheer superiority of presidential timbre and Reaganian message to burn through that stubborn Rockefelleroid fog.
posted by JASmius at 6:31 AM
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