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Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 431 -- Democrats Are Gearing Up To Enact A Drastic Tax Increase.

Elections Have Consequences-

Is anyone surprised that, according to Gallup, the new Congress now has a 28% approval rating and a 64% disapproval rating, for a net disapproval of 36%?

Care to guess what the net disapproval of Congress was, according to Gallup, during November 2-5 of last year?

37%.

And why wouldn't Congressional approval be low, when Democrats are all over the map on how to undermine American efforts in Iraq, are as hypocritical and corrupt as Duke Cunningham ever was, and are proposing many billions in new spending, much of it pork, while trying to pass the largest tax increase in history.

That last point, the largest tax increase in history, is one that probably has yet to impact the approval/disapproval ratings, given that media attention on the subject has been so muted.

So let's look at some of the numbers.

The Heritage Foundation argues that Senate Democrats are preparing to raise taxes by 900 billion dollars over five years, and 3.3 trillion dollars over ten years.

According to the Evans-Novak Political Report (emailed to my inbox), the Senate tax increase looks something like this:

Meanwhile, again from Robert Novak, the House budget looks something like this:

Another look at the numbers, from The Club For Growth, shows that there are about five different budgets on the table, and most of them are bad:

The Progressive Caucus budget will raise taxes by $943.3 billion over five years; the Congressional Black Caucus by $711.9 billion; the Democratic leadership by $392.5 billion; and the Blue Dog Coalition by $197.8 billion.

A visual look at these various proposals:

The Blue Dog Coalition, by the way, is clearly a joke and a fraud. For years, they've been displaying charts and graphs outside their offices showing how terrible the Republican deficits are, how spending is out of control, how the sky was falling, and so on. Well, as the Blue Dogs have now voted in favor of many billions in pork and other wasteful spending, it's clear their only solution to deficits is raising taxes. In other words, everyone ought to quit pretending these Blue Dogs, many of which are Southerners, are fiscal conservatives. They are anti-trade, pro-tax economic illiterates, which is why they are Democrats.

Americans for Tax Reform notes that the average American, in every single state, will be paying quite a bit more in taxes:

Was 2006 a mandate for higher taxes? Were voters in 2006 crying out: "I WANT TO PAY THOUSANDS MORE IN TAXES!" as they narrowly elected Democrats in election after stunning election across the country?

Not likely.

The only decent budget is Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan's version, which would not raise taxes at all, would put a freeze on non-defense discretionary spending, and would reform entitlement programs to the tune of 279 billion dollars in savings. It would balance the budget without tax increases, all while stopping the raid on Social Security, putting the hurt on earmarkers, and fixing PAYGO rules.

While it is tempting to ask where this budget was over the past few years, the answer is that Paul Ryan and Mike Pence and others on the Republican side of the aisle did propose budgets like this one. In the end, though, to appease politically vulnerable Republicans (who mostly lost anyway in 2006), the Congressional GOP leadership relented to budgets filled with pork-- and ones that did nothing about entitlements.

Bad idea jeans.

Elections have consequences. At the same time, actions in Congress have consequences on elections. Can any supporter of Democrats please explain how passing the largest tax hike in history is going to have anything but terrible consequences at the polls for Democrats in the next election?

Is it that Democrats are expected to raise taxes, and so they are rewarded by their electoral coalition for doing so? Meanwhile, Republicans are not expected to hike spending and are punished by their electoral coalition when they do?

I just can't imagine that these guys are going to be around for long, with all of their blatant hypocrisy and corruption, their incessant scandal-mongering, their beholdeness to radical anti-war crazies, and, now, their unprecedented hiking of taxes.

Unfortunately, the GOP brand remains badly damaged, and voters may not believe Republicans running on fiscal responsibility.

A QUICK UPDATE: The Democrats' budget has passed 216-210. No Republicans voted for it, and 12 Democrats voted against it. Paul Ryan's budget substitute failed 268-160, with 40 Republicans voting against it and 1 Democrat voting for it.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Jackpot Justice.

Posted by Will Franklin · 29 March 2007 04:03 PM

Comments

Posted by: The Whistler at March 30, 2007 08:46 AM

Posted by: Assistant Village Idiot at March 30, 2007 07:19 PM