Calls to pass President Trump's simplified tax reform plan
Calls to pass President Trump's simplified tax reform plan
President Trump making new push to close tax loopholes and slash rates for middle class, businesses
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PRESIDENT TRUMP MAKING NEW PUSH TO CLOSE TAX LOOPHOLES AND SLASH RATES FOR MIDDLE CLASS, BUSINESS
Steve Forbes: It is very simple you slash individual tax rates across the board a la Ronald Reagan, you slash the corporate tax rate down to 15 percent, double exemptions so that everyone gets a cut, could social security taxes a little bit like we did 6 years ago, boom, done, run with it.
Elizabeth MacDonald: Why are Democrats the loudest voices in the room when they have smashed economic growth to historic lows, they've smashed job growth to historic lows, the Republicans need to stand up and be like JFK who wanted 5 percent growth with tax cuts and be the Pied Pipers, the courage of their convictions, now is the time, now is their moment to fight for it.
John Tamny:There is a genius in simplicity here, reduce the penalties on work, reduce the penalties on investment, get rid of the estate tax all together. The corporate tax is just a double taxation on earnings so bring that down. What's crucial here is that Donald Trump for good or bad is desperate to sign legislation in general. If you hand him a big audacious tax bill, he will sign it, so do just that.
Bruce Japsen: I think that if he stuck with selling it, and he kept it simple and wasn't distracted he might have a chance, but I don't think he can do that. I mean two of the guys that he's going to have sell it, Mnuchin number one is in the news for wanting to fly corporate jets to his honeymoon in his Eclipse. I mean he has to keep his selling simple otherwise it's not going to happen.
Mike Ozanian: The problem that Donald Trump is facing is a lack of pro-growth people in congress, particularly the leaders in congress, Mitch McConnell and Ryan. They're not pro-growth people. McConnell is like a big government guy, he was a Gerald Ford guy not a Ronald Reagan guy. So hopefully by Trump taking his case to the public these anti-growth republicans will get booted out soon and we'll get some pro-growth people in congress.
Rich Karlgaard: The point has been made you know Congressman Ryan maybe a good guy be he's a wonk, he's constitutional incapable of doing something simple. He loves being in the weeds because he feels it justifies his existence. Look Steve Forbes also wrote that if the republicans blow this, they might lose their majority, and if that happens, Trump's friend Nancy Pelosi would take about 5 minutes to launch impeachment hearings.
NEW CONCERNS ABOUT FEDERAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM AFTER BACK-TO-BACK HURRICANES HIT US
John Tamny: Let me be clear, I reject out right the notion that anyone would take a federal subsidy and use it as an excuse to build or buy near flood plain areas, but I think it needs to be stressed that market signals are precious. They do the best job of putting people and wealth in places where they are least likely to get washed away. So let the private sector insurance market get into the flood area, and insure this, if they do people will build in much better places than they are right now.
Bruce Japsen: Well they tried this in the 60s before The National Flood Insurance Program was created, and then one of the reasons the program was created is because the private companies fled when the risk got too high so I don't think even if you privatized it you prevent a potential bailout down the road.
Elizabeth MacDonald: Yeah I don't know why tax payers have to be the cushion here, constantly the bailout for this. I understand there is economic growth in these areas, but I think John Tamny is absolutely right look how cheap it is on average in Texas with the flood insurance that comes out of the government; it's only 500 bucks a year when there are thousands of dollars of cost. It's about incentives and not building in flood plains.
Steve Forbes: Politically you can't do it now, and humanely you can't do it. That's in the past, this is about the future and in the future we should be phasing in more and more private insurance there are plenty of competitors in the property causality industry you've got reinsurance and Florida also needs to engage in litigation reform which has been driving up premiums and the cost of flood insurance. So you make those reforms and in the future we will have a more sensible market and they're not going to get destroyed.
Rich Karlgaard: You can't do it now, it's highly emotional times right now because the hard truth about insurance is it's not charity. Now I reject this idea that insurance companies would flee as Bruce said they did in the 1960s because insurance is basically about getting the price right. I mean they're going to charge, they're there to make money, let's not kid ourselves, they'll offer the premiums that make sense.
Sabrina Schaeffer: So often we wonder how these situations happen, the answer is government got into the business of X. In this case they got into the business of flood insurance as a result they replaced market rates with these artificially low rates which encourages risky behavior. You may have a beautiful view if you live on the coast of Florida but you are at greater risk and that ought to come with a higher price tag, and that is unfortunately a lot of people didn't realize how we got to this point.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS' SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE PLAN SPARKS DEBATE AS NATIONAL DEBT HITS $20 TRILLION
Rich Karlgaard: The problem with socialized medicine is, yes everybody gets coverage, but everybody gets a pretty poor level of coverage, and you don't get the kind of innovation that you need. The U.S. is by far and away the leader in medical technology from biotech down because of our free market system.
Bruce Japsen: One of the goals that they did not achieve with the Affordable Care Act that they wanted to was to cover everybody. Even the president has said he wants to cover everybody. The problem any insurance executive will tell you is they want everybody into the pool and we don't have everybody in the risk pool right now.
Mike Ozanian: The math behind ObamaCare, even the architects admitted, it was a big lie. Right so we shouldn't be surprised by this. What really irks me about guys like Bernie Sanders is that they want us to drink the poison of socialized medicine. They're going to be out there drinking fine wine with premium healthcare, they're not going to be taking the medicine we're going to have to take.
Elizabeth MacDonald: Bernie Sanders is so cynical watch this, he left the cost estimates out of his plan and the details on how to pay for it, because he knows the taxpayers are going to pay for it. If this is so great why did Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer say it was going to bankrupt the country, they said it was bad. And if it was so great, why did Vermont, Colorado and California reject it?
Sabrina Schaeffer: Look, when you take the consumer out of the driver seat and when they no longer have ownership and control of their healthcare dollars the quality of care is going to drop precipitously. We've seen this with ObamaCare. The reality is if you want to fix the healthcare system which was arguably flawed before ObamaCare, you don't double down on government involvement you give consumers more freedom to make the choices and take the risks that make sense for them, that will drive up care, that will drive up innovation, and that will drive down prices.
Steve Forbes: They've all drunk the Kool-Aid and they don't want Bernie Sanders types challenging them in the primaries. Bernie Sanders is guilty of political and economic and medical malpractice. The only way single-payer systems which are a way of saying government controls everything just look at veterans hospitals. You want thousands more people to die because they're waiting for care? Those other countries, the only way they make their budgets is by rationing care, so you don't get it. You need a knee operation? Come back in 5 years.
NEW HIGHS
Elizabeth MacDonald: DIMENSIONAL (DTMEX)
Mike Ozanian: TRACTOR SUPPLY CO. (TSCO)