Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's weekly column appears in the Beaufort Observer.
We are seeing an outrageous amount of 20:20 hindsight about why Mitt Romney lost the election. Almost everybody has an reason (read excuse) why it happened. I know why it happened, but I don't believe it is a rationalization or an excuse. I say he lost the election because more people bearing Electoral College votes voted for the Prez. That's it.
We keep hearing of all the dire consequences if we "go over the fiscal cliff" come January 1. The Bush Tax cuts expire, payroll taxes will increase, Obamacare kicks in, and a whole lot of other bad things will happen. All those things happening will send our economy into a tailspin. Here comes another depression.
So now, maybe its time to quit arguing about unemployment and the economy and Obamacare and all that stuff. Those folks I mentioned above don't seem to be worried about those things; why should anyone else worry?? Why don't we simply go along with what the Prez and his henchmen want.
Let's raise taxes on the rich. They need to pay their "fair share. (That would probably leave Joe Biden as the only person in the administration whose taxes will not go up. Yes, I know when you add in Ms. B's earnings, their taxes will go up too.) At the same time, lets accelerate the implementation of Obamacare; "death panels", new taxes on the middle class and all. Surely we can do that now that the election is over. Let's not only extend unemployment insurance benefits, let's increase them. Let's increase the minimum wage. Let's forgive student loans. Let's guarantee a free college education for anyone who wants to go. (Never mind ensuring that they can read and write before "graduating" from high school.) After all everyone is entitled to a good education. It isn't enlightened self interest that should be driving the quest for a college degree, it's in our national interest. That's why the taxpayers should pay for it. Let's make sure free contraception is available for everyone. (That may really be in the national interest if it would help decrease the number of out of wedlock births - especially among those who will end up on the dole.) Let's make it easier to unionize our workforce, both public and private. Perhaps we should make union membership mandatory. Let's focus even more on controlling global warming. Clearly we need more solar and wind farms to bring us to energy self sufficiency. After seeing what kind of devastation hurricanes can do (we didn't know about the potential devastation a hurricane could bring until one hit New Jersey and New York). We should put Al Gore in charge of implementing a program to control hurricanes. It seems to me that controlling hurricanes is a much more pressing issue than worrying about what the level of the oceans is going to be by the next turn of the century. Let's give all illegal aliens who are here amnesty, never mind securing the border first.
Something else we need to do is have the New York Times and the Washington Post delivered to every residence in the country - for free. That way we wouldn't have to do our own thinking when it comes to deciding what more the government should be doing for us. Surely Paul Krugman and the NYT Editorial Board will tell us. If we get tired of those rantings, we can turn to Governor Moonbeam of California. He will surely be able to offer some suggestions. Or perhaps we could turn to Ms. Schumer's boy Charlie for some ideas. If he seems reticent to offer up anything, simply put up a TV camera in front of him; that'll get him to open up.
But then what happens when these great sounding things don't work out quite as advertised?? What if the increased taxes result in less revenue than before instead of more (as history has always shown us)?? What then?? What if our unemployment goes up to the 20% or so we saw during the "real" depression?? (Watching the Dems spin that into something positive would be interesting.) And then what happens if no one other than Ben Bernanke will buy our bonds?? But not to worry about that. All he has to do is turn on the printing presses and away we go. Unending prosperity. At that point in time it might be a good time to lock up some wheelbarrow futures. There will certainly be a big demand for wheelbarrows - to carry our money in when we go to the store to buy a loaf of bread - after Mr. Bernanke gets through with us.. You should be able to make a bundle by anticipating that need. Just think; more resources to redistribute..
We hear a lot of otherwise seemingly rational people telling us that decreasing taxes will result in increasing government revenues. That entire idea flies in the face of conventional wisdom. The only thing they have on their side is historical facts. We saw in the election just concluded that just facts won't carry the day (or the electoral college for that matter). We should let the Dems do all the great sounding things they want to and just stand ready to take hold of things just before they really start to fall apart (which they will). We will need to be prepared to jump in and straighten things out just as soon as the folks figure out that the Libs' ideas aren't working. We don't seem to be able to learn from watching Greece, and Italy, and Spain, and Portugal and most of the rest of Europe, so we will have to see our own failure for ourselves. We will eventually figure out that you simply cannot continue to fund a government (or anything else for that matter) out of the deficit. The sooner we let the Libs screw things up with their cockeyed ideas of how things should be, the sooner the fallacy of their approach can be demonstrated (he said, hopefully) and the sooner we will be able to "fix" the problems.
And how about all these 20:20 hindsight people already worrying about 2016. They tell us that Marco Rubio is going to Iowa to help the governor with a fund raiser is tantamount to throwing his hat into the 2016 ring. He may do that when the time is right, but I surely believe he is too smart to be doing it now. What he is doing now, is banking some good will which he may or may not collect someday. I would also expect to see Jeb Bush and others of the next generation "helping out" Republican Governors (and others) who ask for help with fund raisers and the like - just in case.
By the way, do you suppose it has occurred to any of the 20:20 folks that there is an election between now and 2016. That would be the 2014 election. It seems to me that holding the House and taking the Senate in the 2014 election should be fairly high on someone's agenda. After all the two Davids, Stephanie Cutler and Valerie Jarrett, will likely be striving mightily to see that doesn't happen. "Making nice" and trying to appear "Senatorial" clearly will not do the trick next time any more than "making nice" and "looking Presidential" did this time. It's time to get serious about winning. It's time to get tough.
D'ya think??
