Summertime and the living is easy is the subject of this evening's Talking Points memo.
I don't care if President Bush is taking a month off. I don't care- if he uses the time to figure out how to get the country out of the recession.
The stock market continues to get hammered, hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs, earnings are down for most corporations, and the economy could get worse before it gets better.
So the president must -- I repeat must -- come up with a game plan that will inspire some economic confidence.
There is one thing the administration could do immediately that would turn things around, and that is sponsor a bill cutting the capital-gains tax to 20 percent across the board. The big tax Democrats would howl, but the government would actually make more money than it does now from capital gains. That's because stock traders would buy and sell more often and take short-term gains more often. Volume, volume, volume.
Once the market is jump started, the tax money would start rolling in again from profits on equities, and once the corporations began receiving money from the sale of their stock, they would start buying more high-tech stuff and hiring more people. Presto. Happy economic days are here again.
Now it's not quite as easy as I've laid out, but a cap-gains cut would definitely help the stock market, and that helps industry, and industry hires Americans. The left hates that, and I'm not really sure why because the more prosperous the corporations become, the more money flows into Washington.
If Mr. Bush thinks the tax refund is going to get us out of this recession, he's wrong, and few have any confidence in Alan Greenspan.
So have a good time down on the ranch, Mr. President. But please take a hard look at the economy because, if things don't get up -- better over the next couple of months, you're going to be facing a Democratic Congress after November's election, and in ranch lingo, that's no bull.
And that's the memo.
Most Ridiculous Item of the Day
Time now for the "Most Ridiculous Item of the Day." According to an ABC News poll, 43 percent of pet owners believe that dogs and cats do go to heaven. Just 40 percent say that paradise is only for people. Now, all I know that is if I ever get to heaven, which looks dubious at this point, I don't want to be walking any dogs. I did plenty of that as a kid. So if that can be worked out I say bring those dogs and cats on. To not do so would be ridiculous.
— You can watch Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points weeknights at 8 & 11p.m. ET. And send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com
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