{"id":14423,"date":"2011-04-12T09:40:07","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T16:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=14423"},"modified":"2011-04-12T09:40:41","modified_gmt":"2011-04-12T16:40:41","slug":"thomas-sowells-budget-cutting-idea-cut-welfare-for-billionaires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14423\/thomas-sowells-budget-cutting-idea-cut-welfare-for-billionaires\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Sowell’s budget-cutting idea: Cut welfare for billionaires."},"content":{"rendered":"

So Republicans got hustled on their paltry budget cuts<\/a>. What a surprise. Meanwhile, the Tea Party is busy fixing what’s wrong with America by tinkering with abortion rules and gun control laws.<\/p>\n

This is an excellent way to blow a once-in-a-generation opportunity. It seems obvious to me that what needs to be cut is not spending but regulation. If the Feds dumped OSHA, for example, that would not only not only cut the budget by all those staff lines, it would result in an “economic miracle” of new productivity. The same would be true at the state and municipal level. Less government means more wealth twice: Fewer “broken windows”<\/a> and the added productivity that results from investing the money that would otherwise have been wasted on regulatory broken windows.<\/p>\n

This is something Realtors and other real estate professionals can be doing in this unprecedented moment: Teaching the Tea Partiers what matters in an emergency and what can wait for calmer seas. Quoted below is economist Thomas Sowell with an excellent idea: Get America’s billionaire tax-vampires off our necks:<\/a><\/p>\n

Trying to reduce the deficit by cutting spending runs into an old familiar counterattack. There will be all kinds of claims by politicians and sad stories in the media about how these cuts will cause the poor to go hungry, the sick to be left to die, etc.<\/p>\n

My plan would start by cutting off all government transfer payments to billionaires. Many, if not most, people are probably unaware that the government is handing out the taxpayers’ money to billionaires. But agricultural subsidies go to a number of billionaires. Very little goes to the ordinary farmer.<\/p>\n

Big corporations also get big bucks from the government, not only in agricultural subsidies but also in the name of “green” policies, in the name of “alternative energy” policies, and in the name of whatever else will rationalize shoveling the taxpayers’ money out the door to whomever the administration designates — for its own political reasons.<\/p>\n

The usual political counterattacks against spending cuts will not work against this new kind of spending-cut approach. How many heart-rending stories can the media run about billionaires Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So Republicans got hustled on their paltry budget cuts. What a surprise. Meanwhile, the Tea Party is busy fixing what’s wrong with America by tinkering with abortion rules and gun control laws. This is an excellent way to blow a once-in-a-generation opportunity. It seems obvious to me that what needs to be cut is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251,212,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-big-mother","7":"category-flourishing","8":"category-group-therapy","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1929,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1929\/an-open-letter-to-the-technological-dinosaurs-who-presume-to-control-our-livelihoods\/","url_meta":{"origin":14423,"position":0},"title":"An open letter to the technological dinosaurs who presume to control our livelihoods","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"To: Ron LaMee VP Information Services Arizona Association of Realtors Ron: Russell Shaw argues to me that I have been unfair to you, or at least unnecessarily rude. I don't concede the point, but I am willing to elaborate on the issues at contest. In all honesty, I don't expect\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1955,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1955\/fed-trades-a-sharp-pain-quick-recovery-for-extended-convalescence\/","url_meta":{"origin":14423,"position":1},"title":"Fed trades a sharp pain, quick recovery for extended convalescence","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link): \u00a0Fed trades a sharp pain, quick recovery for extended convalescence As I write this the Federal Reserve Bank just cut its federal funds rate and also its discount rate, both by half-a-percent. The Fed doesn't control mortgage interest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13487,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13487\/a-practical-governing-strategy-for-the-republican-party-it-wont-happen-but-at-least-its-potentially-doable-unlike-everything-else\/","url_meta":{"origin":14423,"position":2},"title":"A practical governing strategy for the Republican party. It won’t happen, but at least it’s potentially doable, unlike everything else.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"[Back to the top from November 3, 2010. --GSS]\u00a0 Here's what the Republicans won last night, most probably: The opportunity to be left holding the bag if the whole creaking kleptocracy crashes. Here's what they mostly can't do, at least not right away: Cut spending or taxes. A huge and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2671,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2671\/dont-cut-the-granite\/","url_meta":{"origin":14423,"position":3},"title":"Don’t Cut The Granite","author":"Cheryl Johnson","date":"February 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Marketeers and salespeople often use the phrase \"think outside the box\".\u00a0 And when the phrase is used in that way, I usually think of clever, creative marketing and promotional stuff. People involved in the day to day operation of rental properties, tend to think in more practical and pragmatic terms.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investment"","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"slotinwallhere1.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/slotinwallhere1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":915,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/915\/technology-review-on-microsofts-forthcoming-vista-operating-system-windows-is-complicated-macs-are-simple\/","url_meta":{"origin":14423,"position":4},"title":"Technology Review on Microsoft’s forthcoming Vista operating system: “Windows is complicated. Macs are simple.”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Microsoft is about to obsolete its entire user base yet again, as it prepares to release its long anticipated replacement for Windows XP, the new Vista operating system. In a scathing assessment in Technology Review, long-time Windows champion Erika Jonietz reluctantly ends up here:Ironically, playing around with Vista for more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12043,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12043\/everything-the-ancient-greeks-warned-us-about-democracy-has-come-true-in-modern-greece-and-right-here-in-river-city-as-well\/","url_meta":{"origin":14423,"position":5},"title":"Everything the ancient Greeks warned us about democracy has come true in modern Greece — and right here in River City as well","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Mark Steyn in Macleans:Traditionally, a bank is a means by which old people with capital lend to young people with ideas. But the advanced democracies with their mountains of sovereign debt are in effect old people who\u2019ve blown through their capital and are all out of ideas looking for young\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14424,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14423\/revisions\/14424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}