RUSH: Paul in Westerville, Ohio, thank you for calling, sir. It’s nice to have you here.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Greetings from snowy central Ohio, your friend John Kasich Country.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much from 79 degrees and sunny south Florida.
CALLER: I have a proposal for you to make a little tweaking on your 54-46 proposal with Obama.
RUSH: Yes, sir?
CALLER: You had proposed a major change in the capital gains rates, and I would generally agree with you. But because many, many people have capital gain carry-forward losses that will last them a lifetime, you might want to consider adjusting that and changing it to a proposal where all IRA distributions from all types of IRAs become nontaxable. Because your capital gain one, while in theory is great, on the practical basis, isn’t going to have much effect, unfortunately.
RUSH: And you’re saying this because the market has been wiped out. It’s going to take years for people’s portfolios to rebound to a positive or plus side, so they’re not going to be having any capital gains?
CALLER: Exactly. I don’t know if I have enough years left to live to utilize my capital loss…
RUSH: Well, but here’s why I’m thinking about it. You’re thinking about people now.
CALLER: Correct.
RUSH: What’s happened is a tremendous number of people have gotten out of the market. Now, at some point they’re going to come back in. There are a lot of people that think we are near the bottom. They are hoping so.
CALLER: But even though those people who have gotten out likely have incurred capital losses.
RUSH: Right. But forget them for just a second.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: We’re gonna handle it. Those people also may have lost their jobs. There are many aspects to this. But if people get into the market, if people go back into the market and buy new at these levels, you think it won’t spur people getting back in? Do you think a two- or three hundred-point-a-day increase in the Dow Jones Industrial Average will not indicate some degree of confidence elsewhere in the economy? I know the market’s not always a leading indicator of economic activity good or bad, but this is designed to get people back in it, rather than getting out of it. I understand what you’re saying. It’s an excellent point.