To listen to the Democrats talk, any cuts in spending will destroy not only our fragile economy, but the entire balance of the universe.
If only there were a small, isolated island where those crazy conservative theories could be tested. You know, somewhere like Puerto Rico.
ChicksOnTheRight.com has a story that surprised the hell out of us. In a good way.
BEHOLD: Gov. Luis Fortuno, from Puerto Rico, who is basically like the photo negative of Obama. I mean, yes, they are similar in that they came into office at exactly the same time, and they both faced seriously troubling economic issues. The U.S. had a 7.6% unemployement rate when Obama was sworn in, and Puerto Rico’s unemployment rate was 9.4%. But the way that Fortuno responded to Puerto Rico’s fiscal woes was the POLAR OPPOSITE of how Obama responded.
Fortuno, the first Republican governor in PR since 1969, didn’t call for a gigantic stimulus the moment he took office. He didn’t ask for a bailout. Nope – instead, he cut government expenses by 20%, including a salary reduction for himself of 10%. He cut government perks (cars, cell phones, credit cards) by 10%. He eliminated 17,000 government jobs, and he streamlined services by making more of them available on line. He cut the corporate tax rate from 41% to 30%, and it’ll go down another 5% in 3 years. He’s cutting individual tax rates by 29% starting in 2013.
And in just two years, the deficit in PR has shrunk from 44% of revenues to only 11%. Compare that to Obama, who’s managed in that same time to increase the deficit and debt by TRILLIONS of dollars, by growing government.
And the Democrats’ answer is, “Yeah, but … yeah, but … yeah, but …”
Source: ChicksOnTheRight.com
