CAGW

So, those of you that know me know that I am not very political and that Joe is extremely political. However, we were both equally riled up about this new ad put out by Citizens Against Government Waste:




I know there have been a million attack ads on all sides this election, but the sheer stupidity and inaccuracy of this one really gets to me.


1) "America tried to spend and tax itself out of a great recession." First, starting last year China is spending almost $600 billion on infrastructure projects to stimulate their economy (New York Times, March 2009). That really isn't all that much less than the $787 billion spent by the US (www.recovery.gov). In fact, China spent all of its stimulus money on infrastructure, thereby directly creating jobs. The current unemployment rate in China is about 4% (CIA World Factbook). Here, the stimulus package included $275 billion in tax cuts (Wikipedia - I found this same number in various other sources as well). Our current unemployment rate is about 9% (CIA World Factbook). Second, China has a 5 to 45% individual tax. Compare that with the 0 to 35% federal income tax in the US (Wikipedia - both numbers confirmed from other sources as well). While this does not include other taxes (state, property, sales, etc.), the point is that China has a similar tax rate to that of the US. Therefore, the implication that America is going to fail based on government spending and taxes should mean that China is equally doomed. 


2) "Massive changes to health care." China is moving towards a universal healthcare system (Forbes, January 2009). Specifically they are building cooperatives in rural areas to cover millions of farmers. These reforms are much more widespread than what was recently passed in the US (www.healthcare.gov). Again, if socialized medicine is such a scourge, China should be in shambles. 


3) "Government takeovers of private industries." In China, 46% of industrial output comes from state owned enterprises (Worldbank). In the US, there is no industry that is owned by the government. There are several examples of government sponsored,owned and acquired corporations, but not an entire industry. I cannot find an exact percentage, but our free market system means that much less than half of our industrial output is government driven. 


So I'm a little confused about the take-home message of this ad. The CAGW clearly see government spending, taxes, and industrial regulation as bad things that the US needs to stop doing, or China is going to take over the world. Except those things are exactly what China is doing to move up in the world, so our NOT doing them virtually guarantees the failure of the US. It doesn't matter to me what your political beliefs are, just take the time to find out what's really going on and don't just give into these stupid fear-mongering tactics.