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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MJ who wrote (59317)	2/13/2009 2:03:21 PM
From: TimF	2 Recommendations Respond to of 224756

Most attempts at "keeping jobs here", or "bringing jobs back for Americans", involve protectionism. But barriers to trade are likely to have a negative effect on jobs, and esp. on consumers, and the countries general economic health. I don't like the idea of central planning about jobs or other economic factors. To the extent I do want government action to benefit the economy, its mostly the action of removing negative actions. Reduce taxes, and not just temporary targeted handouts, reduce marginal rates on a "permanent basis" (permanent in quotes because not tax policy is really permanent, but I don't think the cuts should be explicitly temporary), simplify the tax code, get rid of all sorts of targeted breaks and loopholes while you cut the rates, reduce federal spending (maybe not in a hurry right now as we go in to a recession, but reduce it coming out of a recession, and drop all or most of the stimulus and bailout ideas), reduce the deficit (but only limit its increase for now, the reduction should occur as we move out of the recession), reduce regulation (which doesn't mean it won't or shouldn't be increased in some specific sectors, but you can target problem areas, while reducing the overall burden). To the extent you can get and maintain such policies (and unfortunately I'm skeptical about the idea that we can), I think you set the country up for healthy economic growth, and stronger competitiveness in the future. I don't think they are necessarily answers to our current problems, but I don't think growth out of recessions is something that primarily comes from government policy initiatives.