Fiscally responsible Democrats

Accepted wisdom is that one of the reasons the voters gave Republicans the boot was that the Republicans, although they did lower taxes and increase federal revenues, spent money like it was going out of style. The Democrats, for the first time in their political history, positioned themselves as the fiscally responsible party. Turns out leopards don’t change their spots. Currently, the Dems are poised, not only to increase our taxes dramatically, which will inevitably choke off available revenues that can in future be taxed, but to increase spending, far above whatever the Republicans were frittering away. Here’s the Captain’s take:

Many people abandoned the GOP in the midterms because of their lack of discipline in federal spending. Discretionary spending rose by over 30% during the six years that the Republicans controlled both elective branches of government. They reduced taxes and grew the economy, but the GOP never delivered on their initial promise to reduce government an rein in spending.

Based on those failures, the nation gave the Democrats the majority in both chambers of Congress. What did we get? No decrease in federal spending; the Democrats want to grow the government by 2.4% each year, which would mean adding close to $100 billion in spending each year. In order to do that, they want to increase taxes across the board, choking off economic growth and making people even more dependent on the government.

By 2011, the added tax burden on every taxpayer would be over $1100 dollars. Twenty-six million small businesses would have to pay almost $4,000 in extra taxes. More than five million Americans whose incomes are too low to pay taxes now would have to start paying in 2011, making the Democratic plan more regressive than what it seeks to replace.

Democrats and taxes, together again after twelve years in the wilderness. It sounds like a movie romance — and we’re footing the bill for the production.

Mr. Bookworm and I work quite hard. As it is, between property taxes, state taxes, federal taxes, payments to keep social security afloat (because I don’t believe I’ll see this money come back at the end of my working days), gasoline taxes, sale taxes, etc., we see more than 50% of our money vanish into the government maw. The only type of tax where I feel the money is spent reasonably well is my local property tax, and that’s precisely for the old-fashioned reason that the local government is incredibly attuned to my community’s specific needs and desires.  There is also, as I can tell you from my eyewitnesses point of view, almost no waste or corruption in my little government.  This is a lot closer to “no taxation without representation” than the money chewing pork barrel in D.C.