Hidden in Plain View
Rich Lowry believes the thriving economy was the greatest underreported story of 2005. Key fact:
[o]ne Bush policy in particular did stoke the [economic] upturn. As a report of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress explained, consumer spending never stopped growing in the 2001 recession. It was a free-fall in investment that caused the economic stall. Bush's 2003 tax cuts on dividends and capital gains were meant to recharge that particular engine in the economy, and they did. According to [Heritage Foundation economic Tim] Kane, investment has grown at a rate of 9.2 percent since those tax cuts, higher than the average of 6 percent of the past two decades.
As I point out in my weekly column, the media was 2005's big loser. Along with its "reporting" on Iraq, Katrina and assorted media scandals, its "coverage" of the economy is one of the reasons why.
[o]ne Bush policy in particular did stoke the [economic] upturn. As a report of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress explained, consumer spending never stopped growing in the 2001 recession. It was a free-fall in investment that caused the economic stall. Bush's 2003 tax cuts on dividends and capital gains were meant to recharge that particular engine in the economy, and they did. According to [Heritage Foundation economic Tim] Kane, investment has grown at a rate of 9.2 percent since those tax cuts, higher than the average of 6 percent of the past two decades.
As I point out in my weekly column, the media was 2005's big loser. Along with its "reporting" on Iraq, Katrina and assorted media scandals, its "coverage" of the economy is one of the reasons why.
posted by LadybugUSA at 2:10 PM
5 Comments:
I agree, Dan it is a fine day when the average citizen can fact check the MSM in seconds, not weeks, and respond. Internet and Radio are taking over print and video for news thus they get more graphic and push the ethical limit. There are many fine journalists and true reporters still but the chaff gets thicker and harder to sift through by the day. That is the advantage of the blogosphere, on the ground citizen journalists at the spot. I am fully addicted to the truelly amazing amount of information at my fingertips, just a click or two away. Maybe now it will once again be "We the People" informed and dedicated to what our forefathers built for us.
And what of the staggering debt created by those tax cuts? Nary an acknowledgment. I suppose it doesn't matter to most; the "unseen" rarely does.
Some will say I'm all "tax and spend," but they don't know me. But even if that were the case, it sure beats "don't tax yet spend."
I await your spin.
Duke-spin, it's a fact that tax revenues have INCREASED with tax cuts - e.g. more capital for investments equals more jobs equals more people earning a paycheck where the IRS is waiting to pounce. Yes, the spending of our federal government is atrocious, because they've lost sight of what they are supposed to spend on. Removing the grants to PBS and NPR would be a nice 1st step at removing unnecessary spending don't you think?
Duke also misses the point that as percentage of debt to GDP is at a comfortably low position. In otherwords debt to income is near historic lows. Alexander Hamilton some two hundred some odd years ago explained it very well, he is the father of our economy in many ways. Perhaps some independant research is called for, fellow commentator.
"Removing the grants to PBS and NPR would be a nice 1st step at removing unnecessary spending don't you think?"
Oh absolutely, buzzkill, all we need is Faux News anyway. (Well, maybe Pat Robertson's chuckling "newscast" on occasion.)
But definitely cut the NPR and PBS funding entirely. And after we've saved that fraction of a fraction of a percent we should start looking at the spending initiated by every Congressman and Senator in Jack Abramoff's rolodex.
That fat tumor would make the public broadcasting budget look like a wart.
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