An Agenda for Liberty and Prosperity in New Jersey
By Seth Grossman, Political Columnist
Reprinted from October 29, 2008 Current Newspapers of Atlantic County.
“Blood-letting was a popular medical practice up to the late 19th century. . . Bloodletting involves the withdrawal of often considerable quantities of blood from a patient in the belief that this would cure or prevent a great many illnesses and diseases. In the overwhelming majority of cases. . . bloodletting was harmful to patients. . . George Washington was treated in this manner. . . contributing to his death in 1799.” Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodletting
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New Jersey and the whole United States is very sick these days. If you know and understand New Jersey’s motto, “Liberty and Prosperity”, you know why.
Liberty brings strength and prosperity to our nation, just as blood
brings nourishment and oxygen to our bodies. When doctors removed too much blood from George Washington, he became weak, and died. Remove too much liberty from New Jersey and the United States and our state and nation will also become weak and die. We are only sick in the first place because government leeches robbed us of so much of our freedom during the past 60 years.
This month, Democrat Governor Jon Corzine announced this “stimulus plan” to cure New Jersey’s economy:
1. Double tolls on the AC Expressway, Parkway, and NJ Turnpike to borrow money for a $3 billion rail tunnel to New York.
2. Double all electric bills to spend billions of dollars on windmills at sea to produce electricity at four times current costs.
3. Prop up the price of houses by making it slower and more expensive to evict people who stopped making payments on homes they can’t afford.
4. Charge a 2.5% “affordable housing” tax, so a handful of selected builders can sell a handful of “affordable homes” at less than cost to a handful of selected buyers.
5. Give $3,000 per employee to businesses and government funded “charities” with more than 5 employees who hire those people until after next year’s election.
All of these programs take away both your money and your freedom. Corzine and his friends–not you–decide what gets built, which contractors
and unions build it, and how much they get paid.
In 1850, French economist Frederic Bastiat showed why these program
never stimulate the economy as promised. His essay called “That Which Is
Seen, and That Which is Not Seen”, is found at: http://fredericbastiat.com/. According to Bastiat, building “affordable homes”, windmills, and “affordable” homes “is seen”.
But people NOT doing something are “not seen”. You don’t see tourists who spend less or come less often because of higher tolls. You don’t see someone who doesn’t buy a new outfit or a fancy dinner because he or she paid a few hundred dollars extra in electric bills that year. You don’t see people who don’t build or buy non-subsidized homes because they can’t afford the higher price charged to build “affordable” houses for others.
If Corzine really wanted to stimulate the economy, rather than use this “crisis” to grab even more money and power, here are some things he could do to really stimulate the economy:
1. Repeal “Paid Family Leave” and change the Law Against Discrimination so that attorney fees can’t be more than the damages being sued for. This will cut the cost of hiring people in NJ, yet protect those in real need.
2. Repeal the 5% tax that Democrat McGreevey added to the
7% state sales on hotels and motels.
3. Let ordinary citizens build hundreds of windmills on their own farms and wetlands at a fraction of the cost of windmills at sea.
4. Reduce the room requirement for casino hotels from 500 to 50 rooms, so laid off casino workers can open their own businesses.
5. Enforce immigration laws and let schools teach kids that it is not beneath them to mow lawns, wash dishes, pick crops, or clean toilets in the summer. This would drasticly cut costs for schools, jails, and hospitals.
6. Allow non-union companies to bid on government jobs.
7. Stop using sales tax money to pay the $37 billion borrowed without voter approval, abolish special sales tax districts, and cut the sales tax to
5%–permanently!
8. Waive all future riparian claims.
9. Repeal the 2.5% “affordable housing” tax on new construction.
10. Hold public referendums on repealing laws that 20% of adults ignore anyway, and which punish adults for doing things that harm nobody but themselves.
Want prosperity? Demand liberty!