The Economy Has To Be Bad

On Fox News Live this morning, they were talking about polls, the upcoming elections, and taxes. If the Democrats win control, the tax cuts will be reversed. Jon Scott is the host, the guests are Leslie Marshall and Mark Williams.

Jon Scott: Joining us now are radio talk show host for Westwood One Radio Network, Leslie Marshall and Sacramento radio talk show host Mark Williams. Leslie, now that those budget numbers are out, I am expecting you have already emailed a congratulatory note to the White House, right?

Leslie Marshall: {laughs} No, but Jon, you’re supposed to ask me, “Leslie, how would things change if Democrats take over the House and Senate?” {laughs}

Jon Scott: How would it change? More taxes, more spending?

Leslie Marshall: So that I can have this answer just to start our morning out wonderfully. The first thing I do know Democrats won’t do when [emphasis Leslie’s] they take over the House and Senate is that they will not be blaming Bill Clinton every time there is a problem. [ed note: non sequitur. Why would they blame Bill Clinton for anything?]

Jon Scott: No, but they would probably blame George W. Bush, wouldn’t they?

Leslie Marshall: I hope not. I hope not. Because one of the things that we see in the polls Jon is regardless of political party, American people want their leaders to take personal responsibility. A little PR. And one of the things that Republicans are personally responsible for is a huge amount of spending, as a matter of fact more spending in this administration than in the history of any administration in this nation. [ed: She’s right about spending being high (I don’t know about her statement that it’s the highest ever though) but she’s wrong about it being just a Republican problem. Have the Democrats done anything to reduce spending (other than for Defense)? Have the Democrats done anything to try to reduce entitlement spending? Discretionary spending? Pork Barrel spending? I think both parties are equally to blame for the high spending.] So one thing Democrats would have to do would have to reduce spending and get rid of some of the frivolous items such as the $20 million they’ve put aside for a victory party after we win the war in Iraq. [ed: that is frivolous – who put it in the budget and who voted for it?] Secondly they need to listen. And Republicans have not been listening, nor has this President, to the American people, to their constituents. The American people are saying, 1.) We want to come home from Iraq, we want NATO to take over peacekeeping in Afghanistan, we want you to pay attention to domestic issues, we have a problem with health care, with Medicare more than Social Security, with jobs being outsourced, and certainly we have a problem with violence in our schools and in our communities.

Jon Scott: You have teed up so much for Mark to take on. {laughter} He’s chomping at the bit. Mark…

Mark Williams: Did I hear Leslie say Democrats would have to cut spending?[emphasis Mark’s]

Leslie Marshall: Yes, Democrats will cut spending.

Mark Williams: That’s like saying to Bill Clinton and Mark Foley, “Hey, put down that intern.” [ed: bad taste Mark.]Ain’t gonna happen. The first thing that will happen under the Democrats is that the Golden Goose will be slaughtered. I mean tax revenues are pouring in even though spending is at an all time high – which is distressing – but tax revenues are pouring in because the people in Washington came around to the notion that, “Geez, if we let people keep some of what they work hard for, they’ll work even harder to get more.” and revenues will go up.

Leslie Marshall: That’s not true. The reason they have more tax revenues is…

Mark Williams: …put a gun to his head and go boom…

Leslie Marshall: The reason they have more tax revenues – and you know this – and honestly we’re going through this right now personally – they hired thousands of auditors to go after the small business owner because of the millions of people that didn’t pay their taxes in the tax years 2003 and 2004. So the small business owners – and you all know who you are out there – my husband’s one of them – they’re all writing checks to make up for the big spending of the Republicans so that today it looks like a lovely, lovely bonus that we should have to thank, you know, George W. Bush because November 7th‘s just around the corner. [ed: Did she really just say that we were able to reduce the deficit by half, three years early, just by auditing two years of small business tax returns? Yes, I think she did. Wow, at that rate we could get a surplus again if we just audited more people for a few more tax years.]

Jon Scott: You’ve managed to find the dark cloud to put in front of the silver lining? {laughter} I mean, really.

Leslie Marshall: Call me Polly the … This is not a silver lining. This is not a silver lining. You need to look, we need to look at the facts. When we go to the gas pump, when we look at the people who are unemployed and how many jobs are being outsourced, and when we call a company late at night and we get Calcutta, that is not a silver lining. [ed: prices at the pump are down, oil prices per barrel are down. 4.6% unemployment is “full employment” and is better than during the Clinton administration with the tech bubble. As to outsourcing, Amercians are adaptable. If that particular job is gone, there’s a new one to replace it. That’s how we are keeping the job creation numbers up while keeping unemployment low.]

Mark Williams: Oh my good Lord. With hundreds of thousands of new jobs every month. I mean even {unintelligible} gas is under $2 a gallon.

Leslie Marshall: Where? Where?

Mark Williams: Good grief. A record Dow…

Leslie Marshall: Really, in Michigan where Ford has just written a check to thousands of people where are the jobs?

Mark Williams: Democrats will have us into an isolationist, economic disaster.

Jon Scott: Leslie…

Leslie Marshall: Mark, I love you, but where are the jobs? You tell me so my listeners can go who are complaining to me that can’t feed their families, that they can’t….

Mark Williams: The tax revenues are not all coming from small businesses. The tax revenues are coming from people making money and getting a chance to keep some of what they make. The big thing that the Democrats would like to do is “hey, if you work hard, we’re going to take what you’ve earned” so why work? [ed: add to this that those that aren’t working and aren’t paying taxes are taking entitlements from the government adding to the deficit as the government taxes more, receives less and give away more entitlements…viscious cycle]

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