Economist and best-selling author Pat Choate has crusaded for fiscal responsibility and long-term management in government for many years. He campaigned as the 1996 Reform Party vice-presidential candidate on a platform of responsible spending, balanced international commerce, and government encouragement for domestic employment. He has written several books and news articles on the topic, and his most recent work Saving Capitalism: Keeping America Strong may be his best to date.

In Saving Capitalism Dr. Choate outlines six “game changing” proposals to meet the challenge presented by global competition and get America back on its feet. The first is to impose strict federal supervision of financial markets, refurbishing the regulatory framework destroyed during each presidency from Reagan to George W. Bush.

The second is to replace most income and corporate taxes with a consumption based value-added tax. This would be in line with the practices of every other country on earth and allow the U.S. to raise enough revenue to fund itself and pay down its debt.

The third proposal would be to mandate the import-export balance in the United States, putting an end to 34 consecutive years of trade account deficits which have stripped the U.S. of untold trillions of dollars. Adjusting for inflation the United States has lost over $9 trillion to international trade in the past three decades. This could have been used for productive investment at home, but was instead used to build up other economies all around the world.

Dr. Choate’s fourth proposal is to strengthen the dilapidated social network in the United States by rebuilding employment, education, and health care, and by guaranteeing a living wage to all citizens with an adequate and sustainable pension.

His fifth concept is to reinvest in American infrastructure projects from parks and recreation to transportation improvements. All of this would create millions of jobs in construction, upkeep, maintenance, and staffing for the tens of millions of Americans facing the specter of uncontained unemployment. Similar to the Civilian Conservation Corps of the New Deal-era, these projects would provide benefits to a generation left behind, and to all future generations as well.

Finally, he proposes adopting a long-term national innovation strategy which would not be encumbered by partisan attacks every time one party replaces another in Congress or the White House. By building a consensus for long-term achievement we could invest in opportunities for generations to come.

Print PDF