According to the governor of Ohio, his fellow candidates for the Republican nomination are saying some "crazy" things. And he's right; but so is Kasich.
Recently, an article in CNN reported on Kasich's plan to "balance the federal budget in eight years, while cutting taxes and reforming federal entitlement programs."
Wait; there's more (all emphasis mine):
In his plan, he promised he would reduce
the number of income tax brackets from seven to three and reduce the top
rate from 39.6% to 28%. He also calls for eliminating the federal
estate tax, dubbed by conservatives as the "death tax," and increasing
the earned income tax credit, which helps low-income people.
Kasich
would also rely on limits in Medicaid spending to balance the budget,
but would put together a panel to examine Social Security reforms.
Kasich took heat last week after he said that people who didn't want
cuts in their Social Security benefits would have to "get over it."
Oy! Where do you begin?
How about this? According to Forbes, fully one-third of the 400 richest Americans inherited their wealth. Gov. Kasich doesn't want to just cut the estate tax, he wants to eliminate it altogether!
As for Kasich's plan to balance the budget in eight years, well, there's really nothing magical about a balanced budget. Households? Sure. But not necessarily the federal government. In fact, a balanced budget amendment, which Kasich advocates, could be a really bad idea. Here's what Paul Krugman had to say earlier this year:
In a depressed economy, however, a balanced-budget fetish and a
hard-money obsession are deeply irresponsible. Not only do they hurt the
economy in the short run, they can — and in Europe, have — inflict
long-run harm, damaging the economy’s potential and driving it into a
deflationary trap that’s very hard to escape.
1 comment:
All of the Republicans are nuts. This boring old white guy will stick with the Dems.
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