RUSH: Ed Morrissey writing at HotAir.com: ”Is China Now More Capitalist Than the US?’ — In response to the financial crisis of 2008, the United States has responded by nationalizing industries and electing a president who promised to raise taxes on entrepreneurial efforts. China, the nominally Communist nation, has responded,’ to its economic crisis, ‘by cutting business taxes to stimulate growth. Remind me which nation supposedly supports capitalism and free enterprise.’ Here’s the story: ‘China may soon cut business tax as part of its efforts to prop up the slowing economy amid the global financial crisis, state media reported on Tuesday. The government is ‘very likely’ to soon cut the business tax for enterprises by one percentage point, the China Daily said, citing an unnamed source close to policymakers. China’s current business tax varies from three to 20 per cent, boosting government revenue by 600 billion yuan (S$131 billion) last year, according to the paper. The news follows other state press reports last week that Beijing was planning to cut business tax for commercial banks — possibly to three percent from the current five percent, to help improve their capital adequacy.’
Mr. Morrissey concludes, he’s exactly right, ‘When one looks to Beijing for rational tax policies … well, that’s just a sad day for Americans, even if it does portend a brighter future for China.’ Now, given all of this, here is what China should do to finish us off. You heard me right. Here is what China should do to finish us off. China should say to Barack Obama, ‘If you, United States, will sign a strong Kyoto treaty, and if you will pass a cap-and-trade system to help these emissions and save the planet, then we, the ChiComs, will, too.’ The ChiComs could solemnly declare that global warming is the world’s number one and only problem and promise its commitment to the issue. Forget India. If the United States will do these two simple things, the ChiComs could say, ‘Then so will we, the Chinese.’ And of course Obama has been pointing to China and, you know, during the Olympics, (doing Obama impression) ‘Well, I really think we have a lot to learn from China, all that infrastructure, really, really good infrastructure.’ He looks at China, he sees the wrong things. I’m serious.
If the ChiComs want to bury us, if they want to end us once and for all, they can do two things. They can come out as the biggest supporters of cap-and-trade and the Kyoto accords and tell Barack Obama that if he’ll go along with it and get this treaty signed and so forth and get it ratified in the Senate, that the ChiComs will do the same thing, and we all know one thing. The United States would then go belly up. ChiComs would not. ChiComs will not live up to the treaty. We will, because Obama can’t wait to do it anyway. Obama can’t wait to do all this stuff. If the Chinese really want to finish us off, all they gotta do is play right into Obama’s stated desires when it comes to the environment. Then after they do that they could call all the Treasury debt that they own. If you think the ChiComs would not like to take us out, particularly without firing a shot, if you think the rest of the world would not like to take out what they think is the lone remaining superpower — ‘But, Rush, but, Rush, don’t they need our economy?’ In the state it’s in now? You don’t think the ChiComs would like to become the economy we are? You don’t think a lot of other countries would like to become the economy we are?