Economic Ignorance & Our Presidential Candidates

Jun 23 2008

Economic Ignorance & Our Presidential Candidates

Published by Roland Manarin at 4:39 pm under Economy, Fiscal & Monetary Policy

Karl Rove had some interesting remarks in last Thursday’s WSJ about McCain and Obama’s economics. Here are a few selected comments:

In Raleigh, N.C. last week, Sen. Obama promised, “I’ll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we’ll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills.”
Set aside for a minute that Jimmy Carter passed a “windfall profits tax” to devastating effect, putting American oil companies at a competitive disadvantage to foreign competitors, virtually ending domestic energy exploration, and making the U.S. more dependent on foreign sources of oil and gas.
Sen. McCain doesn’t support the windfall profits tax, but he can be as hostile to profits as Mr. Obama. “[W]e should look at any incentives that we are giving,” Mr. McCain said in May, even as he talked up a gas tax “holiday” that would give drivers incentives to burn more gasoline.
This past Thursday, Mr. McCain came close to advocating a form of industrial policy, saying, “I’m very angry, frankly, at the oil companies not only because of the obscene profits they’ve made, but their failure to invest in alternate energy.”

Our Thoughts: Free markets rule! Washington needs to stay away from business. Profit motive drives creativity and solutions for our future. In 1986, Ronald Reagan said, “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. It it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

Thanks to Aron Huddleston for this article.

Update: Not sure where you stand on the political spectrum? Then you might like The World’s Smallest Political Quiz.