So Sorry, I Must Beg Off This Week & Happy Easter!

Oh, heck! Your faithful but burdened Peasant has to

be away this week to take care of a barrage of duties

and commitments. Not to worry, my wonderful and 

understanding readers, I shall return in a week or two

to be with you and the political and economic news

of the day to pick over. Thank you all for being

so patient and indulging! 

And have a very Happy Easter!

MEM 

Universal School Choice Gains Ground

The North Carolina Legislature recently passed a new budget

granting universal school choice. It will eliminate the income 

gap presently required for being eligible in the Tar Heel State's

education-voucher program. The legislation also has a Medicaid 

expansion which the state's Democrat Governor Roy Cooper

wanted and was passed by a veto-proof majority. Despite the 

vote count being mostly along party lines, four Democrat 

state representatives voted for the bill. All this made North Carolina

the tenth state to grant universal vouchers, and may this be 

a continuing trend. By the by, this story is a sterling example 

of how well bipartisanship can work when it is performed 

truly for the good of the people.

MEM  

Tax Cutting Gives the Irish a Pot o' Gold

Ireland, the land of what economists and investors have 

in recent years called The Celtic Tiger for Ireland's 

financial rebound to enjoy the strongest economy that

this nation ever had, is on the financial rebound yet 

again; the Tiger is having a second wind. 

And what has been the factor in the Irish comeback? 

Tax cutting, and not just a wee trim either. Ireland,  

whose economy grew by an astounding 12.5% last

year, faster than any other nation in Europe (!), 

whacked its levy on corporations and became a magnet

for business and jobs. The Wall Street Journal remarked

recently that the Emerald Isle is "swimming in money"

and it's no wonder. All being more proof that U.S. economist 

Arthur Laffer was right; the Laffer Curve showed that lower

tax rates can result in faster growth and higher revenue,

and President Ronald Reagan implemented Laffer's curve

in his economic plan for the U.S. with positive results.

In Ireland, the results were even more dramatic.  

Ireland had a dysfunctional welfare-state economy in the 1990s.

Just before that decade, Irish unemployment was just a whisker 

under 18% in 1987.But eight years after that, Dublin implemented

a most daring economic plan. Ireland slashed its 40% corporate 

tax rate down to 12.5%, phasing it in over approximately ten 

years. Ireland soon began attracting new businesses and capital 

investment. The plan was a success, producing results that even 

its creators did not anticipate. U.S. multinationals soon came

over, and now number 950, with a sum total of 209,000 employees.

Ireland's population? Just five million. This is the equivalent

of a policy in the U.S. creating ten million jobs. Think about that.

Ireland, no longer a strictly agricultural country but now 

an industrialized nation, has one of the world's largest budget

surpluses with the new revenue pouring in from big tech and 

pharmaceutical companies making Dublin their home. One may 

ask, why haven't other nations taken a page from Ireland's book 

and done what the Irish did? Nations with left-leaning to outright

leftist governments have scoffed at the idea of tax competition 

among the world's nations all the while hamstringing the businesses 

inside of their borders, calling tax competition a "race to the bottom",

ignoring the fact that Ireland has raced all the way to the top.

Mr. Maduro over in Venezuela, are you listening? 

Mr. Obrador in Mexico, are you paying attention?

Mr. Lula in Brazil, what say you?

Our own left-wing head of government President Joe Biden wants 

to raise the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21% to at least 25%, but

would love to hike it to 30%. To be sure, Biden also wants to jack 

up tax rates on dividends and capital gains. And he wants to continue  

to spend, spend, spend like there's no tomorrow. If we don't hand this 

fiscal wild man his walking papers and replace him with a fiscally

conservative president next year our country won't have a tomorrow 

worth looking forward to. 

We can profit from Ireland's experience. This is the way President

Reagan recommended to us forty years ago. Let's have our own 

pot o' gold now!

Meanwhile, let's all have a Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

MEM

Outlays vs. Deficit: a Battle in Which the People Always Lose

According to the Congressional Budget Office, in 2002, the federal 

outlays were approximately equal to the 2023 federal deficit: about

$2 trillion. This includes an adjustment of around $300 billion to 

account for the resultant savings made possible by the Supreme

Court declaring as unconstitutional President Biden's student-loan-

forgiveness program which would have put U.S. taxpayers on the 

hook for the money owed by the college students who borrowed 

the money in order to enroll at college but failed to pay off the 

entirety of their loans. This is like stabbing someone with a long

knife, sticking it in halfway rather than the whole blade length;

does this make the situation only half as bad? But read on ... 

The deficit was around $1.7 trillion because the program was at 

first included in expected spending, so the SCOTUS' decision

was then counted as a spending cut. However, the spending cut

was merely a non-event, meaning that the deficit was actually

$2 trillion. Congressional "smoke and mirrors" at play.

This all ads up to (no pun intended) the $2 trillion deficit for 2002,

and Uncle Sam having added as much to the debt as were its

total expenditures in 2002. And April 15 is looming large once more.

Sickening.

MEM