Press Release: Legal Lines with Locke Meredith
Buddy Roemer Show # 105
Attorney Locke Meredith and former Governor of Louisiana, Buddy Roemer, discuss the current state of the Federal and State economies. Roemer has a Masters Degree in Economics and Banking from Harvard.
Roemer believes the Atlantic coast from Maryland and Virginia down to Florida, as well as the Gulf South to be two regions that will flourish over the next twenty-five years. Due to eight deep-water ports, the Mississippi River, and natural gas, he has confidence in the Gulf South especially. Roemer believes Louisiana is in a good standing due to good location and good leadership, especially Governor Bobby Jindal, and our good young leadership in Congress.
Roemer believes the nation as a whole needs to shape up its financial, fiscal, and monetary policies in the long term, in order to create jobs in America. Spending money we don’t have, he believes, will lead to a mountain of debt or an increase in taxes. Roemer suggests lowering the capital gains tax to help give the nation a boost. Roemer then discusses the rapidly growing national debt, rising from 2.1 trillion dollars in 2000 to 13.4 trillion currently. Roemer calls for less Federal spending, in the form of fewer programs.
Roemer then suggests specific ways to fix the problems our nation faces. A multi-year budget, lasting four to five years is his first suggestion. He then discusses his budget that he suggested to the Louisiana government when he served in Congress starting 1980. By asking every Congressman to give back one project, he balanced the State budge three years in a row. Roemer calls for party cooperation, and everyone giving up a project, in order to have a long-term view on budgeting. Cutting taxes on small businesses is another recommendation he makes. Leadership is another thing Roemer says we need, a leader who will stand not for re-election but for less regulation and more competition between businesses.
Roemer then discusses how lowering taxes ultimately helps everybody. Twenty-six percent of GDP is controlled by the Federal Government. Roemer believes we need to cut taxes and reduce this number, as well as to stop borrowing money from China.
The next part of the discussion turns toward how the state of the American economy is affecting us here in Louisiana, close to home. Roemer talks about the importance of small businesses to our economy, nationally. Eighty percent of all jobs in America in the past twenty-five years are from small businesses, that is businesses with less than 500 employees. Lower and more stable taxes for these businesses will let them grow, he suggests.
America’s Credit Crisis in the next topic. Roemer explains that three million Americans borrowed money for a national average of a two hundred and forty thousand dollar home, and never made their first payment. Due to enticements and loose lending by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, people were sucked in. These bad loans were sold and re-sold to other institutions, passing the blame along.
What will happen if these problems are not dealt with? Roemer believes we are headed for a “tsunami of high interest rates.”
In summary, Roemer believes we need: a President who will lead, a multi-year budget, lower taxes on small businesses, and to convince the big banks that they are not too big to fail.
