Who should we believe of the leading
candidates remaining in the Presidential primaries that last through June? Bernie says he will tax the wealthiest enough
to pay for his programs, such as free public college tuition and universal
health care. But that means raising
middle class taxes, as well.
The Donald says he is such a
successful businessman that he will negotiate us out of all our problems. But how much can he be believed with four
bankruptcies and three marriages already?
Polls show that economic issues top
the voters’ concerns, so we should look at the how they will solve those issues. Bernie believes he will save citizens money
by converting to universal health care, because if everyone’s covered, the
government will have the clout to negotiate down drug and hospital costs.
Though Trump says he won’t touch
social security and Medicare, he would cut taxes for the wealthiest even more,
which will only increase the budget deficit.
That’s because trickle-down economics doesn’t work (i.e., more tax
breaks for the wealthiest), as evidenced by GW Bush’s two recessions and 8
million jobs lost during his 8 years.
So Mr.
Trump is trying to convince us that he is the better negotiator than President
Obama, who has managed to pass so many progressive programs (like Obamacare) that
conservatives say they feel betrayed.
His most hollow pronouncement is the Wall to keep out Hispanic
immigrantss, when as many enter through Florida and New York, not to speak of
California, and maybe Canada? So he
would have to build a wall that surrounds all of US!
Today’s economy is experiencing
both record income inequality, since the wages and salaries of 80 percent of
our workforce have barely risen above inflation for the past 30 years, and our
degraded infrastructure. And let us not
forget Flint, but also the many
other municipalities with drinking water problems.
Senator Bernie says we are the only
developed country without universal healthcare and tuition free higher
education. Denmark is his oft-repeated
example, but they pay for it with a maximum tax rate of 60 percent. Well, America
had a maximum tax rate of 92 percent during President Eisenhower’s reign, which
enabled US to build our freeway system, land on the moon, create the Internet,
and we still had a 4 percent plus growth rate during that time.
So can Bernie’s promises be paid
for? We would have to reverse a trend of
lower taxes begun in the 1970s. That
means bringing out new voters—mostly young—that have been sitting on the
sidelines until now. The New Hampshire
primary results show that the new voter turnout was HUGE, in Bernie’s words. But as Rachel Maddow pointed out on MSNBC,
they were mostly Republicans.
His test will come with the
upcoming Nevada caucus and South Carolina primary, with their much more diverse
ethnicities. The economic issues being
debated this election year are really between facts and fiction—whether economic
facts can trump political ideologies.
That’s the bottom line. We, the
United States of America can’t grow and thrive without our citizens having the
benefits of every other developed country, and many undeveloped ones.
Those benefits may seem expensive,
as in the Nordic countries, but the drag to economic growth from neglecting
these issues is even more expensive—with the ongoing poor health outcomes, a crumbling
infrastructure, and unprotected environment.
Harlan Green © 2016
Follow Harlan
Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen
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