Gore vs. Bush

Last night, one of the stations was showing the Presidential debate from last time around.

I can't stand listening to politicians give speeches. Usually, within a few minutes I become disgusted (and all the debate was was two politicians taking turns at giving speeches), so I only heard bits and pieces between flipping between this and something more interesting.

One thing that surprised me is the response to the question, "Do you believe that it is possible to safeguard Social Security without raising taxes or lowering benefits?"

Gore responded saying essentially yes, by depending on our continued prosperity, taking care of even the Baby Boomers would be no problem because he would put the current surplus in a locked box to pay down the deficit and the savings on interest would help pay off Social Security beneficiaries.

At this point, I once again became disgusted.

Overall, I would call myself an optimist. But I strongly believe in hoping for the best while you make sure you are prepared for the worst. To do otherwise is foolhardy bordering on dangerous, yet that was exactly what Gore proposed we do: hope for continued prosperity that was good enough to make the problem go away.

Especially with hindsight, we can see how disasterous this 'plan' (if it can be called a plan) would have been for us. The economy was already in a downward spiral (after the collapse of the tech bubble) when 9/11 hit.



The whole problem with people who have socialistic impulses or plans is that, while being incredibly pessimistic about what individuals can do for themselves, they are foolishly optimistic about how to pay for the immense benefits they propose. They never even seem to realize that increases in taxes never create as much revenue as the models predicted.

When you raise taxes on a so-called 'unfair' income, people divert their money so that it comes from other sources. When you increase taxes on income over a certain amount of money, people find ways to postpone receiving too much at one time or find ways to increase benefits without actual income. And when you put America at a tax disadvantage, people find ways to earn money from other places.

And if I have started to drift away from a critique of what Gore said to a critique of another presidential candidate's claims about his tax plan...well, sorry.

But not too sorry.