Obama Spending vs. Netanyahu Cuts: Who's Right?

With the whole world moving quickly towards socialism, and with government printing presses working 24/7 in order to help print enough money to keep up with all the spending, in Israel the opposite is about to take place. The victory of Benjamin Netanyahu will usher in an era of tax cuts, and less government intervention in the daily lives of citizens, allowing the free market to work as it should.

We will actually have a real life ‘Battle of economic philosophies.’ Keep in mind that the US entered economic Armageddon a full year and a half before Israel did, so first in first out may apply here, but we may get a real feel on which economic system works better.

According to a Bloomberg report: "There will be a certain amount of deterioration before we can turn around the economy’s direction,” Netanyahu said Feb. 23 at a meeting of Likud lawmakers. “We face an economic crisis that we haven’t seen in many years.” Netanyahu, 59, has vowed to lower Israeli taxes as he did as finance minister. He also promised during the campaign to liberalize the real-estate market, saying the Israel Land Administration’s near-monopoly inflates housing costs.

If I was a betting man, I’d take the Netanyahu tax cutting and privatization plan heads down over Obama’s tax hikes, and nationalization of industry.

Netanyahu always said tiny Israel would become one of the world’s richest nations. Everyone used to scoff. Now if tax cuts boost economic activity, Israel will truly turn into a ‘ light unto the nations.’

Comments

[ecliptix543:]

Ok... People need to stop calling this a move towards socialism. It is the continuance of fascism. If it were socialism, the citizens would be getting the help to the detriment of corporations. Since the corporations are getting the help to the detriment of the citizens, this is fascism. Get it right, please.

Feb 27 12:25 PM

[Dave Wrixon:]

Well, Thatcher got Britain out the biggest hole it ever got into, but she didn't necessarily do it the most effective and least painful way. But she did get us out.

It might be that Roosevelt got America out the last one, but I suspect it was circumstance as much as anything.

Frankly, I cannot see Obama getting the US out of this one, and if Netanyahu takes his usual tack he might find himself up the creek without a paddle. I don't think the US is ready to embark on anymore Middle East adventures. And lets face it, strategically both military and economically Israel is pretty small beer and a liability to boot.

Feb 27 02:43 PM

[Hannibal_Barca:]

Ostensibly the author's desiderata to place the relatively insignificant Israel upon a theoretically superior position to the world's most prodigious economy is specious at best, egregiously myopic, in most likelihood.

Feb 28 08:34 AM

[fireball:]

have to agree with the author. more socialism, fascism, communism, is the wrong direction. i have heard many definitions of the 3 terms. i will go by what engles and marx said since they coined the term communism to replace the (unpopular at the time) term socialism. nazi germany was national socialist.
i think israel has pretty well established with the muslims surrounding them that terrorism is their only course. a stand up fight with troops has been an embarassment to islam every time.
i consider israel important as a focal point of the world's attention. it will be interesting to watch.

Feb 28 09:07 AM

[mangiamillie:]

Netanyahu said "It’s 1938, and Iran is Germany, and Iran is racing to arm itself with atomic bombs”. I beg to differ. Israel is like 1938 Germany and it has its atomic weapons in place to wipe out its neighbors.

Feb 28 09:57 AM

[Ferdinand E...:]

Hmm. There were a couple of scholars from Israel at one of the universities where I taught in Australia, and when I asked one of them about an Israeli song that went 'Anywhere, everywhere we go, it will be you, me and the next war', he said that without war Israel might fall apart. Maybe he was right, and maybe he was wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was Mr N's favorite tune. Put another way, there must be something wrong with the world when people like Netanyahu becomes head of the government in a country filled with brilliant men and women.

Feb 28 10:02 AM

[GMC:]

As far as Obama's "tax and spend" course, (how's that for inflationary rhetoric? Kind of sounds like Netanyahu comparing Iran to Nazi germany doesn't it?), he hopes that inflation will once again bring housing prices "in-line" (way overpriced) and things will be "back on track" (ridiculously over-hyped) and the huge taxes we will be paying won't seem like so much because we'll all be earning million dollar salaries. We're just borrowing our children's prosperity again, same as generations did it before us. I for one don't really think it can go on forever like this. Someday someone will tell us they can save us from having to pay $1,000 for a loaf of bread and we'll follow him too because "He's so charismatic and he's such a good speaker, blah, blah, blah".
Now I'm going to use inflamatory words here too but please understand they aren't meant to evoke emotion, but rather rational understanding, but doesn't what's happening here sound a lot like what happened in Germany just at the time Htiler came on the scene?

Feb 28 10:11 AM

[DinoN:]

Nat-a-Yahoo is a brainy guy. He can cut taxes because he knows he is covered for any shortfall from Obummer! Very smart move.

Feb 28 01:25 PM

[Alphameister:]

Socialism and fascism are two sides of the same coin. Read Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism" if you'd like to understand the point. Obama and his economically ignorant cohorts in Congress will do their best to make us all equally poor.

Feb 28 05:01 PM

[HALFTRACK:]

Mangiamillie has it right on !!!!!!!! Israel has key persons in the USA government in partial control of the "OBAMA situation "for now until they might need the USA for future deals;but first the "BILDERBERG GROUP of DAVID ROCKERFELLER & ROTHSCHILD AND SONS EMPIRE {IN LONDON} plus other 31 secret organizations of the world ;have decided that we need a 'ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT' to run everything with the UN at the helm [that means no more CONSTITUTION ,RELIGOUS FREEDOMS, SOCIAL SECURITY , MUCH MORE LIKE ""BIG BROTHER OPERATIONS FROM HERE ON IN FOLKS !!" WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ADD MORE FIAT MONEY TO THE USA TOTAL =YOUR MONEY LOSES MORE VALUE EVERYTIME -PRETTY SOON ITS NOTHING MORE THAN TOILET PAPER =ITS NOW 3XS MORE COSTLY TO BUY AVERAGE DRUG STORE ITEMS AND GROCERIES TOO!!!!!

Feb 28 07:48 PM

[Bill Jencks:]

It really exasperates me when American investors attempt to talk economics. Inevitably phrases like "creeping socialism...' and 'dangerous liberal policies...' and the like creep into the argument.

So let's be clear. Economics is a pure science and politics is not a pure science, very dirty at best. Politics and political thinking have very little to do with a successful economic solution. This is why Presidents are lawyers, successful businessmen and not economists. You could probably count the number of real economists in the Senate and The Congress on your thumbs(..and that's in a good year).

And who cares whether an economic policy is judged socialist, liberal or even communist - just so long as the solution WORKS !!

China's banks are all nationalized and run by a communist government. It also seems that all the banks in China - unlike the US banks are lending like crazy now, China's economy is turning for the good and is likely to come out of the financial crisis first and on turbo. Is this, therefore bad economics?

So what do people want here ? Do you want to come out of this economic crisis or not?

Or will you only be satisfied with a purely democratic economic solution(..if there is such a laughable entity)?

Feb 28 11:03 PM

[rickshaw:]

Israel is treating Palestinians like Hitler treated Jews.

Feb 28 11:14 PM

[CLH:]

Israel started with socialism and it failed. They are now a capitalistic society. Americas need to go to socialism can only lead to disaster.

Mar 01 07:36 AM

[MauDib:]

The popular trend appears to be to carve out a Palestinian state out of Israel so that the terrorist-sheltering Arab govt can be right next door. I just cannot see the logic, but I am not from Arkansas.

Mar 03 09:29 PM