"Freedom is popular." Ya think?
Ron Paul commenting on his own popularity. Ron Paul goes on to make two very important points: He's not promising anyone anything, and he just wants people to be left alone to make their own lifestyle choices. Finallly, someone gets it.
The opposite of this attitude is Duncan Hunter. When I interviewed congressman Duncan Hunter in the spin room following the Dearborn debate, I asked him these two questions:
1) Economic action undertaken by human beings is for the purpose of alleviating as many uncertainties as possible. For instance, people have concerns about inflation, the housing meltdown, etc. Politicians are always promising to ease this uncertainty, but the only way they can do this is through political policies that involve adding tax burdens to some in order to alleviate the uncertainties of others. How do you propose to make substantial contributions to economic policy without completely eliminating countless unreasonable taxes, regulations, and/or unnecessary government agencies?
2) In terms of its economic options, Michigan is the worst state in the nation. This has been a one-horse economy for a long time. Now, politicians are scrambling to make the state enticing to varied businesses. But the political environment here, as well as nationally, is more of the same: raising existing taxes and creating new taxes to fund bigger government. For each tax reduction or hypothetical elimination, there’s a new tax to replace it. The voters are wise to this. What major tax eliminations are you planning to make?
I was right up close to him, and it was so funny, but he is extremely macho and tends toward "chest-puffing" as he talks. He has a very straight posture (military background) and a very intimidating stance. He responded to my questions that referred to spending and tax cuts (read: not reductions or redistribution), but all he offered up was prescriptions. He promised every category of Michigander a new place in the sun, a better job, manufacturer-specific corporate tax cuts, etc. He is very anti-China, extremely protectionist, and pro-tariff. Then, after he answered my questions with a non-answer, he said to me, "You know, those were really excellent questions."
I thought the best part of the debate was Chris Matthews purposely opening the debate with an important distinction: the highfalutin, arrogant financial socialism of Yankee Wall Street vs the Reagan Democrat conservatism of the heartland. While Mr. Hedge Fund Benefitter Rudy Giuliani praised the hedge fund-o-rama as "free market" [snickers all around], Ron Paul stepped up to explain how government inflation benefits those who get the new money first and have government intervention on their side (banks and hedge funds), while the poor and middle class of the heartland essentially see nothing but higher prices everyhwere, and they receive none of the benefits of the inflationary machine that Wall Street joyfully embraces. Politicians like Giuliani, of course, are bought and paid for by the Wall Street-Government Corporatocracy, so they benefit even more so than the average establishment power broker. (See the New York Times comments on this.)
Now, as to John McCain, I think that, lately, he has become the least statist and the least extreme of all the Republicans. I think, in part, this is due to an image makeover attempt, but even so, I find most of his comments to be far less insane than the garbage that erupts from the other clowns. One horrible thing said by McCain was in regards to interest rates. He was asked whether or not Bernanke went far enough in dropping the interest rate 50 basis points. McCain said he loves to see lower interest rates anytime, and in fact, he'd "love to see them at zero......"
Folks, this is the problem with having lawyers make financial policy/decisions. Apparently, Mr. McCain thinks that money, unlike goods and services, should be free to everyone that wants it. Money has no time value and time preferences are non-existent. Profits are unnecessary and choices/decisions need not be weighed against alternatives. I asked Ron Paul, post-debate, about that point, and then I asked Ron if he thought Mr. McCain understood Austrian Economics? Answer: "Apparently not." But McCain is not particularly scary when weighed against his counterparts - like Mitt Romney. To be continued in Part III of this post.....
