Zakaria: Sales Tax, More Government Spending Needed to 'Restore American Dream'
By Matthew Balan | October 28, 2010 | 19:08
On Thursday's Newsroom, CNN's Fareed Zakaria endorsed a predictably liberal solution to get the American economy moving again: enact more taxes and implement new government programs. Zakaria called for a national sales tax and advocated new government spending on "research and technology" and "upgrading the infrastructure." The CNN host also labeled tax cuts "bad stuff."
Anchor Ali Velshi brought on Zakaria during the last segment of the 2 pm Eastern hour to discuss his upcoming cover story for Time magazine, "How to Restore The American Dream." Velshi labeled the article a "must-read" and first asked his guest, "I overheard a conversation between you and someone else the other day where you said you don't even like using the world 'stimulus' anymore. There is an answer that doesn't emphasize consumption. It emphasizes investment. Explain that to me."
The Time editor stated that "as a society, we are over-consuming, and for the last 20 years, we've consumed more and more, not because we had any increase in wages, but because we borrowed more." He continued with his government spending recommendation and his negative labeling of tax cuts:
ZAKARIA: The average American now has 13 credit cards. Our debt went from about $700 billion in the 1970s to $14 trillion now. So, that's not the answer. What we've got to do is invest in growth- that means R&D- research and technology. That means upgrading the infrastructure. That shouldn't be considered- you know, there's good government spending and there's bad government spending- giving people tax cuts, frankly, or increasing their pensions- whether it's the left's- left-wing idea or right-wing idea- that's all bad stuff. But building new research labs, create- getting us from being the 22nd in bandwidth in the world to number one- those are all things that are going to spur growth, and those are the jobs of the future.
Velshi followed-up by asking about Zakaria's new tax idea, which he proposed in his Time article. Predictably, his guest included a lament about how America didn't compare with other "advanced" countries:
VELSHI: It's a good thing you're not running for anything (Zakaria laughs), because in this article, you actually propose a new tax. You dub it the 'American innovation tax.' It would be a way of getting you to what you're talking about: investment in the things that will make American competitive, and that involves many things. It means educating people to the level that- we can educate and put people through universities in science and technology and engineering and math. But why a tax? What would that do?
ZAKARIA: What the tax would do is it would just pay for it. I mean, I don't believe that there is a free lunch here. If you propose an important new government program, you've got to explain where the money comes from. Again, for the last 20 years, we've had plenty of new government programs and expanded them, but everyone keeps pretending that these don't cost anything- you know, Bush's prescription drugs for the elderly. Whether you like it or not, you've got to pay for it.
VELSHI: Right.
ZAKARIA: So, what I say is, we have no national sales tax in this country. We're the only country in the advanced world that doesn't have one. If we put it- one in at five percent- which would be the lowest in the advanced world- that would still generate tens and tens of billions of dollars. You need to find revenue sources if you need to do this. Now, in the long run, we've got to get our house in order. We've got to get some entitlement spending down-
VELSHI: Right.
ZAKARIA: We've got to get health care costs down, but we can't wait. South Korea, a country of 50 million people, is spending $35 billion on green technology in the next five years- acountry of 50 million people. Think of what the Chinese (unintelligible)-
VELSHI: And they're on the top of that broadband list that you talked about.
ZAKARIA: And they're on the top of that broadband- you know, we think we're number one-
VELSHI: Yeah-
ZAKARIA: And you look at these new studies that are coming out and it's frightening. We're not in the top ten in many of these areas, you know? So, there's- that's all the more reason why we need to spend to catch up. It's not to stay on top.
This isn't the first time Zakaria has campaigned for a national sales tax. He devoted his February 28, 2010 Fareed Zakaria GPS program on CNN to pushing for a "tax on consumption." He also twice bashed the Bush tax cuts on the February 14 and August 1 editions of his program.
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Comments
Boy these dummies
Submitted by 10ksnooker on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 7:13pm.
Think you are stupid.
PATHETIC!
Submitted by jon_torlin on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 7:23pm.
I'd laugh if this wasn't so pathetic.
All these things that they propose are so laughably dumb, I don't see how anyone can take this crap seriously. All these things are bass-ackwards of what really needs to be done. This wouldn't even come close to restoring the American Dream, it would further destroy it.
What's even funnier is how they are so enthused to the ideas when the real reaction to them should be one of anger and just say "HELL NO!"
-Jon
Jon
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 9:36pm.
I think Zakaria's idea of the American Dream is to have taxpayers give you free stuff.
Phil---
Submitted by matthewdean on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 10:34pm.
Yeah.
They could call the plan "Welfare". :^)
MD
Sales Tax
Submitted by Phryj1 on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 7:43pm.
