Money Matters

I read a couple of items this morning that I thought were interesting. Some time ago I was listening to Hugh Hewitt's radio show on the way home and every so often he has some young conservative correspondents call in and serve as the voice for young conservatives in America. When asked about how she would help promote conservative principles in this country, the guest commentator mentioned that if we could just get a snapshot of the faces of every 16 year old kid who gets his/her first paycheck and look at the amount deducted for taxes, we would probably have a lot more people jump on board the conservative wagon.

If nothing else, fiscally speaking, the prospect of having a democratic president should be enough to make you want to vote for Senator McCain. Right now in Congress, representatives are passing budget resolutions and with the democratic leadership in power, they are looking to sidestep the Bush tax cuts that have fueled the country for the last several years. Speaking on the subject in this article, the editors at National Review point out:

When it comes to the Democrats and taxes, it’s important to look at what they do, not what they say. Very few congressional Democrats possess the candor to admit that they are in favor of letting the Bush tax cuts expire, yet for the second year in a row the Democrats have put forward a budget resolution that assumes rates will snap back to their previous levels. This would constitute a $683 billion tax hike over five years...

These are the short-term concerns. The long-term concern, for the second year in a row, is that the Democrats have put forward a budget that assumes the expiration of the Bush tax cuts will generate more than two-thirds of $1 trillion in additional revenue to pay for their spending sprees. It is important for conservatives to emphasize this loudly and clearly. One party’s nominee for president supports making the Bush tax cuts permanent. The other party, from Congress to the campaign trail, will make no such commitment to staving off what would be the largest tax increase in American history.

Having democrats control both the legislature and the executive branches in the next several years is going to be disastrous for an economy that is already showing signs of a downturn, be they large or small.

Here is another article that I thought was worth linking to on here. It talks about the need to pass free-trade legislation with Columbia, and how that not only helps improve our economic position as well as Columbia's, but it secures them as an ally rather than succumbing to that moronic leader Hugo Chavez over in Venezuela. From the article:

But the isolationist fervor on the Democratic campaign trail has further exhausted Congress’s willingness to approve pending free-trade deals with important allies such as Colombia. Our Latin American friends have long complained that we treat them like a forgotten backwater. We sit on our heels, however, at our own peril. Our reluctance to deepen our economic ties with Latin America leaves a vacuum to be exploited by our adversaries. Venezuelan socialist megalomaniac-in-chief Hugo Chavez is making this point abundantly clear.

As Colombia and Panama anxiously wait for Congress to decide on free-trade agreements they signed with President Bush, Chavez ramps up efforts to export his Bolivarian revolution across Latin America. His brashness unleashes a wave of fear in capitals from Brazil to Mexico. In the hearts and minds of ordinary people across the region, the choices are clear: A Chavez-style authoritarian government that stifles democracy and looks upon America with contempt; or a politically open, democratic government that works with America to build prosperity. There is no better way to reassure our allies and reaffirm our commitment to region than to forge free-trade pacts. The more exposure Latin American countries have to economic opportunity, prosperity, and peace, the less attractive they will find Chavez’s siren-song of freedom-free socialism.