November 15, 2005
Beware the Wrath of the Investor Class
By Lawrence
Kudlow
A brand new, hot-off-the-press survey shows that the American
investor class continues to grow by leaps and bounds. In the last
three years, the number of families owning stocks has risen to
56.9 million from 54.1 million, meaning that nearly 60 percent
of U.S. households are invested in equities today. That number
is even more striking when you look back twenty years, when only
a fifth of households were card-carrying members of the investor
class. The Investment Company Institute, one of the sponsors of
the survey (which was based on five thousand interviews), proclaims
that the U.S. has "become a society of equity investors." The
Securities Industry Association, another survey sponsor, believes
that these trends will only intensify with the aging of the post-war
baby-boom generation.
With the House and Senate now weighing crucial votes on whether
to make permanent the 15 percent tax rates on investor dividends
and capital gains, you'd think our elected officials would be
considering the needs of America's stock-owning families. But
the Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi Democrats continue to oppose these
tax cuts as nothing more than sops to the rich. Are they saying
that three-fifths of American families are rich? Zogby polling
shows that nearly all Americans -- 93 percent -- earning $75,000
a year or more own stocks. They can't all be rich. And how about
those earning up to $75,000 a year? In this group, more than half,
or 56 percent, own shares. Of those earning below $50,000 a year
-- a group that in the aggregate pays very little in taxes overall
-- 30 percent own stocks.
The "tax cuts for the rich" argument just gets weaker and weaker
as the investment class gets larger and larger.
The Republican Congress, meanwhile, can't seem to get the job
done either. Instead of winning one for the investor class, a
vital part of their base, GOP politicians in Washington are attacking
oil companies (whose shares are widely owned), reneging (perhaps)
on the tax-cut extenders, and coming up blank on offering a strong
budget-cutting plan. This is not yet a Republican crack-up, but
it's perilously close to becoming one.
The good news for the GOP is that Democrats continue to disrespect
the investor class. But the bad news is that by failing to enact
higher after-tax rewards for investors and job-creating capital
formation in the overall economy, Republicans may be alienating
their most natural supporters. In recent elections, nearly two
out of every three voters were stock owners. Where will they turn
if the Republicans they put into office no longer represent them?
In a recent speech to the Washington Economics Club, President
Bush again expressed his strong support for investor-class tax
cuts, and also for the necessity of additional spending cuts.
But is one speech sufficient to make the case, and to really put
the heat on Congress? I don't think so. Good political marketing
requires message repetition. Bush must make the investor-class
case again and again, day after day, as Congress considers key
votes on budget and tax policy. He must give voice to the investor
class, becoming their representative in Washington; their advocate
general. He must make it clear to the tone-deaf Republican majorities
in both houses of Congress that they risk an electoral overthrow
a year from now if they don't heed the call of America's stock-owning
families.
It really has come to this breaking point. IRA and 401(k) owners
are getting fed up with GOP recalcitrance. Nearly two-thirds of
respondents to a recent CNBC poll actually believe that a Democratic
majority in the House would be bullish for stocks. In other words,
gridlock might be better than Republican government.
Polls like this, and perhaps the Democratic gains in the election
earlier this month, are bad straws in the wind for the Bush vision
of ownership, individual choice, and growth economics. Investors
are risk takers and they know how to trade. If they see a stock
in decline they will sell it. And they just may short the GOP
unless they see a major turnaround in that company's management
and performance.
Lawrence
Kudlow is a former Reagan economic advisor, a syndicated columnist,
and the co-host of CNBC's Kudlow
& Company. Visit
his blog, Kudlow's Money
Politics.
