Many of my Republican friends are wringing their hands about the cost of undertaking these efforts. I agree that much of the cost could be paid for by reducing other nonessential discretionary federal spending - starting with repeal of the 6,000-plus pork-barrel projects contained in the recently enacted transportation bill - which has gotten completely out of control. I endorse the idea of across-the-board spending cuts on nonsecurity and nonentitlement accounts being proposed by congressional conservatives. The Republican Study Committee should be commended for coming up with Operation Offset, which identifies some $50 billion in corporate pork and $300 billion in overall discretionary spending that should be delayed, if not eliminated outright.
Is $100 billion to $150 billion a lot of money? Of course it is. But as my colleague at the Free Enterprise Fund, Larry Kudlow, points out, it is an amount our $13 trillion economy easily can shoulder.
As Kudlow points out, "Yes, the budget deficit will rise for a year or two, from roughly 2.5 percent of GDP to perhaps 4 percent. Big deal. The very bond markets that actually do the financing have shrugged the spending off, with Treasury issues continuing to trade around 4.25 percent. There was no 'spiking up' of long-run interest rates that might suggest a financial crisis. The stock markets, meanwhile, just registered their best third quarter in seven years."
If you want to see the best video of humanitarian assistance music in recent years, go to www.habitat.org and watch Wynona Judd, Michael McDonald, Eric Benet and Terry Dexter sing "One Heart at a Time." Let's match it with one Habitat home at a time until this renaissance takes place all over Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana for the victims of Katrina and Rita. Let's combat poverty with education, homeownership and jobs.
Jack Kemp is founder and chairman of Kemp Partners and honorary co-chairman of the Free Enterprise Fund. Contact him at jack.kemp@copleynews.com.