The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Franz (boy, is that name predictive of his financial judgment) Geithner) is speaking in a press conference right now as I write this about the need for a trillion dollar "stimulus package, a package that the Senate will vote to pass in less than an hour even though it is still having pork barrel projects added to it, making it clear the Senate has not even read the thing and NO ONE including our Senators even knows half of what it contains, such as the fact that it sets up a government office that has to approve medical procedures before your doctor or a hospital can provide them to you.

And this is occurring just three months after our government decided to spend a trillion dollars on the Wall Street bail-out that was passed three months ago to "solve the financial crisis". Of course, that first bail out was to restore the economy, which has dropped precipitously by 40%, along with 3 million jobs being lost, since that obligation to American taxpayers was passed!

So, now we are told that this new trillion dollar boondoggle is absolutely necessary—immediately! And Geithner is telling us that another trillion dollars AFTER this one will be needed to bail out banks. And then there’s the bail out of auto makers. And there will be many more to come. The estimate right now, and the number is growing every day, of everything that is being planned "to save America’s economy" is a total of 9.6 trillion dollars. That is enough to pay off 80% of ALL THE HOME MORTGAGES IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!

The Power Force in Politics Today Is Not "Do It For The Children." Rather, it is "For Our Wants, Do It To Our Children and Their Children!"

Do you remember the hysteria a few years ago when the national debt reached 500 billion. Now we are talking about a national debt of 12 billion dollars, eleven million of which will have been incurred by the Democrat controlled congress over a ninth month period that began three months ago.

There are many things that are troubling about this so called Stimulus Package.

In this and entries to follow, I want to discuss five of those things that are particularly troubling about what is presently taking place in Washington:

(1) This contradicts all the economic reality evidenced in history,
(2) This destines our children and grandchildren to impoverishment and to a world in which America cannot provide security for either them or other free peoples in the world,
(3) This contradicts the laws not only of economics, but also the laws of nature, and it therefore is destined to failure, as any persistent behavior that is opposed to nature will ultimately have nature smack it down or smite it,
(4) This is the annihilation of worker’s rights, establishing that the government has all the rights and the workers exist and receive the rewards of their labor at the whim of the government, and
(5) This is the height of arrogance that this administration and congress can make an economic theory that has led to economic catastrophe and/or a totalitarian government every time it has been attempted. Their explanation for this is either that THEY are a lot smarter than all the other generations of political leaders who have attempted this approach to increasing prosperity or that all the prior attempts failed because they did not spend enough money that would indebt future generations.

So, first is the fact that those advocating that this boondoggle will help the economy either are deprived of a decent high school level education in economics or they are lying through their teeth. Either way, the reality of the total $ 9+ trillion that is the cost of all this pork barrel bribery of voters, bailouts of failed businesses, temporary make-work jobs, and socialist wish list programs that have been and are being passed by the previous and present Democrat controlled congress will not help the economy or jobs. Rather, it removes more than 9 trillion dollars from the productive free market and transfers it to the wasteful government sector which produces no wealth.

All the evidence of history shows that increased spending and taxing by government depresses an economy and jobs rather than helping. And all the evidence of history demonstrates that decreasing taxes and government control of the economy stimulates economic growth and jobs. This occurred in the 1920’s when, under the guidance of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, the Harding and Coolidge administered reduced the top tax rate of 73% three times until it was down to 25 %. Consequently, the economy grew by 59% from 1921 to 1929 with an annual growth rate of over 6%; tax revenues received by the government went up from $719 million in 1921 to $1,160 million in 1928; and the percentage of the tax burden paid by the rich rose from 44.2% to 78.4%.

These same three things—(1) increased economic health and prosperity, (2) real increase in tax revenues received by the government, and (3) the share of the federal budget carried by the wealthy--happen every time taxes and the size and control of government are reduced.

It happened during President Kennedy tax reductions in the first half of the ‘60’s bringing the optimum tax rate down from a high of 91% to 75%.

It happened in the 80’s when President Reagan reduced the optimum tax rate from 70% in 1980 to 28% in 1988. This initiated 28 years of continuous growth in the American economy, the taxes received by government almost doubled, and the percentage of taxes paid by the wealthy increased dramatically.

