Brain Fertilizer

From Kausfiles (Scroll down to Reagan Catch-up)

5. I don't defend Reagan's tax cuts, but his 1986 tax reform--cutting rates while closing loopholes--probably played an underestimated role in enabling the prosperity of the '90s by ending the waste of talent and money in unproductive tax shelters that was common in the '70s and early '80s. Too bad Bill Clinton had no feel for the virtues of loophole-closing, preferring to create loopholes (by calling them "targeted" tax cuts).

Underestimated?!??!! Not by me, at least, nor by any flat-tax proponent (hmmm: what's the difference between an "advocate" and a "proponent"?). I've said for years that the creation of loopholes is the main Democrat tactic of claiming to raise taxes for the rich while still giving themselves and their rich friends lower actual tax burdens. I'm happy President Reagan lowered taxes...but I've always insisted the only reason it worked is because he simultaneously simplified taxes. At the end of President Reagan's term of office, the average person took about 40 minutes to calculate their taxes (if I remember correctly). By the time President Clinton left office, that had jumped to something like 2 or 4 hours. Again, I don't remember for sure, and I don't feel like googling for the specific numbers...the point being that under President Clinton, the tax code became far more complicated, and rich people with clever tax lawyers love complicated tax codes, because it helps them pay less taxes than the higher bracket rates the Democrats trumpet.

If we can't have flat tax, at least simplify it back to President Reagan's level of complexity, as well as the marginal rates. Okay?

6. Reagan's 1981 breaking of the air traffic controllers' strike also seems a crucial part of the late-twentieth century boom. Union power was the mainspring of the 1970s wage-price spiral, as unions leapfrogged each other trying to stay a step ahead of the rising prices their hefty wage hikes then helped ensure. The air controllers provided the cautionary example of a labor organization that went on an ill-advised strike, was defeated, and ceased to exist. With the public's support! Big Labor hasn't been the same since--and, not coincidentally, neither has inflation.

Yes. Labor Unions served their purpose, I don't deny that. That purpose has long since been served, and they waste money, ruin lives, and are more responsible for overseas outsourcing than any other factor in the United States. It's a shame Democrats are so in bed with labor unions that they can't see it.