With the distractions of Palin Power and the earthquake on Wall Street, some of us are losing the narrative. But the editors at National Review are not. They have an eight-point plan to remind us whose side they are on. Let’s review it.
- No more bailouts. Actually, let’s make that a bit broader. No more subsidies. The trouble with subsidies, aside from the universal truth that subsidies are a waste of resources, always and everywhere, is that it teaches economic interests to look to the government for cheap answers to their problems—cheap for them anyway. Not good training for anyone.
- Hard money. Yep. We got away that important conservative principle, and it’s hurt us. We got off it in the middle 1980s with the Plaza Accord and it ended in the ten year recession in Japan. Now we are battling through a similar meltdown in the global economy because Alan Greenspan got off the hard-money standard in the early 2000s.
- Energy production. The Democrats are wrong on their policy to make energy more expensive to rush conversion to a post-carbon energy economy. Republicans want cheap energy, but as clean as sensible. This is a can’t lose position for Republicans.
- Cheaper health care. John McCain is trying to help us move from the administrative first-dollar approach to health care. The new model is the Wal-Mart plan. Inexpensive clinics in Wal-Mart stores and you pay with your own money.
- An end to ethanol subsidies. Why hasn’t Congress passed this yesterday? Everyone now understands that ethanol subsidies add up to a cruel trick on the poor. See item #1 above.
- Encourage growth. That means cutting marginal tax rates, not handing out money in complicated rebates like Obama.
- Free trade. People should be allowed to buy in the cheapest market. Period. Anything else is economic imperialism.
- Middle-class tax relief. Same as growth, above. Simplify the tax system and keep marginal rates low for everyone.
Come on chaps. This isn’t rocket science.
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