While Obama's away...

The President goes to Europe, and the Lefties start talking again about how things "should be"...

Seems its been too long since we last had a national debate about the tax rates, so the Lefties are back on track with plans for another 2% hike to the top income tax rate, a 5% hike to the dividends/return tax rate, and another 7% hike to the capital gains tax.

When its all said and done... that equals a top marginal tax rate of 62% (according to the WSJ). That's up from the current rate of 48%. That's too high, even for me... and here's why.

Keynesian economic theory says that balance is needed, but no balance can be found in the Left's agenda. In 1989, when Reagan left office, the top tax rate was 33%... while the average top tax rate of our ten largest trading partners around the globe was 51%. I might not be an economist, but I'd bet your dollar to my paycheck that THAT is why the US was able to create so many jobs over the course of the next 10 years. It was cheaper for businesses to build and grow in the US than it was for them to do so anywhere else.

Since 2006, that simply hasn't been the case. Our top ten trading partners now have an average top tax rate of 45%... while ours is rapidly rising above 48% on its way (if the Lefties have their way) to 62%. Where then will the jobs and wealth be created? Not here, I can bet you that.

There will be no long-term recovery from this "Great Recession" without a return to functional Keynesian policy when it comes to taxes and spending... and if the use of J M Keynes name (or Arthur Laffer, for that matter) is too distasteful for our conservative members to swallow, then lets just use Reagan's name, instead. Ron understood what I am talking about, as history shows.