It happened in Ireland when they learned from America, and reduced their optimum tax rates by 12.5% in the 1990’s. The boom that resulted led to Ireland becoming known as the roaring tiger of Europe.

Also, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Eastern European nations that reduced their taxes very significantly saw the same result. Slovakia adopted a flat tax of 19% and the economic boom there is perhaps the greatest of all examples of all examples. As soon as Slovakia reduced their tax burden on the people, Slovakia became the Hong Kong of Europe in the first five years of the 21<sup>st century.

The same three results occurred in the first half of the 1990’s when New Zealand, which had a plummeting economy after decades of liberal economic policy, reduced taxes to an optimum 15% tax rate and reduced the size of government by 66%. The economic boom that resulted was in full effect within two years after the decrease in taxes and size of government went into effect.

This constant pattern occurs because wealth and money are mobile. Look at the states with the most government intervention in the free market and the highest taxes, California being the foremost example. It is about to fail economically and people, jobs, businesses, and capitol are fleeing the state. Like our major cities with socialist agendas and ever increasing taxes, California is becoming a state of less skilled people and an ever decreasing tax base.

Just think about it. If a man can run a company that produces a thousand widgets in CA for one million dollars, and he can produce the same 1,000 widgets in Alabama for $750 thousand dollars, where do you think he is going to build his factory? And if he can produce the same number and quality of widgets in Ireland or Slovakia for $500 thousand dollars, in which nation do you believe he will build his next plant? And why would you criticize this man for this. If you can buy a dress for $100 at XYZ clothiers, and you can buy the identical dress at Wal-Mart for $65, where do you shop? It seems clear by the explosion of Wal-Marts that occurred twenty years ago reveals the choice of most people, as does the more recent phenomenal growth of Home Depot and Lowe’s home improvement centers.</sup>

The Mobility of Money and Business From Nation To Nation Is Not A New Phenomenon in History!

From the time of the Roman Empire through the thirteenth century, Great Britain was the backwater of Europe culturally, in life-expectancy, educationally, technologically, and economically. However, in the 15th and 16th centuries this began to turn around. By the beginning of the 18th century, the technological revolution was transforming Britain so that it was exporting more produced goods than raw materials to the rest of the world.

This growth continued during the 18th century until Britain became the economic powerhouse of the world, becoming the world’s greatest exporter of major industrial products such as steam engines, trains, presses, ships, etc. to other nations across the earth. Then in two centuries Britain became the richest most powerful nation on earth. One of, if not the most important factor was London’s economic policy was so stable that merchants from all over the world trusted that their investments and money were safe there. So merchants from around the world began pouring money and investments into the British economy.

If you would like to read further on this phenomenon of the growth of British economic power, Dr. Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution at Stamford University documents it in his book, Conquest and Cultures, Chapter 2, "The British". In that chapter, Dr. Sowell describes many factors that contributed to this rapid economic growth, not the least of which was low taxes and stable economic policy that made the wealthy all over the world trust that they could safely build businesses and invest money in British banks without risk of the British government seizing their properties, or suddenly changing its monetary policies.

But this all began to change in the latter part of the 18th century because of welfare programs through which the British starting taking more and more funds from wage earners and redistributing the wealth to non-workers. Benjamin Franklin while living in London as a representative of the Pennsylvania colony to the King of England (1764-75) wrote about the ever increasing welfare system that was developing in Britain. He believed at that time that it was already undermining incentive in British workers and weakening its economic strength so that America’s work ethic would ultimately lead to America surpassing Britain. This projection took a while to come to fruition, but in time it did occur.

That is precisely what has happened in America. For her first 143 years, America had a very stable economic policy and very limited taxes. Although she has continued to grow in prosperity and strength, circa 1933-36, the low taxes, free market, and stable economic policy that were the basis of her growth began to be undermined. So, now payday for using taxes and give-aways as the way to buy power from voters has come due as the ever increasing control by a bloated government and tax rates are driving investors, businesses, people, and prosperity to less expensive places in the world to do business. And the bailouts, stimulus packages, and plethora of new government programs will never stop it. They are the cause.

After showing the world how to prosper, we right now are living through the demolition of American greatness, prosperity, and economic health—and America’s security as well because security requires wealth (just ask the Soviet Union about this).

This Betrays Economic Principles Told To Elementary Aged Kids.