Message of the Day

CSE RESPONSE TO THE CLINTON STATE OF THE UNION:

NO GORE TAXES!!!

CONCORD – In his final State of the Union address last night, President Clinton claimed credit for the economic prosperity being enjoyed by this nation. He then turned around and proposed big government spending and regulatory schemes – all of which would not only take more money out of the pockets of Americans, but also put the brakes on our thriving economy.

By proposing a blizzard of new, big government programs likely to cost Americans more than $350 billion, the Clinton-Gore administration has once again proven Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s point that “if you leave the money in Washington, politicians will find a way to spend it.”

That’s why taxpayers deserve a tax cut and a down payment on fundamental tax reform. Instead of tax increases and a handful of “targeted” tax cuts that require families to jump through Clinton and Gore’s hoops to get them, Americans need a dramatically simpler, fairer and flatter code that delivers real tax relief.

Instead, the campaign-obsessed Clinton-Gore administration is moving in exactly the opposite direction:

They have proposed a massive new subsidy program that would get the federal government directly involved in the development and deployment of high technology in America. The Internet has reached more households faster than any other new technology in history. The Internet and related technologies have powered more than one quarter of our nation’s growth in GDP. New government subsidies equal new taxes on consumers and inevitably new taxes on the Internet itself.

We can give consumers the full benefits of high technology by removing obsolete barriers to competition and innovation – and not adding any new ones.

The Clinton-Gore administration wants to further burden our economy and legal system with more frivolous lawsuits. President Clinton failed to suggest any plan to save our legal system from exploitation by an elite group of greedy trial lawyers. Clinton’s former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, wrote that Clinton-Gore’s policies of big government lawsuits are a “blatant end-run around the democratic process.”

Clinton and Gore’s plans to push for lawsuits against HMOs is sure to give trial lawyers a new means of robbing decent, honest Americans of their money, trust, freedom, peace of mind – and now, affordable health care. Instead, we need to make health care more accessible by making it more affordable. And we must give back our legal system to decent, honest Americans with real grievances by passing meaningful tort reform.

In the area of environmental policy, the Clinton-Gore administration can only be characterized by its pursuit of burdensome federal regulations, and the substitution of sound science for political science.

From air-quality regulations ruled by the courts as “unconstitutional” and “capricious,” to calls for drastic and mandatory cuts in America’s use of energy and fuel for the sake of so-called “global warming,” their objective has been more control over every aspect of our lives.

Americans want common-sense environmental protection that is based on the best science, genuine benefits to public health, and an understanding of the unique ability of our local communities to face their own environmental challenges.

Clinton and Gore’s government-run prescription drug program is bad medicine for America – senior citizens will be forced to pay more money for less coverage, and taxpayers will be forced to just pay more. Today’s seniors would face a powerful new bureaucracy, and the program’s massive $30 billion price tag puts the entire Medicare program at risk for tomorrow’s retirees.

Since the defeat of his 1994 attempt to takeover the nation’s health care system, Clinton has been enacting his plan step by step. Americans need more control over their health care with solutions like medical savings accounts. Americans don’t need more government-run medicine from the Clinton-Gore administration.

Education spending has risen three-fold in the last 40 years, while students’ test scores have shown no improvement. Yet Clinton and Gore want to spend more by having Washington further dictate and further degrade how our schools are run. And if schools continue to fail, Clinton-Gore leave children trapped without equal opportunity to receive a decent education. Instead, we must give parents a voice in their children’s education by giving them school choice. All parents – regardless of income or location – should be able to give their children a chance at a quality education; that is what equal opportunity is all about.

President Clinton last night made the best case to date as to why America needs a tax cut. As his speech made abundantly clear, if the money is left in Washington the politicians will spend it! And how? By regulating, litigating, and dreaming up new ways of taxing the American public.

If President Clinton truly wishes our economy to continue prospering, then he needs to keep government out of technology, the courtrooms, our schools, and our pockets.