The new New Democrats' 62-point plan is devoid of a single good idea for fixing the economy.

新民主党人的62点计划中没有一个解决经济问题的好主意。


A coalition of so-called New Democrats (the last New Democrat was Bill Clinton, whose administration gave us corporate buy-backs, repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, veto of the TEAM Act allowing building-level unxs, and jettisoning of the work of Barbara Jordan’s Commission on Immigration) has now proposed a 62-point plan to combat inflation.

一个所谓的新民主党人联盟(上一个新民主党人是比尔·克林顿,他的政府给我们带来了企业回购、废除格拉斯·斯蒂格尔法案(注:一部对美国银行系统进行改革的法律)、否决允许楼宇工会的TEAM法案以及抛弃巴巴拉·乔丹移民委员会的工作)现在提出了一个62点计划来对抗通货膨胀。

As an exercise in missing the point, this document is impossible to improve upon. Two essential elements are missing from this anthology of K Street wish lists: meaningful reduction of future budget deficits and removal of constraints on energy production.

作为一个失去重点的草案,这份文件是无法加以改进的。在这份白宫愿望清单选集中缺少两个基本要素:有意义地减少未来的预算赤字和消除对能源生产的限制。
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It is clear that there is now an inflation problem, in part fueled by rising energy prices, resulting from constraints on domestic energy production and the effect of the Ukraine war on foreign supplies. The New Democrats propose nothing to deal with this problem other than some acceleration of leasing on private lands. The recent pipeline bans, including the one protecting lizards on a minute fraction of the Appalachian Trail, remain in full force and effect, as do the delays imposed on energy projects by the National Environmental Policy Act, the failure to develop the Nevada site for high-level nuclear waste, and restrictions on fracking, hydroelectric high-tension wires, and even offshore wind turbines. Expectations of the future feed into the present, and these constraints invite OPEC and other foreign suppliers to charge what the traffic will bear without much fear of future domestic competition.

很明显,现在存在着一个通货膨胀问题,部分原因是能源价格上涨,这是因为国内能源生产受到限制以及乌克兰战争对外国供应的影响。新民主党没有提出任何建议来解决这个问题,只是在一定程度上加快了私人土地的租赁。最近的管道禁令,包括保护阿巴拉契亚步道上一小部分蜥蜴的禁令,仍然完全有效,国家环境政策法对能源项目的拖延也是如此,内华达州高级核废料场的开发失败,以及对水力压裂法、水电高压线,甚至是海上风力涡轮机的限制。对未来的期望反馈到现在,这些限制使欧佩克和其他外国供应商可以收取过路费,而不必担心未来的国内竞争。

The other source of inflation is a vista of future budget deficits, unlikely to be curbed by tax increases. The burden of curbing excess demand will thus be thrust entirely on monetary policy, interest rates, and the Federal Reserve Board. We saw in the 1970s where this leads: to high interest rates and the collapse of the construction industry, real estate values, and consumer confidence; in short, to stagflation.

通货膨胀的另一个来源是未来预算赤字的前景,这不太可能通过加税来遏制。因此,抑制过剩需求的负担将完全推给货币政策、利率和联邦储备委员会。我们在20世纪70年代看到了这样的结果:高利率和建筑业、房地产价值和消费者信心的崩溃;简而言之,这就是滞胀。

The Biden administration’s Build Back Better plan contains new “soak the rich” taxes, which are not as obxtionable as some Republicans make them out to be. The proceeds are to be wholly devoted to socialistic schemes for elder care, day care, dental care, and electric-car subsidies, not to deficit reduction.There is a case for combining the proposed taxes with a reconciliation bill including only the two most worthy spending projects: expansion of the family tax credit (with a work requirement as proposed by Senator Mike Lee to avoid re-creation of the AFDC program) and a revived Civilian Conservation Corps with a substantial role for the military in training (to duplicate the success of the original CCC and avoid the experience of the Johnson administration Job Corps, which assembled juvenile delinquents in high-rise urban buildings). The lion’s share of new revenues should be devoted to deficit reduction, reducing pressure on monetary policy, interest rates, and the Federal Reserve Board.

