The Gamut

Bruce Bartlett: A man without a plan

Quick question: What is John Kerry's economic plan? Can anyone reading this column name even one key element of it?

Bartlett is right. No idiot who would read his column could name any of Kerry's economic plan. But I can.

He wants to enforce existing trade treaties. He wants to eliminate tax incentives for outsourcing overseas. He wants to raise the minumum wage. He also wants to increase the tax on the highest bracket and lower the tax on the middle bracket even further thus continuing the one tiny part of Bush's program that actually had some impact, but doing it in a way that the impact can actually be sustained. The tax cut for the rich has already created as much stimulus as it possibly could, and continuing it will only damage the social services the government provides which in the long run will actually injur ethe economy even worse.

Just because this idiot Bartlett isn't paying attention, that doesn't mean that Kerry doesn't have a plan. It's one thing to disagree with the Kerry plan. But to pretend that there isn't one is just inexcusable at this point in the game.

Bartlett actually continues in the article to articulate what he sees as the Kerry plan. Which proves that he actually does know that Kerry has a plan, but his criticism of the plan indicates that he doesn't have the long ranging foresight necessary to actually appreciate it. For example, he writes:

Kerry's plan for restoring America's competitive edge involves increased government spending for research and development, tax credits to expand broadband service to rural areas, and encouraging more women and minorities to study math and science. His only proposal that might actually accomplish something is elimination of the capital gains tax for long-term investments in small business startups.

R&D spending, education spending and investment in broadband through tax credits are progressive genius akin to the FDR plan. The long term benefits to the economy far outweigh the short term expenditure. Why is it that only democrats like Truman, Kennedy and now Kerry are able to think of future benefit with programs like the GI bill and the Peace Corps, while Conservatives can't see the forrest for the trees? And when they see a tree, all they want to do is cut it down.

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