Conservative economist Stephen Moore says America’s fiscal health was damaged by two terrible developments in 2015: the Republican “betrayal” on federal spending and the ongoing exodus of American companies that refuse to keep paying the highest business taxes in the industrialized world.
Moore is a senior economic contributor at FreedomWorks and is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. This past year, he also advised multiple presidential candidates on their tax-reform plans and was the principal author of the flat-tax proposal offered by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, Radio America reported.
For Moore, the worst economic development of the year is also the most recent. He is appalled that Republican majorities in the House and Senate allowed the $1.1 trillion omnibus to pass easily.
“It was a betrayal,” Moore told WND and Radio America. “The Republicans won the House and won the Senate promising voters they would get control of the budget, that they would be fiscally responsible, that they would help balance the budget and that they believed in limited government. We got none of that.”
While House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., characterized the omnibus as a compromise that scored wins for Republicans on lifting the crude oil export ban, tightening rules in the visa waiver program and strengthening the military, Moore says there’s no question Democrats won this fight.
“This was a huge, huge win for Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Barack Obama,” he said. “They got all their social programs, the climate-change agenda, the green-energy stuff, Planned Parenthood. All of that stuff was funded.”
He says Republicans even rubber stamped Obama initiatives they had earlier branded as unconstitutional.
“All the executive actions that he’s taken on immigration, sanctuary cities, on health care on labor issues – and I could go down the line – all these things the Republicans have been complaining about quite rightly about Obama being an imperial president and walking all over the Congress, now Congress turns around and funds all that stuff,” Moore said.
“Shame on Republicans, who control the purse strings, for agreeing to something that busts our budget at a time when we have an $18.5 trillion national debt,” said Moore, who believes GOP leaders simply tried to avoid a fight near a budget deadline.
“I think they were terrified of a government shutdown, so they negotiated very poorly,” he said.
However, Moore said all of Washington is responsible for the emerging crisis in the US economy of big businesses heading to the exits over high tax rates. Citing Burger King and Pfizer already moving headquarters out of the US and Apple threatening to do the same, Moore said lawmakers have to address the business tax issue.
