New Jersey's economy continues sluggish. According to Gordon MacInnes, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, this constitutes proof that Governor Chris Christie's policies of tax and government spending cuts and a smaller public sector have failed; or what MacInnes calls the "emphasis" on such things.
What does MacInnes advocate? More tax & spend, under the guise of "investment," which he apparently believes is something only government officials spending other people's money can do. I left the following comments:
If the crippling budget deficits left the governor "no choice" but to make "deep cuts to popular programs and state aid," the tax cuts he made were "puny," and his 10% across-the-board tax cuts weren't even enacted, how does it follow that "the emphasis on tax-cutting and government-shrinking hasn't worked?"
No one questions "the centrality of investment." But it is right to question who makes those investments. Keep in mind that government "investment" is just coercively recycled private earnings directed toward politically connected special interests. Look no further than the "alternative energy" boondoggle, which subsidizes with taxpayer dollars economically unjustified (read; unproductive) solar and wind projects.
Without that and other such so-called "investments," the individuals that earned the money in the first place would be free to spend and invest their own money as they judge would best economically benefit themselves. Cutting taxes and government "investment" is not just sound economics, it's the morally right thing to do.
Related reading:
What is the "Key" to Job Creation?
"Government Investment" = Money Laundering
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