http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=237821The free market has judged the policies of President Obama and Congress during the last two years, and the verdict is in: the spending spree from Democrat-dominated Washington has led to a dramatic decline in asset values and reduced Americans' retirement savings, analysts are telling WND.
In short, the deficit spending has dampened the American Dream and dealt American citizens a bad hand.
"Two years after the financial crisis, our economy is still wallowing in misery," James DiGeorgia, publisher and editor of the "Gold and Energy Advisor," tells WND.
“Politicians want to spend more and more, but wage-slave Americans are already being bled dry. Economists are recognizing that America is insolvent," he said.
A report released late last week, the second annual "Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index," indicates that this is not just political rhetoric, but is the new fiscal reality, as the U.S.'s retirement system, the combination of private pensions and Social Security, has plunged from the sixth best in the world a year ago to the 10th best this year.
The index rates just 14 countries, including the U.S, the U.K., Brazil, Singapore, and Sweden. Researchers blame the unprecedented change in "government debt" for the decline in home asset values and pension values in America. The U.S. position in the index fell to 57.3 this year from 59.8 in 2009, according to the Melbourne Mercer study.
That's a "C" grade on Mercer's scale, and indicates that the U.S. retirement system has "some good features," but is marred by "major risks" which make its long-term sustainability questionable. The Netherlands ranked first. The Chinese – America's leading creditor – ranked last in the survey.
"The amazing thing is that the U.S. hasn't dropped further," Richard Barrington, personal finance expert at MoneyRates.com, tells WND. "The amazing thing is that the U.S. managed to beat four other countries."
Leading business executives – and conservatives on Capitol Hill – are calling for a reversal of the failed policies that led to this state of affairs for the U.S., which Ronald Reagan called "a shining city on a hill" for the whole world, back during the 1980s.
The Business Roundtable, an influential lobbying group which includes CEOs of many of the nation's largest companies, has called for the next Congress, where the House will be led by Republicans, to "re-evaluate" health care and financial reform legislation and take other steps to boost economic growth. The group's "Roadmap for Growth" argues that "a host of new laws and regulatory actions are restricting corporate America's ability to help our economy."
Democrats, however, defend their programs. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke appeared this week at the National Press Club to deliver keynote remarks at an event hosted by two leading journals of the liberal East Coast establishment, "The Atlantic" and "National Journal." Locke discussed "why the administration's pro-business policies ... will create jobs, foster economic growth, and promote prosperity for middle-class families."
Barrington, the investment adviser, was not persuaded. He said that the problem with the retirement benefits system in the U.S. is that Washington has forced companies, with regulations, to transition from a defined benefit system to a defined contribution system.
But all the regulations have increased, rather than reduced, risk for workers, and not fostered prosperity.
"The system has gone from managing risk to gambling," Barrington tells WND.
Conservatives in Congress are not assuaged by the Obama administration's soothing rhetoric, either.
Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., called on the leadership of both parties to return to the vision of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.
Price sees the current plans peddled by even the Deficit Reduction Commission as "fundamentally flawed," as they seek to "make excessive government more manageable instead of returning Washington to the limited role envisioned by our Founders. Unsustainable deficits are a symptom. The real disease is Washington's growing interference in the economy and our citizens' daily lives."
Price, who was trained as and practiced as a medical doctor for decades, said the fiscal health of the U.S. is perilous, and needs a dose of common sense reform.
"Long-term deficits simply cannot be resolved unless we repeal Obamacare and replace it with reforms that empower individuals and actually reduce costs," said Price.
Price also noted that the unemployment rate has stayed at 9.4 percent, or higher, for 19 straight months, which contributes to the overall economic anxiety faced by all Americans.
"Washington has built up some daunting barriers to job creation in recent years. Breaking down those barriers will be Republicans' No. 1 goal next year," said Price, whose group is considered the conservative caucus in the House.
Mounting debt in Democrat-leaning states like Illinois, California and New York may compound the federal problem, requiring billions in bailouts, experts said.
Market expert DiGeorgia tells WND the new leadership in Washington in January also needs to curtail the Federal Reserve Bank's actions as well as deficit spending. The Fed has been engaged in "QE2," a second round of "quantitative easing" of interest rates.
Combined with "reckless government spending this is causing more uncertainty, questions, and a lack of confidence in the U.S. economy," DiGeorgia tells WND, adding that he fears that if the course is not changed, immediately, "we're going to see a debasement of the dollar, and a monetary panic of unprecedented size."
WND columnists have been pounding Washington over the issue.
Walter E. Williams, the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, said tax revenue is not the problem.
"The federal government has collected just about 20 percent of the nation's GDP almost every year since 1960. Federal spending has exceeded revenue for most of that period and has taken an unprecedented leap since 2008 to produce today's massive deficit. Since federal spending is the problem, that's where our focus should be."
And Thomas Sowell, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution in Stanford, Calif., said neither do numbers lie.
"In 1920, when the top tax rate was 73 percent, for people making over $100,000 a year, the federal government collected just over $700 million in income taxes – and 30 percent of that was paid by people making over $100,000. After a series of tax cuts brought the top rate down to 24 percent, the federal government collected more than a billion dollars in income tax revenue – and people making over $100,000 a year now paid 65 percent of the taxes," he wrote.
"How could that be? The answer is simple: People behave differently when tax rates are high as compared to when they are low. With low tax rates, they take their money out of tax shelters and put it to work in the economy, benefitting themselves, the economy and government, which collects more money in taxes because incomes rise," he said. "High tax rates, which very few people are actually paying, because of tax shelters, do not bring in as much revenue as lower tax rates that people are paying. It was much the same story after tax cuts during the Kennedy administration, the Reagan administration and the Bush administration."
Topic: Dems spending costs Americans retirement dreams (Read 1119 times)