Sunday night we spoke with Harvard University Senior Hank Gonzalez- a self-identified socialist and one of the organizers of the illegal immigration May day protests in Boston a few weeks ago who attempted to make the case that, although Communism/Socialism has never done anything other than produce starvation, rationing, economic misery, poverty, and death wherever it has been instituted, it just hasn’t been “done correctly.”
He was a nice enough and very articulate young man, and we give him a lot of credit for going toe to toe with Kevin and me and the vast majority of callers who were not on Hank’s side. I will also give him credit for being an intellectually honest leftist. It’s more than can be said of the so called “moderate” Democrats who disingenuously conceal their real philosophical and ideological beliefs which on the vast majority of issues I believe are identical to the socialist platform Hank was defending and attempting to promote on our show.
That being said, Hank was a walking talking Prius/Volvo/Subaru bumper sticker regurgitating all the most common canards and shibboleths of the left. It was hard to keep track of them all because, like all adroit leftists, Hank was a peripatetic speaker, moving deftly form one issue and accusation to another without substantiating any of the baseless claims he made. As soon as you think to yourself “no, that’s not true” he’s off to the next innacurate fallacious assertion. Like the vast majority of the claims of the left, the claims Hank made about socialism/collectivism and his simultaneous criticisms of free market capitalism was devoid of fact. For example:
1 Hank claimed that our economy was in “crisis” and that Bush’s tax cuts only benefited the “rich.”
I guess it would be an economic “crisis” if you don’t count the 13 consecutive quarters of positive GDP, record personal American net equity currently at close to $55 trillion, the DOW only points shy of its all time high, the S%P 500 over 1300, and the Nasdaq doubling in three years since the Bush tax cuts went into effect, unemployment at historical low of 4.7% (one full pt below the low during the Clinton “boom” years, 5 million new jobs created in the past 36 months (2 million of them last year alone), low core inflation (which Hank mistakenly claimed was high), relatively low interest rates, increased tax payments and resuting decreasing deficit, and record high business and home ownership among minorities and the poor.
Also, the wealthiest 1% of taxpayers- mostly small businesses earned 21 percent of the income in 2000 and paid 37 percent of all individual income taxes. This figure doesnâ??t include the 15.3 percent payroll tax of which businesses bear almost all of the cost. In contrast, the bottom 50 percent of all taxpayers earn 13 percent of all income and pay merely 4 percent of all individual income taxes. In 2004 the wealthiest 5% of all tax payers paid close to 60% of all federal taxes. The top 1% paid over 40% of all federal taxes. The “rich” actually paid more in taxes as a percentage of their income-the exact opposite of what Hank claimed.
For the median family with two children, earning $67,000 per year, the Bush plan meant a tax cut of $1,133 this year, erasing 22% of their current tax liability. A family earning only $40,000 saw 96% of their tax liability erased, while a family earning $200,000 would saw only 9% of their tax liability erased. The “rich” actually paid a disproportionately high percentage of taxes making the Bush tax cuts on of the most “progressive” in our nation’s history. One would think that socialists like Hank would be praising the president.
It is also important to note that, whether an individual is â??richâ? or â??poorâ? depends on the stage of his/her life. More than half of all taxpayers change tax brackets (up and down) within a 10-year period-unlike socialist systems which artificially insulate the wealthy elite class from the vast majority of government dependants who seldom attain any significant degree of wealth in thier life times. “Fewer than 3 percent of those in the bottom 20 percent [in terms of income earned] in 1975 were still there in 1991, while 39 percent of them were now in the top 20 percent” (Sowell, Thomas. Basic Economics. Basic Books. New York. 2000. p. 137).
The economy, over the long run, expands and wealth at all levels increases. People often move across income ranges. Most of those in the bottom are younger, unmarried workers who eventually enter the top income quintiles. Retirees who have accumulated savings and wealth over a lifetime but who are not part of the workforce are not considered â??richâ? in many cases because their retirement income from investments is less than what they earned during their â??peakâ? earning years. Ironically, most retirees have over their lifetimes earned and saved significantly more than other workers.
The latest available data which was released two weeks ago from the U.S. Census Bureauâ??s Survey of Business Owners revealed that minority groups and women are increasing their business ownership at a much higher rate than the national average. Hank conveniently ignored this government report. (Hank, when presenting economic data, stay away from partisan ultra liberal web sites like PFTAW-the one you alluded to and stick to more objective credible authoritative sources such as bi-partisan government reports).
According to the report, while the number of U.S. businesses increased by 10 percent to 23 million, the rate of growth for minority- and women-owned businesses was far higher, ranging from 67 percent for native Hawaiian- and other Pacific islander-owned businesses to 20 percent for firms owned by women.
