Political Parties On The Economy
Are all parties officially against tax increases?
All parties are not officially against tax increases. The Republican Party generally has an anti-tax stance, or more of a lower taxes stance. At the national level though, certain governors like Mike Huckeby who raise taxes, even though he's a Republican governor. The Democratic Party I think overall does not have an anti-tax or is against raising taxes. They are okay with raising taxes. They generally package it or they propose it has raising taxes on upper class incomes, and not middle class. And keeping middle class incomes either the same or lowering taxes on middle class incomes. So everybody is against raising taxes on the lower and middle class. The question is taxes on the upper middle class and the upper class, or higher income people, and corporations. Whether we raise taxes on them or not. And the Democratics are more in favour of raising taxes on them to pay for budget short falls and government services. And the Republicans are definitely less in favour to; against raising taxes on upper income earners, businesses and corporations.
What are the major party positions on the trade deficit?
The two major parties, both in agreement that budget deficits are less than desirable. The Democratic party tends to look at budget deficits and their first approach is to raise taxes, before cutting spending on social services, welfare programs, government services, that sort of thing. The Republican party kind of takes the opposite stance, where they're more willing to cut spending first, and looks at raising taxes, as a secondary or last option. So, they both kind of dislike budget deficits. The Republicans want to cut spending to overcome them. The Democrats would prefer to raise taxes, at least a little bit than to cut spending on social programs.
How are the major parties responding to unemployment?
The Republican Party's response to unemployment, or at least a conservative free market approach, stems from the Reagan legacy. The idea that you put less regulation or you cut taxes, at the high end and they will use that money to create jobs through new ideas, create corporations, and create jobs. So you kind of free up the job makers, the businesses, then they will create jobs, and that's one of the first ways that Republicans look to work with unemployment. So they say oh there's unemployment let's cut taxes. Democrats kind of look more towards government creating jobs, less on cutting taxes and more along the lines of finding ways for government to be involved in creating jobs. So a lot of times when there is unemployment Democrats will come out, a Democratic politician or candidate, will come out with a proposal for a new funding program for some project in a particular district or something else that's suffering from unemployment or they'll propose, they'll unveil something for increased law enforcement or more teachers or these other ideas of creating jobs, more of a direct approach in that sense.
Which parties want to increase the minimum wage?
Starting with the democratic party which has the strong union wing to there labor force, to there constituency to there party for the long time now democratic party definitely much more in favor of increase the minimum wage that the republican party, it was long with there historic legacy of worker rights, supporting blue collar or the lower income family and workers, where as the republican party views increasing minimum wage as intrusion into the free market, as an arbitrary floor to wage prices the kind of intrudes into the supply of demand of the labor force and there's argument long under the republican party alliances, you lost jobs by arbritalian trading because of people who act the pay, people more will cut there work force nor combined or come to there unattended consequences because you haven't account to the free market, where as the democratic parties much more willing to look out there dirty families, low income, if we raise the minimum wage they wont directly make more money and they would be in a better position.
How has the mortgage crisis affected party positions?
The mortgage crisis is a relatively recent phenomenon. The political parties, Democrats and Republicans alike, their first response when changes like this happen is to take events on the ground, take something that's happened and use that in support of positions they already have. So, the mortgage crisis is there. The Republicans will say, “We need to cut taxes and give people more spending power.” The Democrats will say, “We need to regulate the lending industry more because the sub-prime creditors were taking advantage of these people that were looking for a rate and they weren't fully informed.” The Republicans will spin an economic event like a housing market crash into a support for free market economics. And the Democrats will take that event and try to spin it in support for government intervention into the free market.
How has outsourcing affected party positions?
(The) Democratic party in terms of outsourcing is more willing to view outsourcing as a problem; much more willing to prioritizing it as a problem and part of this has to do with the strong labor wing of the Democratic party; the unions being a strong part of the Democratic party and the unions wanting to keep jobs here in America with American labor force. The Republican party is much more willing to take a free market approach to this or a laissez faire approach which is the idea that, you know, yes these jobs are being outsourced but in response, if competent people are doing these jobs for cheaper--which means that the end product is going to be cheaper as well and so Americans win out in the long run because although jobs are lost, those people can be re-trained for better educated or higher trained positions or so forth and the end result is going to be products that are made more efficiently or cheaper. Now, again, this is not one of those issues that we can easily divide all Democrats and all Republicans on; there's definitely many Republicans, especially part of their constituency in the South, which sends me more blue collar working class and in the Mid West who does not like outsourcing and there's lots of Republicans who have to treat outsourcing as a problem so that becomes an issue on that sense.
