Joe Cobb

The Economic Issues are Hot Today

I have decided to sign on to the Steve Kubby for President candidacy, for the Libertarian Party nomination. I know Steve personally, and I plan to work very hard for his success in getting the LP nomination in Denver, Memorial Day weekend. He will get on the ballot in at least 2/3 of the USA, and if we do as well as in years past, we can be on the ballot in 49-50 states.

Steve Kubby plans to emphasize the economic issues. I am an economist, so I have agreed to become his central advisor in that role. For an introduction to the tax and budget ideas, you can check out my own web site, www.JoeCobb.com, but Steve Kubby’s personal views are for him to tell you as the election campaign moves forward.

Here are two of my own ideas about abolishing the income tax and cutting government spending. If my own ideas are helpful in summarizing what Kubby would do in the first year after Jan.21, 2009, having won election to the Presidency of the United States, enjoy my speculative fiction.

Speculative Fiction

(1) First, Kubby tells America and the world that we will stop “forecasting” revenue and expenditure numbers in the government’s budget. “Imaginary numbers” are what have caused the current crisis, as the politicians try to predict the future and pass laws spending money that will never be collected. (See “Why Do We Need a Government Budget?” on this site.)

(2) Second, Kubby tells America and the world that we will stop attempting to collect the Federal income tax, until such time as the Congress approves a resolution to repeal the 16th Amendment. The income tax is ruining America and it must go! (See my book on this site.)

(3) Third, Kubby tells America and the world that we will balance the Federal budget by cutting spending, but the Congress in 2009 will choose what programs to cut.

Kubby will promise NOT to write up a budget during his first 100 days in office, because that would be a serious time to work with Congress and study what must be done to save the American economy and to cut the size and power of the Federal government.

This is a very significant change

Perhaps the most significant change, the most important detail in the Kubby program, is the budget. The Federal government’s budgetary process is broken and must be changed. This how we purge the forecasted revenues (“imaginary numbers”) out of the budgetary system and use actual tax collections as our basis for planning expenditures.

Nobody can predict the future, and government budgets are importantly different from private budgets, which are useful planning tools. Government budgets are a relic from the old infatuation about government central economic planning, an idea that should have died with the old Soviet Union.

Kubby will use Congressional “continuing resolutions” to pay for government programs and to force Congress to cut spending.

See this Wikipedia reference to understand more about the “continuing resolution” method, by which Congress evades the deadlines to pass annual appropriations bills. Lazy Congress. They should do more “oversight” work and less earmarking. Wikipedia: Continuing Resolution [ link here ]

(4) Fourth, Kubby welcomes your own comments. You can use the comments sections on my own web site to publish your ideas. Thanks for stepping into the arena.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 12:28 am and is filed under Libertarian Party. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.