While enacting a sales tax IN PLACE of our mess of an income tax system would be a great idea, the Tax & Spendocrats want a sales tax on top of the income tax system. Raise taxes, increase spending, repeat. Is that their only idea? I think I like "the party of no" better than the party of Tax and Spend. They always want to spend more of other people's people's money.
Progressives seem to be completely averse to facts and logic. Apparently, reality has a conservative bias.
Phryj1
Submitted by gfrrman on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 1:43am.
my tag says it all..
"Socialist eventually run out of other peoples' money"...Margaret Thatcher
These stupid people(by definition) never learn
G
So the solution to our borrowing problem is to....borrow MORE
Submitted by lsudolemite on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 7:30pm.
money we don't have, only this time we're going to "invest" it. Makes sense to me.
I've noticed this "investment" euphemism being used more and more in the last few weeks in the hopes that it'll take off as the new Dem buzzword. But whatever you do, Just don't call it "stimulus".
There is a place for
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 8:04pm.
There is a place for investment, even investments by government. Examples of investment are streets, pretty much any public works infrastructure and even the military is an investment. the key is what is the return on the investment.
I as an Arlington Texas resident have approved by vote two big investments (at least for a city) and those were the Rangers Ballpark and the new Cowboys stadium. These have tangible results and as proved by the rangers ballpark are good investments.
The Feds as run by the politicians in there now have no track record of making good investments and in fact they will just spend the money to get re-elected.
those are not investments
Submitted by wizardjr on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 10:35am.
What you cite are costs not investments.
No they are investments as
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Sat, 10/30/2010 - 4:19am.
No they are investments as investments have an expected return on them. I as a city planning saw first hand how those i cited were investments. Streets and public works encourage development and development brings in taxes. The Rangers Ballpark brought in so much more in taxes that teh bonds were paid off in half the time. Then there is the intangible in having a baseball team.
In any investment you have to look at the layout of what it costs verses the return. in a governments case sometimes it is the welfare of teh people at stake.
Haven't you heard,
Submitted by ML Stovall on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 12:32pm.
Haven't you heard, lsudolemite? "Invest" is the new "spend" to these socialist progressive idiots. Tastes much better going down, I hear.
Where do these people go to school?
Submitted by Red Jeep on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 7:38pm.
Gee if taxes are so great tax us at 100%, give us public housing, public food and clothing, bicycle or two and some walking around cash for beer money.
Or tax our employers profits at 100%, and send us an allowance.
I swear people like Zakaria think all money is government money because the government originally printed it.
We need less government. We should strive to get back as far as possible to a very small Federal Government that finances itself off from trade tariffs, not personal income taxes.
The massive growth of the Federal Government started when Senators became elected, and income taxes were allowed, 1913, which turned Senators into Panderers buying votes with spending programs and Departments of this and that.
I hate to nitpick on taxes, but...
Submitted by acaiguana on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 7:19am.
The mathematic reality of a new tax on sales (or business) is a depression on profit through the pass-through as well as the market activity.
A) A ten percent tax (just an off-the-cuff example) would result in a certain rise in price. But the rise in price is determined by how much one can raise prices and still sell 'n' product.
B) By the increase in price beyond the price sensitive level that reduces profit, one must take the 'hit' internally.
C) That means that marginal businesses with little flexibility in price v.s. profit e.g. Oil; cannot continue to raise prices without revolt or abandonment of new enterprise.
There you have it.
ACA
...
Quoted from: 'Acaiguana notes from the Underground' (Soon to be at theaters near you)
Health Care costs.
Submitted by Phryj1 on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 7:42pm.
And Zakaria also says we need to get health care costs down. WASN'T THAT THE WHOLE POINT OF THE "AFFORDABLE CARE ACT"?!? So, is he admitting that the ACA isn't going to bring health care costs down? Is he suggesting we need even more programs in place to bring those costs down? Destroying our existing health care system WASN'T ENOUGH?!? Having a tax on BEING HEALTHY isn't bad enough?!?
Fareed Zakaria is a moron.
Progressives seem to be completely averse to facts and logic. Apparently, reality has a conservative bias.
And pray tell, how will you lower health care costs?
Submitted by samhermanmd on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 7:50pm.
We have an aging patient population with more complex aggregate medical demands and a number of suppliers (hospitals, physicians, pharmacies, etc.) who cannot afford to stay in business with decreased reimbursements. We are already seeing the first of the FDA's moves towards taking drugs off the market because of costs, and the next moves will be oriented towards further rationing.
Not to mention the rape of HSA's
Submitted by Blonde on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 8:16pm.
