Back to Prosperity

At the CPAC conference, one of the speakers said that he longed to return to the days when we defeated Hitler, eliminated the Communist threat, and defeated terrorism.  He referred to those days as a time when the government was not in the way of individual success nor willing to confiscate the the rewards of hard work and America was a beacon shining as an example to the rest of the world.  The speaker forgot at the time America defeated Hitler, the top marginal tax rate was 90% and companies unable to raise wages and prices because of government law introduced employer provided healthcare and employer provided pensions in order to find scarce labor. For the benefit of those at CPAC too young to remember the end of World War II, had taxes been at the 1950 levels for the past 63 years there would be no federal debt nor a budget deficit.  At the time when Communism was defeated, supply-side or trickle down economics was introduced which resulted in the decimation of the middle class in America and led to the second worst economic decline in the nation’s history.  As for a time when terrorism was defeated, the speaker must be referring to the time when the war in Iraq ended, when the war in Afghanistan is in the final year, and when, in spite of obstruction on the part of the Republicans in Congress, over 25 consecutive months of job growth has occurred as well as a small reduction in the level of spending caused by the Bush/Cheney economic policies.  The speaker must not realize that at least one of his wishes has come true when it comes to ending war.  It’s unlikely anyone at the CPAC conference wishes a return to the tax rates of the 1940s, 1950s or 1960s.  While they claim to pine for government of that era no one at that conference is willing to pay the costs of government of that era. If the goal of CPAC is a return to “the good old days” then they need to lobby for legislation to rebuild and repair the nation’s roads and bridges and put more people to work just as the Interstate Highway construction projects did in the past.  If the goal of CPAC is to return to the “good old days” they need to lobby for legislation that would keep CEO and other executive compensation at no more than 40 times the lowest paid employee as opposed to today’s ration that exceeds 400 times the lowest paid worker resulting in historic levels of income inequality. If the goal of CPAC is the “return to the good old days” they need to heed the words of Ronald Regan when he said that all income, regardless of source, should be taxed at the same rates and they need to lobby to overturn tax legislation that created obscene inequities called “carried interest”.  If the goal of CPAC is to “return to the good old days” they need to get out of the way and allow the return of sensible economic policy, universal healthcare, and fairer tax legislation.