The nationâ??s 23 million businesses increased their receipts by 22 percent to reach $22.6 trillion. Increases in receipts ranged from a high of 30 percent for black-owned firms to 5 percent for businesses owned by whites.
black-owned businesses were up 45 percent
Hispanic-owned businesses were up 31 percent.
Asian-owned businesses were up 24 percent.
Women-owned businesses were up 20 percent.
The exact opposite of what Hank claimed on the show.
2. Hank claimed that the 40 million uninsured Americans illustrated that capitalism is in “crisis.”
Again, Hank made this assertion without any relevant context or substantiation as prima facie evidence that capitalism is flawed. His claim is fallacious and misleading and ignores many vital facts.
While there are about 40 million Americans who donâ??t have health insurance not one U.S. citizen (and by law non-citizens) can by law be turned away from any emergency room in any hospital in America. Thus, every American (and even illegal immigrants) has access to healthcare at any emergency room in America.
Many Americans, especially the self-employed, and those who tend to be in general good health, choose not to purchase insurance and instead pay cash anytime they visit the doctor.
While it is true that there are 45 million Americans without healthcare insurance according to the Census Bureau, the total number of Americans with healthcare insurance rose to a record by one million to 243.3 million in 2003. As a percentage, those without insurance is the same 15.6% is lower than it was in 1997-1998 when Bill Clinton was President and within the same range itâ??s been for the past decade. Why was Clinton not able to make healthcare more â??affordableâ? in eight years of his administration?
One third of those who are uninsured are eligible for Medicaid and the State Childrenâ??s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) but are not enrolled. Thus over 14 million Americans who are eligible for insurance have the ability to enroll for healthcare if and when they require it based on the findings of Devon Herrick of the National Center for Policy Analysis.
There are, according to 2003 Census Data, almost 15 million uninsured wealthy people in households with incomes above $50,000 (7.6 million of them in households over $75,000). While some may dispute that somebody earning $75,000 may be considered â??rich,â? it is reasonable to assume that those individuals who are earning these types of incomes can afford to purchase the health care that best fits their needs.
There are another 18.8 million of uninsured between the ages of 18 and 34 who voluntarily forgo coverage. Because many states offer â??guaranteed issueâ? laws that enable individuals to put off purchasing insurance until they get sick and need it- like the great welfare state of Mass. This law actually encourages the irresponsible to delay buying insurance. The fact remains, however, that these 18.8 million citizens have access to healthcare insurance. They choose to forgo purchasing it until they are sick enough to need it.
While the number of uninsured is high, there are a lot of things that can be done to make health insurance more readily available at a lower cost to consumers which donâ??t include expanding government or raising taxes as Hank and the socialists propose. One of the things that can be done is for Congress to end the 50-state insurance market by proclaiming that there shall be nationwide commerce in healthcare like there are for other goods and services which was just proposed yesterday in the Senate by Sen Enzi of Wyoming (R) and Congressman Shadaag of AZ (R). Another way to lower the price of coverage, as President Bush has proposed, is to equalize the tax treatment for employer purchased and individually purchased health care (HSAs) which liberal Dems adamantly oppose.
The bottom line is that government run- socialist style health care has been a dismal failure everywhere it has been instituted. Even though there are many problems with our current managed care health care system which is in fact a quasi-socilsit system, it is far superior to any other country in the world. Many on the left claim that health care is superior in other countries. However, in each country they allude to, costs are higher, waiting times for treatment longer, quality of care inferior, and choice significantly reduced.
3. Hank claimed that the United States was the most violent nation on earth.
The fact is that the U. S. does not even make the top 17 “democidal” states of the 20th century.
In the 20th century according to Rummel in Death by Government, 12,000 people have been killed in the U.S. by collective or inter-group violence.
That death toll pales in comparison to the 100 million murdered by Communist dictators (Hank’s heroes Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot), the 61 million murdered by the Communist Chinese, and the 1 million killed by the Yugoslavianâ??s Communist Tito regime. But, I guess Hank’s utopian socialism he advocates (but can’t clearly define or articulate) would purportedly different this time around.
In his 1994 book Death By Government, Rudolph J. Rummel, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Hawaii found that the number of democides (people killed by governments) in the 20th century were 4 times the number killed in combat. (170 million vs. 38.5 million killed in battle). Yet, Hank is opposed to all war but has no problem apparently when organized government kills citizens for the “common good.”
Facts are stubborn things Hank. The next time you want to come back on the show and defend socialism and illegal immigration you are more than welcome to come on. Just make sure you do your “homework.”