Buried in a letter opposing Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan from the Republican Study Committee, a group of 31 congressmen that Clusterstock's John Carney calls backbenchers, is mention of regulations that are complicating the financial tumult, and one of those regulations is a push to eliminate the old light bulb that Thomas Edison invented 130 years ago.
All of these financial commitments come on top of a projected budget deficit of $407 billion in FY08, a national debt of $9.6 trillion, and over $640 billion in proposed tax increases passed by the House of Representatives of this Congress. Add to that record energy prices, increased labor costs, the assault on private pools of capital and foreign investment, trade agreements long ignored, and a host of new government mandates on everything from cars to light bulbs. These conditions have lumped together to create a perfect storm of financial uncertainty for nearly every segment of our economy and a resulting scarcity of liquid capital and available credit.
Seems like a big stretch to lump light bulbs in with the likes of taxation and regulatory policies as a cause of financial uncertainty. However, the group is a believer in small government, and therefore opposed to most regulation. They are likely attempting to seize on the chaos to further that agenda as evidenced by their bright idea of an alternative to the Paulson Plan:
- A two-year suspension of capital gains taxes
- A suspension of mark-to-market accounting
- The privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
- The repeal of the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act, which requires the Federal Reserve to balance monetary stability and the goal of full employment.
However, those alternatives really would not address the instability in banking -- probably explaining why the Republican leadership has more or less ignored these ideas. - Matthew Wurtzel
See letter from Republican Study Committee to Paulson
See related story from Cluststocks
