Hillary McGovern (Opinion / Editorial)
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 10/1/2007

Entitlements: Political candidates routinely do the obligatory baby-kissing. Hillary Clinton wants to give each baby a check. Never mind that she'll get the money by raising their parents' taxes.

George McGovern, who parlayed his $1,000-in-every-pot proposal into a 49-state loss in 1972, should sue for copyright infringement after Sen. Clinton told the Congressional Black Caucus' annual legislative conference that every baby born in America should be given a $5,000 "baby bond."

Actually, Hillary's $5,000 is just McGovern's $1,000 adjusted for inflation. McGovern's $1,000 was equivalent in 2006 to $4,808.90. By the time she is sworn in, she should be right on the mark.

Hillary argued that wealthy people "get to have all kinds of tax incentives to save, but most people can't afford to do that."

So her "baby bond" is designed to give the kids of people who can't afford to save "a $5,000 account that will grow over time, so that when that person turns 18 if they have finished high school they will be able to access it to go to college or maybe they will be able to make that down payment on that first home."

But to pay for that home they will have to go to work and pay taxes. Hillary doesn't propose cutting their taxes or those of their parents. Nor does she propose increasing the dependent deduction on their federal tax form.

What Clinton proposes is another brick in the cradle-to-grave wall envisioned by liberals — paid for by ever-rising taxes.

The recently passed (and, hopefully, soon to be vetoed) SCHIP expansion is a case in point. It will provide health insurance both to children of illegal aliens and to those who not only don't need government help with their insurance, but indeed already have private insurance.

As a result, many will drop their private insurance to get this government gift, financed in part by a regressive cigarette tax to be paid largely by America's working poor.

We don't know if Clinton proposes to give these bonds to the children of illegal aliens or whether these tooth-fairy-on-steroids payouts will be means-tested.

If a Paris Hilton or a Britney Spears has a child, do they get a check paid for in part by a single-mom waitress in Dubuque?

Clinton hasn't said yet how she would pay for this huge new entitlement, and it is huge.

In 2004 (the latest year for which official figures are available), there were 4,116,000 live births in the United States. That works out to a current price of $21 billion per year, every year. It is an amount that will get bigger, particularly if illegal immigration is allowed to increase unimpeded.

Since we now have a budget deficit, this $21-billion-plus new entitlement will have to be funded by borrowing.

So the $5,000 savings "gift" in fact is a government loan to each new baby, payable in full through their taxes when they grow up.

Happy Birthday!

If Hillary really wanted to help people save for the future and help their children succeed in life, she wouldn't copy McGovern's proposal to bribe people with their own money.

She should support making the Bush tax cuts permanent as well as the president's plan to let workers invest a portion of their payroll taxes in private accounts where they can accumulate wealth to be passed on to their heirs.

Personal retirement accounts would be the greatest anti-poverty program ever devised, allowing low-income workers to accumulate wealth and pass it on.

You can give each baby a check, or you can create an environment in which they can create their own wealth, keep more of what they earn and then give it to their kids instead of the government.

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