Investors want growth

Richard Gilder & Thomas Rhodes, co-chairmen of the Club for Growth, a political action committee in Washington, argued on July 16th for pro-growth strategies--and they are absolutely right. This is the REAL way to "protect" investors: clear the way for economic growth. Will the Bush administration have the strength to follow their advice? I strongy doubt it.

The investor voters who elected George W. Bush and Republicans in Congress are getting restless. Has anyone in Washington noticed the market collapse? The losses are approaching $3 trillion. Yesterday, the dollar fell below parity with the euro for the first time in more than two years, reflecting the investment community's loss of confidence in the U.S. economy; the unemployment rate grew again last month; household debt is rising rapidly; and the states are in their worst fiscal shape in a decade. Consumer confidence is sagging, unusual in the first stages of a "recovery." Yes, there are some positive signs, but the optimism of earlier this year is long gone.

Transfixed on terrorism and corporate corruption, the Bush White House should remember that since 1900 no president has been re-elected in a stock market with such poor performance. To emerge from our economic miasma, the Republicans must advance economic growth policies -- off the table since the passage of the Bush tax cut in April 2001.

They'll get no help from the Daschle Democrats, who oppose speeding up the Bush tax rate cuts; oppose reducing the capital gains tax (permanently or even temporarily); oppose death tax repeal; oppose deregulation of the telecommunications markets; oppose expanding free trade; oppose common sense litigation reform and reasonable expenditure caps to control a runaway federal budget. They believe there is political gain to be gleaned from continued economic turmoil, for the Republicans will be blamed. Do the congressional Democrats understand or care that the damage from a double-dip recession will hit hardest America's most vulnerable -- the poor?

The Daschle Gang is already on the warpath blaming President Bush for the poor economy; blaming him for the absence of bipartisanship; blaming him for the reemergence of deficits and for corporate executives' malfeasance. These howls will grow louder and more persistent as the midterm election nears -- especially if the economy doesn't show signs of improvement.

Here is a tax package that can rally the economy and the market: