President Hillary Means Same Old Same Old - Road to the Middle Class

AFTER THE STELLAR economic growth of the last 25 years you would think that all serious presidential contenders would be talking expansively about the wonders of low tax rates and the wisdom of the market. But you would be wrong, according to Larry Kudlow. A President Hillary Clinton would take us back to the days to industrial policy and a “national investment authority.” Sounds like Old Europe. Said Hillary in Chicago:

“Tax cuts are not the cure-all for everything that ails the American economy,” and that instead we need the “right tax system [and] the right investment, including infrastructure. . . . decisions and policies that only all of us acting together through our government can make to set the stage for future prosperity.

Of course, this is suitably vague, but it does suggest a lot of top-down political control. And if the infrastructure of the nation needs investment, it is because liberals siphoned the nation’s wealth in the 1960s and 1970s into social programs, and sneered at continuing to build highways until we had paved the nation over.

Of course, no speech from a Democrat would be complete without a bit of class warfare. Said Hillary:

“America did not build the greatest economy in the world because we have rich people.”

That’s true. We built the railroads with the money of rich people in Britain. But it is also true that we have rich people in the United States because we have built the greatest economy in the world.

There is another way to grow the economy and bring prosperity to Americans. Writes Kudlow:

Two weeks ago I was in the Oval Office with President Bush and a handful of financial journalists. The president spoke to us about his growth policies and priorities, such as making tax relief permanent, keeping the tax rate on dividends and capital gains low, maintaining lean budgets, and expanding free trade.

This vision is in deep contrast to the one being set forth by Hillary Clinton. The president places the risk-taker and the entrepreneur at the center of economic growth; the presidential candidate sees government as the driving force of the economy.

Amen, brother.

Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.