The democrats are trying to ignore the new provisions for Health Savings Accounts....no more OTC medications and whatnot, and if mentioned, pawn them off as a mere "oversight" in this law.
Perhaps Nanny should have read the bloody thing before she rammed it through in the middle of the night.
Arghhh.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 138 (and Counting)
This guy is not an
Submitted by MidAmerica on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 8:22pm.
This guy is not an economist
......and he shouldn't be playing one on TV.
What he does sound like is one of obama's oh-so-smart college economists that have seen their theories get a good thumpin' by reality and are now running back to the safety of their ivory towers.
Consider the Audience
Submitted by ML Stovall on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 12:36pm.
Zakaria is speaking to a CNN audience. He knows that to them credentials matter not; they'll bite on anything that sounds like a tasty new tax.
Hey Zakky, Keynseanism
Submitted by mattm on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 8:34pm.
Hey Zakky, Keynseanism doesn't work.
This should be easy enough for even you to understand.
for neigh on 110yrs. the left
Submitted by g55rumpy on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 9:07pm.
for neigh on 110yrs. the left has been doing this in America
This Man is Stupidity Squared
Submitted by Tenebrous on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 8:57pm.
Who thinks that the American Dream has anything at all to do with the government doing things? What? The American Dream is being able to raise your socioeconomic status through hard work. That has nothing to do with the government. I swear that this man is some sort of misanthrope. He can't see why people want to do things and he keeps wanting to make government control all things, knowing that when that happens, people are treated like chess pieces to be moved around at will.
Liberalism is fundamentlaly anti-human.
Visions and Principles blog
If states and localities want to invest their tax money
Submitted by lsudolemite on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 9:24pm.
in public works, more power to them. However, I draw the line at the feds forcing me to fork over more of my money involuntarily for more pork. Likewise for states in massive debt borrowing money in the hopes that federal taxpayers will bail them out because they're "too big to fail."
Yes, we need research and
Submitted by buddyc on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 9:45pm.
Yes, we need research and development and we need infrastructure. But we spent a 1 billion dollar porkulous plan on rewarding special interests not R&D and infrastructure.
Actually this guy is not that stupid. He knows what he has to stay to keep his CNN gig.
Zakaria - the biggest lie of all.
Submitted by Gary Hall on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 11:14pm.
He also twice bashed the Bush tax cuts on the February 14 and August 1 editions of his program.
Actually, Fareed has bashed the Bush tax cuts much more often than that. One particularly big lie from Fareed came on Jan 19, 2009, when he faced the camera and pushed this biggie:
In 2000, the Clinton administration had almost balanced the federal budget, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office was projecting that over the next 10 years the United States would have surpluses that would add up to $5.6 trillion -- yes, trillion.
By the spring of 2002, two thirds of that projected surplus had evaporated, and the rest disappeared soon thereafter.
There were many reasons for this, out-of-control spending being one. But by far the lion's share of the surpluses went into the tax cuts.
It was the most profoundly unconservative act of the Bush presidency.
Wow! In only, What? 14-16 months, Bush blew $5.6 Trillion. Because of Tax cuts. Really? Perhaps it was the $40 billion in the 2001 tax rebates that the Democrats pushed into the Bush tax bill. Couldn't have been the 2003 tax cuts - that blew the silly projected "paper" surpluses.. in the "spring of 2002."
Come to think of it, the 2001 budget was Clinton's last budget.
And just for the record, the sum of the legislative tax cuts for 2001 and all of 2002, added up to only a total of $146 billion.. only a tiny fraction of $5.5 Trillion; in fact a miniscule stimulus cost compared to Obama's 2009 just shy of a $1 Trillion Stimulus Bill.
And, for the record, following the full implementation of the 2003 tax cuts, federal income tax revenue soared a record 44% thru 2007.
(;~/ gary
2 guys named Fareed and Ali say what?
Submitted by Mystapitt on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 6:26am.
Next up, Barack will talk economics.
Jars the senses...
Submitted by Red Jeep on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 8:39am.
...doesn't it?
This week in politics: dumb and dumber!
Submitted by Mary Louise Turner on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 9:10am.
This whole week has been loaded with outrageously stupid comments by liberal has-beens and know-it-alls! The claim by CNN's Fareed Zakaria that we need still more taxes and government spending is the dumbest of all. And he wonders why his nutwork's ratings are somewhere in the septic tank...
Zakaria, is he even American
Submitted by ForeverOnTheRight on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 10:07am.
