Debate Review

I started to watch the debate last night on CNN and the first question went to Herman: In one minute or less, what will you do to fix the economy? At that moment, I knew that there was no point in watching further and headed to the bar to watch baseball and play cribbage. One minute to address all of the issues that make up our complex economy? Only an idiot TV guy would propose to do that. Later, I saw some recaps where the moderator asked stupid questions like Coke or Pepsi. I would instantly have thrown my support to the first candidate who would have said "This is not American Idol, you either start asking serious questions, or get out of the way so I can talk to the American people."
On the same vein, King kept on the idea that tax cuts don't grow the economy. No, remember after six years of the Bush cuts when we had 4% unemployment, no inflation, people had jobs, yeah, that had to be the work of magic economic fairies, not tax cuts. Tax cuts are a part of the whole framework. If you combine tax cuts (although simplification works better) with a regulatory and legal framework conducive to business, you get a growing economy. But when you throw in panic (TARP) and regulatory excess (Dodd-Frank) and cronyism (Chrysler bond holder's jobbing) and you have an environment that no one wants to be in and are only too wiling to take their jobs off shore and you have the economy we have now.


For a more complete take on the debate, I would suggest Michael Barone.