Obama Will Plunge US Into Recession

Barack Obama’s campaign promises on the economy—particularly on taxes and trade—would be a disaster for Americans at all income levels, an adviser to the first President Bush writes in the Wall Street Journal. On “tax, spending, energy, regulatory, and trade policy, if the proposals espoused by candidate Obama ever became law, the American economy would suffer a serious setback,” Michael Boskin says.

Obama’s “startling economic illiteracy” stands in contrast to his spoken eloquence, Boskin writes, citing plans that would reduce after-tax income in the highest brackets by one-third, raise dividend-tax rates by 15% and promote protectionism by reducing trade liberalization. Raising the specter of the Great Depression, he concludes, “while such a policy mix would be a real change … change is not always progress.” (More taxes stories.)