Zakaria, is he even American born? This idiot wants to repeat history. It's the definition of insanity, repeat the same failure hoping to get a different result! We know from American history that during the Great Depression that government intervention prolonged the Depression. More government intervention is not the answer. In more recent history, Obama's "stimulous package" did not work and Zakaria want's to repeat a failure? Fire the due for even suggesting the idea! Vote Repulican, vote for anybody that will really bring more sanity to government!
Nobody is talking about
Submitted by Free Thinker on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 10:38am.
Nobody is talking about cutting taxes right now. I reject the premise that not raising taxes is a tax cut.
And by the way, didn't we just spend like a trillion dollars on "infrastructure" spending. If I recall that was what we were told the "stimulus" plan was.
I do like the idea of replacing the national income tax with some kind of sales tax, although somehow I don't think this dude is talking about abolishing the income tax and replacing it with a sales tax. That's just what the economy needs more taxes. Can CNN not find credible guests for their shows? Where do they find guys like this Zakaria?
Bah! A paltry trillion
Submitted by ML Stovall on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 12:45pm.
Bah! A paltry trillion dollars, Free Thinker? Peanuts! Come on, surely we need to spend at least 1-2 trillion more before we can expect to begin to see any tangible results in the rebirth of Zakaria's idea of the 'American Dream'! What a imbecile this guy is!
Give credit where credit is due
Submitted by Bluegill on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 10:44am.
At least he is an honest socialist and has a fertile creative mind after all every Liberal idea needs a good deceptive name like Value Added Tax. So American Innovation Tax has a nice ring to it
At least is not the Foreign Innovation Tax and he even used the word Tax instead of Act or Initiative. Bravo for honesty
The American Dream is central planning and Marxism...??
Submitted by wizardjr on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 10:49am.
What schools do these people attend? They need to get their money back.
People came to America to be left alone. Most of our ancestors were kicked out of every 'decent' country in Europe because they couldn't follow the party line (i.e., non-sheeple).
The American Dream is to be left alone by government to succeed or fail on one's own efforts. Whether that meant gaining ever greater skill at a hireable trade like machinist, driver, technician, etc., or creating your own business, or travelling beyond the edge of civilization to build a farm or ranch it was first and always to be left alone to sink or swim.
The safety net was forming voluntary associations with others of like mind - the community, the church, etc. We no long have a net, we have a cage meant to keep us 'safe' according to the ruling class for our own good. That's not my America.
Agreed wizardjr
Submitted by Airforce_5_O on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 11:20am.
The entrepreneurial spirit of America is being suppressed by the government’s oppressive tactics of tax and regulation. People are not going to take a chance are starting or expanding a business in this government created, hostile environment. We must cut back and allow the small businesses of this country to expand. We must cut taxes to get those who have moved to overseas back.
Otherwise this President and this country will fail.
The lesions of FDR and Japan’s Lost Decade
Submitted by Airforce_5_O on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 10:59am.
All this has been tried before and it didn’t work. The TSA under FDR did nothing to get the economy rolling. It took the spurring of the industrial base to produce goods, yes for the war, that put the economy back on solid ground.
Japan did stimulus after stimulus and never cut spending to which their economy is still suffering. They also tried to employ an infrastructure spending bill for “shovel” ready jobs also. It didn’t work.
This is about punishing the United States for the President for its so called Imperialistic undertaking. He is realizing the Dreams of his father right now. This is about changing America into the country his father would have loved.
Yep Barak has got Daddy issues and we are paying the price.
Monopoly Run Wild!
Submitted by Grumpy in Arizona on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 11:16am.
I have come to the conclusion that liberals base their knowledge of economics on the Monopoly board game… Personally speaking, I can no longer afford to land on “Broadway with a Hotel” before passing “Go.”
I hear you Grumpy...
Submitted by ML Stovall on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 12:49pm.
...And several of these idiot socialist bastards need to go directly to jail.
What is Fah-red-ee the Zak an expert at?
Submitted by ConservaSerb on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 12:11pm.
Apparently, everything.
He's the Middle East expert. The Asia expert. Now he's the economics and jobs expert.
I'll bet the POS has never even had sex with an American woman. How DARE he give his opinions about the American dream?
A wise & frugal government, which shall leave men free 2 regulate their own pursuits of industry & improvement, & shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. T. Jefferson
Its amazing the areas of
Submitted by ML Stovall on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 12:55pm.
Its amazing the areas of expertise these liberal idiots claim after they are given a slot on a TV 'news' program. Almost as if sitting in front of a camera somehow makes you smarter and/or more insightful. Crazy, huh?
Fareed's American dream
Submitted by mike221b on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 4:42pm.
His American dream seems to omit the concept of low taxes. What we really need is a sunset law for all taxes, thus requiring the political class to justify to the voters their constant tax and spend ways.