Individual Analyses
About the Economic Summit
The Economic Summit is a chance for Economic Advisers to present their political party's view on economic matters. They cover their fiscal and monetary policies, as well as their plans for taxes and addressing the deficit. Another thing covered is their views and plans on several issues such as defense, education, healthcare, and the environment.
Analysis
All the parties seemed to have a thorough understanding of the concepts and implications of tax rate alterations and the way some changes to policies on handling important issues will affect the economy. The Economic Advisers were professional in their delivery and supported their party's theme well.
Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish represented the Party of Thrones as the Economic Adviser. He explains the view of the Party of Thrones to be a very conservative party with their primary focus to be on private businesses and putting money back into America's pocket. Their party hopes to encourage the growth of private businesses, decrease spending and pay back the debt. This decrease of spending is a tight fiscal policy, which has a tax rate increase. However, the Party of Thrones plans to lower the wealth tax. Anyone earning $457,601 or more will pay a tax rate of 39.6 percent. They wanted to lower the wealth tax so older and wealthier citizens could invest in businesses and jobs for the lower classes, a "trickle down" approach to wealth distribution. Petyr Baelish also mention a maximum taxation of thirty-five percent.
Arwen, Queen of Gondor, is the Economic Adviser for the Fellowship of the King Party. They are proposing "The One Proposition", which is related almost entirely to green initiatives as the environment is their primary issue. The One Proposition is will require public properties to have a determined minimum of trees per acre, as well as encourage green roofs by offering a tax reduction as an incentive. This tax reduction would be especially be encouraging on account of the proposed tax increase.
Will Scarlet represented the Robin Hood Party at the Economic Summit on Wednesday the 18th. Scarlet made it clear that the Robin Hood Party’s main goal is wealth equality, as many of their policies and goals focus on raising the lower class, such as the Nottingham Program.
Will represented the Senior Party during the Economic Summit on Thursday, February 19th. Will explained how the Senior Party plans on implementing a fiscal policy. The Senior Party intends on cutting military spending and increasing taxes on the wealthy. They want to lower the nation’s debt and create more jobs by investing in infrastructure.
Eric Forman, Economic Adviser of That 70's Party, explained that That 70's Party plans to implement an expansionary fiscal policy. Their stated goal is to focus on regaining the jobs and economic stability lost during the recession, and they intend to wait until the US economy has made a full recovery before beginning to pay off the national debt.
Each representative also explained what they did and did not support in the way of several issues, taking careful attention to note how their changes would affect the economy. In this analysis they also discussed any additional thoughts on how they would be addressing the deficit and taxes, as well as any policies their party was proposing.
The Party of Thrones supports private education, and plans on cutting the government's spending on public education from $106 billion to $80 billion in order to "expand private education to the smallfolk". The Party of Thrones also wishes to cut the Environmental Protection Act. Doing so will make it easier for businesses and support all their business efforts. Petyr Baelish's party supports the death penalty and wants to try to make it cheaper and simpler by creating shorter waiting periods to save money.
Petyr Baelish also discussed the Party of Throne's plan to allow certain criminals the opportunity to serve their sentence working in the United States for the United States military and defense. They believe this will cost less money and help to rehabilitate non-violent criminals by helping them to learn practical skills. Being a part of the military will not protect them from the draft, but it will allow them to be doing something presumably useful with their incarceration time. Another policy they propose is "MaesterCare", which will replace the Affordable Care Act. Basing their program off of similar Cuban efforts, Petyr Baelish estimated a 100 billion dollar budget. MaesterCare itself is carried out by "Maesters", government trained doctors and educators, in order to increase opportunities for new jobs and to save even more money. Finally, they also proposed an immigration change. If elected, the Party of Thrones plans to construct seven hundred miles of fencing along primarily the Southern border to discourage illegal immigration and make legal border travel a more inviting option. With their outlined changes, the Party of Thrones anticipated a $3.281 trillion revenue and saving money in the aforementioned and outlined budget cuts. Their plans and policies can be summarized best by the term “conservative”, they are for both private education and healthcare and aim to reverse foreign debt. Petyr Baelish stressed the importance of foreign debt by emphasizing the ability for the debt holder to raise the interest at any given time.
The Fellowship of the King plans on implementing an expansionary policy with progressive taxation. To decrease the deficit, there will be the aforementioned gradual tax increases. The wealthier 1 percent of people will see a 5 percent increase, as well as the gradual tax increase and a harsh removal of loop holes. These changes hope to ultimately cut the deficit in half. Because their number one issue is the environment, many of the Fellowship of the King's incentives and initiatives are concerned with reforestation and decreasing pollution. They also explained their support for healthcare to be free for all, they seek to offer free herbal remedies, (to save money), and to have tax payer money go toward paying for necessary modern medicine for those who need it. The Fellowship of the King plans to cut military spending by 4 percent and redirect it to the environment. They believe in a strong military, but plan on directing funds away from nuclear warfare and toward better technology.
The Robin Hood group plans on implementing an expansionary policy in an attempt to encourage economic growth. Robin Hood will also increase spending on education and welfare to strengthen the lower classes, and (hopefully) enabling them to get better jobs. Scarlet also mentioned that they would decrease defense and healthcare spending, as well as maintaining current pension rates. Scarlet also mentioned that the government would increase its investments on small businesses in the future, more on this later.
