opa-opines.net

Yuval Levin, In a recent Newsweek article, suggested that partisanship is necessary for our democracy to work. He claimed that opposing parties must hammer out their differences in open debate. Sounds good, but he used those observations to legitimatize the current discord in congress. So, I think his comments are misdirected.

What about the current discord in congress? Is it due to honest philosophical differences, or petty partisanship? I suggest that neither of those are in play. The clash in congress is far more due to the influence of “special interest” lobbies.

How could anyone bright enough to be in congress attempt to preach to the American people that the way to create jobs is through tax cuts? That may indeed be true in a robust economy, but we are currently experiencing a serious recession. Companies are shedding workers in order to survive. Some companies are not surviving. Taxes are currently not the problem. We need a method that will convince those with lots of money to lend that money to small businesses. We must persuade lenders to provide loans to people that wish to purchase homes and automobiles. The inventory in both sectors of our economy is very large. Without credit being available, why would anyone build a house or car? Also, if we cut the taxes of those who already have lots of money, what is their incentive to open credit to others? We must remember that, since they also lost money, how do we give them the confidence to lend to others? With the current low interest rate, isn’t it logical that they will safeguard their funds just like they did in the recent TARP and like their fathers did during the beginning of the great depression?

What I have a tough time understanding is why those who are lobbying members of congress are against fixing our economy. In whose interest is it to have unemployment keep rising? Who would wish our economy to fail? The only people I can see wishing to hurt our economy are our enemies, and I hope that are not that well connected.