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WORRIED OVER TAX POLICY

“WORRIED OVER TAX POLICY!”

By Gary Kaltbaum- February 7,2017

Immigration…regulations…supreme court…trade policy…Iran…Russia…moratorium on travel…the wall…infrastructure…sanctuary cities…protests…the opposing party…your own party…so much to deal with but:

When will the new president enact his promised tax policies? When will he have the time? It seems to us tax policy may have just hit the back burner and that worries us. What exactly is his economic priorities? On thursday, tax policy is front and center. Friday, not so much. Today…front and center again but later in the year. A 200 day plan? That’s a lot of days.

It worries us because we think the market has anticipated tax reform and lower taxes. It worries us because we believe business owners, both small and large have anticipated it and have planned off of it. We worry that the more time passes, the tougher it is to get through. After all, we are dealing with massive government spending, massive debt and deficits and massive regulations that have worked as massive headwinds to the potential of the economy…and it is not getting any better.

It worries us because rumored advisors to the president were people like Stephen Moore and Larry Kudlow, two supply-siders that believe in smaller government and lower taxes. They are now nowhere to be found.

In case you did not know, the federal government is going to suck over $4 trillion out of the economy this year, up almost 10% from last year. In case you did not know, this is more than double the federal spending of the last year of Bill Clinton…which was $1.8 trillion. Where the hell is all that taxpayer largesse going? It is a simple formula: as the government grows, the potential for the economy slows.

The only way to change the trajectory of debt, deficits and the economy is to enact massive tax and spending policies that goes in the opposite direction. The workers are the driving force behind the economy…not government. Cut taxes across the board so the beast is not fed and then cut government across the board as there is a ridiculous amount of duplication, a ridiculous amount of bloat, a ridiculous amount of overpayment all because of the clear lack of accountability on anyone’s part because it is not their money they are spending. It is ours.