Implementing Proven Ideas

September 11, 2011 at 9:17 AM

By CAROL VOYLES
It’s admirable that Nick Panuzio, the head of the Republican Party in Talbot County whose viewpoint column was in the Star Democrat on Sept. 9, wanted to write positively after hearing the President’s speech to Congress, but it might have been a good idea if he had written factually as well.

President Obama stated that he will cut taxes for the middle class and small businesses, not raise them as Mr. Panuzio asserts.

As for lowering corporate taxes, our corporations now pay functionally lower rates than most other nations due to our tax code. We want to have competitive tax rates, but we also need our corporations to pay something. President Obama proposed eliminating special interest deductions that currently allow some corporations to pay nothing.

Mr. Panuzio recommends keeping the Bush tax cuts. They resulted in the worst record of job creation in decades and were the primary cause of doubling our national debt during the Bush presidency according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Finally, Mr. Panuzio states that President Reagan’s policies led to the “greatest peacetime economic expansion in decades.” Perhaps that honor finally needs to go to Bill Clinton. He presided over the longest economic expansion in recorded history and created 22.7 million new jobs. Reagan might have come close with the “20 million” jobs Mr. Panuzio cited, but President Reagan actually created 16.1 million jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Carter and Johnson created jobs at higher rates while they were in office.

I do agree with Mr. Panuzio that we should “implement proven ideas.” It’s time that we solved our problems realistically.

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