Rick Koster for County Commissioner

Continuing our conversation on limited government let's talk about the Government bailout of our financial institutions and auto companies. In two words: It stinks! If the coin is heads they win and if it is tails we loose. It would have been very satisfying to watch the captains of the financial industry get their due without a bailout. President Bush and Secretary Paulson had to respond to the crisis, but their bailout was crafted to preserve the privileges of Wall Street rather than to protect the taxpayer. President Bush should have nationalized the failing banks, wiped out investor equity, stabilized the banks and then sold the shares of the banks in the market. I criticize President Obama for not taking the captains of the financial industry to task once he took office. I support President Obama's tax on financial institutions to make the taxpayer investments whole.

Unlike the financial bailout, the auto bailout was done properly. Chrysler and GM went in to bankruptcy and new companies emerged with governmental help. Our automotive manufacturing base is too important to or our financial and national security to let it fail suddenly. GM and Chrysler may not survive long term but now there is time to absorb any change in the automotive manufacturing base.

My position on fiscal responsibility is pretty simple. If you want it you must pay for it. That also means that the government can't take money set aside for future needs and use it now. In short our level of taxation should meet the expected expenditures. There is a theory that says that lowering taxes will stimulate growth, and that growth will increase the intake by the government. This only works if the money left in people's pockets by cutting taxes is promptly spent and put back into the economy. That means that tax relief must go to people who will spend the funds and stimulate the economy.

Since WE have asked the government to provide for national security, infrastructure, law enforcement, and social insurance, we should be willing to pay for it. It was irresponsible of President Bush to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan outside the proper budget process. It was criminal for President Bush and Republican controlled US House and US Senate not to institute a war tax to finance these wars.

I believe we need to restructure our tax system to meet our current and future needs. I believe that we should abolish the Federal Income Tax. Citizens should not have to give an account to the government each year. It should be the other way around. I believe in taxing the profits of corporations and in consumption taxes. We should also eliminate the property tax. When I ran for the state house in 2006, I proposed a method to make up the funds brought in by property taxes through consumption taxes on energy. (See http://www.rickkoster.org/State_rep_2006_final.html ).

I find your position on the Rule of Law excellent. As for your position on National Sovereignty, I would add that we jeopardize our sovereignty by being in hock to China and dependent on Middle East oil, and by subsidizing our corporations to ship our manufacturing base overseas.

I thank you again for asking where I stand.

Yours for a better America,

Rick Koster

 

 

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