Who's the genius?

I agree with my friend Billy Beck: Jane Galt is hardly a genius for pointing out the obvious about Democrats' concept of "fiscal responsibility." One of the comments on Jane's blog was spot-on:

Likewise, I'm still awaiting plaudits for my prediction that the sun would rise in the East today....

Back in October 2005, after Jane's original prediction except that I never read it, I debunked the concept of "oil independence" and exposed the Democrats (not a hard thing to do) as opportunists for harping on it. Three decades after the first oil crisis, now they start talking about reducing our oil imports?

Before discussing the energy issues, I want to emphasize the differences between supply-side Reaganomics and Democrats' approach to reducing federal budget deficits. Democrats want to hike taxes to continue massive federal spending, exemplified by John Kerry's fallacious campaign proposals to treat the top 1% like Santa Claus (but excluding him and his wife, who throw their money into tax-free investments and tax shelters to avoid the higher taxes they call for). And recently, Barbara Boxer all but admitted, in a form e-mail to Eric Cowperthwaite, that she doesn't want to cut pork and instead wants to raise taxes on the "wealthy." The plan to "tax the rich more to balance the budget" plan may sound "fiscally responsible," but it will stagnate the economy as the rich cut back on producing, which I've explained indeed trickles down and destroys jobs for everyone. Reagan, in stark contrast, advocated cutting taxes and cutting spending even more to promote economic growth and balance the federal budget. Unfortunately the Democrat-controlled Congresses, just like today, never wanted to cut back on spending. More unfortunately, George W. Bush and the Republican Congresses have really blown it with their own spending binges, but that's something to talk about another day.

What I said wasn't new either. A little different from what others have said before me, but still nothing new if you think about it. Two years ago, I went further than Jane and explained why tax hikes on the rich are bad for everyone. Though I didn't identify it as the basis of Democrats' plan for "fiscal responsibility," I explained that taxes on "the rich" only deprive the rest of the people of money for business investment (i.e. jobs) and loans.

However, while one shouldn't praise oneself and seek accolades for what isn't a fresh observation, one can certainly offer rephrased commentary in the hope of reaching one more person in just the right way. It's said that the devil will tell you a thousand truths to slip in one lie, so I'll add that perhaps if you tell someone the truth a thousand times, he'll finally believe it.