Sure, the economy is languishing. But do we really want a big-government, high-tax solution? Do we really want higher investment taxes that would leave government bigger and private enterprise smaller? Do Americans really blame "rich" people? Or do they actually believe success is a good thing and should not be punished? Do rank-and-file working folks really want to do away with the secret ballot for unionization in the form of the so-called card check?
And if there is a three-house Dem sweep, won't Obama's middle-class tax credit be overturned in favor of even more government spending, just as Bill Clinton's plans were subverted back in 1993? The National Taxpayers Union says Obama's new spending will total $344 billion. That's a big number. One has to wonder if that's the opening bid or the final one.
The Obama economists sincerely believe that theirs is a growth program. Obama's advisors are friends of mine -- all of them terribly smart: Jason Furman, Austan Goolsbee, Robert Reich and Jarrod Bernstein. But I question their economic model. Raising marginal tax rates will minimize -- not maximize -- economic growth and jobs. Ditto for enlarging the size, scope and sweep of government.
Business cycles come and go. Each has its own set of excesses and subsequent corrections. It's the nature of free-market capitalism. But heavy-handed government solutions are being rejected worldwide, and it seems foolhardy for the United States to move away from economic freedom while the rest of the world is moving toward it.
John F. Kennedy was one of the greatest tax reformers of all time. He slashed marginal tax rates for businesses and people of all incomes, and the economy boomed in the 1960s. Reagan successfully emulated the JFK model in the 1980s and launched a 25-year boom. But are we turning back this supply-side model? I fear the Obama men are doing just that. And I think that fear is worrying the stock market.
John McCain's economic program is not flawless. And his advertisements bashing business and oil nearly reach the class-warfare level of Obama-Biden. It's a Big Mac mistake. McCain also lacks a solid tax-cutting program for the middle class.
But the Denver Dems didn't make the sale this week. Only Obama can do that -- and he faces a monumental task Thursday night.