I had the honor of having one of my letters to the editor published in today’s Wall St Journal. Here it is. Gotta keep these “Democratic” Senators honest.
Senator Conrad Has No Eyes to See a Booming Economy
In his Feb. 16 Letter to the Editor “The Federal Debt Explosion,” Sen. Kent Conrad states, “The fact is, this administration has the worst fiscal record in history and its new budget does nothing to change that.”I’m sorry, am I missing something here?
Following the Bush 2003 tax cuts on dividends, capital gains and individual income, our economy has expanded for more than 48 months at an average of 3.5 percentage annual growth. The federal deficit has also shrunk 58% over the past three years mostly due to soaring tax payments emanating from the much-maligned “rich” and evil corporations. More than 7.5 million new jobs have been created with unemployment at 4.6%. Inflation remains relatively low, productivity sky high, exports are increasing, and wages have been rising across the board. All of this has occurred in spite of the Clinton recession, corporate scandals, bursting of the dot-com bubble, 9/11 and Katrina — and yes, despite overwhelmingly Democratic opposition to the pro-growth Bush tax cuts by liberal Democrat senators such as Sen. Conrad.
While President Bush and the GOP have failed to hold the line on entitlement spending and were rightfully penalized for it in the 2006 elections, does the Bush administration really have the “worst record in history?” Was Sen. Conrad not around to witness the stagflation and misery index of the Carter years in the 1970s?
As to the senator’s concern over the rising federal debt burden, our federal debt held by the public as a percentage of GDP is currently at 36.8%, having increased $1.4 trillion from 2003-2006, but which is now falling. As was noted by a Feb. 6 Journal editorial, “Fiscal Revelation,” this amount “is dwarfed by the $14 trillion in new household wealth created over the same period,” yet another empirical fact conveniently ignored by the senator.
Finally, the president’s proposed 2008 budget condemned by Sen. Conrad is at least a step in the right direction in that it reduces federal spending from 20.3% of GDP to 18.3% of GDP, calls for the elimination or reduction of 141 programs for a savings of $12 billion, and eliminates the deficit by 2012 if the president’s tax cuts are extended. Perhaps if Mr. Bush had proposed spending and tax increases, Sen. Conrad would have been less critical. If he is really as “concerned” about the long-term economic picture in our country, perhaps he and his Democrat colleagues will work with the president and congressional Republicans on the many market-based reforms that have been proposed and partially enacted for the two most significant unfunded liabilities facing future generations of Americans — Social Security and Medicare.
They have done nothing in the past besides demagoguing and obstructing such market-based reforms, but who knows, perhaps Democrats will be singing a different tune now that they are in the majority.
Gregg Jackson
Newton Mass.