Count Lawrence Kudlow among those unimpressed by President Obama’s policy ideas for a second term.
Under pressure from Mitt Romney, President Obama has finally released his own policy vision for a second term. And, yes, it’s the same old, same old. Some are calling it a second first term.
There isn’t a single true economic-growth incentive in this scant plan. There’s no serious spending, deficit and debt reduction, and no attempt to solve the Social Security and health-entitlement problems, which are moving us toward bankruptcy.
Nothing. Nada.
But before getting into the details of this little plan, my basic conclusion is this: Mr. Obama wants to slash defense spending, raise all other spending and hike taxes to finance the largest government size he can possibly get.
In fact, if he had his way, I believe he would allow all the Bush tax cuts to expire in order to generate as many revenues as possible to increase the size of government. He might even propose a value-added tax (VAT) for an additional revenue grab for government unions and green energy.
And he’s already stated that across-the-board, budget-cutting sequestration will not happen. In other words, a mini-stimulus plan, like the one that didn’t work in 2009.