In Newt Gingrich's Real Change, I read "Chapter Ten: An
Immigration Policy That Makes Sense", and "Chapter Eleven: Real Change
to Achieve Enduring Prosperity for American Workers".
1. In Chapter 10, I learned more about the 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli immigration bill. Many
on the Left point to this bill to argue that Ronald Reagan would be out
of place in today's anti-immigrant Republican Party, for this bill
(which Reagan supported) granted amnesty to illegal immigrants. But
that's only part of the story. Yes, the bill granted one-time
amnesty, but it also proposed border control and an employer
verification program to ensure that illegal immigrants were not hired.
The problem with the law, Newt contends, is that the government did not
follow through on border control and employer verification.
I
found something that Newt says on page 125 to be a bit odd: "The elites
on the left oppose border control, oppose English as the official
government language, oppose expanding legal immigration, and want to
find a way to allow everyone here illegally to stay, all while
prohibiting illegal immigration in the future." What Newt
characterizes as the leftist elite's position appears rather muddled.
Either that's because there are liberals who have a muddled view on
immigration, or because Newt is characterizing positions other than his
own as the leftist position. Newt is for securing the borders,
legal immigration, making English the official language, and having
foreigners get visas to work in the U.S. Some of that is
actually to the left of what some right-wingers think about
immigration----for there are right-wingers who want a moratorium on
legal immigration and oppose a guest-worker program because it places
foreigners in competition with Americans for jobs.
2.
Chapter 11 is about tax policy. Newt supports abolishing the capital
gains tax on investments because doing so will encourage productivity
and create jobs, plus capital gains tax cuts have led to an increase in
revenue. He wants for Americans to be able to choose between the
current tax system and a sort of flat tax. This flat tax is not
exactly regressive, however, for it exempts $13, 200 for each adult and
has a "$4,000 exemption for each child or dependent" (page 142). Newt states that "This would mean no federal income tax on the first $46,165 in income for a family of four."
I'm
not sure how the capital gains tax cut encourages productivity, and I'm
receptive to learning about this issue. But, if the capital gains tax
cut increases revenue, I guess I'm open to it. Some have
disputed that tax cuts increase revenue. They may say that revenue
increased in the 90's because the economy was good at that time, due to
the information revolution. Or they may attribute the increase in
revenue under Reagan to Reagan's tax increases. Or they may point out
that the Bush tax cuts resulted in declining revenues over some years,
and, when revenue numerically increased, it was a smaller proportion of
GDP than revenue was before the Bush tax cuts.
Another
point that Newt makes in this chapter is that companies are leaving the
U.S. to go to Europe (i.e., London) because of litigation and high
corporate taxes in the U.S. Does that demonstrate that European
socialism does not hamper the economy?