THE WEEK

We don’t want to be too snide about the President’s speech to the UN, but Walter Mondale accused Mr. Reagan of stealing his ideas, and we think that says it all.

Mr. Mondale’s well-fudged $177-billion-deficit reduction plan has been given another blow by Messrs. Charles Kadlec and Arthur Laffer in the Wall Street Journal. Unfair! They compared it with Mr. Mondale’s previous $127-billion-deficit reduction plan, released last January. Where does the extra $50 billion in deficit reduction come from? From fudge, of course. “Better management.” Reduction of rate of increase of domestic spending programs, notwithstanding promises to increase spending for all known human aggregates. De-indexing indexing from 2 per cent to 4 per cent on incomes of more than $25,000. “Freezing,” i.e., doing away with, scheduled tax cuts. Closing anonymous loopholes. All of which reduces the deficit by a grand total of $2 billion. But alleged “interest savings” have been jacked up from $20 billion to $51 billion, possibly reflecting higher short-term interest rates since January—well, higher rates will cost less, see, because higher taxes will stimulate the economy, see, so the plan will work, so the deficit will be reduced, and interest rates will come down again, producing, oh, 250 per cent as much interest savings as projected in January, which will stimulate the economy to reduce federal borrowing, to reduce interest rates, to stimulate the economy, and we are going to throw up. Around we go, and, oh yes, more savings from “improved compliance” with the tax hikes that are supposedly stimulating the economy because everybody loves to pay more taxes and stimulate the economy. All that emerges from this madhouse is that Mr. Mondale wants more taxes, more and more taxes, more and more and more . . .

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Ronald Reagan

Presidential Election

We don’t want to be too snide about the President’s speech to the UN, but Walter Mondale accused Mr. Reagan of stealing his ideas, and we think that says it all.

Mr. Mondale’s well-fudged $177-billion-deficit reduction plan has been given another blow by Messrs. Charles Kadlec and Arthur Laffer in the Wall Street Journal. Unfair! They compared it with Mr. Mondale’s previous $127-billion-deficit reduction plan, released last January. Where does the extra $50 billion in deficit reduction come from? From fudge, of course. “Better management.” Reduction of rate of increase of domestic spending programs, notwithstanding promises to increase spending for all known human aggregates. De-indexing indexing from 2 per cent to 4 per cent on incomes of more than $25,000. “Freezing,” i.e., doing away with, scheduled tax cuts. Closing anonymous loopholes. All of which reduces the deficit by a grand total of $2 billion. But alleged “interest savings” have been jacked up from $20 billion to $51 billion, possibly reflecting higher short-term interest rates since January—well, higher rates will cost less, see, because higher taxes will stimulate the economy, see, so the plan will work, so the deficit will be reduced, and interest rates will come down again, producing, oh, 250 per cent as much interest savings as projected in January, which will stimulate the economy to reduce federal borrowing, to reduce interest rates, to stimulate the economy, and we are going to throw up. Around we go, and, oh yes, more savings from “improved compliance” with the tax hikes that are supposedly stimulating the economy because everybody loves to pay more taxes and stimulate the economy. All that emerges from this madhouse is that Mr. Mondale wants more taxes, more and more taxes, more and more and more . . .