On the subject of the current government deficit, the Robin Hood Party plans on putting 5 percent of the money gained from a new capital gains tax on the upper 5 percent of the public. This will come from a reorganization of the current capital gain tax rates. The lowest 50 percent of the public will have capital gains taxed at a 10 percent rate, the middle 45 percent at 20 percent, and the upper 5 percent at a 30 percent rate. As far as income tax goes, current rates will be maintained.
The Robin Hood Party’s main initiative is Proposition Nottingham. Nottingham would take up to 25 percent of the capital gains tax (as mentioned above) to be invested in small businesses and startups. Other initiatives include education for all which will loosely follow the German model, with trade skills being encouraged. Robin Hood will also cut subsidies for fracking and increasing subsidies in other places. It should be noted that these “other places” are not specified at this time. An intended theme with these is that they are focused on domestic, not international, issues, which is their justification for cutting defense spending as mentioned earlier.
Will explained how the United States Government spends more money on the military than all of the country combined. By reducing the military spending by 5 percent they plan to save the United States 40 billion dollars. The Senior Party plans on increasing taxes on the wealthy in order to increase the tax revenue and decrease the deficit. The wealthy will have to pay 15 percent on capital gains tax on their investments. By closing the loopholes for the wealthy they plan on gaining 100 billion dollars a year. They also plan on maintaining the current amount of spending for education and lowering health care costs for all. Will says that the lowering of health care will increase the amount of spending. The Senior Party wants to invest more money into infrastructure in order to create more jobs. By increasing jobs there will be more tax revenue income and more discretionary spending. The new job will come from fixing bridges, improving roads and transportation, and other infrastructure that needs help. Will explained how the Senior Party plans on investing in job training and developing/researching renewable energy. The Senior Party plans on increasing capital gain by 25 percent.
Mr. Forman also points to the 1.6% inflation rate (as opposed to the “ideal” 2%) as an additional reason to move forward with a more expansionary policy. In order to further increase public wealth, they propose tax cuts for the lower and middle class, while raising taxes for the upper class to support for increased government spending. That 70’s Party also plans to continue the trend of steadily increasing funding for public education in K-12 schools, but have not stated any plans to improve funding for Jr. high and high schools. Another point of concern for That 70’s Party is the fear that high college tuition prices are driving potential students away, a problem they intend to address by implementing a maximum tuition price. The proposed maximum is $9,000 for in-state college and $22,000 for out-of-state college, both amounts resting at just slightly over the current national average. Mr. Forman also intends to reduce the severity of punishment for petty crimes such as drug possession, replacing federally costly prison time with fines and community service. Finally, That 70’s Party plans to implement feed-in tariffs encouraging homeowners and small businesses to invest in personal renewable energy sources, such as rooftop solar panels, and allowing extra energy to be sold to energy companies.
Overall the all of the parties seemed to do well, taking their plans seriously and being genuine in their interpretation and projections on the effect the propositions would have. After the presentation audience members were able to ask questions much more specific than "Wait, What?" but still general enough that they could be answered quickly and easily by an economic adviser who was on their toes.
While the Party of Thrones generally seemed to take their plans seriously, some of the more drastic plans could have used a better explanation to make them appear more worthwhile and thought through. For example, while they showed great support for businesses and thorough evidence and explanation for taxation changes, they did not give particularly strong reasons for how the large immigration wall could be beneficial. The wall itself in concept was explained, as well as statistics for how well it was likely to work. But the cost and financial gains were not explained and seem too important to skip over.
The strongest points of Arwen's presentation were when she discussed the incentives for wealthier citizens to participate in the changes made to the taxation system. Thinking far enough ahead as to be able to make predictions as to what might encourage citizens to help their country shows a professional foresight that is crucial in forming any successful government aspect. They also had very thorough policies on tax reduction with statistics on how successful each policy has been in other countries. The weakest parts of the presentation were the parts that left questions that never felt answered. One of the more of the unclear points was their views on Climate Change and rising sea-levels. With most groups this topic is trivial, but I would hope that such an environmentally-centered party would address such a pressing issue at some point. The representative seemed generally prepared and clear on the stance for each issue. However, some questions were assisted in the response by an additional party member. Overall the presentation was professional and plans seemed thought through, logical and thorough
While the Robin Hood Party plan has some good points that should benefit America as a whole, like the education reforms and Proposition Nottingham, the information provided in the summit did not address some major issues, like the current debt. Scarlet and his party intend to put just 5 percent of the capital gains tax from the top 5 percent of the public towards reducing the nation’s growing $18 trillion debt. Coupled no change in income tax, the increases in education and welfare spending, and an expansionary fiscal approach, it is possible that the debt may continue to grow. The Robin Hood Party has good intentions with decreasing the wealth gap, but their current economic policy needs some major improvements in other areas.
While the Senior Party has some good plans like increasing jobs and improving transportations, their larger more complex plan does not seem to fit together. Their overall plan does not seem to have been completely thought out. For example, they plan on closing all of the loopholes for tax payers gaining 100 billion dollars a year, but they did not explain how they planned on doing this.
Overall, Mr. Forman’s economic plan seems quite sound, and his presentation was well-prepared and clear. The proposed feed-in tariffs stood out as an exceptionally well thought out proposal, with a clear plan and believable goals. despite these well-planned ideas, their plans for reducing crime penalties bear an unnerving resemblance to California's “three-strikes” law which has recently come under fire for it’s failings, and no efforts to close tax loopholes have yet been announced, which could weaken their tax changes.
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