Can Angela Merkel Be Our President For Just A Little While, Please?

By Bill ~ June 30th, 2009 @ 7:57 pm

German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to cut taxes, in spite of the country’s soaring budget deficit. Lower incomes taxes would “provide motivation” and encourage economic growth, Ms. Merkel told a conference of her party, the Christian Democratic Union, and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union. “It would be wrong not to do what is right and necessary for growth, and so prevent ourselves emerging quickly from this crisis,” Ms. Merkel said in her conference speech.

The left-leaning Social Democrats, who govern Germany as part of Ms. Merkel’s awkward bipartisan coalition but who are campaigning against her in the election, have mocked the Christian Democrat’s tax-cutting promises, saying the money isn’t there at a time when Germany is racking up record public debt to tackle its deepest recession in the postwar era. Does Socialist Democrats mocking Christians sound familiar? Socialists just don’t understand that when you let people keep more of their money, they work harder to earn more and in the long run, that means more tax revenue. Ronald Reagan proved it, and so did John Kennedy.

While Ms. Merkel has repeatedly ruled out the possibility of tax increases in the event she wins reelection, the Social Democrats are pushing for tax increases. Ms. Merkel says that the German economy wouldn’t be able to deal with the burden of higher taxes when it is struggling to regain some growth momentum. The Social Democrats call tax cuts “tax gifts”. With a growing budget deficit, it will be difficult for Ms. Merkel to stand up to the pressure to raise taxes, but if anyone can do it, my hero can. I ask once again, “Can Angela Merkel be our president for just a little while? She gets it.