Sometimes Politicians Fail to Look at History

If the two remaining Democrats happen to get elected and push their economic policies on the Citizens of America, here is what will happen:

1. More taxes. Everyone will pay more, but the top 10% of income tax payers will pay an even greater portion of the total.
2. More protectionism. This means more tariffs and subsidies for industries that are not as competitive as they need to be.
3. Bigger Government. Government, the same function that makes for long lines at the airport and spends $600 for a hammer, will now be in charge of your health care and almost all other parts of your life.
4. Control of gas prices. Most people are too young to remember the early 1970's, but get ready for long lines at the gas pump.

Now this all sounds good on the surface. However, it has been tried before and it failed. The time was 1929-1936. Hoover passed to Smoot-Hawley tariffs that made imports more expensive (can you say inflation), and then other countries retaliated so we did not export anything either. This just hurt everyone and brought economies around the world to a halt.

FDR increased the size of government dramatically. Spending went from 3% of GDP to 13% before the war. The Federal Government has been growing ever since and is now over 40% of GDP. Bigger government results in a less productive economy where consumers get to decide how to spend.

So while the rhetoric might sound great on the surface, these ideas have all been tried before and resulted in prolonging the greatest economic disaster in the history of modern man. We need smaller government that spend less, a lot less.