拜登政府的“重建美好未来”计划包含新的“向富人征税”项目,这并不像一些共和党人所说的那样令人反感。这些收益将全部用于老年人护理、日间护理、牙科护理和电动汽车补贴等社会主义计划,而不是用于削减赤字。有理由将拟议的税收与和解法案结合起来,其中只包括两个最值得的支出项目:扩大家庭税收抵免(按照参议员迈克·李的提议,增加工作要求,以避免重新创建“援助有受抚养子女的家庭”计划)和恢复平民保育团,让军队在培训中发挥重要作用(复制最初的平民保育团的成功,避免约翰逊政府的就业团的经验,该团将青少年犯罪者聚集在城市的高层建筑中)。新收入的绝大部分应该用于减少赤字,减少对货币政策、利率和联邦储备委员会的压力。

The political realities are such that an early reconciliation bill before the congressional elections is the only way Congress is likely to enact tax increases. It may be possible to find two or three Republican votes for it if most of the spending programs are stripped out. If this is not done, there will be no new revenues until after the next presidential election, and therefore steadily escalating interest rates with all the consequences those entail.

从政治现实来看,在国会选举前尽早提出和解法案是国会可能颁布增税举措的唯一途径。如果大部分支出项目被剥离出来,可能会找到两到三张共和党的赞成票。如果不这样做,在下一次总统选举之前,将不会有新的收入,因此,利率将稳步上升,并带来所有后果。

Yet the New Democrats say nothing about the overhang of future budget deficits. Their proposals will not meaningfully address the country’s macroeconomic issues.

然而,新民主党对未来预算赤字的问题只字不提。他们的建议将不会有意义地解决国家的宏观经济问题。

Their microeconomic proposals are similarly trivial. They propose efforts to reform local zoning by withholding federal grant funds pending the submission of state plans for its liberalization. This top-down approach is akin to attempting to put spaghetti through a keyhole, and was utterly ineffective when tried by Education Secretary Arne Duncan during the Obama administration. The logical reform here would be to provide modest tax credits for the installation of second kitchens to create accessory apartments in owner-occupied homes. The pressure to reform zoning would then come from below, not above, and would be far more effective.

他们的微观经济建议同样是微不足道的。他们提议努力改革地方分区,在各州提交自由化计划之前,扣留联邦拨款资金。这种自上而下的方法类似于试图把意大利面条塞进钥匙孔,在奥巴马政府期间,教育部长阿恩·邓肯的尝试是完全无效的。合理的改革是为安装第二厨房提供适度的税收抵免,以在自住房屋中创建附属公寓。这样一来,改革分区的压力就会来自下面,而不是上面,而且会有效得多。

In the realm of education, there are pious gestures toward more apprenticeships and vocational education. There is no attention to the more fundamental reforms instituted by Britain, Australia, and New Zealand: a requirement that there be a community board for each school; that not more than one term of education-methods courses be required as a condition of a teaching license so as not to exclude 90 percent of college graduates from the teaching force; that there be extra pay for teachers in scarce disciplines; and that the supply of high-school science and computer-science teachers be increased by special immigration provisions for Eastern European, South Asian, and Far Eastern science graduates committed to high-school teaching.

在教育领域,人们对更多的学徒和职业教育作出了虔诚的姿态。没有人注意到英国、澳大利亚和新西兰进行的更基本的改革:要求每所学校有一个社区委员会;要求不超过一个学期的教育方法课程作为教师执照的条件,以便不把90%的大学毕业生排除在教师队伍之外;为稀缺学科的教师提供额外的报酬;通过为致力于高中教学的东欧、南亚和远东科学毕业生提供特殊的移民条款,增加高中科学和计算机科学教师的供应。

Many of the proposals are exercises in self-parody, for example, the call to manipulate shipping rates without repealing the Jones Act, which bars foreign vessels from coastal shipping and is beloved by the unxs. The program as a whole is a declaration of intellectual bankruptcy. It will not, even if adopted, curb inflation so long as tax revenues and domestic energy supply are constrained. It is an exercise in evasion, the product of soft minds—or cynical ones.

许多建议都是自我嘲弄,例如,呼吁在不废除《琼斯法案》的情况下操纵航运费,该法案禁止外国船只从事沿海航运,从而受到了工会的欢迎。该计划作为一个整体,宣告了智力上的破产。只要税收和国内能源供应受到限制,即使它被采纳,也不会遏制通货膨胀。它是一种逃避行为,是软弱的思想——或者说是愤世嫉俗的思想的产物。