This is what it looks like when someone puts up a serious plan with numbers to back up their positions.
Yay.
On the simplistic breakdown first:
*Cutting $1 trillion in one year will hurt a lot. I'm not saying it's not a good thing in the long run, but it'll certainly be bad in the short run. If a business that spent a trillion dollars a year suddenly stopped spending that money, it would have a huge ripple effect on the world economy. Still, it's a scary thought that so many are dependent on one thing (no matter how you feel about the role of government), so making the economy more independent from big government is a good idea. I just wouldn't do the transition in one year (especially right now).
*Cutting regulation should make up for some of the negative effects of cutting spending. You won't reduce the costs of regulation to make up 1 trillion dollars, but it'll certainly help.
*The bully pulpit has not proven itself at all effective in at least George Bush or Barack Obama's presidencies. Bush tried it on his social security reform and failed. Obama is trying it with his jobs bill and it is not yet doing anything. I don't see Ron Paul as having a better ability to bully Congress into action.
*The power of the veto may work better because Paul will obviously use it in a consistent and principled way. It could just end up with nothing happening at all, however, unless 2/3s of Congress can come up with a compromise that isn't what Paul wants.
*Changing entitlement spending to block grants could be good because it will create competition on who can come up with the best plan. But it also might hurt people as states could be more interested in cutting costs than providing the best service.
*Cutting the federal workforce by 10% is definitely good as a long-term goal, but it'll certainly hurt the economy by massively increasing unemployment.
*He can't cut the pay of Congress in one year. He can have Congress change the pay for the second two years.
*I support the idea of a $40K/year presidential salary. The President does have tons of expenses (he has to pay for food, including the meals by the White House chef). Supposedly, the President has $50K/year in expenses. But the President can learn to spend less.
*Moving the capital gains tax to zero will definitely help investment. But it'll help the people who make their income off of capital gains far, far more. I could question the fairness of it, but instead I'll question whether it could be distortionary to favor investment income far more than other income. It'll spur growth, but it could also increase risk.
OK, that's all on this.
This link is to actual graphs, numbers, charts and whatever you could ever want provided to understand how the plan will achieve its said goal:
http://c3244172.r72.cf0.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/RestoreAmericaPlan.pdf
Looks good to me, looking forward to seeing if the plan is legit.
I'll read those later. I do believe Paul's numbers. Particularly since he predicts government revenue to drop with the drop in taxes. I question his growth predictions slightly (I fear a double dip if one trillion is taken out of the economy in a year). I don't necessarily think they're wrong--I just would like to see some more independent analysis. But Paul's focus isn't on increasing revenue anyway--it's on cutting spending.