It is impossible for candidates to differ more on economics than Barack Obama and Mitt Romey do, Fox News contributor Stephen Moore said Monday.
“This is the most important election since the 1980 election because the differences between these two candidates is as large and wide as the Grand Canyon,” said Moore, a Wall Street Journal editorialist.
Moore spoke Monday night in the first lecture of Penn State College Republicans’ Truth Week in Osmond Building.
“Romney wants everyone to pay some amount of taxes but at the lowest rate possible,” Moore said.
In contrast, Penn State College Democrats President Drew McGehrin said Obama’s plan is to “level the playing field” by raising taxes for some and cutting taxes for others.
“He is going to ask a little more from those who can afford it and cut taxes for those who cannot,” McGehrin (senior-religious studies and history) said.
Democrats oppose tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires because these people already pay a lower rate than the average American family, McGehrin said.
But Moore said he believes the rich are already paying their fair share. The top 1 percent of Americans accounts for 20 percent of the nation’s total income, yet they pay 40 percent of the nation’s income tax, he said.
Additionally, Moore said raising tax rates would stifle economic growth. Historically, he said, cutting tax rates has resulted in economic prosperity.
“Every time we have cut taxes in this country in the last 100 years, the economy has expanded, and the share of taxes paid by the rich has increased,” Moore said.
He said when rates are lowered for the wealthy, they are more likely to be forthcoming about their income and will ultimately pay more in taxes. Closing loopholes for the wealthy, combined with the overall expansion of the economy, will cover the revenue lost in the tax cuts, Moore said.
While Moore said Obama has not done enough in his first term to revive the economy, McGehrin said he believes Obama has been steadily improving the economy.
“While we are not where we would like to be, we’re getting there,” McGehrin said.
Moore said he believes former President Ronald Reagan inherited an economy much worse than the one Obama inherited in 2008 but had much better results.
When Reagan was elected in 1980, Moore said, tax rates were extremely high and the economy was suffering. Reagan lowered the marginal, or highest, tax rate by over 40 percent, and the economy boomed, he said.
“The 1980s and 1990s in the United States was the greatest period of wealth creation in the history of civilization,” Moore said.
Moore said a similar economic boom would occur if Romney were elected.
“If we get a regime change in November, we are going to see the biggest economic boom in United States history,” Moore said. “If Obama loses, it will be like taking a champagne bottle, shaking it up and taking the cork out.”
Harry Devine(junior-nuclear engineering), who attended Moore’s lecture, said he thinks that the economy is one of the most important issues of the election, and he wants to be as informed as possible.
“It’s always good to get some outside information,” Devine said.
