Tuesday, February 25, 2014

You reap what you sow

Phil Gramm and Mike Solon think even a Democrat like Ron Wyden might have understood the math;
In 2009, when the president and his Democratic Congress put in place their economic recovery program, they projected strong growth to result, with the OMB and CBO estimating 4.2% real average GDP growth for 2011-13. These projections were not hard to believe given the pattern of past recoveries, such as the 5.4% average GDP growth in the three years after the previous deepest postwar recession in 1982. The problem was the Obama program did not promote growth, it impeded it. [bold by HSIB]
Real GDP growth averaged just 2.2% during the 2011-13 period, less than half the norm for postwar recoveries. Even worse, the CBO now says our long-term growth prospects have been permanently lowered after the weakest recovery in 75 years. CBO's 2009 projection of a potential GDP growth rate of 2.4% (for the next decade) has now been reduced to just 2.2% due to lower national productivity, lower capital investment, and fewer work hours resulting from the recession, the weak recovery and the effects of ObamaCare.
The only practical way to recapture these revenues is through a faster-growing economy. Mr. [Oregon Senator] Wyden's recognition that tax reform can raise revenue by boosting economic growth provides the best chance this country currently has of returning to more normal rates of economic growth.
Though raising minimum wages to above market clearing levels and continuing to pig-headedly insist on keeping Obamacare won't help matters.

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