Congressman Dave Brat (R-VA), who holds a Ph.D in Economics and taught Economics at Randolph-Macon College said that President Obama’s tax proposals “are nowhere in the relevant economic range” on Monday’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on the Fox News Channel.
“We’re in this back and forth soundbite politics up here in DC, instead of doing basic economics, just have your people go out to the federal reserve web site on capital investment. The united states for the past 30 years is…flatter than a pancake and china’s is [increasing]. That’s physical capital ,and then human capital, innovation and creativity and that thing, our kids are not at the top of the world anymore in math and science scores. Those are the fundamentals that are going to cause economic growth. So, when it comes to president obama proposing policies, just ask the reader or listener to grant him everything he wants. Say, look, okay, everything — ‘do everything you just proposed. Will that solve the problem?’ And the answer is, no. And so then you come over to the Republican side, and say, ‘hey, if you let the republicans run the ship here and get tax policies straight, to incentivize capital investment, change the monopoly in the public school system, really start doing smart R&D, and getting science back in the schools and universities, that can produce an economic revolution, I think we all know that’s the case. So, we’re asking for that chance” he stated. He added that Obama’s tax proposals “are nowhere in the relevant economic range.”
Brat continued that “Republicans should focus on the biggest economic problem, we have in the country, go to the debt clock, it’s [$]18 trillion. Go to the bottom, the unfunded liabilities are [$] 127 trillion. Those four entitlement programs take up the entire federal budget, the entire federal budget by 2032. I think Republicans ought to focus on that. That’s 70% of the budget, currently, that’s squeezing out military, education, and everything else. That’s why we all feel the crimp, and so in economics you focus first on the biggest issue, and the [$]127 trillion is by far the biggest issue.”
He concluded that Republicans have to tell this plan, “by telling the next generation, they’re the only group that doesn’t have a lobbyist in DC, the next generation, the kids I taught for the last 20 years, they need a lobbyist, quick because all of this debt and the unfunded liabilities is coming due on their credit card. It’s an ethical shame what we’re doing to them, and then secondly, you tell the seniors, that when the Democrats threaten the Republicans of shutting down these systems, that’s false. These systems, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid are going to shut down automatically in 2032. They’re shut down. The republicans are trying to reform and maintain these systems for the elderly, and just as importantly, for the next generation of kids so they have these social safety systems in place as they progress, like we did.”
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