Economist and former Senate Banking Committee chairman Phil Gramm refutes JCT, CBO growth pessimism
Sometimes the most newsworthy items are ideas rather than events. That is the case today with two “must read” op eds in today’s press: the first is defense expert Angelo Codevilla’s explosive exposé of the Washington ruling elite’s sabotage of US missile defense out of deference to arms controllers; the second is former Senate Banking chairman Phil Gramm’s (paywall) explanation of why the present tax reform bill is likely to greatly reduce the bill’s alleged ten-year deficit — by means of a 3 to 4 percent economic growth rate. This assumes, however, that growth will not be sabotaged by Obama-European-style policies. The Gramm article contradicts the historically erroneous forecasts of the “non-partisan” Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) and Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Others have also criticized economists’ and the JCT’s scoring of the Senate version of the tax reform bill (officially known as the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”).
The December 1994 article by New York Times science columnist William Broad that Codevilla mentions in his exposé is titled “From Fantasy to Fact: Space-Based Laser Nearly Ready to Fly.” But nothing was done with this ready-to-build technology, and as a result the nation is now at risk from North Korea, Russia, China, and soon Iran and even terrorists. Founders Broadsheet published a related Codevilla exposé of missile defense sabotage on October 27th.
Have matters changed since then? No. In July of this year, the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee cut
SBIRS architecture for advanced warning missile defense
“$160 million from the $3.2 billion requested for Air Force space procurement. The majority of the cut, $132.4 million, is from advanced procurement for the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) High, the entirety of what was requested. In its report on the bill, the House Appropriations Committee explained that the request ‘is not directed by a clearly defined strategy. For example, the SBIRS analysis of alternatives remains incomplete, the wide field of view sensor has no clear transition path into a program of record, and the Committee is unaware of any sustained effort to integrate overhead persistent infrared requirements and capabilities across DOD and the Intelligence Community. The Committee also encourages the Air Force to focus ‘resources on the ground segment before building the space segment.’”
Codevilla’s missile defense article discusses the significance of SBIRS.
The irony of US ruling class arms controllers’ sabotage of US missile defense capability is that the Russians have blatantly violated existing arms control agreements.
Codevilla is pessimistic that the Republican Party is capable of doing anything important that the population — the “deplorables” who elected President Trump — want done. “[T]he Republican Party committed suicide by not fulfilling its constituencies’ desires on guns, abortion, religion, education, taxes and immigration,” he writes.
Former U.S. attorney Andrew C. McCarthy
The Democrats meanwhile are hoping that Special Counsel Robert Mueller can reverse the 2016 election by bringing down President Trump. Mueller’s investigations are politicizing policy differences, not enforcing the law, former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy concludes.
hat tip: Eaglebeak
Due to a production error, yesterday’s Founders Broadsheet (“Replace Tillerson with Bolton, keep Pompeo at CIA”) was not published until this morning. Click here to go to it.
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